Here’s a bit of a personal list:

  1. Undeniably the food scene in the US has changed for the better. Sometimes almost to an overcorrection (protein-slop and all). It’s great that so many different cuisines are easy to name and find even in more traditional rural parts of the country. Organic food isn’t seen as a weird hippie thing but an investment you make for your health.

  2. A lot less smoking in the world. I say this as early gen Z but I never grew up in a time when smoking was seen as cool when I was a teenager. My uncle even quit and that was good to see.

  3. It may not seem like it sometimes, but the one consolation prize of YouTube is I can theoretically be a content creator and never need to worry about the bottleneck that is getting chosen out of millions of people in Hollywood. I could theoretically just stay in the midwest and learn to livestream or make an anime discussion channel and produce content without needing a massive studio or working in Hollywood. Of course, it’s still almost impossible to get paid for it, but still.

  4. More and more people are aware of cars not being the best way to get around which has sparked interest in walkable cities. Problem is, there’s too much demand and too little supply but seeing car culture be questioned is a great first start.

  • BelieveRevolt [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    22·
    3 days ago

    Fuck cigarettes. I’ve never been a smoker and have always hated having to smell cigarette smoke on myself or my environment. So glad I don’t have to put up with that anymore.

    1. Niche interests are more accepted and not immediately just seen as a reason to make fun of somebody for. If someone likes birdwatching, model trains, tabletop RPGs or whatever, who fucking cares.
    2. Being anti-LGBT is less and less acceptable. Of course, transphobia is still far too accepted these days (and by that I mean none should be accepted), and acceptance of asexuality and aromanticism in particular are still not where I’d want them to be, but it’s still a far cry from what it was in the 2000s.
    3. Misogyny and objectification of women isn’t as bad as it was years ago. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not necessarily great, but I think even a space like Hexbear would’ve been a lot worse 20 years ago.
    4. Veganism is more accepted now, but this is an extremely low bar 😒