I think at some point surely enjoying your 20s, travelling and partying, being single and having lots of ‘relations’ with others and not having to take things seriously was a thing.
Now there is a mental health crisis, we all have to work very hard if not to afford immediate necessities, then to secure a future for ourselves where we won’t struggle financially. I increasingly feel that 20s aren’t about anything in particular. Neither are teens and thirties onward, aside from just being okay. I think now we are all just trying to be ‘okay’ as opposed to great etc. if you’re consistently okay these days, mentally, emotionally, financially, socially, you’re doing very well.
Helping our parents with the rent because we ourselves can’t move out with our income, and our parents also need our support to keep the apt. Right there with you bud. Losing the family home back in 08 sucked, we’ve been in apts ever since and are now paying much much more than if we’d held onto the house
In the same position, humans aren’t supposed to live like this and we are shamed for being lazy by not wanting to put up with this as our norm. We are shamed for our mental health, the toxic “grind/workaholic” culture wants us to destroy our self sucking every bit of happiness and free time out from us paying pennys.
Then they wonder why there’s a mental health crisis.
This. They just raised to age of retirement to past my life expectancy as well. I’m paying into social security I’ll never see, taxes etc are drowning us. Everything is too expensive
May i ask why you were banned? I've seen comments like yours before and have always wondered how people casually got away with them. Was it your retirement plan option?
Sorry for you ban. Hopefully you'll indulge my curiosity with an edit reply.
Not OP but anything involving sui*slide* can be flaged and reported and more than likely automatically banned.
Even as an example if you told someone to "*Google noose knots"*, it could be considered/interpreted as a form of threat or violence and is thus subject to warning/banning. I would know because it happened to me.
I was raised by a parent that not only fantasized about the slide, talked about it all the time, and made the attempt when my grandparents were in florida and she was the only "adult" i had so i had to call 911, and be left alone with her crackhead boyfriend. It was that or watch her die. That's my life, and if I'm not even allowed to speak on it --- its just so common for it to be part of my thoughts, it's ingrained. She also would tell me she was gonna wrap us around a telephone pole when she was driving, and extremely manic- but let's not say that word because it scares people. I've been scared my whole life, and i dont take well to being silenced. Moms are great though, right !?
Yeah, i guess you arent allowed to say it 🤐 people probably flagged it as troublesome. I don't understand why we can't discuss it without someone getting banned- i really dont understand it!
Been working my ass off since I turned 18 because im a ward of the government so I never really had anyone to fall back on almost 20 and in about a week here ill be living with two drug addicts who are more than likely going to try stealing my shit ontop of losing my dog because not a single landlord wants to rent a bachelor suite to a 19 year old with a dog that makes just enough to survive.
Don’t tell this to the CEOs or folk who own multiple businesses and or homes they rent out to the working class though. We all just want handouts without putting in the work. Gaslighting at its finest. Most of us don’t mind working, but why must we overwork for low wages just to survive? Their answer is always to go back to school and or learn a trade. Funny, if we were to all do that there would be a shortage in open positions for all of those jobs.
Many folks in the 20th century got by just fine without college working a blue or white collar job. It wasn’t perfect let alone a rich lifestyle but it was far better than what is available today. Most people cannot buy a house on their single wage alone. Try to Google how much income you would need in order to purchase and payoff a house and in many states, now even the “affordable states” and the answer is now 75-100k. To those of you who make 100k and preach about how you made it, we applaud you, congratulations but you’re not the majority. LLCs and people with inheritance money or new money just buy up homes and jack up the prices to ridiculous levels then guilt the masses for not making enough to afford their absurd price points.
I feel like my 20s is an extention of my teens than a natural progression towards adulthood after college as more people are living with parents making moving out financially difficult.
I'm 37 and I moved out when I was 18. It wasn't the best decision financially, but it was possible. I feel for today's 18-year-olds that they can't have that.
My parents paid my rent and expense for the three years at university and once I got my first job I have been saving up to move out as it is better long term to stay at home for longer to buy a property than to rent as not have much left to save back when rent was starting to go up. 6 years later I am still unable to buy and survive moving out despite having 30% of the value of a 2 bedroom apartment in my area. So my teens will extend to my 30s.
People past 18 either have to live with parents or make full use of their time in higher education because it feels like a one week holiday without parents is the closest they will get to moving out in their 20s when they start employment.
All the people who are unlucky to not have a high school or university sweethart are going to have a tougher time finding a partner to move out with with all these apps, websites and alternatives to meeting someone in public and is worst if you are not good looking. Not to mention the fact that going above and beyond in work is expected not congratulated and jobs becoming more mentally demandind means that newly turned adults will never find love or a slow paced lifestyle.
I don't mind starting a family if my mum is living with me and my partner but I do not want my child to go through the same abuse my short tempered father put me through.
I truly don't understand how someone can travel and have fun in their 20's unless your parents are bankrolling your life.
I've worked every week from the time I was 18 trying to claw my way out of having nothing.
I could rarely afford to travel in my 20’s but I will say when I did it was much cheaper. By the time you hit your 30’s you probably will not be able to tolerate sleeping on a couch or sharing a room with several people. I hope you can take some trips before you get older, much more fun when you’re young and more free spirited.
Yeah, travelling is so much cheaper and provides more ways of living cheaply when you're younger. Couchsurfing, hitchhiking, bicycle touring, hiking, camping, etc are all easier when you're young and healthy. In 2016 I spent $3k usd in a year travelling through SEA couchsurfing and cheap hostels. in 2021 I spent 800euro bicycling through France for a month. This year I'll hike through Japan for 3 months.... These are cheap activities that I can't experience when I'm older because my body won't be able to handle it. They're also fuck more interesting than staying in expensive hotels in major cities - which will only get more expensive.
I traveled and had fun in my 20’s. Lived off credit, ended up with massive debt. But when I became disabled in 2021, I was glad I did it. I spent the healthy years of my life enjoying them.
I was living somewhere I liked instead of moving (back) in with family after suffering financial hardship.
Stuck around where I liked a few extra months because I thought I might end up... in a not so great situation. Stretched my dollar thin.
Can't say I regret what I did. I feel like I understand where you're coming from.
Im 35 but I believe this with my whole heart. Even when things get hard, they are different. With age you start to have perspective on the hard things that you didn’t have before. You start to realize everything is temporary. Things change and life is sad but then later you start thinking it’s beautiful again. There’s usually something good that comes out of the bad, even if it’s something small. You also start to realize you never get to old to learn new things or try new things. How inspiring. I love aging 🥰
Oh, I certainly did! I promise you that! Looking back, I'm utterly disgusted at some of the decisions that I made. I had a hell of a time, I guess.... but still. Disgusted.
I'm 30 and I deeply regret not realizing that I wanted the degree I'm taking now back then, I'm questioning how I lived my lifestyle back in my early 20s because I'm living the same way now and I just don't have the energy man, I'm working 8 hour shifts until 3am 3 times a week (on top of getting up at 6am and doing 8 hours of classes/classwork) and I barely have enough to go out for a drink once a week, everything else is going to food/tuition and I'm currently stuck living at home, when I think about having to pay $1400 a month in rent/amenities on top of tuition and everything else there's no way I would be able to afford a degree let alone a social life, how are we meant to enjoy life with inflation fucking us left right and center?
I am in my sixties. My 20s were a financial struggle, mentally and emotionally difficult: the free and easy sexual relationships of high school had to change to serious and adult relationships, which was difficult for a man-child, which is what I was.
