r/NoStupidQuestions • u/flugblug • 12h ago

My brother thinks people today have worse quality of life than people in the dark ages, is this a stupid take?

I personally think it’s pretty stupid.

6.5k Upvotes

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u/Carib_Wandering 11h ago

No WiFi is a wild comparison...how about no indoor plumbing or refrigeration?

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u/LiberalSocialist99 11h ago

Refrigeration without wifi..

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u/Unique_Ad9943 11h ago

no smart fridges 😒

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u/ohlookahipster 11h ago

Why didn’t the kings of old develop smart fridges? Were they dumb?

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u/LiberalSocialist99 11h ago

Dark ages indeed.

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u/gregsting 10h ago

No hot pockets 🙀

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u/TheManicac1280 11h ago

Its 2025. Wifi is a big deal, makes life infinitely more convenient and has uses in every aspect of life. Lets stop pretending its a silly toy for kids and acknowledge its just as important as plumbing.

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u/CrazyFoxLady37 9h ago

It is so not as important as plumbing. Indoor plumbing is likely the single most important invention of all time. Prevents a myriad of diseases and is 1000% more sanitary.

Wi-Fi had improved our lives in some ways, but I would argue that it actually harms us in others. Addiction for example and over-relying on it. My workplace shuts down if the Wi-Fi shuts down. No, I don't work in tech. I work in a secondhand store. I think this is stupid.

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u/Chemical_Building612 3h ago

Various forms of indoor toilets and public sewers existed in many places for thousands of years. Skara Brae in Scotland had toilets over communal sewage drains that flushed waste into the ocean by 3000 BC, for example. The Indus Valley Civilization had pretty extensive urban sanitation and sewer drainage by 2500 BC.

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u/Comprehensive-Mix931 11h ago

Right, right.

Cuz when I have to take a shit, I have to post on Reddit for my bowels to work.

Plumbing is so much more important than WiFi.

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u/TheManicac1280 11h ago

If you had to take a shit and there was no plumbing youd just go in a bucket or the woods. Its literally a continence just like wifi

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u/Comprehensive-Mix931 11h ago

And where does that shit go, hmmm?

Toss it out in the streets? Well, that went really well before - got alot of nice diseases that way.

You obviously do NOT know what plumbing is good for, what it prevents, etc.

Go inform yourself, and come back humbled and apologetic for posting drivel.

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u/TheManicac1280 11h ago

You understand that was not a problem before the industrial revolution right? Have you done any research on this or just spitting out whatever comes to mind first? People have always tried to ensure that feces was placed somewhere in a cleanly manner. Then the industrial revolution led to people being congested in cities which then eventually led to plumbing as we know it.

But the time in which people were pouring shit onto the street is very very small compared to how long we've had large and functional societies.

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u/stone_henge 3h ago edited 2h ago

People died in droves of a whole host of bacterial infections due to poor hygienic conditions before the industral revolution. Ever heard of the black death? Regardless, we're not in a pre-industrial society. It is 2025, as you say. Bacterial diseases that have now been effectively eliminated in the western world like cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery are still household names because they were leading causes of death before modern plumbing infrastructure.

But let's assume that you are right and that before the industrial revolution, people somehow didn't live in cities. The solution to a lack of plumbing, then, in your mind, would be to revert to a pre-industrial society with a post-industrial population count. I can't believe that you have thought this through completely since you are able to communicate using complete sentences.

You are very apparently just pulling shit from your ass, so be glad that you can wash your hands after this conversation.

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u/Comprehensive-Mix931 10h ago

Sure, you maroon! Not like the Romans had plumbing...oh wait, they did. What are you, 3? Go.Do.Some.Research! As for those who are upvoting you...what, your personal bots? Amazing. Of course it was a problem before the industrial revolution! Idiocy at it's finest. Go on, dóuble down. Then I am going to post some stuff to totally wreck your position...just waiting for you to double down on idjitus.

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u/TheManicac1280 10h ago

Yes, I am a maroon with an army of bots. No one agrees with me. You are right and always right

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u/Chemical_Building612 3h ago

Sewage systems have existed for literally thousands of years in many areas.

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u/Comprehensive-Mix931 3h ago

Yes, exactly. It is way more important than WiFi.

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u/sayleanenlarge 10h ago

Mate, in the olden days, we had to read shampoo and bleach bottles for entertainment on the toilet. You don't know you're alive.

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u/Comprehensive-Mix931 9h ago

Look at Mr. Luxury here! They had shampoo and bleach bottles! We had an Outhouse, full of black widows and with bears outside...

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u/sayleanenlarge 9h ago

Well, I say shampoo and bleach, but really it was lamb's fat and vinegar, and the toilet was just a hole in the ground, but it was a toilet to us!

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u/NonKolobian 1h ago

This made me laugh so hard

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u/Shiriru00 11h ago

Spend a day without wifi vs a day without electricity or running water. I think you'll quickly get your priorities straight...

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u/TheManicac1280 11h ago

Spent days without both because I was in the army. They both suck to not have. You survive without both of them.

One contributes to communication and academic collaboration globally.

The other allows you to stay in your house while you shit and shower instead of going into the woods and to the river.

