NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html

3 letters: QFT

I know it comes from a humor website, but I do think he makes some seriously good points.

I think more people are 'depressed' because they don't have anything to really worry about. Teenagers have always thought 'no one understands me' and 'no one has ever had a life as hard as mine' and so on, but these days they have parents who will refuse to tell them they can do any wrong and so encourage that attitude, rather than just sending them down the mine until they get better.

However, I'm not someone who thinks that real, clinical depression doesn't exist - I'm sure that one of the reasons that there are 'more' people with depression these days is simply because more people are being diagnosed.

My own theory on the subject is that more and more people seem to use this frame of logic:

"The world isn't running the way I would want it to; therefore, the world is a steaming s***hole and there's no hope for it whatsoever."

That attitude gets people incredibly depressed over things that they should not be depressed over for more than maybe a couple minutes at a time. Yes, there are a lot of things in the world that are sad and that are impossible or very improbable to change. But, is it worth complaining all day about you having a s***ty life over? Of course not! Everyone can enjoy themselves once in a while! If everyone who was ever wronged by life just sat there and got all emo about it, NOTHING would get done! But what do we do? We find a reason to move on and we take it. Sometimes doing so can really be an uplifting and life-affirming experience, and we may actually also be helping others lift themselves up in the process. I think we as a society really need to learn to do that more often.

Anyway, sorry about the rant. I know it sounds kinda hypocritical to complain about everyone complaining, but having someone point out the problem is the first step in a long process of finding a solution. I will now take my own advice by not complaining about this subject anymore in this thread.

My own theory on the subject is that more and more people seem to use this frame of logic:

"The world isn't running the way I would want it to; therefore, the world is a steaming s***hole and there's no hope for it whatsoever."

That attitude gets people incredibly depressed over things that they should not be depressed over for more than maybe a couple minutes at a time. Yes, there are a lot of things in the world that are sad and that are impossible or very improbable to change. But, is it worth complaining all day about you having a s***ty life over? Of course not! Everyone can enjoy themselves once in a while! If everyone who was ever wronged by life just sat there and got all emo about it, NOTHING would get done! But what do we do? We find a reason to move on and we take it. Sometimes doing so can really be an uplifting and life-affirming experience, and we may actually also be helping others lift themselves up in the process. I think we as a society really need to learn to do that more often.


See, I blame all this on the fact that people are constantly bombarded with media and information and connections to other people. There's been a shocking reduction in individual social "space" over the past twenty years or so. I remember my dad telling me stories about how, when he was new in the area, he'd join a social group and get a book of everyone's phone number. You'd call the land-line, maybe set up a couple of dates or hang-outs. Of course, it took a few days for the application to get to the club, for the book to get back to you, and you had to pray that the people you were calling were home, 'cause there weren't cellphones or answering machines. Nowadays I can accomplish all of that in minutes, instead of days or weeks using da intartubewebz, cellphones, hell-even a fax or beeper would work and that's ridiculously old school. But long spiel on the communication 'splosion aside, when people don't have social space, they're confronted with a much more complex version of society than they would be if they're relatively isolated from it. Also, that's a lot more information to assimilate. So you get a lot of stress from trying to take it all in, a lot of stress from trying to figure out your own relationship to all of it, and you have a lot less time to figure it all out in. Bingo. Perfect conditions for depression.

this partly connectted with the media and the internet.
in the old days, you heard about wars, disastres and bad things, laconic way. now every small thing get visualized 24 hours of reportage and commentary, so it much easier to think the world is depressing.

See, I blame all this on the fact that people are constantly bombarded with media and information and connections to other people. There's been a shocking reduction in individual social "space" over the past twenty years or so. I remember my dad telling me stories about how, when he was new in the area, he'd join a social group and get a book of everyone's phone number. You'd call the land-line, maybe set up a couple of dates or hang-outs. Of course, it took a few days for the application to get to the club, for the book to get back to you, and you had to pray that the people you were calling were home, 'cause there weren't cellphones or answering machines. Nowadays I can accomplish all of that in minutes, instead of days or weeks using da intartubewebz, cellphones, hell-even a fax or beeper would work and that's ridiculously old school. But long spiel on the communication 'splosion aside, when people don't have social space, they're confronted with a much more complex version of society than they would be if they're relatively isolated from it. Also, that's a lot more information to assimilate. So you get a lot of stress from trying to take it all in, a lot of stress from trying to figure out your own relationship to all of it, and you have a lot less time to figure it all out in. Bingo. Perfect conditions for depression.

That makes sense, especially with all the negative stories in the media these days in order to get headlines. With all of that depressing news coming in at once, it's hard not to get down at times, but I think we all need to take a break from it once in a while, hence my "finding a reason to move on." If it's impossible to change it, don't worry about it so much. Do what you feel you can do and move on. That's all that's asked, or at least should be asked, of anyone. Just what they can do and/or are comfortable with doing. In some cases, people should step out of their comfort zones to some degree, but those cases should not be common. If people have to step out too far from comfort, that can lead to a whole new list of problems. But, that's just one man's opinion.

I think more people are 'depressed' because they don't have anything to really worry about. Teenagers have always thought 'no one understands me' and 'no one has ever had a life as hard as mine' and so on, but these days they have parents who will refuse to tell them they can do any wrong and so encourage that attitude, rather than just sending them down the mine until they get better.

So true. It's no surprise that during great catastrophes, wars and so on, the percentage of people with depression in the population drops to 0. Everyone there fights for survival, so he has no time to ponder over trivial things. The fact that everyone feels that they're in this shitty situation together also favours the of solidarity instead of individualism.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html

3 letters: QFT

I know it comes from a humor website, but I do think he makes some seriously good points.

Interesting, however there's probably larger reasons for folks being pissed off.
There's more people now, vastly more, space is scarce and nowadays we go through on average about ohhh 20 jobs in our life, a hundred years ago, folks usually took one job and stuck at it for life, far less friction and worry about moving house and such.
Faster technology means less time to think, cars and buses move us really fast, trains even faster, we can throw together a fast food meal in minutes instead of the traditional longer time taken to cook.
A closer link between viewer and TV and internet and such means we become more paranoid about how we look, act, even think.
I think it mostly boils down to;
less space= a shitload of pissed off people shoved in a small space.

However reasons to feel better could be we can go abroad more easily and see so many things people a few generations ago could only dream of,a greater variety of foods, and far more advanced healthcare.
You can now order products from your own home, rather than taking up time going down to the shops, a whole new range of distractions available. Not to mention the increased human rights (at least in some democratic countries) such as equal pay act for men and women, evening up on divorce laws, more support available for those with a psychological condition, a few generations ago they'd have locked you up and called you a nutter end of.

So yeah there's been so many changes, and yeah there's far less space and in some cases an alarming relation to TV and celebrities, but there's also been so many advances, so many achievements. Hard to say which outwieghs which.

Lol. I think this article is good - but it's a bit...dunno. It's using the same attitude that it criticises. The 21st century is especially bad as depression increases? I'd say in every century, every age, there are things that are a bit shit and there are things that are less shitty. This century is not necessarily worse than the last, and the next one won't necessarily be as bad as this one either.

"The world is going to the dumps."
"Really? When has it not been in the dumps?"

Interestingly, a friend of mine actually helped write that article. :)

I think people who have depression because of the reasons in the article are probably not really depressed.