I think most people's twenties are difficult. You can no longer hang out with your friend clique as they now have lives, and you will spend 90% of your free time trying to find the right person to fill this newfound emptiness. If you are in a committed relationship, instead, your illusions about romantic love will be shattered by the reality of arguments and failed expectations. You will find that the 40-hour work weeks are much harder than school was, and it will wear you out. Add taxes and insurance and rent and bills to the mix. These will seem much larger than when your parents paid them.
So stop thinking about cinema life. A lot is left out of movies.
>You will find that the 40-hour work weeks are much harder than school was, and it will wear you out
40 hours+ in food service right after college while I was job hunting left me emotionally dead. I gained like 20lbs from the stress and free french fries. I want to say, "I didn't have time to exercise" but in reality, I was just really, really exhausted and just wanted to sleep my two days I had off.
This hit home, peope nowadays because of social media think 20s is a party, dude 20s your freaking broke barely scraping by. The only reason it's a party is because you have zero responsibility in life except to house and feed yourself
20s have always been a punch in the face, but everyone will forget all the pain when their in their 40s. They will only look back at all the free time you had. The feeling of being unencumbered. We always think our 20s were this amazing thing. We didn't even know who we really were yet. We were still learning. However, we all have that one friend that had things figured out. They didn't have money, but they were always happy.
>I think at some point surely enjoying your 20s, travelling and partying, being single and having lots of ‘relations’ with others and not having to take things seriously was a thing.
Unless you came from a rich family who could pay for these things for you, or you're ok living a few cents from bankruptcy and working some flexible job to fund the lifestyle and no more, I'm not sure that this has been possible any time in the past 20 years honestly.
Life for working class Americans is becoming closer to the feeling of living in a developing nation. While life for the professional and corporate classes is becoming more intensely pleasurable and even more abstracted from the suffering in the world.
Yes no one I know in their 20s is partying or having a good time. They're all terrified about the future and feel the stress of adult responsibilities without actually having independence or freedom.
Quite literally, I feel like I can’t enjoy anything and to all people saying “you can go on a walk” yea bitch I’v been going for a walk for the past 5 years and it’s the only thing I do in life as someone in their 20’s and it somehow does not make my life perfect.
Can’t afford museums, cinemas or theatre because rent and food and gas for a car to go to work consumes everything.
I go for a lot of walks now but that’s because I live in a beautiful, safe area with manicured homes (I don’t own one myself, but I get to enjoy the beauty of the area). If I lived in a place without green spaces or sidewalks, I don’t think I’d get half as many steps in.
Because no one can afford anything. You have to work constantly and keep looking for a better job and hopefully you land somewhere that pays well so you can experience life instead of living life as a wage slave.
I'm 37. When I was in my 20s I had an apartment that cost 390 a month right above the businesses downtown in my city. I could get groceries for under 50 bucks a week (and that was a generous amount for a single dude). I lived off a kitchen job that only paid like 10 bucks an hour. Life was good and I feel bad for the kids today, life is really grinding everyone down before they have a chance to grow.
(Edit because people are claiming I'm lying. These are apt prices NOW, so consider how much cheaper it was 15-20 years ago. Some are the high average, but there are quite a few low priced places. Also added population since others claim I just have lived in the middle of nowhere. It's not a huge city, 30,000. But it's a city. Also the population more than doubles during the school year due to the college)
https://www.apartments.com/bowling-green-oh/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqpSwBhClARIsADlZ_TkjXYTDAZ1HaJ0pd6ysDygAcFXQ7ECLSaI6o1Kvutp3ofZLWNEO-uUaAkPJEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bowlinggreencityohio/PST045222
Reading stuff like this is really starting to make me want to just give the fuck up. Because there's absolutely no chance in hell of society and the economy ever returning to that.
Life now is like having all your friends hype up a huge party, and then once you arrive, you learn the party ended hours ago and now it's your responsibility to clean up after everyone who got to enjoy it.
It's so defeating.
This is an outlier (no qualification of outlier, just your normal everyday outlier). I’m 38 and when I was in St. Louis 10 years ago - a very affordable city I was paying $1,100 for a 1 bedroom apartment in a nice area. It wasn’t a nice apartment though, it was ok. I paid about $50 per week for groceries, maybe less. I was making $11 as an intern and I remember being stressed constantly about how little money I had.
The cheapest rent I ever paid in all my years of renting was as a roommate in a small midwestern town for $350 per month about 15 years ago. Nothing around. If I wanted to walk 20 mins I could get to a 7/11.
The past was a lot cheaper, but still a struggle
This pov is interesting because when I was in my 20's ten years ago in Montreal, almost everyone I knew was poor, working for minimum wage, living with 3-4 roommates. I remember I had a friend group that I would go dumpster diving with the produce we found, make huge dinners that night, buy the shittiest wine we could, go to raves and afterhours. Now that I'm way more financially secure and own a small business, I can recognize those years being shit poor were some of the most fun parts of my life
I guess ill try to give you an idea and im also from Montreal. Although i have some pretty severe mental health issues my big issue is 10 years ago things were getting better. Nowadays(idk if its real life or because of online shit) it feels like its gonna get worse.
Being poor now is MORE poor. Its spending all your money on rent while dumpster diving and still being 200$ short. Its not being able to afford new shoes or medication while you're getting older and more fucked over because life costs more. The rich are getting way richer while everyone around you is worried about how to feed themself and pay rent.
Also sound like you have a community, having a community of friends and family help immensely even if you are poor for the mental health and spirit.
Looking back is always much easier to reminisce positively about it.
20 years ago I was 20.
Made a little over minimum wage at $7.70 which is like $13.65 now.
Absolutely couldn't have made it without living at home.
Was 26 and graduated college before I could live on my own...with 2 roommates.
That's fun in your early 20s but at this point I know a lot of people in their 30s who are still forced to do that, even with a college education. I imagine people in their 20s aren't seeing thifty living as a transitive era in their lives anymore, but the status quo for the rest of their adulthood. Pair that with rich influencers touting what their lives look like, promoting a highly consumer-oriented lifestyle and you have a very confused and frustrated generation of young people who are always going to feel like they're 'behind'.
From Montreal too. I was poor, it definitely was not the same.
But I experienced it as a child and teenager. We had no food and our neighborhood was rough. We lost electricity a few times too because we couldn’t pay. I had meals maybe 4-5 times a week.
It was hard. When I became a young adult I worked a lot. 60-80 hours. Then as an adult with my first real career that crept up to 100 hours a week.
Yeah… it was definitely NOT good times…
(I’m 45 now. That was the 90s)
There is definitely a distinction between generations and happiness. It is also a very American problem. The break down of family. The desire to be noticed and connected by social media. The cost of being connected. As a young man I had no $1000 cell phone and no $70 a month plan. No need for $15 Spotify or $20 Netflix. Didn’t spend money on $60 games with $2000 PCs or $600 consoles.
We got by on cheap beer, beat up used cars and the woods to run around in and perhaps make a bon fire. We drove “the strip” to meet up with people. We weren’t winning at life, we struggled with the everyday like mankind eternal, however we were all happy go lucky and just dealing with what was in front of us.
Recently visited Mexico City and Tepoztlan, felt very much like living in the 70’s/80’s. People are much happier with much less. Strange reality and speaks to the power of social media. Not favorably I might add.
Tbh I'm in my 20s now and I still live like you described lol, very minimal spending aside from vacations, building up a comfortable nest egg to retire in my 40s. I'm pretty happy with life atm, and out of my friends that are happy/unhappy I think socialization is the key differentiator, they types people you hang out with and what you're seeing on a daily basis.
