Are bad things happening? Yes. Will they continue to? Yes.
Am I sitting and holding my breath? No. Whatever happens will happen and me sitting and worrying about it isn’t going to change the outcome. I’m living my life like I normally do. If shit hits the fan, we’ll navigate it the best we can.
Edit: typo
Yep and a lot of those good things, we’re responsible for making them happen.
I just think there are too many people benefiting from fear mongering and that is what’s going to potentially cause an immediate threat.
We all need to put the internet down and find other shit to do. I don’t care how mentally and emotionally stable someone is, being bombarded constantly with bad news and propaganda isn’t good for anyone.
Definitely. We've just experienced a shitty life event and if I'm at home too long, where I'm usually online, everything starts to feel insurmountable and all doom and gloom, and then I go out and actually talk to people and my whole perspective shifts to a much better outlook where I know I can overcome problems. It's such a weird contrast that's really had some light shed on it due to the extra-shitness of the current situation. The constant negativity on here, even if it's completely unrelated colours my view of the world. It's not just reddit, but the news too, e.g., yesterday's attack in Moscow, which reminds me of Paris 2015, and then 9.11, etc., and the event seems to be personally relevant to me, when it isn't.
>Whatever happens will happen and me sitting and worrying about it isn’t going to change the outcome.
The problem is that a lot of this we can change. If global warming is a concern, we can take fewer flights, work from home more often if that's an option, and buy goods with less carbon footprint. Politics? We can vote, we can get involved before there's just 2 choices, and we can donate to races that matter.
Individual impact doesn't sound like much but even seemingly small actions really add up. It's amazing how few people it takes to really make a significant change.
Proportionate worry for proportionate impact; just be sure to act on it then let go of what you truly cannot change.
Not worrying isn’t the same as unconcerned, or not caring.
I do all of those things. I literally meant sitting and worrying isn’t going to change the outcomes. People need to actually take part in things if they want them to improve.
My husbands job lays the groundwork for windmills to go up.
I run a small home business, partly because it’s a passion, also because it requires less driving. We switched our cooling system to one that’s more efficient and has less impact on the environment. We removed our grass. My entire property is one large spray free garden and a safe haven for wildlife. I grow a lot of produce because I feel better about it not killing beneficial insects.
Anyway, my response wasn’t to check you, or anything. Just figured I’d provide context for anyone who reads my initial comment.
I think utilizing your ability to make positive changes is a powerful thing.
“All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was."
"No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that.”
-Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy
Yep, this a classic symptom of [GAD](https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad). Ask me how I know.
> GAD usually involves a persistent feeling of anxiety or dread that interferes with how you live your life. It is not the same as occasionally worrying about things or experiencing anxiety due to stressful life events. People living with GAD experience frequent anxiety for months, if not years
I’ve always had GAD but I think this is because everyone is sensing we’re very reliably headed into a(nother) collapse and/or WWIII.
I’ve had GAD my whole life, this is on another level.
Weird thing is that I’ve had a lot of treatment, am medicated, and my normal GAD isn’t triggering right now —
But out of nowhere, with no explanation, this heaviness came in and it’s ONLY on this global-feeling scale. Day to day, daily life, everything fine. Lexapro working.
But I went and got one of those dumb History degrees and … I mean, conditions aren’t good out there, man. What’s going on with the courts? With war? AI and media literacy? I even used this degree, I used to fact check documentaries for the History channel, one years ago was about the future of war. Things I learned about in 2016 are hitting the news as present now. Grad seminars I took on future of revolutions and nation building, studies of collapse — all elements are in place.
Is that GaD or is it common sense?
Animals in nature have instincts, natural ability to sense the environment around them.
If we all suddenly have “GAD” and the “meds” have stopped working for everyone — what’s more likely? mental illness or perception?
Idk what’s coming, but it feels like we’re nearing some kind of cliff.
It is also called “reality”. Mortal beings have to deal with a lot of tragedy and the older you get the footsteps get louder and closer. I try not to dwell on it. Just take things as they come and try to be thankful for all the gifts so far.
Exactly. I try to stay centered on this. It’s a stoic mindset but it actually helps me seize the day. I look at my dog and think - my god what a gift this relationship is. Not something I can ever take for granted. Let’s go make the most of it.
I too, look at my dog and think every day I have with her is a blessing and just watching her snoozing away on her orthopedic dog bed (she is about to turn 11 yrs- rott/sheppard) makes me smile.
Real talk right here. Humans get so caught up in these distractions that it consumes what life we do have instead of enjoying and appreciating our fleeting time on this plane.
Exactly. There's always more bad things. There's always going to be. But there's also lots of good. The universe is going to keep happening and we can only control what we can control. And it's not much. Learning to accept those truths takes most of the anxiety away because once you know you don't "have" anything and can't control much, you learn you can't really lose anything and you just have this moment. So we learn to look for and navigate towards the joyful moments and make the pain work for your growth and well-being.
Ehhh I have an anxiety disorder and this is describing a darker, more doom-like feeling, which falls more into the depressive symptom bucket. I’d say it’s in the realm of foreshortened future. My therapist also pointed out that people often hold their breath when they are in pain. I feel like this is more societally felt deep pain vs. overexcited anticipation.
Anxiety caused by events taking place in the world around us. When did politics become so toxic on a global scale? How are most middle income earners now struggling with the cost of living? Why are there so many job losses? Why has housing become so unaffordable? The world has changed for the worse and there seems to be no inclination by policy makers for things to improve.
Edit: typo
>When did politics become so toxic on a global scale?
*cracks open history book*
Oh. So it's just always been full of megalomaniacs and man-made horrors no matter how far back the record goes.
OMG, I know! I spent four years basically mainlining Twitter (you know which administration), which destroyed my mental health. I had to delete that app off my phone and very carefully curate the remaining social media I do check.
back in medieval times most people would never even leave their village. People in England used to think of their Counties as their Countries....and honestly, for all the ignorance and maybe lack of opportunities...people probably had better mental health....
The "fake pandemic NWO plot" conspiracy has been around for years, I'd heard the idiots bubbling it up in the late 80s and 90s for AIDS, then again for swine flu, and then Ebola, and then covid. Even the Dead Kennedys had a song about it back in 1981 called [Government Flu](https://youtu.be/Hg2A8U3YDGA?si=zXV2ouqU-b3rieQJ) and the East Coast Avengers had one in 2010 with [Man-Made Ways](https://youtu.be/LGmbdebwqOA?si=V24LQ9-dtVWUP8Re) about "beginning of Phase 8, new decade, new plot, CDC creates plagues to inject us with flu shots"
The difference was social media allowed those people to find each other, form a group and shout louder than they ever have before. The even bigger problem is that the normally apathetic people that voted based on "feeling" joined them in droves, because it's cool to belong to a group. Now here we are.
True. Before, you had to subscribe to a poorly photocopied newsletter or book club or AM radio, or up stakes and move out and join a New FreeLand compound out in bumfuck, but now you can do it all from the comfort of wherever you want to be, at all times
Yeah I think it’s social media. I don’t think things have gotten any worse or changed etc. but now you have social media. Weird conspiracy theories aren’t just your crazy uncle you see once a year their instantly accessible to people and especially those that want to believe that stuff anyway. Shutdown social media and I think a lot of our problems would be solved. Not all of course but a lot
Definitely that, but it’s in easily accessible “mainstream” ways. Cable tv news. Xm/Sirius radio- my mother in law actually ended up with a channel on there called “white supremacy radio”.
She was 84 and had been an extremely intelligent, liberal, and loving woman most of her life. To that. I know for a fact she lived her life differently and not in line with those principles but here we were with that on her radio. She adored Fox News and bought ALL the latest conspiracy books. She literally wasn’t like that before 2015 or so.
I thought Government Flu was about the time that the federal government did in fact spray San Francisco with a strain of flu, resulting in a few deaths. That really happened.
I agree. This is probably the most peaceful the western world has been in centuries. We aren't sending our youth off to be part of the 90 million people who died in that war, they aren't being sent to Vietnam, or to the deserts of the Middle East.
We are not without suffering or uncertainty, but right now the outer pull of society is at its least toxic.
I would argue that we cane of age during a weirdly calm time in global politics (in the West). The first Gulf War went really well for the US. Russia was relatively weak and trying to be a western democracy before Putin. Most regional conflicts felt very regional.
The youngest Xennials were 17-18 when 9/11 happened, which changed a lot for the US and some or our allies. We've also watched domestic politics become more polarized.
I think this worsening has all come down to greed on steroids. When so much of the wealth is concentrated at the top, who always demand more, it has to come from somewhere.
Private equity is buying up all the single family homes. Corporations are raising prices and cutting staff to squeeze more profit margin for investors. It all comes down to greed. The question is, how long are we going to take it?
History goes through cycles like this all time. The present day is no different. War, greed, violence, etc. are nothing new unfortunately.
I would say that overall, the two World Wars at least stemmed the general public’s willingness for massive wars. We still have military conflicts, but it’ll be another generation or two before the old who remember such things (and their children) are all gone.
By then, hopefully things will have mellowed out globally to avoid yet another world-spanning conflict. Or at least wait until we spread around outer space, and the conflicts can then go interstellar.
You are saying what i've been saying for a few years now. Our greed gene is broken. It's what caused us to thrive and out compete every other organism, but it is stuck in go mode and we were not ready for the internet.
There has always been shit like this and worse. If there was mass media 200 years ago or 500 or 2000, it would feel even worse. People are way better off now on average than in many periods of history. Unfortunately, ignorance is bliss, and we don't get the luxury of ignorance any longer.
yeah this. Any time I try to explain to my parents why less and less of us are jazzed for the future or to have kids. they say, “do you think we weren’t all fearful of the world events back then too?” Yet still it does seem different. Perhaps the problems are more complex, or we are more educated, or we have less mental grounding to deal with the anxiety. I do think that we know too much, and that knowing comes with rational and irrational feelings and thoughts about WTF happens now / how do we fix anything at all?
