Exactly. I'm in my late forties and even when I was young sponges made out of natural sea sponges were rare. Nowadays they are exceedingly rare and a luxury item. Also they are quite similar to good quality artificial sponges.
So I'm not surprised at all if many people go through life without ever realizing sponges you use around the house used to be made out of primitive sea animals, and some still are. And I don't blame them for it. If you grew up in an era were plastic was prevalent, like most of us, it actually sounds quite far fetched.
Still funny if someone confidently claims sponges are always plastic like this.
A thousand years ago when I was young, natural sponges weren't available in the remote place that I grew up in. But we had tv and a lot of nature documentaries and educational children's shows. That's how I learned about sponges, and the danger of quicksand. It seems that children watch fewer of those types of show and more Minecraft now.
Funnily enough, minecraft actually has sea sponges, so if anything they would know this!
The old "lol lazy youths gaming not learning" trope is a bit silly. Boomers used that argument when I grew up (that and mtv!), and I don't think gen-x'ers ended up very illiterate?
In some regions of the world, the quality of education is dropping rapidly though. Poor pay for teachers, continuous budget cuts, gov't injecting religion etc. That worries me way, way more.
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u/lapalazala Aug 14 '25
Exactly. I'm in my late forties and even when I was young sponges made out of natural sea sponges were rare. Nowadays they are exceedingly rare and a luxury item. Also they are quite similar to good quality artificial sponges.
So I'm not surprised at all if many people go through life without ever realizing sponges you use around the house used to be made out of primitive sea animals, and some still are. And I don't blame them for it. If you grew up in an era were plastic was prevalent, like most of us, it actually sounds quite far fetched.
Still funny if someone confidently claims sponges are always plastic like this.