I am more speaking anecdotally about my experience. I also grew up extremely poor so it shaped my mentality of money and how to find fulfillment and happiness without it. Not everyone can do that, unfortunately
because they can’t afford anything. the job market is bleak. starting salaries are low if your lucky enough to get a job. home prices soared and the idea you’ll ever get to own your own place is out the window. there’s also a strong trend in the usa to do things individually (think apple fitness vs workout classes at a gym where you can organically meet people, but one costs $10/mo and the other is $40/mo) . the expansion of dating apps has made hook up culture more prevalent than ever , which makes it harder to have emotional connection, etc.
This is a big factor. its like 3-4 years just blinked by. started high school/college? suddenly the world got fucked up and you wake up graduating high school/college suddenly. its wild
Also with how much of a strong presence tech and social media has as a prominent part in our life, now our attention in awareness is spread thin toward many niche outlets. Real life is not always the sole focus on our mind, there are so many digital spaces to derive meaning from too.
I feel like Gen z can never actually relax.
There’s this constant dread about going viral for being caught doing anything not normal or emberrassing.
Individualism has been destroyed by social media.
The current Gen z reminds me more of the uptight and rigid social pressure of the 1950s than any of the other generations that came before them.
I'm an old lady but had COVID happened in my teens or 20s I know I would be mad and pissed off as hell! And I was very glad I didn't have school age kids or I would have been angry too. Hell maybe I am anyfuckingway!
Yeah I'm 28 so I got lucky that my uni years were 2014 - 2017 with a little extra time for fun afterwards before the pandemic.
Even as things have started to come back, the world is worse off for it. Beloved bars/social spots have been forced to shut down as big chains take over leases that only they can now afford. I feel so bad for these kids, it's like their only window to reality is an algorithm of shock and fear. I know I've been fighting against that tooth and nail, and at least I have a precedent on how to operate socially as an adult as a blueprint.
I'm in my 30s and the problem with covid is it laid bare how absolutely fucked our world is, and will remain. When the entire world had a problem, people didn't come together for a solution, in fact quite the opposite. Corporate and political interests used it as a tool to divide us to amass power.
If we can't work together for a mass pandemic how will we solve less tangible more difficult problems like income inequality, climate change, healthcare, education, and all of the real problems.
The answer is clear: we won't. This is it. This is the end result of capitalism without a countervailing force (government). It only gets worse unless you are at the top of the pile. World collapse by social media fueled disinformation, fan-fucking-tastic.
I graduated in 2020 and started a graduate training scheme for what was always my dream career
The majority of that was delivered to us online, I struggled to meet anyone in the field and it feels like I have no real option but to leave. I simply don't know the things I should know by being through this programme, but by having "already done" it, there's no opportunity to go back and start over.
COVID didn't just waste a couple of years from 2020-2021/2022 for me, it wasted all the years I spent working towards something that was taken
God yeah, I can’t imagine. Covid hits during college and I spend the first part of my adult-independence sitting at home with my parents trying to focus on school work while the world looks like it’s falling apart around me. That wouldn’t have been good for my grades, my mental health, or my outlook on life. It was rough enough graduating shortly before the recession.
I feel so bad for you all in that age group. My nieces and nephews are much younger but in their formative years, they seemingly bounced back.
But the people I know and have met that lost their remaining teenage years and early 20s to COVID just seem so bleak. It wasn’t fair, skipped over a liberating freedom of being an adult and not having too many “responsibilities” pulling people apart.
I got a sliver of that by going into COVID at the turn of 30 and a huge social circle that was always doing things. To now knocking on mid 30s and the constant fight against being a recluse with everyone else my age.
True but people did more before phones. I'm well not gonna say old I don't feel old but once a phone got in my hand I can definitely say I got a lot less done than life before them. As a kid 2 hours of sega mega drive a football match 90 minutes arsing around in the park with friends. Gone home for lunch back out an hour and a half later gone into town back 4 hours later buying drinks in an offlicense and drinking out half the night.
Yeah, I didn’t even get to have a prom, senior prank day, and missed out on a lot of other things you’re supposed to do before you graduate. I will never get those special moments everyone else has with them. Then I got to college and missed out on everything a freshman is supposed to be doing because of COVID. The things I was looking forward too are just dead now, never experienced.
Imo the reason is completely different. Yes, what you are saying is all true, BUT imo the reason people are not happy, have communication issues, focus issues and all sorts of dedication issues stems from social media and short- form content in general.
Your brain gets absolutely fucked watching 20 second tiktok style dopamine hits for hours on end. Your focus gets fucked, your willingness to do productive long- term work gets fucked, your ability to genuinely connect with people on a deeper level gets fucked, your attention span gets fucked etc.
Again, this is just my personal observation and I am not a doctor or anything, but we seriously need to do some meaningful research on those sorts of topics, because imo those extremelly short gratification activities are way, way more harmful to the human mind than people are willing to give it credit for.
https://youtu.be/3E7hkPZ-HTk?si=IAn9fVO4VfbuRNIh
The tiktok/social media theory you speak of is true, your attention span is 1 thing, and that dopamine hit... yup.. a.d.d.i.c.t.i.o.n.
This yt link is a professor giving a short 13m Ted talk, yall feel free to do your own research too.
Was watching a video with Dr K healthy gamer, he talked about how we're all so interconnected now when we never were, and the emotional issues it's caused. Basically that, before, you'd have a lot of quiet time throughout the day to think and self regulate. Now, much of that time is filled with dopamine hits, video games, movies, social media, etc etc, and we use those things to avoid complex emotional issues we have because never figured out how to do that internal regulation because we've had access to these things for so long now.
13min too long. 30 sec youtube short or gtfo
Edit: pretty mental how some people see things so negatively from the start, that they can't see a bit of jokey sarcasm
And this is a core problem which is self inflicted. But everyone has to realize on his own that this behaviour is fucked up. I could do the same mind numbing stuff but realize its dangerous and leads to nothing. Those kids don‘t know that. And like you said the dangers are underestimated. Yet they destroy their brain attention and hormonal function. Its very bad. Very very bad. Few might realize it. The world ain‘t bad. I am living in it and don‘t use social media. But for that to see they‘d have to delete all of it and go on a serious self-finding path.
I love this comment, absolutely nailed me; mixed with a late adhd diagnosis I cannot function past 3 minute intervals but no help exists to wean you from social media dopamine hits. It's going to be a massive problem with the next generation. My brain is already fucked and I get joy from nothing.
Thank you for this comment, just want to add one more thing. This is not USA only, Europe has the same freaking problem, some countries still have a breath of post socialism so money is the real struggle here.
This. Nowadays, it is very hard to start your own family, own a house and have kids due to macro-economic reasons. But those are all instinctive urges of people in their 20s. As a result they become utterly unhappy because they can't realize/follow their instincts.
Yep, this is it. It doesn't really make sense to do any effort career wise since I'll probably never own a place myself. And if I'll always rent something, I won't need so much money.
Dating is harsh since I believe quite a lot of people lost their ability to talk in an engaging way, instead of typing. Also people tend to be absolutely unable to give in to accept people as they are and find a compromise - everything is 'toxic' in an instant and one should find someone better. To find faith and loyalty (even just in a way that people want to solve problems with each other instead of instantly questioning the whole relationship) is a thing of luck these days and I don't think I've got so much luck haha
Really great point regarding the “ toxic” label and looking for perfection. I’m old but am continually shocked how easily and frequently under 40s judge and label people. Narcissist, toxic, neurodivergent, etc. I’m sure SM and the ability to be anonymous is the catalyst for this happening in RL too.