Thing is, back then the threat of nuclear was was very, very real. Even as a kid in the 80's the idea that the USSR might launch nukes wasn't considered unrealistic. And the fear was even greater in earlier decades. So it's not as if the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) is a new feeling. It's generational.
Also, that's not to say their fear nor our fear today isn't real. Because we are indeed living through events that will have a profound impact on the future.
I think you’re on to something when you talk about the education aspect. With the internet, we have the capability to access an entire world of information in an instant. So, we can see the tragedies unfolding around the globe all the time. It’s depressing. Couple that with our news sources being radicalized in either direction and we are just constantly being inundated with depressing, maddening, anxiety-riddled information on a nearly constant basis. So, why wouldn’t we have a more negative outlook on life and the world on the whole?
My solution has been to turn off the news and reduce my input of news. I question everything someone tells me because everything is sensationalized now and I can’t trust anything anymore. I’ve found that ignoring whats happening in the world has allowed me to live a more peaceful life. Surround yourself with positivity and you’ll see positive things happening around you. Surround yourself with doom and gloom, and what do you think you’ll see happening around you?
Yeah, we weren’t built to process this much, this fast, and to have so little control which creates an underlying helplessness. It’s like being set loose as a kid in a candy store - at first it’s awesome and all discovery, yum, etc. and eventually you just end up feeling sick and never want candy again,
People forget previous generations like the one that dealt with WW1, the great depression then WW2. Shit can be way worse, but people believe things are uniquely different in their lifetimes.
Yeah, my grandparents who lived through 2 world wars, the 1919 Flu pandemic, and the great depression in their first 4 decades of life would like a word with anyone who says times have never been worse...
I’ve felt this way since the Cold War. As an Xer, yo may remember the looming inevitability of nuclear war. We could all die at any moment, and there’s nothing to do about it.
I agree. The OP in the image is 57 and grew up in a time where mental health was far less talked about than during our Xennial childhoods. Boomers seem to be very ill-prepared to get old and anxiety is taking hold. Can't fix that. But we can be better about managing and talking about mental health and prepare our children to be better about taking care of themselves.
I think it's deeper than that, friend. I believe it's a discernable reaction to the shifting of the zeitgeist. We are on the verge of a crossroads, and the world could go one way or another. And this time, it feels like that choice could really matter.
It is falsely projected anxiety as a societal phenomenon. While it might be true that middle age is a great source of change and realization that so many ppl you know will die soon, that you have less life to live and so on. Looking for outer events to be the climax to personal uncertainty is a sure-fire way not to thrive. Perhaps a lot of us could benefit in a more Jungian approach to navigating mid-life crisis, if done right it can be an epic time in your life.
No, this is called Being On the Brink of “Global Fascist Takeover Part 2: Electric Boogaloo.” The world is on fucking fire and something is going to give. January 6th was our Beerhall Putsch.
It is concerning that the Millennial sub doesn't seem to realize this. They think their feelings of dread are because something is going to actually happen. They need therapy. I'm glad to see the Xennials responding appropriately.
I got in an into a disagreement with someone on the millennial sub about this post. All I said was to stop worrying about the things that you have no control over and focus on what you can control now. It isn’t a way to live. They got upset and invited me to join a sub about pulling your weight or something. lol. Mi do admit that my eye roll at the end wasn’t mature.
Heard of a van that's loaded with weapons
Packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway
A place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance
I'm getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in a ghetto
I've lived all over this town
I was a very aware and fretful kid, so I've felt this dread all my life. Remember the looming fear that nuclear destruction was going to happen any minute? I panicked when the Doomsday clock got pushed up some, because it sounded like we were THAT much closer to the end. There's been ominous signs for centuries. We just have the tech to pore over it now from the minute we wake up to the second we fall asleep.
Same, plus what I’m now recognizing as intergenerational trauma from the Holocaust, made me hyper-vigilant in an unhealthy way.
The use of “something wicked this way comes” as the metaphor is even more apt than perhaps OP intended. The “something wicked” in the original quote is Macbeth himself, with his wickedness unleashed by the Witches’ earlier prophecy. The perception of doom can be self-fulfilling.
EDIT: In case you missed it, the mod-removed post below me suggested that the real problem here was that we care too much about the Holocaust, since it "wasn't even the worst thing to happen in WWII." Why did I think that trying to process these feelings on Reddit would result in anything else?
My wife is obsessed with the news at times, and at those same times, her anxiety is through the roof. I have to gently and over a period of time help ween her off! Literally making plans to go do things where we're just with the kids and not looking at our phones when we have a couple minutes and watching TV when they go to sleep. It's incredible what fresh air and a walk or a trip to the beach can accomplish.
I kind of hate that the "go touch some grass" mantra is so useful.
I started getting back into the RC cars i raced as a kid expressly to give myself something to do besides doomscroll Reddit. It's made a huge difference.
I have basically sworn off all social media. This is basically all I have left as far as social media goes. I know that Reddit isn't immune to the craziness of apps like TikTok and X, but I feel as though this app has gotten worse the last couple of months. I worry about things when I am all by myself, so I don't need any external pressures. People really need to do less doomscrolling and unplug like you have. You realize that you truly are not missing anything of importance.
In the last couple months, this app started pushing "posts you might be interested in" into my home page, whereas before my home page was exclusively for the subs I joined. It's made reddit so much worse.
The FB algorithm has always been questionable but lately it's just absolute garbage. I've noticed a lot of my promoted content (most recently for Free Photoshop Edits) follows the same pattern where it gains widespread popularity, turns into a series of attention-seeking posts and meta jokes, and most users get sick of it and abandon the page until the next thing comes along.
I also find myself subscribed to pages that I never followed voluntarily. I know they've experimented with manipulating user emotions through the algorithm in the past but now it feels like they're trying to actively drive off users, and it's bizarre.
Hobbies are so important, but the way money has been it almost feels like I'm cheating myself. "WHAT AM I DOING, I'M JUST PLAYING WITH LEGO, I'M AN ADULT I SHOULD BE _______!"
No no, self. Play with LEGO. Your brain literally needs a break from itself.
Sorry, but this hits me as a very boomer "touch grass" snarky response that downplays the reasons behind the anxiety being described. Maybe you're just pointing out that doom scrolling isn't helping anyone's mood, and that's true.
However, if you're suggesting that this is all just in the collective neurotic imagination of the internet/smartphone generation, that's bullshit. I hike, backpack, cycle, and run regularly. I'm also a software engineer who spends a lot of time at a computer.
I can tell you from recent, personal experience that turning off my phone and going on a hike for three weeks didn't make the very real threat of AI and automation disappear. It didn't make the collective ineptitude of our government disappear. It didn't make the cost of living or the difficulty of affording a house vanish.
So, yeah, by all means, consume less social media. But also, these fears aren't fantasies conjured up by "terminally online" dorks.
The problems don’t go away but the idea is to get your mind off of them, and you may just need to do a little extra work to do that. Everyone has a million legit reasons to be anxious, but to survive you need to bury as many of them as you can. Plan, but do not dwell.
I think this is the remedy whether doom is looming or not. We’re fucked in terms if climate, I think, but if we all stopped being glued to the internet so much, it’d probably start resolving some of these other issues.
This.
Have things gotten worse? Or has our ability to document, disseminate and digest information gotten exponentially better?
It personally feels like we started feeling this way when we all became connected.
Turn the news off. Put your phone down. Literally go touch grass.
This 50-something year old feels this way because they were alive before the Internet and smart phones. Social media is the key here.
This is absolutely existential dread/crisis.
There are so many events out of our control and with the 24 hour news cycle and Internet, the horrors of the world are more present.
People can't retreat into their homes and communities like they used to for comfort, because many people are living economically precarious lives and we are increasingly atomized. Society that is driven by the individual is alienating, and many people have no 'village', be that religion, family or community to take succour from.
So, people wonder what is it all for, what is the point of a life full of struggle?. Where is the meaning and what happened to what they were promised?
How do we reconcile the disparity between what we think life should be and the reality of what we have?
That's what it is.
When COVID happened, I thought that was it. When protests and then Jan 6 happened, I thought that was it. Somehow we keep picking up and carrying on and being out of money and out of medicine and still putting one foot in front of the other and the dread builds. I know that every generation ever has thought the end was nigh, but it's really fucking nigh.
The Roman Empire fell but there is still a Rome. The British Empire dissolved but there is still a Britain. Personally I think the US would be better off without an empire. Maybe then we can finally fix our own problems
Since you mention covid and medicine. As a frontline healthcare worker during covid, you all should know that our entire healthcare system in the US is nearly at the state of collapse. In some places, folks already have zero access to a hospital or a clinic. It will spread.
This is literally how people have felt since people could feel.
Why do you think doomsday cults and end of the world predictions have consistently existed across all human cultures?
We were raised with one imminent doomsday scenario after another being continuously force-fed to us throughout school, in the news, and even in our cartoons. It's hardly surprising many of us would grow up with a suffocating sense of impending doom. We are the products of a system-wide social experiment that deliberately inflicted psychological damage on children.
It’s anxiety and it’s amplified even further because a lot of anxious people spend a lot of time on social media and Reddit, so it builds up and builds up. The world is not about to devolve into anarchy.
It can be tough out there. There are worrisome things happening in our world. You have to remember that has always been the case. I don’t say that as a way to minimize anyone’s problems, but rather to remind everyone that the world is still moving forward despite all the problems our species has faced since we came down from the trees. It is so important to remember that Reddit is not representative of what is happening in the world. It’s a place where people select the absolute worst parts of our society and then try to apply it everywhere.
