Venting Our generation had the shittiest life experience ever

[zdeweilx]

Unstable job market. Rising housing prices. Overwhelming inflation. Loss of purpose. Scarcity of meaningful human relationships.

I think normies don't fully realize how unlucky we were to have been born in such a shitty period.

In comparison, our ancestors were lucky enough to have been granted ideal conditions and were able to lead such a peaceful, enjoyable life compared to the mess we have been left with.

Our generation had it very tough, it makes perfect sense to be depressed and suicidal, now more than ever.

 

[LastLightFade...]

Unstable job market. Rising housing prices. Overwhelming inflation. Loss of purpose. Scarcity of meaningful human relationships.

I think normies don't fully realize how unlucky we were to have been born in such a shitty period.

In comparison, our ancestors were lucky enough to have been granted ideal conditions and were able to lead such a peaceful, enjoyable life compared to the mess we have been left with.

Our generation had it very tough, it makes perfect sense to be depressed and suicidal, now more than ever.

I agree, we're pretty much fucked in every way, we're probably going to be having another great depression era.

 

[derpyderpins]

Yes and no, imo.

There's an argument to be made about tech and modern convenience making the lifestyle of a sad wageslave a little more comfortable than in the past.

but. BUT. The difference in life experience versus expectations, reasonable expectations, is insanely drastic.

The productivity increase from 100 years ago to now is unbelievable when you consider the supercomputers in our pockets and all the tools we have.

Yet, we have more hours worked per household and less inflation-adjusted dollars for those hours. We should be prosperous.

We should be in a new renaisance, working 2-4 hours a day and indulging in art, philosophy, or inventing, building, and so on, whatever passion you may have, or even just focusing on your family, dedicating your life to raising children better than past generations.

But we're instead more of restricted tax cattle than ever, and now we see clear evidence that elite billionaires make their money by stealing ours through, eg, the stock market, so that they can rape, traffic, kill, and maybe even eat babies.

And what NO ONE wants to talk about with the "mental health crisis" is that it is largely a logical reaction to this ^^^ difference between reasonable expectations and reality.

 

[Blackthorne]

I think anyone at any time is unlucky to have been born ultimately.

I'm not denying the truth of what you describe. However I always think about the generation of my grandparents who lived through the war. Millions of men died fighting. Millions more were gruesomely injured. Europe was a wasteland. Millions passed through the gas chambers and were brutally murdered. It's still not that bad pretty much anywhere in the west except for Ukraine. Of course that could change quickly but history does show it can get much, much worse. The corona virus was nothing compared to the Black Plague to give just one example.

That being said even though I was unhappy during my youth my generation did have it better than yours. Like the generation before us we screwed up big time. Sorry about that. I'm still hoping with every new generation someday we'll finally get it right and create freedom, justice and prosperity for all. I'll admit it does look bleak right now.

 

[Cauliflour]

We live in a very strange time period as us humans were never designed to be able to get whatever we want with a simple button press and that's gone and properly fucked up how our brains work. There's never been another generation in history like this one which has grown up with that. You can trace a lot of modern problems back to the internet becoming mainstream and integrated into our daily lives.

 

[CenturiesEnd]

I personally wouldn't project my experiences onto an entire generation. There's tons of Gen Z people out there with jobs, homes, and fulfilling relationships. I see it everyday. In fact, the stark difference between my life and their's is particularly depressing and part of my CTB reasoning.

Thinking objectively, the modern world is much less poverty-stricken than the 20th century. Less war, less disease, more quality of life technology available. It's really a blessing, in a way, that we can live in a time where we can turn on a heater in our homes instead of freezing at winter time. Or shower in warm water instead of dirty, cold community baths. At least those of us that live in developed countries.

 

[DownwardSpiral]

Yea it's bad, especially the rise of screens. It has severely socially impaired us and now way more people are feeling awful even though our technology has improved.

 

[glitterpvppy]

Best childhood. Worst adulthood.

 

[itsgone2]

I completely agree with OP. And it's going to get worse.

 

[MyLifeisHell]

You should learn more about the days of ancient Rome, just to name one example.

Human life mattered very, very little back then. It took up until this century really for it to be reasonably important.

And the life of a Roman salt mine slave mattered as much to the Universe as any of ours.

Although I do think things are psychologically tougher nowadays in some aspects, to quote myself:

My thesis:

I think that though anxiety and depression must have always been around in some form, in certain ways that people nowadays are more susceptible to anxiety and depression than they were, say, 2000 years ago, even though material conditions are much better (to varying degrees around the world, of course).

I have a few reasons for thinking this. For one thing, when so much effort and attention has to be given to eking out a meager physical existence, I feel like there isn't much room for depression (as separate from unhappiness or misery) or anxiety to develop, at least to debilitating degrees. There was terrible inequality, but for the general masses there was more homogeneity. If everything around you has the same difficult living conditions, then you probably won't feel too bad about yours. Quite the opposite nowadays where there is a lot of competition and comparison and all the negative feelings that can stem from those things. People's paths in lifes were more often paved for them from birth. Nowadays people have much more freedom, and with freedom can come depression and anxiety.

Another reason is feel that people's horizons and perspectives were much more restricted. The status quo was much more willingly taken for granted and much less often questioned. The way things were more tended to be seen as the way they should be. Nowadays that is not the case and it is plain to see how the disparity between what is ideal and what actually is in reality can contribute to depression and anxiety. Of course people's world views are much different. As is generally known before they were more constrained by the spiritual and religious beliefs of their society. Now that is not the case at all. People more often nowadays live in an existential nightmare. They can contemplate and face the world and the universe in ways that prove to cause a lot of emotional distress. This is of course hardly a novel insight.

I also feel that senses of belonging and community were much stronger back then. A feeling of isolation and alienation can easily contribute to depression and anxiety.