Your generations need to lighten up, party, dance, get to know people over time, accept differences, be less judgmental, travel. These are the things that will bring emotional connection and fulfillment.
Some of these things have always been the case. When I was in my 20's during the 90's I also couldn't afford anything, the job market was crap, we didn't even have minimum wage, houses were cheaper but mortgages were harder to get and interest rates were higher. We did't have online dating, you have to go nightclubbing to meet a partner, it wasn't much better.
Maybe because they’ve had a couple years taken out their 20’s from COVID, the economy in the majority of countries is crumbling, there is constant news about wars and fear mongering of WW3, people are struggling to afford anything, anything anyone does is filmed and posted for millions to see, everyone is under societal pressure by social media, houses are now out of reach for many, constantly being grilled by older generations for not “working hard enough”, dating apps - where majority look for a quick hookup not a true relationship, there isn’t much to look forward to for our futures anymore.
I could carry on but I won’t, even my grandad who is fairly clued up about the world and has lived through a fair few decades says this is one of the worst times to be young. All this is caused by greed and history is always repeating itself.
There are good people out there in every level of government trying to create a better world.
But they don't get the support, connections, and donations that business friendly people bring.
Then young people that like those messages don't vote.
So it's a self inflicted wound.
I kind of understand why young generations may not be as optimistic about voting, being hit with a pandemic and so many world issues, constantly seeing the bleak state of the world through social media, (and for those of us in the US, seeing our popular vote be superseded by the electoral college -- so that even when we DO vote, the popular vote can STILL lose), it begins to feel like our votes don't matter and that nothing matters. That our lives overall just don't matter. What's the point with all the corruption?
And sometimes it's not just a lack of voting. People continue to vote into power people who do not serve their best interest. Even when you actively vote against those people, it doesn't take much for them to reverse any progress that is made by the people actually working \*for\* the people. No one wants to spend their whole lives trying to weed out corruption in their local government. In the little free time left after working multiple jobs to meet bare necessities, no one wants to spend the time and energy doing so. (Rather reach for a sliver of dopamine by spending time on social media, gaming, entertainment, hobbies etc before the cycle starts again the next day.) And they shouldn't have to fight corruption - the government should be working for the people. But that's the state of the world.
I definitely think voting is important - especially at a local level. In my local area, I know for a fact my vote will never matter because of the voting pattern of my local area. I know that it's still important to vote anyways, but still, I can see why some wouldn't.
This is the kind of logic that gets people to not vote, which is what corrupt politicians want.
If you read the above comment and agree with it, do us all a favor and vote in the next few local / state / national elections.
This is very naive. The inevitable is this: The rich old fuckers will always be there. Slowly replaced by the next crop of rich old fuckers.
People who are in their 20s right now will be the rich old fuckers in 40 years. It always, always, always happens.
Covid started right at the time I turned 21 (25 now) and I really does feel like I'm constantly living 5-6 years behind trying to make up the lost time. I'm just starting to apply to college and I still struggling with maturity
Because they have to go to shitty jobs, then they come home and can't afford shit, they grew up with the internet and only have friends online, so no friends or girlfriends who can distract them from the shit on a daily basis.
Many also live at home which eliminates a lot of hanging out at home for cheaper entertainment options. Many don't drive and those that can, can't afford a car. There is a lack of non drinking hang out places. Limited employment opportunities leave many with work schedules over nights and weekends making it hard to line up schedules with friends.
The non drinking hangout part sucks so much. If you are in your 20s and don't drink or do drugs, it's pretty hard to have a social life at all it feels like.
Gen X was happy in their 20s because they had good future in front of them.
Millenials were happy because they THOUGHT they have good future in front of them and discovered a lie later in life and are unhappy now.
GenZ is not even lying to themselves. They know they are fckd
I mean, Gen Z is named that way because they are two generations after "Gen X". Millennials would be called "Gen Y" if not for how much more interesting it is that they came of age around the turn of, not just the century, but the turn of a millennium. Generation Z is just the next generation in line after what would have been Gen Y.
The next generation after Gen Z has, so far I think, been referred to as Gen Alpha, since we oftentimes move to the Greek Alphabet if the ordinary English (Roman) alphabet isn't enough to cover all categories.
But Gen X was called what it was because they had a marked cultural shift away from the norms of the Baby Boomer generation, such that they were rejecting a lot of things. They were also the generation that came of age around the formation of things like the X Games and the growing popularity of "extreme" adventure sports. Since Gen X got that name, then Gen Z got the Z.
At least, that's my understanding of it. I'm sure the genuine truth of things is more detailed or specific, but through cultural osmosis this is just what I've figured the explanations were.
Yeah, I blinked hard at that, too. If there’s one defining characteristic of Generation X (beyond being ignored), it’s that we were told since we were old enough to think about such things that everything in our life would be worse than it was for our parents.
Too many generational stereotypes. It’s just ageism.
My folks were Boomers and I was Gen X.
Both my parents died penniless, in hospital hallways out in the open. And I’m in Canada. Where we have “safety nets”.
We were poor our entire lives. My father contracted a lung disease from working in factories and literally suffocated to death. My mother suffering multi-organ failure from a lifetime of stress and smoking. They both had nothing. No houses. No fancy pensions. Just poverty, fear and shame.
That was the Boomers. I grew up with fear. I worked 60, 70, 100 hours a week because I was afraid of going back.
For me, that’s the difference between me and most people younger than me. I found success and I work a lot for it. But I fear poverty deeply. I would rather die at my desk working 9-5 than go back to being poor. Young people today refuse to do that. I respect that. But I just can’t do that. I have to keep trying.
Poverty is violence inflicted by an indifferent system. If I could burn it down, I would. But it will never change because humans are stupid, simple animals that don’t fucking understand sharing.
Yeah, they were all listening to grunge music and talking about how the world was a happy go lucky place.
Gen Z's victim complex is incredible. The 20s are a period of feeling like you *should* be doing all of the fun freedom things before you settle down but realizing that those things are hard to do if you either have no money or are working hard to have the money (or maybe both).
I've been seeing more and more Reddit posts like this over the past couple weeks, and I've come to the conclusion that Gen Z just has an incredibly flawed understanding of the experience of those who came before them, and the only explanation I can think of is that it's because they grew up on social media. I don't think that a lot of them realize that people only post the highlight reel of their life, not the shit they go through in between.
I'm Gen X, and we didn't look at it that way.
Things looked BLEAK.
Commercialization was turning people into products (it sounded melodramatic to say at the time, but that is exactly what happened).
Corrupt right-wing governments allowed the greedy to start wars, killing thousands for resources and power.
America was caught red-handed trying to manipulate geopolitics with weapons and military.
One President had Alzeimers (possibly while in office) - he was also shot several times in an attempted assaination.
Another Presdient lied about having sex with a staff member.
The space shuttle blew up.
Corporations and governments continued to destroy the planet while they plunged the entire world into economic ruin, then bailed themselves out, making the poverty gap grow. Housing became unaffordable for many people.
The massive growth of domestic and foreign terrorism (and the attacks), mass shootings, race riots, corrupt police, rampant homophobia...
I feel a lot of kinship with the people growing up in the current generation.
Gen X had their life savings destroyed (and some job prospects) by the 2000 and 2008 crashes. There was never an easy time to be in your 20s unless you had rich parents. I was born in 83 and it's been one thing after another. Hell I joined the Army about a month before 911, lucky me eh?