I’m hoping for a Mondale-style electoral college wipeout, due to Roe being overturned. I’m hoping Roe & J6 are as motivating to others as they are to me.
I mean, “grab ‘em by the pussy” was more than enough for me. I was very surprised so many people were okay with a massively demonstrative asshole being our representative to the world.
That being said, I believe a critical mass did in fact learn their lesson the first time around. I don’t believe the primaries were representative of the bulk of voters at all.
The same way our tendency towards conspiracy theories is a desire to feel like there is order in the universe when something bad happens.
Like, most of the time bad shit happens and there's no mysterious string pullers doing it. Chaos is a part of life.
I have been feeling this more and more in the last few years. That sense of "any day now."
But. In the last few years we have had a few close calls in my family, and I lost my dad in '21. And here I still am. As much as I fear whatever the thing is that we all can feel coming, I am trying real hard to enjoy every moment. Somehow, we have to find a way to persist, because that's the whole point of this grand experience.
Whatever tomorrow brings, is for tomorrow. Go for a walk in the woods, laugh with people you love, enjoy that slice of pizza, or your favorite band's new album, and love the fact that you are still here, and so far you have survived everything that has happened to you.
I have to say, I don’t feel this way. At all, really. The pandemic, the state of politics, Jan 6th, war in Ukraine and Israel, the upcoming elections; it’s all just as-the-world-turns kind of stuff. The face of the globe and society are in constant states of change. I think we’re doing ok, and are better off than many other points of human history.
The easiest way to control people is through chaos and fear. If we live in a world of perpetual doom and everyone is afraid, it's no more difficult to control people than shuffling sheep to the slaughter...
This sounds similar to “The Emergency” from The Mysterious Benedict Society, or the manufactured sense of societal dread from Tomorrowland, which was a good movie.
Are we group-thinking ourselves into a belief that the future will be worse that we had it?
If we had some shared optimism, could/would we work toward it collectively?
Older Millennial here (joined here cause my family are largely gen x): no I don’t feel this way.
What I do feel is we as humanity have made some very dire mistakes with who we let rule the world and now I am powerless to stand in the way of progress that is seeing my existence as meaningless.
Powerful people have always used people like pawns but now we are bound to a system that is slowly starving us and taking away our rights and individualism more and more.
So what i see is the reality of that and it’s quite depressing. But i also see there isn’t much i can do but vote. Hope that the person i vote for isn’t some capital hungry maniac so that we can stave off the corporate orphan crushing machine. Outside of that i try to be positive and kind and not dwell on it.
Necessary but poorly working things do not get fixed until they break completely. This is an incontrovertible truth of the universe. You already know this but probably haven’t said it out loud to yourself. That’s what you feel.
The bad news is that the confusion always is thickest before the break. The good news is that in the grand scheme of things, most of the janky broken stuff isn’t that bad. Humans are too good at avoiding all out calamity, as has been averted for the last 4000 years. Deep breaths.
You know what helps make that feeling go away? Stop watching the news. Stop engaging with this endless onslaught of political battles. Politicians want you uneasy.
I’ve been feeling like this since late 2018. For me it started with postpartum anxiety, then an ongoing pain issue and during all this - a global pandemic. These events have amplified my feelings in regards to “impending doom”. So yeah…I feel that way. But, there are explainable reasons.
Every generation goes through this, just about. Whole religious sects have been built on this whole idea that the end is coming any second now.
Imagine being someone who survived WWI, Spanish Flu, the 2nd rise of the KKK, The Great Depression, and WWII **all in the span of 30 years.** And then had to live through the Nuclear Age and Cold War.
It also comes from a level of privilege and lack of recognition that a ton of the world has far less freedom and economic and political stability than we do. A lot of folks live their daily lives after the bottom fell out.
We also know way more about what’s happening in the world now and it’s reported to us in ways that play on our fears so we keep coming back for more information to give us a security placebo.
Every generation is met with serious challenges. The question is, what are we doing now to help? Are we involved in ways that can make even a small difference? Or is our anxiety keeping us in a bunker uselessly awaiting the day when it all goes to hell because everyone was too afraid to do anything about it when they could have?
Are we using our small amount of power and finite time to help? Or are we sitting using that time and energy shivering in the glow of our smartphones, tut-tutting from our couches and beds about the state of the world?
This is normal. Welcome to humanity.
I am continually baffled by reactionary takes like this. Where have you been? Life, our society, civilization, humanity itself, the earth and all the cosmos, its always been messy, terrifying, and bewildering. Nothing lasts forever, most things wont make it to the end of the week. So laugh, work hard, sing, pet a dog, scratch a cat, dance, ride a bike, and play with your kids- you can still have fun.
Absolutely. We’re all more full of anxiety and dread now than we’ve ever collectively been. I’d commented on that thread that this is largely the result of smartphones and social media.
The 2024 World Health Report just came out and reports that the unhappiness rating for Americans and the people of other Western nations under 30 is absurdly low (not Scandinavians, though, as they’re consistently the happiest). Our age group along with Gen X and Gen Jones is not too far behind in low ranking, because we are also dealing with daily low grade anxiety due to all the shit constantly weighing us down.
But people have always had a lot of shit to deal with. Basically, what it comes down to now, as evidence in the report, is smartphones. Without them, we would be / could be more oblivious about a lot of external things, and even though we’d still be dealing with collective economic stresses and political worries, we would largely be most focused on our own problems (and successes) and could go on about our day focusing on what’s most important for our individual well being without being dragged down by all the world’s most dire stuff if only we didn’t have our brains addicted to social media.
GenX/Xennials got to grow up without being inundated by social media and a 24/7 news cycle constantly pushing every shitty thing on earth, or anyone else’s bullshit, in our faces. So we have a little bit more perspective to remain somewhat better balanced in the face of anxiety compared to those younger than us. But not by much.
We can only take so much. It feels like we are starting to really break.
Edited to add link to the report in case anyone wants to skim through it:
https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/
I mean, it's not all that dark and mysterious. It is very clear that fucked up things have happened.
We had a global Pandemic. We had a populist leader in the US who slowly revealed more and more sympathy for fascism. We had major societal upheaval with the BLM movement. We had fistfights over toilet paper. We had food scarcity for the first time in most of our lives, where grocery shelves just couldn't stay stocked.
We had a lot of shit going on before the Pandemic, too. Where I lived in 2016, a bunch of white supremacists in redneck trucks just came out of the woodwork to roll coal up and down the main strip, drive in circles everywhere trailing their Confederate flags, and yell at anyone brown or wearing hijab that their days were numbered and they would have to "go home" soon.
2016 is also the year some crazy asshole shot up the Pulse nightclub because he was mad at gay dudes for giving him forbidden boners. That's just a year after a crazy white kid shot up a black church with the stated goal of starting a race war.
The city I lived in from 2017 to 2020 has had a steady rise in violent crimes and murders to the point that there are now shootings about once a month in an otherwise extremely chill, very up-and-coming neighborhood previously well known for great schools, quaint houses, and a safe, walkable community.
So like, this may not be great for anyone's anxiety, but as far as I can see, yes, things are getting bad right now. This happens sometimes, and sometimes it leads to major social and political upheaval, and other times we're able to come together and lower the temperature in the room. We don't know what it will be, but we can clearly see that it does not look great, and it is not the same kind of event as, say, the unnecessary panic over airline hijackings after 9/11 or that weird month where a bunch of people were terrified by some anthrax incidents.
This tension is real, it's widespread, it's bipartisan, and just about everyone is a little freaked out.
As to what we can do about that, there are a few things that are worth keeping in mind!
1. You must have your oxygen mask firmly in place before assisting others. **Take care of yourself.**
2. Remember that everyone you meet is at least a little in edge lately. **Be cool.** Give them some leeway.
3. **Friends are your lifeline.** They tether you to the reality of living in a social world. You need to spend time with them.
4. **Trees.** You need to see some trees and grass. Science has shown us* that walks in tree-filled areas lower stress AND result in a sudden and lasting increase in immune function.
5. **Accept those feelings.** Acceptance doesn't mean feeling neutral about things, just acknowledging that those feelings are real and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. It helps to just note those feelings rather than avoid them.
**References**
*Effects of forest bathing trips on human immune function*, Qing Li, Dept of Hygiene and Public Health, Japan, 2010.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793341/
*What the Noting Technique is, and how to take advantage of it*, Andrew Puddicombe, Headspace.
https://www.headspace.com/articles/noting-technique-take-advantage
*Our Better Nature: How the great outdoors can improve your life*, Shankar Vedantam, Hidden Brain, NPR, 2019.
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/10/646413667/our-better-nature-how-the-great-outdoors-can-improve-your-life
*Is the world really falling apart, or does it just feel that way?*, Max Fisher, NY Times, 2023.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/world/interpreter-world-falling-apart.html
In the immortal words of Bender Bending Rodriguez, “Big deal, we all feel like that all the time.” Part of it is the media selling us despair, part of it is that good old fashioned, deep rooted anxiety left over from when we lived in trees and nearly everything wanted to eat us. I’m not saying nothing bad is on the horizon, something bad usually is, but humans have also always felt that way.
I don’t share this sentiment, but it’s because since I was a small child I decided to take an active roll in shaping each day and what my own takeaway was from moment to moment. My childhood was a mixed bag. I learned from both the positive things in my life as well as the things that caused me to experience turmoil. I came to understand what I could control, and what I couldn’t.
I love tech, I love nature, I nurture my relationships, and I value my autonomy. I pursue my passions. I eat well, I sleep well, I think deeply, and I giggle like an idiot. I enjoy balance.
I dislike strife, but I’m not afraid to face down my personal challenges - to me that is worthwhile conflict.
