25 Trends That People Will Think Are Stupid in 20 Years

All we can think about when we look at old pictures of our parents is how ridiculous things were back during their younger years. We can't believe that they wore shorts that short. We can't believe they listened to music that sounded like that. We can't believe they believed the things they believed. We throw parties based around dressing up like they did when they were kids so that we can laugh about how ridiculous they looked way back when.

This got us thinking: What things are we into now that our children will think are totally stupid? After taking a look into our office crystal ball, we weren't very surprised by the results. These are 25 Trends That People Will Think Are Stupid in 20 Years.

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Written by Brenden Gallagher (@muddycreekU)

What Your Son Will Say: Was that your Halloween costume?
What We Say: If you are a grown-ass man, the only reason you should wear animal ears on your head is if you killed and skinned that beast yourself and the whole thing is some grand show of macho dominance. We aren't sure where this trend came from, but it's impossible to walk down busy street this winter without thinking we have accidentally stumbled into a furry convention.

The chances you will possibly get laid wearing one of these is minimal, though you may attract a desperate mama bear looking for someone to play daddy with her orphaned cubs.

What Your Son Will Say: So you had modern techonology at your fingertips but decided to play shitty farming games on Facebook?
What We Say: Every time someone opens his or her Facebook page, there's some new request to help your friends gather dust-bunnies in Vacuum Wars, digitally teabag each other in Ballztown, or collect whatever dumb thing is collected in whatever new game has caught the imagination of the social network that day.

We can't imagine how elite game designers who spend years of meticulous labor designing cutting edge games feel when they see their friends and family herding sheep with graphics that an old-school Gameboy would put to shame.

What Your Son Will Say: You spent hours trying to make something that's guaranteed to be inferior to what you can buy at the store?
What We Say: In the DIY tradition of making your own shitty wines and breads, men all over the country are now busy making their own shitty beer. We love craft breweries and we support anyone who gets some seed money together and produces a truly dope IPA, but that's very different from you and two buddies setting up some buckets and tubes in your broom closet.

Sure, it's good to have hobbies, but won't our children wonder why we didn't just take up weaving or whittling baskets? You know, something useful.

What Your Son Will Say: Why did you and your friends willingly roll in those mud puddles?
What We Say: There's a lot of money to be made making those who live in the safe confines of suburbia or cozy apartments feel dangerous in a well-controlled environment. Tough Mudder is just the latest example of this.

Strap on a colored bandana and a ripped tank top and you too can find yourself knee-deep in muddy, well-regulated adventure in no time. We won't go as far as to say that people will go back to actually adventurous things like mountain climbing or kayaking, though. Still, some new risk-free risk will very likely emerge to help weekend warriors feel something again in no time at all.

What Your Son Will Say: Why didn't you just look up the answers on your phone?
What We Say: While bar trivia is a time-honored tradition, we wonder just how long people will care about useless information. Our children will grow up in a world where everything they ever wanted to know is at their fingertips. Will they actually value knowing what a former first lady's name was, or how many gold records the Beach Boys had?

We aren't prepared to speculate on the effect this would have on the social lives of bar goers. Without trivia, the only options are karaoke and actually talking to each other. Both are no good.

What Your Son Will Say: Daddy, my friends and I are going to have a slumber party and watch all 47 Spider-Man movies.
What We Say: Sure, Shakespeare and The Bible have already told us that there's nothing new under the sun, but this is getting ridiculous. Apparently the only reason that studios end a superhero film arc is so that they can reboot it 12 months later.

We'd like to see them reboot non-superhero stories as well. Perhaps it's time for a Titanic prequel or a gritty Revenge of the Nerds modernization. The only way to stop this would probably be to stop buying tickets, but then we'd miss out on the coolest new superhero movies, and that's just not going to happen. Thus, the cycle continues.

What Your Son Will Say: Dad, why did she suddenly start playing the accordion? (You: Quiet, Jimmy, this is a classic.)
What We Say: Critics have been bemoaning the rise of the quirky, bespectacled character who teaches some sadsack the true meaning of "joie de vivre" since before Nathan Rabin coined the phrase in 2005, but that doesn't mean it has shown any signs of slowing.

Zooey Deschanel or any one of her doppelgangers seem to have a new faux-indie film in which musical instruments are played in the rain and big box store home décor sections are turned into pillow forts coming out every four or five days. We didn't think the trend would last this long, but it certainly can't last another twenty years. Right?