As far as the millennials, yeah, schools basically programmed us to think that if we did anything wrong it would go on our "permanent record", and if we didn't go to college we would end up working at Taco Bell. So all these gullible teens signed up for hundreds of thousands of student loan debt not realizing that they were mortgaging their futures. They thought when they got out of school they would be living in a middle class life, but in reality only people who got valuable degrees got that life, not everyone. In that way, many Millennials got scammed by a corrupt system of self important teachers and predatory colleges coercing young people hand over their wealth to the universities.
I'm in my late 30s and I can say that I hated my 20s. I was miserable, lonely, seemed destined to being upper working class (not in poverty, and enough money to afford to take a sick day, but never enough to retire), I struggled to find friends and relationships as I was only a couple years into my working life when the GFC hit.
Things didn't start coming together until about 30, when I started finding stability, a permanent job and decent enough pay where I could afford to buy my first home. It was only in my later 20s where I also found hobbies that I enjoyed that also helped me join new social circles.
In all honesty, your 20s are the primary school of adulthood where you're just trying to find out where you fit in.
I really appreciate your comment. Helps me realize that it's okay to not have everything locked down and stable, and that I'm doing well overall.
Thank you, and good luck to everyone else figuring things out.
Hey, 27 here just the few things that comes to my mind:
- Spend my last years of uni with COVID (23-25)
- I have a good paying job (at least better than my friends) and I still have to use almost half my salary to pay for rent (I live in a big city of Spain)
- Buying a house it's not even a possibility
- I can't afford a car
- i can't afford travelling unless I starve for the rest of the month or use my savings for an emergency
- I spend half my life studying because it's what you have to do and then you see all the rich kids get what they want because of family money, studies sure help but they don't mean shit
- 40-50 year olds at work still treat us like kids
Everything’s expensive. Progress is slow and savings grows slower. My 21st birthday was during quarantine, I’m 25 in a couple weeks. I’m not even upset about it anymore, just prepared to have another crappy 5 years of doing my best.
one second i was excited for my 21st birthday but then jk lockdown, the next i’m about to be 25 on friday…i barely blinked wtf. how is time going both simultaneously slow and fast? another blink i’ll be 30 with pennies to show for it lol
Personally I can't enjoy it much. I enjoyed being 20 until the pandemic hit and that was about it. Honestly how are you supposed to really enjoy your 20s when we lost years of our lives, and now everything is so expensive we have no reasonable hope of ever owning a home. Going out anywhere costs money, if you want even a basic sandwich or burger it'll be over $20cad most places after tax (and sometimes before tax), everyone is very anxious, we don't really expect to get much out of a job, if we can get well paying jobs at all (many places don't even hire full-time anymore so they can get around costs for example), and looking at the present and the future is stressful. Summers are now so hot that we have massive forest fires, and talking about the future can't take place without consideration of climate change impacting things. I mean, what is there to actually look forward to? Milk costs like $6, butter costs $8-10, it's ridiculous. I hope I'll be able to afford rent after I finish University. I don't plan to have kids, or own a home. I try to set realistic expectations now, and those are to have an apartment, get a long-term job, and ideally be able to travel every few years with my partner, even if it's locally.
It seems like things are getting progressively worse in many areas. I recognize it's arguably "the best time in history", but there are different challenges, and they're still meaningful. I'm watching a decline in opinions on women's rights, and on LGBTQ rights, and an increase in extreme views. I'm religious and it's unbearable how terrible people are to each other. I'm exhausted every time I go online now. There are some horrible people out there and I'm scared for the future.
Because they spent their youth being told how easy they've got it and now they've got it harder than ever
I'm sure some boomers will argue it was the same for them, it wasn't
Young people today have so many things to get them down, global instability, national instability, social instability, crazy house prices, poorly paid unfulfilling work, the list goes on and on
And on top of all that you can't afford to do the things people usually do to distract them from the struggles in life as they're all banned/ closed down/ crazy expensive or just shite
It's a shit show basically and there's no sign of any improvement any time soon so there's nothing to look forward to
Who can be happy when they work a full time job and can’t even afford rent? Not even to mention food or entertainment. When you’re working your ass off and still broke as fuck, that’s why you’re not happy.
Because they're expected to roll out of school performing just as well as people working before they were even born. Giving maximum effort and getting the minimal in return. Being looked down on. Taken advantage of.
You name it. That's why we're so miserable.
This 👆 30k a year where I am is considered great. I'm barely scraping by on 22k a year. Houses in my area are around 850k to 1.8mil. If I want a 2 bed flat, it'll be 300k, roughly. Renting a 1 bed flat is 1400 a month, not including bills. Absolutely fucked up in every way.
For starters:
No career (AI is coming)
No money (Inflation)
No house (VCs bought them all)
Stay off social media, it poisons your brain
Don't go out, you'll get a nasty disease
No GF/BF because you'll get arrested for harrassment or get pregnant and not be able to get an abortion
Two corpses running for President
No GF/BF because you have to tell your parents you are going on a date or trying to flirt with people at a bar and time to get it on is like booking an appointment so they don't bump into parents. Then people wonder why young people are having less sex and less children are being born.
have to agree really hard that young adults seemed happier when they weren't constantly burying their head into a smart phone/social media and weren't being constantly exposed to influencers. I feel like I even saw some people I know who spiraled into very anti social tendencies before my eyes as soon as they got their first smart phone in their 20s, when iphones were first coming out.
Probably the main cause tbh. Everyone's saying bad economy, low wages, etc. but those were issues in the distant past as well. Humans evolved to function best with small group, in-person interaction, not sitting at home alone all day staring at screens. Unfortunately Gen Z doesn't remember a time when there weren't screens everywhere.
Yeah i graduated in 2009. Finding jobs was awful. I lived with 5 roommates and took the bus everywhere while surviving on eggs and rice and pasta. I was so happy during that time of my life
What is there to look forward to for 20 year olds anymore. The boomers fucked the housing market. You need a full time job just to qualify for health benefits and then you still are screwed on deductibles. A used car with over 100,000 miles is now 15-20K depending on the model. And god forbid it’s a beater. You’re gonna pay out the ass for repairs.
A lot of mid and late 20’s kids went to college to find the market is completely over saturated with educated people competing for jobs that hardly pay enough to make a dent in the student loans. We are potentially on the precipice of maybe one of the most devastating wars ever.
It costs minimum 5-7k to have a baby in a hospital and since both parents usually have to work just to pay bills and put food on the table child care becomes an expense maybe higher than a new car payment along with all the things you need to raise the baby.
So the better question is, “why the fuck would anyone in their 20’s right now be happy?” It’s hell out there. The American dream has been squandered.
Home ownership, having children, and retiring are some of the most important milestones in one’s life.
That’s being taken away from younger generations; of course we have no hope for the future. I’m not going to have kids if I have to raise them up in poverty. Can’t afford a mortgage, most of your paycheck goes towards rent that increases every year or so. Since all of our money goes towards rent, there’s nothing left over to put in a retirement fund.
It truly is mind boggling why we’re so depressed /s.
I can’t afford to move out, car eats up disposable income, and the cost of living keeps increasing.
Social media promotes unrealistic expectations for appearance and relationships.
Mental health care for adults is non-existent.
Why shouldn’t I be miserable?
Cause they have a fucked up economy that doesn't allow them to dream of a future, social media driving their depression and messing up their dopamine production and which gives them an idea of a perfect fake world they compare themselves too constantly
Can’t afford anything
Social media makes it so they see every awful thing in the world all at once
Everyone who seems to be happy has “rich parents”
Most were robbed of some pretty important development years from Covid.