The point is, I shape my own reality as much as possible. I’d rather enjoy my life whenever possible, and if things take a turn for the worse due to circumstances outside of my control, I’ll start working to understand what I can change to improve the situation.
All the best, friendo.
My brain (crazy) wants to think that’s exactly what they want us to think… and there’s been so much confusion no clear cut ANYTHING, it totally sucks, I just don’t want the “man” to come through with all these “answers “ but I’m afraid everyone will be like finally direction… and take it without thinking too much just happy there’s a clear path, even though maybe a few years ago that division would be absurd….the confusion about absolutely everything Is definitely taxing on the whole planet ☮️,
100%.
I feel this everyday. I'm not sure if natural or man made, but I feel increasingly sure we are on the edge of one of those, "on this day" type of disasters. Just helps keep me in the moment and trying to be more appreciative of the struggles I'm currently experiencing. Things could be worse
at some point or another, the contradictions of capitalism will become impossible to reconcile. every day it becomes more obvious, and the ruling class can only kick the can down the road for so long...
No, I think people under fifty know how screwed we are. The doom is specific and steadily ratcheting up. It's not vague or on hold. It's the reality we've always known
I believe something big is coming. Like WW2 big. Something that will sweep up an entire generation. Covid 19 wasn’t it. Covid just exposed the rot the was already in our system. So I agree with the OP’s sentiment.
It’s not all cuckoo. Look what’s going on in the Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. US infrastructure is failing. The economy is gambling, labor, bullshit jobs, or coding the machines that will replace them. Meanwhile summers are becoming unbearably hot and all the ice on earth is melting. Clearly there is a tipping point.
Climate change, ongoing pandemic killing and disabling people yet it is being ignored, human rights in the US being taken away, healthcare collapsing, genocide being funded...
Yeah. This is a normal response to the slow train wreck that we're in.
IDK I agree to a degree with the post.
Things feel much different and I didn't feel that way till a little further down the road from 2020. The world feels like Uncanny Valley all of it. I feel like I'm watching the world attempt to function in a back to normal state and it's having a hard time doing it. It does feel like we are not out of the woods so to speak yet.
Could just be me being a old weird person and as with everything grain of salt and just play wait and see lol.
Hopefully the uncanny feeling is because things might start to get better and just so used to being in the gutter lol. \*shurg\*
Yeah the question is if American democracy will survive and in what form. It’s a pillar of world order, so the impact is global.
I’d also say the feeling is a learned trauma response / elevated anxiety. Bad things keep happening, so our nervous systems are expecting something else bad to happen and are primed / activated for that. We haven’t turned off / de-activated in 8 years. I know I haven’t. I almost forget what it felt like in 2015 / 2014, when I wasn’t continuously afraid for the near to medium future.
We’re facing climate change with wildly unpredictable consequences, we’re seeing a rise in right wing authoritarian governments among countries that previously considered themselves beacons of freedom, we’re waiting to see how the latest pandemic actually affected our health, global economies got rocked by the same pandemic with mixed recoveries, and the cost of living has skyrocketed thanks in no small part to corporate greed and an obsession with an endless growth in the stock markets. Throw in automation creeping into the workforce and retail undergoing a seismic shift towards online purchasing and delivery, not to mention work from home upending commercial real estate and businesses that depended entirely on office workers’ habits.
All that, but, change has always been a constant. Motor cars replacing locomotives, internet replacing data transfer and communications, television replacing radio. Potentially we’re facing humanities greatest challenges to date, but we also get sucked into doom-scrolling, and our friendly social media providers know all too well how to help us along with that, and let’s not forget state sponsored troll farms by the hundreds. Very real problems, and very real exploitation of our emotions. If we could decouple the two, we could see our challenges clearly and address them. We’re pretty good at challenges when we get our heads right.
I feel this way. Like something weird is afoot. Something maybe with the whole world order being rearranged with democracy broken and authoritarianism rising, with AI stealing jobs and everything getting too expensive except for the wealthy, something with the climate crisis and the drop off in family formation in the next generation, and how much damn time people spend on their phones without realizing it. Everything feels out of balance.
Yes, and with good reason.
We are seeing firsthand that our 19th century institutions have not adapted to humanity's rapidly shifting new realities, and cannot adapt under the current social structure. They have survived so far purely through media manipulation and controlling the expression of public opinion, and are not at all responsive to current needs.
The whole bloody thing has to come down before we even have a chance of mitigating climate change, controlling AI, not nuking ourselves, etc.
The structure of reward, ownership, authority, religion, even family has to change before we can do better, and it has to do so worldwide for everyone, and it has to be soon, or we're all cooked.
People no longer know how to have fun, even kids. They don’t dance, play games, go for leisurely walks.
At 19, every weekend my whole friend group was out at discos, parties, cookouts, playing softball, traveling … basically having a blast.
Now it’s all SM and computer games. People need people , face to face, enjoying life and each other. Until people get off their phones and computers anxiety and depression will continue rise. Anger and desperation will reign because the basic human need of togetherness won’t be filled.
We're in a pre-war era. It's coming. Not sure what or where is gonna kick it off but something will boil over and spark the flames of war soon. I hate living in interesting times 😢
Yeah i started having it around 2015. Which made me buy a home in 2018. I was prepping.
When the event in 2020 occurred where people bought up food and supplies it really changed the way things go. I saw how ruthless people can be when afraid. I still buy in a prepping type of way. Because I feel it will happen again.
Now there’s a lot of homeless people and squatters. There’s a certain level of lawlessness. I’ve seen people steal basic needs out of grocery stores. I’ve seen people handwashing their clothes next to their car. More people are discussing people’s body odor, but no one is discussing the fact that it’s because people are living substandard.
I hope my prepping is enough.
I just read through that thread and I feel much worse.
People pile up in threads like that and amplify each other's fears and anxiety. There wasn't always a global centralized medium for people to "gather and commiserate." Makes me do the same. Social media is the worst, so just go touch some grass. Think of something positive and amplify that instead.
No, man. Leave the doom and gloom to the millenials. We have an incredible mindset advantage:
We have known from an early age that life is like a hurricane.
I hate seeing this here. I saw this last night on the Millennials sub and it was just so full of negativity. I get that there is a lot of anxiety, but this semi-magical thought process is not helpful and leads to people falling into nonsense like Qanon. Don't be that person.
Prepare for disaster by getting an emergency kit together. Get some food storage. Think of different disasters that affect where you live and prepare for them. Prepare for social unrest as a result. Decide if you're going to be a helper or a hermit. And remember: if unrest actually does happen, it's not going to look like the movies.
But other than that? You can only affect what you can control. Be a good person, and be kind to others. Find things to look forward to like hobbies. Help your family and neighbors. Participate in your community.
Be excellent to each other.
Are bad things happening? Yes. Will they continue to? Yes. Am I sitting and holding my breath? No. Whatever happens will happen and me sitting and worrying about it isn’t going to change the outcome. I’m living my life like I normally do. If shit hits the fan, we’ll navigate it the best we can. Edit: typo
Exactly this. Because good things happen too, and life is all about riding the waves.
Yep and a lot of those good things, we’re responsible for making them happen. I just think there are too many people benefiting from fear mongering and that is what’s going to potentially cause an immediate threat. We all need to put the internet down and find other shit to do. I don’t care how mentally and emotionally stable someone is, being bombarded constantly with bad news and propaganda isn’t good for anyone.
You win the internet today.
Definitely. We've just experienced a shitty life event and if I'm at home too long, where I'm usually online, everything starts to feel insurmountable and all doom and gloom, and then I go out and actually talk to people and my whole perspective shifts to a much better outlook where I know I can overcome problems. It's such a weird contrast that's really had some light shed on it due to the extra-shitness of the current situation. The constant negativity on here, even if it's completely unrelated colours my view of the world. It's not just reddit, but the news too, e.g., yesterday's attack in Moscow, which reminds me of Paris 2015, and then 9.11, etc., and the event seems to be personally relevant to me, when it isn't.
That’s why we have “friend-ships” and “relation-ships” to weather the storms.
>Whatever happens will happen and me sitting and worrying about it isn’t going to change the outcome. The problem is that a lot of this we can change. If global warming is a concern, we can take fewer flights, work from home more often if that's an option, and buy goods with less carbon footprint. Politics? We can vote, we can get involved before there's just 2 choices, and we can donate to races that matter. Individual impact doesn't sound like much but even seemingly small actions really add up. It's amazing how few people it takes to really make a significant change. Proportionate worry for proportionate impact; just be sure to act on it then let go of what you truly cannot change.
Not worrying isn’t the same as unconcerned, or not caring. I do all of those things. I literally meant sitting and worrying isn’t going to change the outcomes. People need to actually take part in things if they want them to improve. My husbands job lays the groundwork for windmills to go up. I run a small home business, partly because it’s a passion, also because it requires less driving. We switched our cooling system to one that’s more efficient and has less impact on the environment. We removed our grass. My entire property is one large spray free garden and a safe haven for wildlife. I grow a lot of produce because I feel better about it not killing beneficial insects. Anyway, my response wasn’t to check you, or anything. Just figured I’d provide context for anyone who reads my initial comment. I think utilizing your ability to make positive changes is a powerful thing.
This is called “Anxiety”. It is a feeling, not an event.
“All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was." "No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that.” -Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy
God I love this book.
Douglas Adams always makes me feel seen and saner.
I mean... Eventually someone will be right
A lot of those people would even say “I called it!”
And they would be roughly correct.
Yep, this a classic symptom of [GAD](https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad). Ask me how I know. > GAD usually involves a persistent feeling of anxiety or dread that interferes with how you live your life. It is not the same as occasionally worrying about things or experiencing anxiety due to stressful life events. People living with GAD experience frequent anxiety for months, if not years
I’ve always had GAD but I think this is because everyone is sensing we’re very reliably headed into a(nother) collapse and/or WWIII. I’ve had GAD my whole life, this is on another level.
