3 Outdated Things Modern Society Needs to Get Rid Of

Some aspects of modern life have outstayed their welcome. Here are three that we would be better off without.

4 min readOct 8, 2022

Handshaking

Handshaking is an invasion of personal space. I suppose that’s the point. We reach out our hand as a friendly gesture to show that we welcome them into our personal space.

But I don’t like it. Some people grip too hard.

But there’s a more important reason why we should get rid of it — it’s unhygienic:

A study at the University of Colorado found that the average hand contains 150 different species of bacteria.
A YouGov poll found that 42% of Americans don’t always wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
In 2016, when 50 people in London had their hands tested, up to 30% of them contained faecal matter.

I often see men walk out of public toilets without washing their hands. It makes me want to tackle them and fart on their head. Or at least shout at them and then run away when they turn aggressive and chase me.

After the Queen’s death, we saw King Charles and Prince William shaking hands with thousands of well-wishers. How many of them had shit on their hands? Well, certainly a lot more after the King and Prince passed it among them!

I wonder how many people got needlessly ill after that?

Even doing a fist bump instead of a handshake transmits fewer bacteria. Or perhaps let’s just not go around touching loads of people we don’t know.

But how can we avoid it? If we’re in a situation where a handshake is offered, it is rude to decline it. I thought it would have died out with COVID, but apparently not.