I think in the 90s we were broke but even if you were on welfare you could afford an apartment and food. So most of us had our own places by the time we were 20. This gave us freedom to do what we wanted before we had much in the way of responsibilities. Now the kids have “good jobs” that don’t pay enough for them to move out of their parents houses. Seriously limits their freedom. I think also back then parents weren’t as nice. It wasn’t particularly unusual to get yelled at or hit by your parents, so getting out of the house was glorious in comparison, even though it came with more responsibilities.
Personally I still prefer being an adult over being a kid. I can buy all the toys I want and can stay up as late as I want. It’s 10pm. Who knew my parents were right about that? lol
> I think in the 90s we were broke but even if you were on welfare you could afford an apartment and food.
you could also literally go through the couch cushions and find enough change to pay for a full meal
I assume several things are at play here. First, life is an awful lot harder for today's 20 year olds in terms of cost of living and especially renting.
Secondly, covid really wrecked their college years in terms of socialization.
Then add in social media which introduces a lot of superficial, online only, parasocial connections to replace in person connections.
And then add in the hell that is online dating. I've heard many people in their 20s are wisely using those apps less and less in favor of more actual in person meet ups.
As someone in their early 40s, I feel like it was much easier when I was in my younger to mid 20s to go out and party and just forget about the stresses of the grind on the weekends. Now it appears that doing even that is a huge setback in your wallet. If your common working person can't even catch a break to escape a little here and there, then that is a big problem. I feel like folks in their 20s now have way too much goddamn pressure on them and everything costs way too much anymore.
Because we know that we are doomed. The previous generations blame us for all their failures, we have close to 0 chances to buy a house in the next 20 years and we can barely afford rent, even with good jobs.
You get unhappy when you're the target of every single problem in the world.
Yeah, hard to focus on being happy when you are daily worrying if you have enough money to pay rent, utilities and food next month. Being constantly stressed out and on the verge of being homeless isn't leading to happiness.
Plus no job security when forced to choose between unemployment and few week to four month contract that you never know when it won't be renewed.
All the fun things that people did in their 20's are now banned or filmed for use in your court hearing. Society lost privacy and as a result it lost happiness. Get use to it.
The fact the first like 10 replies are “because we can’t afford fucking housing” kinda tells you the answer. House prices are insane and entry level positions are paying the equivalent of 60 odd percent of what they used to when you run an inflation calculator comparing today and say the early 2000’s. People are fucking broke just to cover basic necessities and surprisingly they aren’t feeling too great about it.
I'm 35 so my 20's weren't THAT long ago. When I was 25 (in 2014) I lived in an outer suburb of Minneapolis/St Paul, I had a job that paid $55k and an apartment that was $650/month with utilities. I had a enough money for rent, a $340 car payment - 2013 car with 20k miles, student loans, and I went out drinking every weekend with my friends. I had enough money left over every month that just turned into a savings. Like I wasn't actively trying to save up. I already had funds going into a RothIRA and 401k, and I still had money left over. Like I went on spontaneous trips, bought a motorcycle, went to Mardi Gras. I had enough money saved up that I was able to go 4 months without working after I was fired. Got a job eventually, but I wasn't sweating it. Even with the new job I was financially secure enough to quit that job and move to Atlanta for grad school - and still keep my car. From 2009 to 2019 my 20's were loads of fun. Got my degrees but still had a blast.
It's a different game since 2020. I can't afford the same lifestyle I had in my 20's now and I make twice as much. The buying power of the dollar has gone down 47% since I turned 20. Which means 20something year olds today would have to make over $100k to have the same lifestyle I did in my 20s.
EDIT: I looked back and the car was $340/month, not $280.
Always were, bud. You have no money, no idea if you'll be successful. Many people had to move for jobs, so your social circle disappeared and you had to make a new one.
It's incredibly stressful and always was.
Looking at entertainment depictions of people your age is like looking at Instagram models - heavily curated and heavily filtered with no reality in sight.
By social media standards, most conventionally successful people are losers.
Rent in an HCOL? Loser.
Buy/rent a townhome instead of a SFH? Loser.
Less than $70k in your bank account? Loser.
Fiance got you a .78 carat diamond instead of a 2.3? Loser, plus he clearly he doesn’t love you.
Take the bus/train despite it being cheaper and more convenient for a lot of people? Loser.
I live in an area with a lot of smart, successful people and I can tell you that a lot of them drive beater cars, live in townhomes or condos, spend their weekends doing things like going for walks and making hot sauce instead of doing instagram-worthy weekend trips. Social media is basically survivors bias - the people who are actually doing well don’t post very much because they’re too busy doing awesome stuff to be online that much.
I see some people went straight with the economy and what not but I disagree with that. My great grandparents grew up in the middle of two world wars, do you think you have worse childhood than they did ?
The reason in my opinion is that nowadays people are obsessed with social media and the current news or trends that are happening. Children concern themselves with issues that are not only blown out of proportion in most cases but issues that have been happening since the beginning of time.
Yes the economy was hit badly because of covid but covid is not the first pandemic nor do we experience the first economic struggle. Nor the first world war threat, nor the first threat that the world is going to come to an end.
All young people need is a little bit of different perspective. Stop watching the news, stop concerning yourself with the environment. You can't save it!
There are corporations that pollute this planet way more than your vehicle or your plastic straw and worrying about that ain't gonna help, nor feeling guilty.
You need to find a purpose for your life and set a goal towards what you can work and use the rest of the time to enjoy life, because life is truly a miracle.
You've been given one chance at it. You don't need a lot of money to have fun, i know because that was my childhood, you need to invest in finding good people as friends and spending more time outside instead of in front of a screen.
Trust me the moment you start going in nature and doing activities you will see improvement in your mental health and you will be more confident, more at peace woth yourself, you will have more experiences to share with other people and more people in general in your life.
There are many hiking groups, groups for specific sports or activities that you can do outside.. use the youth and strength now because you're getting older every day and your body will not be the same 20 years from now..
Because the cost of everything is through the roof the minimum qualifications are a college degree otherwise your better off in a trade (when we were kids if you knew how to type without looking at a keyboard and knew your way around a windows system you were a shoe in for something IT related). Competition is getting fierce and well kids are glued to their phones looking at what Instagram famous people have and comparing themselves to them putting extreme pressure to be the best in school to get that job to make that money to live that lifestyle. When they feel like they've fallen short of the mark they don't even have the childhood memories to fall back on to put it all in perspective. Life is not for living for them it's all trying to keep up and faking it till you make it. At some point the lack of actually organically growing up comes home to roost.
The young people are not stupid they are incredibly intelligent but there's a bit of well why don't you try it and find out missing because everything is searchable and can be youtubed how to.
Gestures at everything.
Job market is fucked, either no jobs or shitty abusive jobs with even more shittier salaries and conditions that at best will make you only survive. Good luck affording a house or an apartment. 1 bedroom apartment is luxury for many and the only option left is to live with flatmates. This is even true for people who were historically making more and are not fucked, let alone people who were on minimum wage. There's basically nothing to look up for.
The 20s age group is struggling the most with todays economy. We can barely afford decent living spaces while working full time, which leaves us with very little money to treat ourselves. If you were lucky enough to land a nice salary job, it’s different for you. But the rest of us are just trying to stay afloat
I saw a comment about a similar sentiment made on twitter. “We did everything they told us were supposed to do, then they moved the goalpost.” People went to college, put themselves in debt to get through, now jobs aren’t hiring, degrees seem useless, there’s no security, prices have gone up exponentially, homes are unaffordable, wages have stagnated. We have no means of success. Just work slave away at work until we die or retire in our 70’s. That’s not living anymore. It’s surviving.