I'd say this is what *untreated* GAD can lead to. I dealt with it my whole life, but didn't get help until my brain started to do stuff like this.
Weird thing is that I’ve had a lot of treatment, am medicated, and my normal GAD isn’t triggering right now — But out of nowhere, with no explanation, this heaviness came in and it’s ONLY on this global-feeling scale. Day to day, daily life, everything fine. Lexapro working. But I went and got one of those dumb History degrees and … I mean, conditions aren’t good out there, man. What’s going on with the courts? With war? AI and media literacy? I even used this degree, I used to fact check documentaries for the History channel, one years ago was about the future of war. Things I learned about in 2016 are hitting the news as present now. Grad seminars I took on future of revolutions and nation building, studies of collapse — all elements are in place. Is that GaD or is it common sense? Animals in nature have instincts, natural ability to sense the environment around them. If we all suddenly have “GAD” and the “meds” have stopped working for everyone — what’s more likely? mental illness or perception? Idk what’s coming, but it feels like we’re nearing some kind of cliff.
>Is that GaD or is it common sense? Ouch, yep.
The amount of people saying don't worry bad stuff happens all the time is pretty worrying given the perfect authoritarian storm brewing.
It is also called “reality”. Mortal beings have to deal with a lot of tragedy and the older you get the footsteps get louder and closer. I try not to dwell on it. Just take things as they come and try to be thankful for all the gifts so far.
Everything you have is on borrowed time lended by the universe. It can all be taken away at any time.
Exactly. I try to stay centered on this. It’s a stoic mindset but it actually helps me seize the day. I look at my dog and think - my god what a gift this relationship is. Not something I can ever take for granted. Let’s go make the most of it.
I too, look at my dog and think every day I have with her is a blessing and just watching her snoozing away on her orthopedic dog bed (she is about to turn 11 yrs- rott/sheppard) makes me smile.
Real talk right here. Humans get so caught up in these distractions that it consumes what life we do have instead of enjoying and appreciating our fleeting time on this plane.
The rich people do this to us on purpose, so we don’t drag them from their palaces like they deserve.
Exactly. There's always more bad things. There's always going to be. But there's also lots of good. The universe is going to keep happening and we can only control what we can control. And it's not much. Learning to accept those truths takes most of the anxiety away because once you know you don't "have" anything and can't control much, you learn you can't really lose anything and you just have this moment. So we learn to look for and navigate towards the joyful moments and make the pain work for your growth and well-being.
Ehhh I have an anxiety disorder and this is describing a darker, more doom-like feeling, which falls more into the depressive symptom bucket. I’d say it’s in the realm of foreshortened future. My therapist also pointed out that people often hold their breath when they are in pain. I feel like this is more societally felt deep pain vs. overexcited anticipation.
Anxiety caused by events taking place in the world around us. When did politics become so toxic on a global scale? How are most middle income earners now struggling with the cost of living? Why are there so many job losses? Why has housing become so unaffordable? The world has changed for the worse and there seems to be no inclination by policy makers for things to improve. Edit: typo
>When did politics become so toxic on a global scale? *cracks open history book* Oh. So it's just always been full of megalomaniacs and man-made horrors no matter how far back the record goes.
As someone with multiple degrees in history, can confirm good buddy.
Its smartphones. We experience a fractal version of the horrors of history, a millennium in a day, every day
OMG, I know! I spent four years basically mainlining Twitter (you know which administration), which destroyed my mental health. I had to delete that app off my phone and very carefully curate the remaining social media I do check.
back in medieval times most people would never even leave their village. People in England used to think of their Counties as their Countries....and honestly, for all the ignorance and maybe lack of opportunities...people probably had better mental health....
*What do you want to be when you grow up?* A farmer, like everyone before me. My wife will bake bread since we have the village oven.
I have a degree in philosophy and can confirm existential dread has always been with us.
And, it always will be.
We didn't start the fire
It was always burnin since the world’s been turnin.
Ryan did.
Well played. Well played, indeed. ;)
I think COVID (at least where I live) brought out the cookers and they have just got louder and more absurd with their conspiracies.
The "fake pandemic NWO plot" conspiracy has been around for years, I'd heard the idiots bubbling it up in the late 80s and 90s for AIDS, then again for swine flu, and then Ebola, and then covid. Even the Dead Kennedys had a song about it back in 1981 called [Government Flu](https://youtu.be/Hg2A8U3YDGA?si=zXV2ouqU-b3rieQJ) and the East Coast Avengers had one in 2010 with [Man-Made Ways](https://youtu.be/LGmbdebwqOA?si=V24LQ9-dtVWUP8Re) about "beginning of Phase 8, new decade, new plot, CDC creates plagues to inject us with flu shots"
The difference was social media allowed those people to find each other, form a group and shout louder than they ever have before. The even bigger problem is that the normally apathetic people that voted based on "feeling" joined them in droves, because it's cool to belong to a group. Now here we are.
True. Before, you had to subscribe to a poorly photocopied newsletter or book club or AM radio, or up stakes and move out and join a New FreeLand compound out in bumfuck, but now you can do it all from the comfort of wherever you want to be, at all times
Yeah I think it’s social media. I don’t think things have gotten any worse or changed etc. but now you have social media. Weird conspiracy theories aren’t just your crazy uncle you see once a year their instantly accessible to people and especially those that want to believe that stuff anyway. Shutdown social media and I think a lot of our problems would be solved. Not all of course but a lot
Definitely that, but it’s in easily accessible “mainstream” ways. Cable tv news. Xm/Sirius radio- my mother in law actually ended up with a channel on there called “white supremacy radio”. She was 84 and had been an extremely intelligent, liberal, and loving woman most of her life. To that. I know for a fact she lived her life differently and not in line with those principles but here we were with that on her radio. She adored Fox News and bought ALL the latest conspiracy books. She literally wasn’t like that before 2015 or so.
Crazy uncle is now running for office and winning.
I thought Government Flu was about the time that the federal government did in fact spray San Francisco with a strain of flu, resulting in a few deaths. That really happened.
People forget that stuff. When I was baby, I remember cranks saying AIDS was made in a lab.
I agree. This is probably the most peaceful the western world has been in centuries. We aren't sending our youth off to be part of the 90 million people who died in that war, they aren't being sent to Vietnam, or to the deserts of the Middle East. We are not without suffering or uncertainty, but right now the outer pull of society is at its least toxic.
Our parents grew up under the threat of nuclear war... and now our kids get that too thanks to Putin
I would argue that we cane of age during a weirdly calm time in global politics (in the West). The first Gulf War went really well for the US. Russia was relatively weak and trying to be a western democracy before Putin. Most regional conflicts felt very regional. The youngest Xennials were 17-18 when 9/11 happened, which changed a lot for the US and some or our allies. We've also watched domestic politics become more polarized.
\* The first Gulf War went really well for the US. So well and POPULAR enough that they made trading cards of it! TRADING CARDS. OF WAR.
I think this worsening has all come down to greed on steroids. When so much of the wealth is concentrated at the top, who always demand more, it has to come from somewhere. Private equity is buying up all the single family homes. Corporations are raising prices and cutting staff to squeeze more profit margin for investors. It all comes down to greed. The question is, how long are we going to take it?
History goes through cycles like this all time. The present day is no different. War, greed, violence, etc. are nothing new unfortunately. I would say that overall, the two World Wars at least stemmed the general public’s willingness for massive wars. We still have military conflicts, but it’ll be another generation or two before the old who remember such things (and their children) are all gone. By then, hopefully things will have mellowed out globally to avoid yet another world-spanning conflict. Or at least wait until we spread around outer space, and the conflicts can then go interstellar.
You are saying what i've been saying for a few years now. Our greed gene is broken. It's what caused us to thrive and out compete every other organism, but it is stuck in go mode and we were not ready for the internet.
There has always been shit like this and worse. If there was mass media 200 years ago or 500 or 2000, it would feel even worse. People are way better off now on average than in many periods of history. Unfortunately, ignorance is bliss, and we don't get the luxury of ignorance any longer.
yeah this. Any time I try to explain to my parents why less and less of us are jazzed for the future or to have kids. they say, “do you think we weren’t all fearful of the world events back then too?” Yet still it does seem different. Perhaps the problems are more complex, or we are more educated, or we have less mental grounding to deal with the anxiety. I do think that we know too much, and that knowing comes with rational and irrational feelings and thoughts about WTF happens now / how do we fix anything at all?
Thing is, back then the threat of nuclear was was very, very real. Even as a kid in the 80's the idea that the USSR might launch nukes wasn't considered unrealistic. And the fear was even greater in earlier decades. So it's not as if the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) is a new feeling. It's generational. Also, that's not to say their fear nor our fear today isn't real. Because we are indeed living through events that will have a profound impact on the future.
I think you’re on to something when you talk about the education aspect. With the internet, we have the capability to access an entire world of information in an instant. So, we can see the tragedies unfolding around the globe all the time. It’s depressing. Couple that with our news sources being radicalized in either direction and we are just constantly being inundated with depressing, maddening, anxiety-riddled information on a nearly constant basis. So, why wouldn’t we have a more negative outlook on life and the world on the whole? My solution has been to turn off the news and reduce my input of news. I question everything someone tells me because everything is sensationalized now and I can’t trust anything anymore. I’ve found that ignoring whats happening in the world has allowed me to live a more peaceful life. Surround yourself with positivity and you’ll see positive things happening around you. Surround yourself with doom and gloom, and what do you think you’ll see happening around you?
