These are the greatest inventions of the 21st century (apparently)
These are the greatest inventions of the 21st century (apparently)
We know - we also thought the greatest invention of the 21st century was the gadget that peeled apples at the same time as coring them. Think of the minutes saved in preparation of healthy snacks. Minutes!
But then, we didn't fill out YouGov's poll on the greatest inventions of the 21st century, so we've only got ourselves to blame.
Having asked an 'accurate' sample of 1,736 British citizens, these are apparently the most important consumer inventions of the modern age.
(Image: Shutterstock)
Tinder
Less than one per cent
A lot of single people in that sample group, clearly.
Napster
One per cent
Remember when music piracy was a cool and albums took a day to download? Ah, those were the days...
Uber
One per cent
A separate survey of black cab drivers didn't feature this entry.
Selfie Sticks
One per cent
MORE IMPORTANT THAN NAPSTER?!
Nintendo Wii
One per cent
The first device to get all the family around the TV outside the month of December.
Spotify
Two per cent
One of the most important breakthroughs in technology and entertainment - but your mum still doesn't know how to make a playlist.
iTunes
Three per cent
The first of Apple's inclusions in the list.
MSN Messenger
Three per cent
Nineties kids, represent. This is tool that taught us to touch type.
Smartwatches
Three per cent
Really?
Four per cent
Now owned by Facebook, this little marvel is the most used messaging app in the world, with 900 million active monthly users. That's a LOT of emojis.
iPod
Five per cent
It's popularity has waned in the face of smartphones, but the iPod was the first popular device that made the concept of keeping an entire music collection in your pocket seem totally normal.
Netflix
Five per cent
With or without chill.
Five per cent
Only problem is, they're not making enough money...
HD TVs
Nine per cent
Because if it doesn't look better than real life, it's not worth watching.
Kindle
Nine per cent
Tech 1 - 0 Traditional print
YouTube
11 per cent
Given that it launched in 1998, Google can't feature in the list of best inventions of the 21st century - but it's video sibling is here to represent the wider search family. Some four billion videos are watched on the site every day. Every. Day.
Wikipedia
12 per cent
Helping with home work projects and pub arguments since 2001.
The Cloud
14 per cent
Yep. An astonishing proportion of the sample thought cloud computing was worthy of this position. For massive infrastructure, it's world-changing, but for consumers? Kids these days...
Tomtom
20 per cent
In the modern era, we no longer have arguments with other people about map reading - we have arguments with technology about map reading.
Skype
20 per cent
"You mean you used to have to pay to make phone calls overseas?" - your future grandchildren.
23 per cent
"Like".
iPad
25 per cent
We're still not exactly sure what you're supposed to do with them, but iPads and tablets are killing laptops in a big way, so they must be useful for something?
Smartphones
55 per cent
The obvious answer - more than half the sample thought the most important device of the century was the pocket-dwelling super phone. We live in a world where it's totally normal to spend upwards of £400 on a new handset, just because the battery on the old one is playing up. Love them or loathe them, they've changed everything.