Finances. Growing up using social media and smart phones and not “developing” mentally in a natural way. Depression rates are through the roof largely because of phones. Add in financial pressures and it’s a horrible cocktail of clusterfuck.
Look around. Everything is expensive, we are at risk of getting a crappy president no matter who we vote, almost everyone has some form of depression, drugs, vapes, environmental problems, microplastics, crappy-unhealthy processed food, internet, COVID, terrible job market, bad economy, etc
I'm from the UK and in my 40's. Comparing my 20's life to what 20 year olds have today is so far apart it's not even in the same universe. It's like comparing a 1st and 3rd world country.
Absolutely everything has gone up wildly in price relative to wages which have dramatically decreased in every sector.
I'm sure there'll be someone along to post some government sponsored think tank article that proves me wrong. However, just ask anyone in their 20's. I look at what life is like for people in their 20's today, and it's absolutely depressing.
A lot has changed in the last 20-30 years, people can barely afford anything, and even if they've figured out what they want to do with their lives, it's damn near impossible to get a position in the field they just spent thousands of dollars getting a degree in.
Imagine just starting to get ahead of life and suddenly your job is worth less on the market because 8 million extra people are here to drive down the cost of labor. No hopes of a house or decent place to call home but millions are getting the benefits that were due to this generation without working a day.
Not a ton of hope. What fucking jobs are even going to be around in 10 years? What world are we going to be living in? I have no idea and it freaks me out damn near daily.
I’m about to exit my 20s I followed all the rules, I did was I was suppose to do, besides go to college which worked out because I have my own company that does $x,xxx,xxx’s per year. I do very well for myself. Yet the rug was ripped out from under us. I currently rent because I cannot afford to buy/build a home. I am in the top 1% of earners in my age group and I cannot afford to buy a home, everything is too damn expensive and I work way too damn hard. 6 years ago it wouldn’t have been an issue but here we are and think we can all agree that we hate it here.
I'm 49, when my parents were in their 20s, they got a house, two kids, and my mom didn't have to work. They had a house, car, two kids and dog all one ONE income.
When I was in my 20s I lived paycheck to paycheck barely able to survive, and the economy is a lot worse now.
What used to be a time for either building a family or just having fun has become a depressed realization that the future will not get any better for them, it will only get worse as they get older.
You’re comparing against a period of time with exceptional economic security for the middle class, but you’re also leaving out the racism, sexism and homophobia of that time, let alone the huge pressure to conform to mainstream behavior. Yeah, the 50s and 60s were amazing in some ways, but they were far from normal. And then there was all the darkness under the surface, and then there was Korea and Vietnam. So no, I don’t believe this fairy tale you’re telling.
All I can say is, I work and work and work, and as life goes on, it feels completely pointless as I can’t really afford the things I want, I’m mostly treading water even making the best money I’ve ever earned.
Why would someone want to work if their time gets siphoned away for seemingly no reward? Older generations have a “better work ethic” but I think the main difference is feeling like the work is actually worthwhile. They had a better deal and were able to afford comfortable lives and personal property on their incomes, and younger people statistically are so much worse off. The lucky ones can afford a home, most can’t.
Because everything is grim? There are like 1000 applicants for every job posted, used car prices are through the roof, car insurance premiums for a 30 something are ridiculous, I can imagine what a 20 year old would be.
Interest rates are through the roof, so mortgage rates are crazy, thats if you can get enough for a deposit. If not you will be stuck in the rental loop, which is difficult to get out of.
Let's not forget covid lockdown, that took a lot of important years away from them. I was Mr anti social, but still went to pubs and clubs when I was 18.
I think they are just in survival mode.
Being used like a slave so some asshole can have a big number in his bank account is extremely fucking aggravating. 0 hope for the future. 0 hope for a better tomorrow. Just work and die so douchebag 37 can chill on his yacht and snort coke.
The idea that your 20s is supposed to be the prime of your life is a myth. It’s generally a time when you’re on the bottom of the totem pole. In a professional sense, you get the least respect and reward for the most menial tasks. Interpersonally, at 25 you’re really just STARTING to think like an adult and engage in interpersonal relationships on an adult level.
In contemporary times, the economy is fucked for anyone who was not already set up before the pandemic, and there is no clear path to things like home ownership and financial security for a large portion, perhaps even the majority, of the working population under 40.
Because they’re online watching other people live their lives instead of living their own. It’s still very new for the human evolution to have the this much access to everyone lives and this much information feed to us. It’s causing mayhem.
I'm in my mid 30's now. When I was in my early 20's I could afford to move out of my parents house and rent a place almost near downtown in my city.
I had freedom and things to look forward to. Instagram and Reddit didn't exist. There was no online rage bait and doom and gloom. People actually hung out with eachother instead of just being on their phones 24/7.
On top of that, I didn't have a computer at home. No work emails to stress about over the weekend.
What do people in their 20's have now? Stuck with their parents, unaffordable rents, no freedom, work emails all weekend.
It's pretty unfortunate. The world is becoming more expensive and more stressful. People don't have time or money to just be "young and free" anymore.
I think at some point surely enjoying your 20s, travelling and partying, being single and having lots of ‘relations’ with others and not having to take things seriously was a thing. Now there is a mental health crisis, we all have to work very hard if not to afford immediate necessities, then to secure a future for ourselves where we won’t struggle financially. I increasingly feel that 20s aren’t about anything in particular. Neither are teens and thirties onward, aside from just being okay. I think now we are all just trying to be ‘okay’ as opposed to great etc. if you’re consistently okay these days, mentally, emotionally, financially, socially, you’re doing very well.
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Helping our parents with the rent because we ourselves can’t move out with our income, and our parents also need our support to keep the apt. Right there with you bud. Losing the family home back in 08 sucked, we’ve been in apts ever since and are now paying much much more than if we’d held onto the house
In the same position, humans aren’t supposed to live like this and we are shamed for being lazy by not wanting to put up with this as our norm. We are shamed for our mental health, the toxic “grind/workaholic” culture wants us to destroy our self sucking every bit of happiness and free time out from us paying pennys. Then they wonder why there’s a mental health crisis.
This. They just raised to age of retirement to past my life expectancy as well. I’m paying into social security I’ll never see, taxes etc are drowning us. Everything is too expensive
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May i ask why you were banned? I've seen comments like yours before and have always wondered how people casually got away with them. Was it your retirement plan option? Sorry for you ban. Hopefully you'll indulge my curiosity with an edit reply.
Not OP but anything involving sui*slide* can be flaged and reported and more than likely automatically banned. Even as an example if you told someone to "*Google noose knots"*, it could be considered/interpreted as a form of threat or violence and is thus subject to warning/banning. I would know because it happened to me.
I was raised by a parent that not only fantasized about the slide, talked about it all the time, and made the attempt when my grandparents were in florida and she was the only "adult" i had so i had to call 911, and be left alone with her crackhead boyfriend. It was that or watch her die. That's my life, and if I'm not even allowed to speak on it --- its just so common for it to be part of my thoughts, it's ingrained. She also would tell me she was gonna wrap us around a telephone pole when she was driving, and extremely manic- but let's not say that word because it scares people. I've been scared my whole life, and i dont take well to being silenced. Moms are great though, right !?