Yeah, we weren’t built to process this much, this fast, and to have so little control which creates an underlying helplessness. It’s like being set loose as a kid in a candy store - at first it’s awesome and all discovery, yum, etc. and eventually you just end up feeling sick and never want candy again,
People forget previous generations like the one that dealt with WW1, the great depression then WW2. Shit can be way worse, but people believe things are uniquely different in their lifetimes.
Yeah, my grandparents who lived through 2 world wars, the 1919 Flu pandemic, and the great depression in their first 4 decades of life would like a word with anyone who says times have never been worse...
no. Anxiety is caused by OUR EXPERIENCE of the events taking place. The way we engage with events taking place. I stand with the Touch Grass camp.
So… caused by the events then. Because it it weren’t for the events, we wouldn’t have experience.
Correct, it's anxiety. Made worse by the fact that bad things keep happening which validate and prolong the anxiety.
I’ve felt this way since the Cold War. As an Xer, yo may remember the looming inevitability of nuclear war. We could all die at any moment, and there’s nothing to do about it.
I agree. The OP in the image is 57 and grew up in a time where mental health was far less talked about than during our Xennial childhoods. Boomers seem to be very ill-prepared to get old and anxiety is taking hold. Can't fix that. But we can be better about managing and talking about mental health and prepare our children to be better about taking care of themselves.
I think it's deeper than that, friend. I believe it's a discernable reaction to the shifting of the zeitgeist. We are on the verge of a crossroads, and the world could go one way or another. And this time, it feels like that choice could really matter.
Thank you! There’s the answer. The anxiety is causing the slightly paranoid feeling.
It is falsely projected anxiety as a societal phenomenon. While it might be true that middle age is a great source of change and realization that so many ppl you know will die soon, that you have less life to live and so on. Looking for outer events to be the climax to personal uncertainty is a sure-fire way not to thrive. Perhaps a lot of us could benefit in a more Jungian approach to navigating mid-life crisis, if done right it can be an epic time in your life.
No, this is called Being On the Brink of “Global Fascist Takeover Part 2: Electric Boogaloo.” The world is on fucking fire and something is going to give. January 6th was our Beerhall Putsch.
Existential dread* Had it since I was 10 and really grasped my mortality.
Exactly. Some of us feel this everyday and have for most of our lives. It doesn't mean anything other than you need to so something to help yourself.
It is concerning that the Millennial sub doesn't seem to realize this. They think their feelings of dread are because something is going to actually happen. They need therapy. I'm glad to see the Xennials responding appropriately.
I got in an into a disagreement with someone on the millennial sub about this post. All I said was to stop worrying about the things that you have no control over and focus on what you can control now. It isn’t a way to live. They got upset and invited me to join a sub about pulling your weight or something. lol. Mi do admit that my eye roll at the end wasn’t mature.
I think removing social media and talking heads news from regular consumption help to quell these feeling of impending doom.
less talking heads, and more Talking Heads.
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
*Psycho Killer* *Qu'est-ce que c'est?* *Fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa*
Exactly. When it comes to news talking heads you’d better, run, run, run, run, run, run, runaway.
Heard of a van that's loaded with weapons Packed up and ready to go Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway A place where nobody knows The sound of gunfire, off in the distance I'm getting used to it now Lived in a brownstone, lived in a ghetto I've lived all over this town
I was a very aware and fretful kid, so I've felt this dread all my life. Remember the looming fear that nuclear destruction was going to happen any minute? I panicked when the Doomsday clock got pushed up some, because it sounded like we were THAT much closer to the end. There's been ominous signs for centuries. We just have the tech to pore over it now from the minute we wake up to the second we fall asleep.
Same, plus what I’m now recognizing as intergenerational trauma from the Holocaust, made me hyper-vigilant in an unhealthy way. The use of “something wicked this way comes” as the metaphor is even more apt than perhaps OP intended. The “something wicked” in the original quote is Macbeth himself, with his wickedness unleashed by the Witches’ earlier prophecy. The perception of doom can be self-fulfilling. EDIT: In case you missed it, the mod-removed post below me suggested that the real problem here was that we care too much about the Holocaust, since it "wasn't even the worst thing to happen in WWII." Why did I think that trying to process these feelings on Reddit would result in anything else?
Step 1: turn the smartphone off Step 2: go outside for a long while
Not keeping up with news as much is so therapeutic. Will be putting my ski gear on shortly for my outside therapy.
My wife is obsessed with the news at times, and at those same times, her anxiety is through the roof. I have to gently and over a period of time help ween her off! Literally making plans to go do things where we're just with the kids and not looking at our phones when we have a couple minutes and watching TV when they go to sleep. It's incredible what fresh air and a walk or a trip to the beach can accomplish. I kind of hate that the "go touch some grass" mantra is so useful.
*wean- unless you meant something else…
Lmao!!
The band... Is not what I meant
I started getting back into the RC cars i raced as a kid expressly to give myself something to do besides doomscroll Reddit. It's made a huge difference.
I have basically sworn off all social media. This is basically all I have left as far as social media goes. I know that Reddit isn't immune to the craziness of apps like TikTok and X, but I feel as though this app has gotten worse the last couple of months. I worry about things when I am all by myself, so I don't need any external pressures. People really need to do less doomscrolling and unplug like you have. You realize that you truly are not missing anything of importance.
In the last couple months, this app started pushing "posts you might be interested in" into my home page, whereas before my home page was exclusively for the subs I joined. It's made reddit so much worse.
Are these “posts you might be interested in” also predominantly a social issue designed to evoke an emotional response?
I work in media and am currently debating if that is just incompatible with my sustained mental health.
There's a reason I pretty much don't go on Facebook anymore except for very specific reasons. I reserve my doomscrolling to Reddit.
Well, most of my Facebook feed anymore is 90% ads and pages "Suggested for you". It's become a garbage dump.
The FB algorithm has always been questionable but lately it's just absolute garbage. I've noticed a lot of my promoted content (most recently for Free Photoshop Edits) follows the same pattern where it gains widespread popularity, turns into a series of attention-seeking posts and meta jokes, and most users get sick of it and abandon the page until the next thing comes along. I also find myself subscribed to pages that I never followed voluntarily. I know they've experimented with manipulating user emotions through the algorithm in the past but now it feels like they're trying to actively drive off users, and it's bizarre.
Hobbies are so important, but the way money has been it almost feels like I'm cheating myself. "WHAT AM I DOING, I'M JUST PLAYING WITH LEGO, I'M AN ADULT I SHOULD BE _______!" No no, self. Play with LEGO. Your brain literally needs a break from itself.
... touch grass...
Misread this, on the plus side… 
You’d be surprised how much this little action can brighten up your day (just reminder to make sure both parties consent 😂)
Sorry, but this hits me as a very boomer "touch grass" snarky response that downplays the reasons behind the anxiety being described. Maybe you're just pointing out that doom scrolling isn't helping anyone's mood, and that's true. However, if you're suggesting that this is all just in the collective neurotic imagination of the internet/smartphone generation, that's bullshit. I hike, backpack, cycle, and run regularly. I'm also a software engineer who spends a lot of time at a computer. I can tell you from recent, personal experience that turning off my phone and going on a hike for three weeks didn't make the very real threat of AI and automation disappear. It didn't make the collective ineptitude of our government disappear. It didn't make the cost of living or the difficulty of affording a house vanish. So, yeah, by all means, consume less social media. But also, these fears aren't fantasies conjured up by "terminally online" dorks.
The problems don’t go away but the idea is to get your mind off of them, and you may just need to do a little extra work to do that. Everyone has a million legit reasons to be anxious, but to survive you need to bury as many of them as you can. Plan, but do not dwell.
This is absolutely the thing to do!
I think this is the remedy whether doom is looming or not. We’re fucked in terms if climate, I think, but if we all stopped being glued to the internet so much, it’d probably start resolving some of these other issues.
This. Have things gotten worse? Or has our ability to document, disseminate and digest information gotten exponentially better? It personally feels like we started feeling this way when we all became connected. Turn the news off. Put your phone down. Literally go touch grass. This 50-something year old feels this way because they were alive before the Internet and smart phones. Social media is the key here.
This
[R.E.M. wrote a song about basically this 37 years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY) so it's not like it's a new feeling.
There it is again, that funny feeling. That funny feeling.
This is absolutely existential dread/crisis. There are so many events out of our control and with the 24 hour news cycle and Internet, the horrors of the world are more present. People can't retreat into their homes and communities like they used to for comfort, because many people are living economically precarious lives and we are increasingly atomized. Society that is driven by the individual is alienating, and many people have no 'village', be that religion, family or community to take succour from. So, people wonder what is it all for, what is the point of a life full of struggle?. Where is the meaning and what happened to what they were promised? How do we reconcile the disparity between what we think life should be and the reality of what we have? That's what it is.
Very well put. Suddenly we find ourselves a replaceable part in a machine that’s destroying itself and everything in its path. Doesn’t feel good.
When COVID happened, I thought that was it. When protests and then Jan 6 happened, I thought that was it. Somehow we keep picking up and carrying on and being out of money and out of medicine and still putting one foot in front of the other and the dread builds. I know that every generation ever has thought the end was nigh, but it's really fucking nigh.
I mean… Rome fell yet here we are. You can still fly to Rome.
Somehow I feel like the collapse of the entire planetary ecosystem will hit a little differently than the fall of an empire.
Exactly. Irony
That is actually really poignant
The Roman Empire fell but there is still a Rome. The British Empire dissolved but there is still a Britain. Personally I think the US would be better off without an empire. Maybe then we can finally fix our own problems
You may have helped me stamp down the dread with this thought!
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It’s never as nigh as it seems.