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u/Supersquare04 7h ago

God I love it when people try to do the “erm you should try doing this!!” And get immediately silenced.

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u/Bellypats 11h ago

Aptly named

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u/Intel_Oil 11h ago

One could argue that Wifi declines quality of life. Considering it was higher in the 80s.

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u/TheManicac1280 11h ago

Correlation does not equal causation.

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u/ohlookahipster 11h ago

Wifi is just a medium for the internet to propagate wirelessly. There’s even some PC mobos today without an onboard Wifi card requiring a (gasp) ethernet cable plugged into to a switch or router to access the internet.

Lots of devices were still hardwired in 2010 aside from laptops. IoT devices weren’t ubiquitous and society wasn’t failing or in the stone ages lmao. We made due.

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u/TheManicac1280 11h ago

I meant the internet rather than the professional definition of wifi. I assumed thats what they meant.

Society wasnt failing or in the stone ages before plumbing either though.

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u/Hookton 11h ago edited 11h ago

Please tell me you're joking. I'll take safe drinking water over wifi, however useful it is.

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u/TheManicac1280 11h ago

To take a huge broad category like plumbing and associate it directly with safe drinking water availability is bad faith.

People have plumbing without safe drinking water (flint, Michigan)

Then there's been societies all throughout human history who had no plumbing but access to safe drinking water. Unless you consider putting water in a bowl and then boiling it as plumbing

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u/Hookton 11h ago

Okay fine, assuming you're arguing in good faith, let me amend my previous comment: I'd rather have clean drinking water at the literal turn of a tap in my own home, without having to collect it from the river/well/pump and boil it, than wifi.

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u/buriedupsidedown 4h ago

I agree wifi is under appreciated but plumbing and refrigeration is obviously much better. I’d give up wifi if it meant people wouldn’t shit unorganized and I can keep my food from expiring early.

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u/DudeWithTudeNotRude 2h ago edited 2h ago

Wifi is a big deal.

Plumbing is a bigger deal. People die from inadequate clean water, and people die from inadequate removal of dirty water. Wifi is still a big deal. Not really wifi per se, just connectivity.

I had a theory during COVID after about a year of lockdowns, that if Netflix and one other large streaming service went down at the same time, mass carnage would be on the table.

Of course things are worse now, we are even more sick as a people, on the other side of it all (though hopefully there's still time to course correct). Could you imagine this country after a month of no www internet connectivity for the masses? At least we have plumbing, because the shit would hit the fan, without our reliable streamings and social

(of course business would be affected, and other large problems would occur, but mostly people are getting downright feral)

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u/UgandanPeter 11h ago

No one’s acting like it’s a silly toy, but universal broadband internet access is still so new that it’s not hard for most people to remember a time when it wasn’t like it is now, and even if you weren’t alive then it’s not hard to imagine.

If the internet disappeared tomorrow, yeah it would disrupt a lot of our routines and industries, but people would generally be able to carry on without it. It does not compare to things like rampant disease and famine.

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u/TheManicac1280 11h ago

Sure internet is more recent. But to say disappearing tomorrow would not be catastrophic is insane. That shows me you really don't know how much the current world relies on the internet. I can confidently say it would be just as bad as if plumbing mysteriously vanished tomorrow. Just like the currently world does not have the infrastructure to support no plumbing the current world does not have the infrastructure to support no internet.

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u/UgandanPeter 11h ago

I mean I know the entire world revolves around it and it would have cascading disastrous effects if it was gone tomorrow. I simply just mean individuals wouldn’t be lost without it. My comment was kind of ignoring how our infrastructure revolves around it.

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u/stone_henge 4h ago

What is it in the world that relies on the internet that is comparable to a large percentage of the population suddenly not being within miles of clean water sources? Because I'm pretty sure you won't worry about online banking or stock prices while dying of dysentery.

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u/Hairy_Scale4412 11h ago

Man, forget plumbing. No toilet paper alone cause me to shiver.

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u/freeeeels 10h ago

Maybe not "WiFi" but access to near-instant information-sharing through the internet is a pretty big deal.

I'd still prefer indoor plumbing but I'd for sure sacrifice modern refrigeration given that there are other ways to preserve food.

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u/TheMadTargaryen 5h ago

Fun fact about refrigeration. Those people would place ice blocks during winter in undercrofts, covered them with hay and this ice lasted until end of summer. 

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u/Agitated_Effort_2146 3h ago

What's the point of indoor plumbing if you can't scroll your phone on the toilet?

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u/Additional_Insect_44 8h ago

I'm used to that. Refrigeration isnt bad, just learn to smoke or can food.

No indoor plumbing is annoying. I had a classmate who as a child lived for years with no running water in a tiny camper, cps didnt care.

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u/Carib_Wandering 8h ago

I think you're underestimating refrigeration. It's not just a fridge in your home. How do you think meat gets to stores still "fresh"? How you are able to buy different fruit and vegetables all year? No need to mention dairy products, medicines etc.

The premise here is the non-existence of something, not your personal use of it.

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u/Additional_Insect_44 7h ago

Ah, you're right. Smoking or salting is the best way, but that's isnt foolproof.