What Your Son Will Say: Did that stuff really fool you, Dad? (You: No, son, we fooled ourselves.)
What We Say: We love how the new culture of "health consciousness" has led every fast food joint to put words like "bistro" on certain portions of their menus. Not to mention, they're now finding ways to place moist tomatoes and lettuce leaves on all their billboards behind the burgers. As David Spade's character was told in the 2001 comedy Joe Dirt, "Don't try to church it up, Dirt."

Fast food companies of America, we know what we're doing when we eat your food. We're well aware that we're poisoning our body. You assuring us that the cheese is fresh from Wisconsin or that the roll is of the artisan variety doesn't change anything.

What Your Son Will Say: Wait, how many different sized iPads did you have?
What We Say: Do you guys remember that SNL sketch where Will Ferrell answers the tiny cell phone? That's now our reality.

Rather than spending our money on new things, we're just spending cash on smaller version of things we already have. Can you imagine this with any other products? As in, this is my collection of slightly different sized mugs. And this is my set of three various-sized beds. Yes, I alternate which one I sleep on based on my mood.

There's at least one human being in the world who owns an iPad, iPhone, and an iPad mini. All of these devices are great because each almost has the utility of a computer. Yup, we're doomed.

What Your Son Will Say: So, they used to actually hit each other, dad?
What We Say: Concussions are no laughing matter, and, yes, it's great that precautions are being taken to keep athletes on the field longer and with enough brain cells to enjoy their post-football careers. Our problem is with the NFL brass. You make bank from a violent sport as fans devour super-cuts of nasty hits on SportsCenter, but then you fine the players who make the hits? Something has to give.

All that fines are doing is upsetting James Harrison, while every week another player is carted off the field. We're not sure how it will change, but Roger Goodell's version of player safety can't work in the long run.

What Your Son Will Say: These memoirs will be out of print by then, so your son will have no reference point.
What We Say: Sure, Gabby Douglas and Justin Bieber are easy targets here, as they were both published memoir writers before they could legally vote, but let's take it a step further. These days, as soon as you sniff fame or receive your creative non-fiction degree from Columbia, it's apparently time to write a tell-all book about yourself. While we disagree with the crusty assertion that so often comes from writing teachers that all young people know how to write about these days is themselves, we certainly aren't doing much to prove them wrong.

Perspective isn't something gained by a week's worth of reflection on events. If you're thinking of writing a personal memoir, go ahead and read the reflections of full lives, whether it be Ulysses S. Grant or Tina Fey. Then, think long and hard about whether or not a firsthand account of your trials and tribulations in the college theatre scene is worthy of publication. You probably know the answer already.

What Your Son Will Say: Is that my great-grandther? (You: No, it's Uncle Jeff.)
What We Say: At least the lads in Mumford & Sons have an excuse: They play old-timey string instruments. As for the guy hanging out at the bar at Applebee's wearing suspenders and a bowler hat, who the hell knows.

Yes, the early 20th century working class lived a luxuriant life filled with tuberculosis and beatings doled out by Pinkerton strike-breakers, but do we need to romanticize them to the point that half the guys on the L Train are dressed like chorus boys from Newsies?

What Your Son Will Say: So, you used to dress like people in the recent past for fun?
What We Say: And you thought those retro parties were going away for good once '80s parties fell off a couple years ago. We should have known that '90s parties would be waiting in the wings to take their place. It's the Circle of Life.

Also, it became impossible to find new '80s party outfits at Goodwill. We'd already picked everything over for previous theme parties. If you really want to be cutting-edge, might we suggest throwing a 2000s-themed party where you dress as yourself but wear the clothes that you haven't worn in a while?

What Your Son Will Say: Why is mom wearing the same hat in that picture that great-Uncle Seymour wore while sharecropping?
What We Say: Women have an uncanny ability to make the worst possible hats the latest fashions. If you thought the whole fedora thing was bad enough, just try to understand why all these ladies want to look like they're about the head down to the ol' fishin' hole, tie some line to their big toe, and chew on some wheat grass as they idle the day away.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn might be a great work of literature, but that doesn't mean that it's to be used as a style manual. Unless your girl is setting up a whiskey still in your studio apartment, she really ought to steer clear of these.

