I made a website where you select the decade you graduated high school and see what facts you learned growing up that have since been disproven.
Posted by unlearning_myths@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 42 comments
I'm a millennial, but I came across a certain viral website idea last September and saw it was also posted to r/GenX.
Here's the first version of the website!
This website concept got 175k upvotes on Reddit a few years ago, but surprisingly few people have tried making it.
Upon researching disproven facts the users complained about, I could see why: most outdated facts do not have hard cutoff years when they stopped being taught in schools. That's why I decided to organize my site by the decade you graduated instead. Every topic has sources.
Another common complaint on the Reddit post was that what you learned varies depending on where you grew up. That's why the site is going to be partially crowdsourced -- like on Reddit, registered users submit their own facts and what state or country they learned it at! Any facts regionally taught will be categorized in the Regionally Taught tab, discoverable through the world map where you can click on any country to view facts submitted by users there.
It would be great if you could make an account on the site and leave comments for the other users there to learn your experiences and perspectives.
I look forward to learning what you've had to unlearn and how accurate it is for Gen X folks!
LessIsMore74@reddit
Kid tested,
LessIsMore74@reddit
This better not be about the Earth not being flat! shakes fist 😉
MissAnth@reddit
Your facts about Czechoslovakia have been disproven. It's called Czechia now.
revolutionoverdue@reddit
Pretty cool.
LinuxLinus@reddit
This is a cool idea, but several of these things are not things I was even remotely taught when I was in school (the 80s and 90s). For instance, "lightning never strikes in the same place twice" was a well-known myth by the time I took physics in 1994.
Dry_Yogurt2458@reddit
I agree, I also went to school in the 80's and there are a whole lot of things here that we were taught was false from the start.
I think a large part of it is that we were taught physics, chemistry, biology, geography and whole world history as separate subjects. So went more in depth.
unlearning_myths@reddit (OP)
That’s definitely true, but a lot of people were still taught these things anyway. Even I was growing up in the 2000s…
The content on the site isn’t supposed to reflect everybody’s experiences — I know a lot of people were NOT taught these things, they’re just on there because some people were. I’ll edit this to make it clearer!
Formal_Plum_2285@reddit
I’m European and the only things of these listed for the 90’s, that we learned, were the geography ones. Why would anyone hang a pickle on their Christmas tree? And the food pyramid in my part of the world, is very much real and not made up by the food industry.
unlearning_myths@reddit (OP)
You probably had a better education than a lot of us then! And yeah, the food pyramid is regional so I’ll go label that.
infohippie@reddit
I think this speaks to the parlous state of the American education system more than anything. As an Australian who graduated high school in the 90s, almost everything listed under the "since-90s" category was already known to be false while I was still in school.
LitlThisLitlThat@reddit
None of the first ten were taught in school, they were just often-shared urban legends and such. I quit reading after that
unlearning_myths@reddit (OP)
True, I included urban legends because a lot of folks, including myself, were taught them and sadly believed them. There is a toggle on the left side for urban legends but I’ll make it more obvious they’re included.
Ray_The_Engineer@reddit
Always fun when folks from other countries speak out against things in the U.S. that they didn't/haven't experienced. A lot of the 1980's stuff on the site wasn't taught to me, here in America. I actually had wonderful teachers, for the most part.
Lung_doc@reddit
Same for 1980s
thatguygreg@reddit
As an American that graduated high school in 1995, I can say the same. I lost count how many times I was rolling my eyes at yet more silly crap.
LinuxLinus@reddit
Yeah, we weren't taught most of that, either.
Used-Instruction-375@reddit
I didn’t take the time to read all of it, but I was not taught any of what I dd read.
ThePrettyGoodGazoo@reddit
Most of these weren’t taught and were more of an urban legend that was disproven back when it was being passed around. Not sure where you got the impression GenX was so gullible and didn’t possess the ability to fact check things for ourselves.
unlearning_myths@reddit (OP)
Yeah I’m aware there’s a lot of urban legends, which is why there’s a “folk wisdom” toggle — I’ll make that clearer. I included the because they were taught to a lot of more gullible people who did NOT fact check and ended up believing them anyway.
Zaphod1620@reddit
Yeah, even limiting it to just things taught in school are wrong. We were never taught the moon doesn’t rotate, you just weren’t paying attention. Humans have known the moon rotates for centuries, it wasn’t recently discovered.
OCCAMINVESTIGATOR@reddit
This is a highly regarded endeavor.
Same_Lack_1775@reddit
It doesn’t matter what decade you pick - the website shows all the same facts.
unlearning_myths@reddit (OP)
Most of the content so far is the same with some variation because a lot of myths just persisted through time so they actually are applicable across decades. Once I get more submissions and do more research myself, there’ll be a lot more variation.
bigtakeoff@reddit
yup
Ruby__Ruby_Roo@reddit
Including stuff like “czechoslavakia is a country in central europe” as “disproven” is stupid. It wasn’t disproven. Political boundaries just changed but it was still true.
unlearning_myths@reddit (OP)
The site is supposed to feature all outdated information including changed borders. I’ll try to make that clearer so it doesn’t come off as “disproven” information.
rustbeltloser@reddit
I never heard that the civil war was fought over states rights until recently. That one could obviously be used over multiple decades.
Historical_Rip_1848@reddit
Very cool!
newwriter365@reddit
Doing some good work with this.
Thanks.
RandomObserver13@reddit
Without even looking…screw the IAU, Pluto is a planet, damn it!
Kaa_The_Snake@reddit
Ya know this whole mess started when we demoted Pluto.
Dan-68@reddit
And Pluto responded saying, "Hey NASA, I was big enough for your mom". lol
hesathomes@reddit
I am bitter about Pluto and the Brontosaurus.
Twizt1Up@reddit
Veggiesaurus, Lex. Veggiesaurus
jtrades69@reddit
the i before e rule has defined limited exceptions but typically applies to single syllables. science is two so that one doesn't count.
MrZJones@reddit
"I before E, except after C, and when sounding like 'ay', like 'neighbor' and 'weigh', and weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say!"
"That's a hard rule. That's a rough rule."
CheapToe@reddit
Many much moosen
LivingPage522@reddit
Gender is different from sex.
People may have a gender fifferent from their biological sex.
If the former is true, then the latter is just a nonsense sentence and they might as well say people may have a shoe size different from their dress size.
Old_Translator7505@reddit
This is cool! My teenage son and I are talking about this now!
SalvatoreEggplant@reddit
Separating by decade doesn't seem to make much difference. Most of the results are the same.
Ok-Pomegranate-7458@reddit
In the early 80's a tribe was discovered that never were contacted modern civilization before. There was a text book about them, and later exposed as a hoax.
freakymack@reddit
I love this! Well Done. So much work and dedication. Thank you