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 Togusa wrote:

 remilia_scarlet wrote:
I've been dealing with a lot of those feelings these last few years. I've pretty much abandoned the idea of using most social networks. It's a huge downer to scroll down the timeline and see the same gak over and over again. I used to use Facebook to join reptile groups but then they became toxic as hell.

HOW?! How in the feth can a group based around the hobby of reptile handling become political?

Those monitor lizard fanboys are CONSTANTLY trashing the komodo dragon folks.

I can say that I agree with this sentiment too. I’m a freshman in high school not alllot of life experience but kids in my grade a very VERY quick to being comabative. In addition there is this overall sense that people in may grade don’t know how to argue without getting personal (now I don’t know if that beacuse most of us are still 14-15 but it’s sill scary to think about)

Emperors will wrote:
In addition there is this overall sense that people in may grade don’t know how to argue without getting personal (now I don’t know if that beacuse most of us are still 14-15 but it’s sill scary to think about)

That doesn't really improve. You will get more numb to it though.

Smile more, bitch less.

Surround yourself with people that do the same.

The world is a good a place as you make it or let it be

I would also avoid Dakka Dakk OT as much as possible to help us all avoid "bitchy-ness"....





..... but if being in the OT is wrong, I don't want to be right!

I like Dakka OT. Nobody on the extreme ends of the political spectrum here can put up a coherent defence of their position. It's very comforting.

You make it through High school and possible college. It won't change. You always deal with the same personalities who are also in charge of you unless you become a Rockstar. Kronk being the perfect example.
AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT BECOME ONE OF THEM

While I cannot give an educated response, I wonder if it’s maybe due to an increased focus on global and political affairs? It’s now possible to get more information much quicker, including information on events that are happening worldwide. Hearing a daily concentrated stream of news describing the recent murder, environmental catastrophe, or political issue might lead to worry and burnout. If people are using this news to berate each other too, that might also be a contributor.
Then again, I’m still young relatively speaking. I could be wrong.

I think the internet being a huge component of daily lives and also toxic as all hell is probably a big piece of the puzzle. But then the latter is both a symptom and a source.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 feeder wrote:
I like Dakka OT. Nobody on the extreme ends of the political spectrum here can put up a coherent defence of their position. It's very comforting.

Well, they don't get away with offering an incoherent defense. It's not like extremists offer a coherent defense at any point in time.

I think the young generation just generally thinks the world is fethed and the power rests somewhere up an incomprehensible tangle of groups fighting each other over the ability to influence the greater population to buy their gak.

Basically, stay on facebook as long as possible and watch as many ads as possible and buy the stuff marketed to you, repeat ad infinitum.

People are not whinier or bitchier. You just see more of it because now people have a platform where they can display it. Look at two of the biggest changes in the last 20 or so years. The internet, which let nerds whine at each other across the internet quickly followed by social media, which let whole countries whine and bitch at each other. You just see it more often now bexause it is easy for people to post it with little to no consequences.

Well, I think we just focus too much on what we cannot change or have little impact on the outcome.

I try to focus on the good things, reality cannot change but my acceptance of it can.
Or at least taking active steps toward correcting what is possible to change.

I am slowly getting better at questioning why I am "so bitchy lately" and can eventually figure out what I am exposed to that creates the unhappiness.
Rather than enduring, taking active steps oddly already makes things better.

I am quickly finding both in my children and in others, change does not happen easily so there is little sense in trying to force it.

Anyway, posting here is a positive thing for me, even if it is about being bitchy.
At least you can feel good in knowing you are not the only one.

I just got out of a marketing driven call, and they said one of the defining charateristics of Gen z (the group younger than Millenials) is hopelessness and concern about "Is this as good as it is going to get?"

That pretty much explains why everyone is so cranky lately. Loss of Hope. So, the question is, what are you doing to help someone else feel hopeful?

 Easy E wrote:
I just got out of a marketing driven call, and they said one of the defining charateristics of Gen z (the group younger than Millenials) is hopelessness and concern about "Is this as good as it is going to get?"
That pretty much explains why everyone is so cranky lately. Loss of Hope. So, the question is, what are you doing to help someone else feel hopeful?

It is like that everything is so well recorded and written down there is objective evidence of so many others that are and may always be "better than them".
What they may not truly understand is that the person spent a ton of time on that one thing.
Plus that person may be in a top 5, 20 ... whatever.
Special efforts and special people are presented as the "new norm" so why bother getting good at anything right?

This is like the war on "poor body image" in magazines where we will never be good enough in all things.

I would have killed for access to Google as a teenager.
I was always making stuff and a ready reference was gold to me.
I rarely see my kids do a search or research anything other than "surface deep".

Pick a topic of interest.
Dig as deep into it you can.
You will find more to love about it.
Before you know it, you become an expert in it.

My brother spent about a decade learning about knapping stone/flint and "ancient technologies" as a hobby with no formal education in it.
He only brought to it a passion for it, research and lots of practice that only seemed like "fun/fooling around" to him.
He now teaches as a guest speaker at archaeology classes (for fun) and has consulted in a film (for fun) and confessed feeling strange teaching knapping to native folk as a "white dude".
His joy in it is infectious.

Being bitchy is to not see the fun.

There are basically two issues here. The first is if people feel differently than they did in prior generations, while the second is if they are expressing those feelings differently. It's reasonable to expect that both are true.

The expression of discontent has been covered here, and frankly in pretty good detail elsewhere. FOMO, personal branding, political echo chambers, et al add up seeing a lot of nastiness. As we interact more online, where we feel more comfortable acting nasty, we gradually feel more comfortable acting that way offline. One can also argue that as people are more careful of how they act in terms of making racist or otherwise offensive remarks, they instead act out in other ways.

Still though, what is making people so unhappy? It's easy to blame the news, or the world going to hell, but that doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. While there are some serious concerns about our society, many indicators of social health are improving. As dire as climate change is, prior generations lived under seemingly imminent threat of nuclear war.

So, the first thing to keep in mind is that outside of absolute depravity (starvation, exposure, etc) all prosperity is relative. The more those above you have, the less worthy you feel. That we are in a time of increasing inequality, at least in the US, is undeniable. The gaps between the ultra wealthy, the merely wealthy, the upper middle class, the middle class, and the working/lower classes are profound, in ways they haven't been in about 100 years in the US. So, that affects people.

I think the biggest issue for many people though, isn't their situation, but how they view themselves. Cognitive dissonance is a huge source of mental discomfort, and often very easy to slip into. At it's core, it's the discomfort caused by trying to hold multiple conflicting beliefs. The burden of trying to hold these beliefs will often cause animosity or anger, and that will lash out.

An example: picture the most unhappily single person you know. Odds are, they hold the following views:
1) They are desirable as a romantic partner
2) They want a relationship, but do not have one

So, how do you reconcile those? Logivally, a person should examine if they are, truly, the sort of person that is attractive to a potential partner, but that's hard and involves honesty. Instead, you begin to create rationales in your head. A person might decided that potential dates are intimidated by them. Or they might decide that they are simply clueless, or unreasonable. Hence the popular phrases "men are pigs/women only like badboys" A person will stay single, but will grow angry and bitter, because, of course, they deserve a relationship, and they see other people in them.

And that's our whole society. Become angry over a self inflicted conflict rather than face the reality.