What Your Son Will Say: How did real photographers feel about those filters?
What We Say: They don't like them, little Jimmy. Not at all. We had a photographer friend of ours make a great argument against the best-selling app. He was flipping out about Instagram and we suggested he find something else to complain about, like gas prices. Then he asked how we would like it if an app could write an article that people thought could pass as professional for anyone who woke up one day and decided that "taking up writing would be fun."

Point taken.

What Your Son Will Say: I hope you never wrote anything like that, dad.
What We Say: You will, of course, hang your head in shame, because we've all been there. All of us, at one point or another, have taken pleasure in the Internet's anonymity. You're able to say things digitally that we you'd never utter in any real-life public forum. Oddly enough, we've all been hurt by it too, but that doesn't stop us when we have a chance to hide behind the computerized veil.

Slowly, the Internet is getting tired of this anonymity. When you try to post a comment on comedy writer Ken Levine's blog, for instance, you see this message, "Even though leaving a comment anonymously is an option here, we really discourage that. Please use a name using the Name/URL option. Invent one if you must. Be creative. Anonymous comments are subject to deletion. Thanks." Get read to see more of this. People are getting tired of trolls.

What Your Son Will Say: It's awesome that you had a podcast, dad! How many people listened?
What We Say: There really are some great podcasts out there. Marc Maron's WTF, Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan, and anything from Nerdist are essential listening for pop culture junkies, but how many podcasts can one possibly listen to? Right now, there may actually be more people making podcasts than listening to them. Guests are going on podcasts to promote their podcasts. It just can't go on like this.

Here's a great new rule: If you want to produce a podcast, you have to listen to an hour-long recording of yourself talking. That would probably cut the number of options down by at least 75%.

What Your Son Will Say: That one with the baby fist-pumping is actually pretty funny.
What We Say: The art of expressing our deepest thoughts, fears, and desires with two juxtaposing sentences and a well-trod image has to be coming to an end, right? How many times can we look at Condescending Wonka's face and see a reflection of ourselves?

Then again, maybe memes will be remembered as the haikus of our generation, treasured for their ability to distill people's feelings into their rawest forms. OK, probably not. Hopefully that doesn't make you mad...bro.

What Your Son Will Say: Couldn't you guys just, you know, watch TV?
What We Say: The crew at Complex Pop Culture is just as guilty of live-tweeting as anybody else. There's something lovely about having that instant water-cooler moment now that families no longer gather round the glow of the screen for nightly viewing.

Ultimately, watching an episode of TV while live-tweeting is an entirely different experience than simple viewing. Rather than following the plot, you're following your own stream of consciousness, hunting for witty remarks and pointed insights.

At some point, though, we'll likely throw up our hands and say we want to get back to enjoying the actual show rather than enjoying each others comments on the show. However, awards shows, reality TV, and political debates will continue to be live-tweeted for generations to come.

What Your Son Will Say: Wow! Corporations used to pretend they gave a shit?
What We Say: Isn't it great when an oil company buys ad time telling you how they are helping the environment? Or when a huge anti-union box store plasters posters all around telling you exactly how they're helping their average worker? We predict that, 20 years from now, corporations are going to just stop trying.

Sure, you're going to buy their coffee and gasoline anyway, because it's the cheapest, so they'll realize that all the greenwashing just isn't cost-effective. There's no need to tell us how a dime taken from a purchased burger's cost is going to teach children to read. Besides, we know that's a tax write-off.

What Your Son Will Say: Dad, when do you think you will ask your boss to give you a paid position?
What We Say: You've got to love how older folks like to refer to our generation as lazy. Yes, a generation that agrees to compulsory unpaid labor for several years after college is lazy. Also, don't give us that "apprenticeship" line either. Apprentices had valuable skills after a couple years behind the blacksmith's anvil.

The current rash of non-paid work experience is breeding a generation of people that are spending their time immediately after wracking up tens of thousands of dollars of debt by going deeper into the red while honing those valuable coffee-fetching and tweeting skills that are so vital to every CEO's success. Evventually people will stop putting up with it, or they'll just spend the entire decade of their 20s in grad school.

What Your Son Will Say: You used to pay for that stuff?
What We Say: No, we didn't, little one. We just found the link on HuffPo or Gawker. We appreciate the New York Times and any other outfit that wants to maintain a high standard and still pay writers, but it just isn't sustainable.

Sure, the NY Times paywall is technically working, but we'd like to see the age breakdowns of who's subscribing. Chances are, twenty-somethings don't make up a significant percentage of paid users. The time of paying for content is over. Some readers just don't know that yet.