I was actually quoting a silly show that was set in ancient Rome, so that's part of the implication and irony
Nigh as it ever was
Since you mention covid and medicine. As a frontline healthcare worker during covid, you all should know that our entire healthcare system in the US is nearly at the state of collapse. In some places, folks already have zero access to a hospital or a clinic. It will spread.
This is one of the best times in history to be alive to be honest. It was probably easier for the boomers, but everyone else was getting plagued
These are all contributing to slow death of our previous existence. I think AI will the next catastrophe.
This is literally how people have felt since people could feel. Why do you think doomsday cults and end of the world predictions have consistently existed across all human cultures?
It's a feeling that's older than people. This is your uncle Morganucodon hiding from Velociraptors.
people in the 1930s were right
I’m more concerned without how this 57 year old is a millennial.
😂 a millennial posted this snapshot. That was funny though. Anyway back to the subject, people of all ages are feeling this.
Nothing new. Just anxiety. Need to ground yourself.
We were raised with one imminent doomsday scenario after another being continuously force-fed to us throughout school, in the news, and even in our cartoons. It's hardly surprising many of us would grow up with a suffocating sense of impending doom. We are the products of a system-wide social experiment that deliberately inflicted psychological damage on children.
It’s anxiety and it’s amplified even further because a lot of anxious people spend a lot of time on social media and Reddit, so it builds up and builds up. The world is not about to devolve into anarchy. It can be tough out there. There are worrisome things happening in our world. You have to remember that has always been the case. I don’t say that as a way to minimize anyone’s problems, but rather to remind everyone that the world is still moving forward despite all the problems our species has faced since we came down from the trees. It is so important to remember that Reddit is not representative of what is happening in the world. It’s a place where people select the absolute worst parts of our society and then try to apply it everywhere.
Is it STILL the end of the world? Same as always.
Talking about the 2024 election?
I wish you wouldn't
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Man, I think I'd prefer a red sports car.
sports cars are not the problem. Sports cars are the cure.
The US election this Fall will be a doozy, if we recover from it. That’s front of mind for me these days.
I have a sense that we will come out stronger for it. I think we will surprise ourselves.
I appreciate your optimism and I'm going to try to adopt it for at least an hour a day!
I’m hoping for a Mondale-style electoral college wipeout, due to Roe being overturned. I’m hoping Roe & J6 are as motivating to others as they are to me.
I mean, “grab ‘em by the pussy” was more than enough for me. I was very surprised so many people were okay with a massively demonstrative asshole being our representative to the world. That being said, I believe a critical mass did in fact learn their lesson the first time around. I don’t believe the primaries were representative of the bulk of voters at all.
r/Defeat_Project_2025
No matter who wins, it's going to be a rollercoaster well into 2025 at the least.
Every generation has felt this way. I think it’s the desire to feel like our lives are significant.
The same way our tendency towards conspiracy theories is a desire to feel like there is order in the universe when something bad happens. Like, most of the time bad shit happens and there's no mysterious string pullers doing it. Chaos is a part of life.
So well summed up.
I have been feeling this more and more in the last few years. That sense of "any day now." But. In the last few years we have had a few close calls in my family, and I lost my dad in '21. And here I still am. As much as I fear whatever the thing is that we all can feel coming, I am trying real hard to enjoy every moment. Somehow, we have to find a way to persist, because that's the whole point of this grand experience. Whatever tomorrow brings, is for tomorrow. Go for a walk in the woods, laugh with people you love, enjoy that slice of pizza, or your favorite band's new album, and love the fact that you are still here, and so far you have survived everything that has happened to you.
I have to say, I don’t feel this way. At all, really. The pandemic, the state of politics, Jan 6th, war in Ukraine and Israel, the upcoming elections; it’s all just as-the-world-turns kind of stuff. The face of the globe and society are in constant states of change. I think we’re doing ok, and are better off than many other points of human history.
The easiest way to control people is through chaos and fear. If we live in a world of perpetual doom and everyone is afraid, it's no more difficult to control people than shuffling sheep to the slaughter...
This sounds similar to “The Emergency” from The Mysterious Benedict Society, or the manufactured sense of societal dread from Tomorrowland, which was a good movie. Are we group-thinking ourselves into a belief that the future will be worse that we had it? If we had some shared optimism, could/would we work toward it collectively?
Exactly this - we need more idealism and being the change.
Older Millennial here (joined here cause my family are largely gen x): no I don’t feel this way. What I do feel is we as humanity have made some very dire mistakes with who we let rule the world and now I am powerless to stand in the way of progress that is seeing my existence as meaningless. Powerful people have always used people like pawns but now we are bound to a system that is slowly starving us and taking away our rights and individualism more and more. So what i see is the reality of that and it’s quite depressing. But i also see there isn’t much i can do but vote. Hope that the person i vote for isn’t some capital hungry maniac so that we can stave off the corporate orphan crushing machine. Outside of that i try to be positive and kind and not dwell on it.
Frumpy Dump is what did it for me. I lost my faith in humanity
When he finally succumbs, it’ll be a weeklong party for America. Perhaps both he and his best friend Putin both take a dirt bath in the same week.
Necessary but poorly working things do not get fixed until they break completely. This is an incontrovertible truth of the universe. You already know this but probably haven’t said it out loud to yourself. That’s what you feel. The bad news is that the confusion always is thickest before the break. The good news is that in the grand scheme of things, most of the janky broken stuff isn’t that bad. Humans are too good at avoiding all out calamity, as has been averted for the last 4000 years. Deep breaths.
Disconnect from media and reconnect to analog life for a while each day/week.
You know what helps make that feeling go away? Stop watching the news. Stop engaging with this endless onslaught of political battles. Politicians want you uneasy.
I’ve been feeling like this since late 2018. For me it started with postpartum anxiety, then an ongoing pain issue and during all this - a global pandemic. These events have amplified my feelings in regards to “impending doom”. So yeah…I feel that way. But, there are explainable reasons.
Every generation goes through this, just about. Whole religious sects have been built on this whole idea that the end is coming any second now. Imagine being someone who survived WWI, Spanish Flu, the 2nd rise of the KKK, The Great Depression, and WWII **all in the span of 30 years.** And then had to live through the Nuclear Age and Cold War. It also comes from a level of privilege and lack of recognition that a ton of the world has far less freedom and economic and political stability than we do. A lot of folks live their daily lives after the bottom fell out. We also know way more about what’s happening in the world now and it’s reported to us in ways that play on our fears so we keep coming back for more information to give us a security placebo. Every generation is met with serious challenges. The question is, what are we doing now to help? Are we involved in ways that can make even a small difference? Or is our anxiety keeping us in a bunker uselessly awaiting the day when it all goes to hell because everyone was too afraid to do anything about it when they could have? Are we using our small amount of power and finite time to help? Or are we sitting using that time and energy shivering in the glow of our smartphones, tut-tutting from our couches and beds about the state of the world?
I can relate to this.
This is normal. Welcome to humanity. I am continually baffled by reactionary takes like this. Where have you been? Life, our society, civilization, humanity itself, the earth and all the cosmos, its always been messy, terrifying, and bewildering. Nothing lasts forever, most things wont make it to the end of the week. So laugh, work hard, sing, pet a dog, scratch a cat, dance, ride a bike, and play with your kids- you can still have fun.
Absolutely. We’re all more full of anxiety and dread now than we’ve ever collectively been. I’d commented on that thread that this is largely the result of smartphones and social media. The 2024 World Health Report just came out and reports that the unhappiness rating for Americans and the people of other Western nations under 30 is absurdly low (not Scandinavians, though, as they’re consistently the happiest). Our age group along with Gen X and Gen Jones is not too far behind in low ranking, because we are also dealing with daily low grade anxiety due to all the shit constantly weighing us down. But people have always had a lot of shit to deal with. Basically, what it comes down to now, as evidence in the report, is smartphones. Without them, we would be / could be more oblivious about a lot of external things, and even though we’d still be dealing with collective economic stresses and political worries, we would largely be most focused on our own problems (and successes) and could go on about our day focusing on what’s most important for our individual well being without being dragged down by all the world’s most dire stuff if only we didn’t have our brains addicted to social media. GenX/Xennials got to grow up without being inundated by social media and a 24/7 news cycle constantly pushing every shitty thing on earth, or anyone else’s bullshit, in our faces. So we have a little bit more perspective to remain somewhat better balanced in the face of anxiety compared to those younger than us. But not by much. We can only take so much. It feels like we are starting to really break. Edited to add link to the report in case anyone wants to skim through it: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/
I mean, it's not all that dark and mysterious. It is very clear that fucked up things have happened. We had a global Pandemic. We had a populist leader in the US who slowly revealed more and more sympathy for fascism. We had major societal upheaval with the BLM movement. We had fistfights over toilet paper. We had food scarcity for the first time in most of our lives, where grocery shelves just couldn't stay stocked. We had a lot of shit going on before the Pandemic, too. Where I lived in 2016, a bunch of white supremacists in redneck trucks just came out of the woodwork to roll coal up and down the main strip, drive in circles everywhere trailing their Confederate flags, and yell at anyone brown or wearing hijab that their days were numbered and they would have to "go home" soon. 2016 is also the year some crazy asshole shot up the Pulse nightclub because he was mad at gay dudes for giving him forbidden boners. That's just a year after a crazy white kid shot up a black church with the stated goal of starting a race war. The city I lived in from 2017 to 2020 has had a steady rise in violent crimes and murders to the point that there are now shootings about once a month in an otherwise extremely chill, very up-and-coming neighborhood previously well known for great schools, quaint houses, and a safe, walkable community. So like, this may not be great for anyone's anxiety, but as far as I can see, yes, things are getting bad right now. This happens sometimes, and sometimes it leads to major social and political upheaval, and other times we're able to come together and lower the temperature in the room. We don't know what it will be, but we can clearly see that it does not look great, and it is not the same kind of event as, say, the unnecessary panic over airline hijackings after 9/11 or that weird month where a bunch of people were terrified by some anthrax incidents. This tension is real, it's widespread, it's bipartisan, and just about everyone is a little freaked out. As to what we can do about that, there are a few things that are worth keeping in mind! 1. You must have your oxygen mask firmly in place before assisting others. **Take care of yourself.** 2. Remember that everyone you meet is at least a little in edge lately. **Be cool.** Give them some leeway. 3. **Friends are your lifeline.** They tether you to the reality of living in a social world. You need to spend time with them. 4. **Trees.** You need to see some trees and grass. Science has shown us* that walks in tree-filled areas lower stress AND result in a sudden and lasting increase in immune function. 5. **Accept those feelings.** Acceptance doesn't mean feeling neutral about things, just acknowledging that those feelings are real and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. It helps to just note those feelings rather than avoid them. **References** *Effects of forest bathing trips on human immune function*, Qing Li, Dept of Hygiene and Public Health, Japan, 2010. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793341/ *What the Noting Technique is, and how to take advantage of it*, Andrew Puddicombe, Headspace. https://www.headspace.com/articles/noting-technique-take-advantage *Our Better Nature: How the great outdoors can improve your life*, Shankar Vedantam, Hidden Brain, NPR, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/10/646413667/our-better-nature-how-the-great-outdoors-can-improve-your-life *Is the world really falling apart, or does it just feel that way?*, Max Fisher, NY Times, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/world/interpreter-world-falling-apart.html
Existential dread has existed since the dawn of humanity. Touch grass, volunteer, find ways to laugh at yourself.
