It's hard to believe that in today's modern world of constant new gadgets and technology, we can still have headache-inducing inconveniences. Recently, redditor u/kabkar1234 asked the r/AskReddit community to share the everyday inconveniences they believe should've been solved by now. Boy, oh boy, did people have a lot of thoughts (that I fully agree with). Here are just a few.
1. "Uploading your résumé, then having to enter everything on the résumé on the next screen."
2. "The extremely poor audio quality of fast-food drive-thru speakers. How, in 2024, can it even sound that bad? HOW?"
"And airline PA speakers. I never know what the pilot is saying. It’s either we're all out of snacks or we're all going to die. Who knows."
3. "Those stickers on products that leave sticker residue when you pull them off, so now you have sticky goo with paper bits on your cup."
4. "Invisible lane markings when roads are wet."
"Here in Pennsylvania, we have no streetlights, and the lines become invisible when it rains. It can be legitimately terrifying to drive when it's like that. It makes absolutely no sense and is so insanely dangerous."
5. "When a food package says 'Peel here' or 'Tear here,' and it never fucking works and you need to get scissors or a knife to open the package."
6. "Music volume in movies that's much louder than the dialogue."
"And commercials blaring louder than the feature show."
7. "All wireless controller devices should have an easy way to locate them. If I can't find my TV remote, video game controller, etc., I should be able to go over to the device, hit a button, and the device starts beeping."
8. "Spam/scam calls and emails."
"I set my phone on 'Do not disturb' so I never get spam calls. I just set it so only my family members can call me."
9. "The thin metal handles on cans of paint. Is there no better way to carry paint?"
10. "Hairs getting stuck in vacuums and needing to be cleaned often."
"This problem has been solved, but it's not cheap. We have one of the more expensive, fancy-pants Dyson vacuums, and the head it came with has some kind of design that prevents hair, fur, and basically all other obstructions from clogging the head. Have used it several times per week in a house with two women and four cats, and it's never had so much as a single hair caught in the head."
11. "Hard taco shell packaging. It should read '12 shells, nine after you open them.'"
12. "Cereal bags not having a zipper closure."
"My wife and I rant about this regularly. Not just cereal bags, but basically any non-single-use food product. Why don't any food packages reseal effectively? Ziplock technology exists!"
13. "Bacon packaging."
14. "That little bit of chocolate and peanut butter that gets stuck to the center of most Reese’s peanut butter cup wrappers."
15. "Plastic wrap that sticks to everything except what you want it to."
16. "Insurance that stops at the neck. My eyes, ears, and teeth are all part of my body, vital to my health, and shouldn’t require separate policies. Jeez."
"I never understood how vision and dental are considered separate, especially since vision doesn’t cover everything related to your eyes. I still used medical to see an ophthalmologist, but navigating that system and knowing if I can trust insurance to cover what I need was confusing for me. And sometimes dental doesn’t want to cover wisdom tooth extractions and will insist on having medical do it, but then medical is like, 'WTF, this is for dental.'"
17. "The fact that even when you shake the bottle of mustard, once the spout is open, clear liquid still comes out first."
18. "The lack of universal medical records. It is insane that you have to fill out a medical history at every doctor's office you go to and rely on your memory or, worse, a family member's memory of all of your medications and diagnoses for your entire life."
19. "Those huge plastic packages that are basically impossible to open yet hold only one small item. C'mon, team, think!"
20. "Maybe not daily, but why the heck do I, as a short person, have to stuff my duvet into a cotton bag and struggle my ass off to straighten it when zippers exist, and they could just make a three-sided duvet cover? Like a suitcase, but for duvets."
21. "The size of pockets on women's jeans. They are significantly smaller than men's, requiring women to carry a purse."
22. "Wet wipes. Not being able to pull one out, and when you finally get hold of one, four come out."
23. "Wireless bra pads that don't stay in place. Why, oh why, are they not just sewn in place?"
24. "Car windscreens that fog up inside when it's raining. There has to be a way to stop this instead of turning the fans on full blast and everyone baking, or opening a window and getting wet."
25. "Tags (especially the more plasticky ones) on the side seam of a shirt. If you try to pull the tag out completely, the seam rips. If you try to cut the tag off, you're still left with the irritating ends. Let's go completely tagless. The technology exists."
26. "Hot dog buns not being sold in the same number as hot dogs."
What are some modern inconveniences that you think there should be a solution for in 2024? Let us know in the comments, or fill out this anonymous Google form!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.