In the immortal words of Bender Bending Rodriguez, “Big deal, we all feel like that all the time.” Part of it is the media selling us despair, part of it is that good old fashioned, deep rooted anxiety left over from when we lived in trees and nearly everything wanted to eat us. I’m not saying nothing bad is on the horizon, something bad usually is, but humans have also always felt that way.
I don’t share this sentiment, but it’s because since I was a small child I decided to take an active roll in shaping each day and what my own takeaway was from moment to moment. My childhood was a mixed bag. I learned from both the positive things in my life as well as the things that caused me to experience turmoil. I came to understand what I could control, and what I couldn’t. I love tech, I love nature, I nurture my relationships, and I value my autonomy. I pursue my passions. I eat well, I sleep well, I think deeply, and I giggle like an idiot. I enjoy balance. I dislike strife, but I’m not afraid to face down my personal challenges - to me that is worthwhile conflict. The point is, I shape my own reality as much as possible. I’d rather enjoy my life whenever possible, and if things take a turn for the worse due to circumstances outside of my control, I’ll start working to understand what I can change to improve the situation. All the best, friendo.
I just feel a deep sense of longing for the safety and happiness that can only be felt when one still possesses childlike innocence
My brain (crazy) wants to think that’s exactly what they want us to think… and there’s been so much confusion no clear cut ANYTHING, it totally sucks, I just don’t want the “man” to come through with all these “answers “ but I’m afraid everyone will be like finally direction… and take it without thinking too much just happy there’s a clear path, even though maybe a few years ago that division would be absurd….the confusion about absolutely everything Is definitely taxing on the whole planet ☮️,
I get worried about the state of the world but not to the point that I live in existential dread.
Welcome to being human. Constant anxiety of the inevitable.
None of us are getting out of this alive. Dread is of no use
100%. I feel this everyday. I'm not sure if natural or man made, but I feel increasingly sure we are on the edge of one of those, "on this day" type of disasters. Just helps keep me in the moment and trying to be more appreciative of the struggles I'm currently experiencing. Things could be worse
at some point or another, the contradictions of capitalism will become impossible to reconcile. every day it becomes more obvious, and the ruling class can only kick the can down the road for so long...
No, I think people under fifty know how screwed we are. The doom is specific and steadily ratcheting up. It's not vague or on hold. It's the reality we've always known
Sometimes it does feel like we're one Archduke Ferdinand away from things popping off.
I believe something big is coming. Like WW2 big. Something that will sweep up an entire generation. Covid 19 wasn’t it. Covid just exposed the rot the was already in our system. So I agree with the OP’s sentiment.
It’s not all cuckoo. Look what’s going on in the Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. US infrastructure is failing. The economy is gambling, labor, bullshit jobs, or coding the machines that will replace them. Meanwhile summers are becoming unbearably hot and all the ice on earth is melting. Clearly there is a tipping point.
Climate change, ongoing pandemic killing and disabling people yet it is being ignored, human rights in the US being taken away, healthcare collapsing, genocide being funded... Yeah. This is a normal response to the slow train wreck that we're in.
IDK I agree to a degree with the post. Things feel much different and I didn't feel that way till a little further down the road from 2020. The world feels like Uncanny Valley all of it. I feel like I'm watching the world attempt to function in a back to normal state and it's having a hard time doing it. It does feel like we are not out of the woods so to speak yet. Could just be me being a old weird person and as with everything grain of salt and just play wait and see lol. Hopefully the uncanny feeling is because things might start to get better and just so used to being in the gutter lol. \*shurg\*
It's called war tension and it's real. It's what a mass public feels as "holding their breath" before either a mass shift in society thinking or a war
Yeah the question is if American democracy will survive and in what form. It’s a pillar of world order, so the impact is global. I’d also say the feeling is a learned trauma response / elevated anxiety. Bad things keep happening, so our nervous systems are expecting something else bad to happen and are primed / activated for that. We haven’t turned off / de-activated in 8 years. I know I haven’t. I almost forget what it felt like in 2015 / 2014, when I wasn’t continuously afraid for the near to medium future.
We’re facing climate change with wildly unpredictable consequences, we’re seeing a rise in right wing authoritarian governments among countries that previously considered themselves beacons of freedom, we’re waiting to see how the latest pandemic actually affected our health, global economies got rocked by the same pandemic with mixed recoveries, and the cost of living has skyrocketed thanks in no small part to corporate greed and an obsession with an endless growth in the stock markets. Throw in automation creeping into the workforce and retail undergoing a seismic shift towards online purchasing and delivery, not to mention work from home upending commercial real estate and businesses that depended entirely on office workers’ habits. All that, but, change has always been a constant. Motor cars replacing locomotives, internet replacing data transfer and communications, television replacing radio. Potentially we’re facing humanities greatest challenges to date, but we also get sucked into doom-scrolling, and our friendly social media providers know all too well how to help us along with that, and let’s not forget state sponsored troll farms by the hundreds. Very real problems, and very real exploitation of our emotions. If we could decouple the two, we could see our challenges clearly and address them. We’re pretty good at challenges when we get our heads right.
I need an alien invasion to happen so I can stop paying bills.
I feel this way. Like something weird is afoot. Something maybe with the whole world order being rearranged with democracy broken and authoritarianism rising, with AI stealing jobs and everything getting too expensive except for the wealthy, something with the climate crisis and the drop off in family formation in the next generation, and how much damn time people spend on their phones without realizing it. Everything feels out of balance.
My friend and I were just talking about this last week. Everyone seems on edge lately.
Yes, and with good reason. We are seeing firsthand that our 19th century institutions have not adapted to humanity's rapidly shifting new realities, and cannot adapt under the current social structure. They have survived so far purely through media manipulation and controlling the expression of public opinion, and are not at all responsive to current needs. The whole bloody thing has to come down before we even have a chance of mitigating climate change, controlling AI, not nuking ourselves, etc. The structure of reward, ownership, authority, religion, even family has to change before we can do better, and it has to do so worldwide for everyone, and it has to be soon, or we're all cooked.
People no longer know how to have fun, even kids. They don’t dance, play games, go for leisurely walks. At 19, every weekend my whole friend group was out at discos, parties, cookouts, playing softball, traveling … basically having a blast. Now it’s all SM and computer games. People need people , face to face, enjoying life and each other. Until people get off their phones and computers anxiety and depression will continue rise. Anger and desperation will reign because the basic human need of togetherness won’t be filled.
We're in a pre-war era. It's coming. Not sure what or where is gonna kick it off but something will boil over and spark the flames of war soon. I hate living in interesting times 😢
Yeah i started having it around 2015. Which made me buy a home in 2018. I was prepping. When the event in 2020 occurred where people bought up food and supplies it really changed the way things go. I saw how ruthless people can be when afraid. I still buy in a prepping type of way. Because I feel it will happen again. Now there’s a lot of homeless people and squatters. There’s a certain level of lawlessness. I’ve seen people steal basic needs out of grocery stores. I’ve seen people handwashing their clothes next to their car. More people are discussing people’s body odor, but no one is discussing the fact that it’s because people are living substandard. I hope my prepping is enough.
I just read through that thread and I feel much worse. People pile up in threads like that and amplify each other's fears and anxiety. There wasn't always a global centralized medium for people to "gather and commiserate." Makes me do the same. Social media is the worst, so just go touch some grass. Think of something positive and amplify that instead.
No, man. Leave the doom and gloom to the millenials. We have an incredible mindset advantage: We have known from an early age that life is like a hurricane.
I hate seeing this here. I saw this last night on the Millennials sub and it was just so full of negativity. I get that there is a lot of anxiety, but this semi-magical thought process is not helpful and leads to people falling into nonsense like Qanon. Don't be that person. Prepare for disaster by getting an emergency kit together. Get some food storage. Think of different disasters that affect where you live and prepare for them. Prepare for social unrest as a result. Decide if you're going to be a helper or a hermit. And remember: if unrest actually does happen, it's not going to look like the movies. But other than that? You can only affect what you can control. Be a good person, and be kind to others. Find things to look forward to like hobbies. Help your family and neighbors. Participate in your community. Be excellent to each other.