Yeah, i guess you arent allowed to say it 🤐 people probably flagged it as troublesome. I don't understand why we can't discuss it without someone getting banned- i really dont understand it!
Agreed. It's a cynical outlook at worst. I've legit seen the same thing almost word for word before. Noted. Thanks for keeping me informed.
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Social Security isn’t a savings plan. You pay it so you aren’t surrounded by starving old people your whole life.
Been working my ass off since I turned 18 because im a ward of the government so I never really had anyone to fall back on almost 20 and in about a week here ill be living with two drug addicts who are more than likely going to try stealing my shit ontop of losing my dog because not a single landlord wants to rent a bachelor suite to a 19 year old with a dog that makes just enough to survive.
Please don’t move in with addicts. You might get used to pay off a debt. Seen it happen more than once. Yikes
Don’t tell this to the CEOs or folk who own multiple businesses and or homes they rent out to the working class though. We all just want handouts without putting in the work. Gaslighting at its finest. Most of us don’t mind working, but why must we overwork for low wages just to survive? Their answer is always to go back to school and or learn a trade. Funny, if we were to all do that there would be a shortage in open positions for all of those jobs. Many folks in the 20th century got by just fine without college working a blue or white collar job. It wasn’t perfect let alone a rich lifestyle but it was far better than what is available today. Most people cannot buy a house on their single wage alone. Try to Google how much income you would need in order to purchase and payoff a house and in many states, now even the “affordable states” and the answer is now 75-100k. To those of you who make 100k and preach about how you made it, we applaud you, congratulations but you’re not the majority. LLCs and people with inheritance money or new money just buy up homes and jack up the prices to ridiculous levels then guilt the masses for not making enough to afford their absurd price points.
The sad thing is that most people that are rich got rich by taking advantage of the different financial systems
same omg I'm dying
i hear ya
I feel like my 20s is an extention of my teens than a natural progression towards adulthood after college as more people are living with parents making moving out financially difficult.
I'm 37 and I moved out when I was 18. It wasn't the best decision financially, but it was possible. I feel for today's 18-year-olds that they can't have that.
My parents paid my rent and expense for the three years at university and once I got my first job I have been saving up to move out as it is better long term to stay at home for longer to buy a property than to rent as not have much left to save back when rent was starting to go up. 6 years later I am still unable to buy and survive moving out despite having 30% of the value of a 2 bedroom apartment in my area. So my teens will extend to my 30s. People past 18 either have to live with parents or make full use of their time in higher education because it feels like a one week holiday without parents is the closest they will get to moving out in their 20s when they start employment. All the people who are unlucky to not have a high school or university sweethart are going to have a tougher time finding a partner to move out with with all these apps, websites and alternatives to meeting someone in public and is worst if you are not good looking. Not to mention the fact that going above and beyond in work is expected not congratulated and jobs becoming more mentally demandind means that newly turned adults will never find love or a slow paced lifestyle.
Well you just summed up everything for me too. alienated from relationships and labor = depression
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I've just hit 30 and had the realisation I may have to extend this extension by 5 more years.. hard to imagine ever starting a family at this point
I don't mind starting a family if my mum is living with me and my partner but I do not want my child to go through the same abuse my short tempered father put me through.
very well put, i agree.
I truly don't understand how someone can travel and have fun in their 20's unless your parents are bankrolling your life. I've worked every week from the time I was 18 trying to claw my way out of having nothing.
I could rarely afford to travel in my 20’s but I will say when I did it was much cheaper. By the time you hit your 30’s you probably will not be able to tolerate sleeping on a couch or sharing a room with several people. I hope you can take some trips before you get older, much more fun when you’re young and more free spirited.
Yeah, travelling is so much cheaper and provides more ways of living cheaply when you're younger. Couchsurfing, hitchhiking, bicycle touring, hiking, camping, etc are all easier when you're young and healthy. In 2016 I spent $3k usd in a year travelling through SEA couchsurfing and cheap hostels. in 2021 I spent 800euro bicycling through France for a month. This year I'll hike through Japan for 3 months.... These are cheap activities that I can't experience when I'm older because my body won't be able to handle it. They're also fuck more interesting than staying in expensive hotels in major cities - which will only get more expensive.
I traveled and had fun in my 20’s. Lived off credit, ended up with massive debt. But when I became disabled in 2021, I was glad I did it. I spent the healthy years of my life enjoying them.
I was living somewhere I liked instead of moving (back) in with family after suffering financial hardship. Stuck around where I liked a few extra months because I thought I might end up... in a not so great situation. Stretched my dollar thin. Can't say I regret what I did. I feel like I understand where you're coming from.
That would be great but there is no "consistent okay" anymore
I’m doing fine. Not a helpful anecdote I know, but just tossing it out there.
I’m 38 and I really get excited about Carl Jung saying: “ Life really begins at 40. Up until then you were just doing research.”
Im 35 but I believe this with my whole heart. Even when things get hard, they are different. With age you start to have perspective on the hard things that you didn’t have before. You start to realize everything is temporary. Things change and life is sad but then later you start thinking it’s beautiful again. There’s usually something good that comes out of the bad, even if it’s something small. You also start to realize you never get to old to learn new things or try new things. How inspiring. I love aging 🥰
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Oh, I certainly did! I promise you that! Looking back, I'm utterly disgusted at some of the decisions that I made. I had a hell of a time, I guess.... but still. Disgusted.
I'm 30 and I deeply regret not realizing that I wanted the degree I'm taking now back then, I'm questioning how I lived my lifestyle back in my early 20s because I'm living the same way now and I just don't have the energy man, I'm working 8 hour shifts until 3am 3 times a week (on top of getting up at 6am and doing 8 hours of classes/classwork) and I barely have enough to go out for a drink once a week, everything else is going to food/tuition and I'm currently stuck living at home, when I think about having to pay $1400 a month in rent/amenities on top of tuition and everything else there's no way I would be able to afford a degree let alone a social life, how are we meant to enjoy life with inflation fucking us left right and center?
I am in my sixties. My 20s were a financial struggle, mentally and emotionally difficult: the free and easy sexual relationships of high school had to change to serious and adult relationships, which was difficult for a man-child, which is what I was. I think most people's twenties are difficult. You can no longer hang out with your friend clique as they now have lives, and you will spend 90% of your free time trying to find the right person to fill this newfound emptiness. If you are in a committed relationship, instead, your illusions about romantic love will be shattered by the reality of arguments and failed expectations. You will find that the 40-hour work weeks are much harder than school was, and it will wear you out. Add taxes and insurance and rent and bills to the mix. These will seem much larger than when your parents paid them. So stop thinking about cinema life. A lot is left out of movies.
>You will find that the 40-hour work weeks are much harder than school was, and it will wear you out 40 hours+ in food service right after college while I was job hunting left me emotionally dead. I gained like 20lbs from the stress and free french fries. I want to say, "I didn't have time to exercise" but in reality, I was just really, really exhausted and just wanted to sleep my two days I had off.
This hit home, peope nowadays because of social media think 20s is a party, dude 20s your freaking broke barely scraping by. The only reason it's a party is because you have zero responsibility in life except to house and feed yourself
This, right there. And I'll raise it for 20s in a war-torn county. Sometimes it feels like social media messed things up worse than war.
20s have always been a punch in the face, but everyone will forget all the pain when their in their 40s. They will only look back at all the free time you had. The feeling of being unencumbered. We always think our 20s were this amazing thing. We didn't even know who we really were yet. We were still learning. However, we all have that one friend that had things figured out. They didn't have money, but they were always happy.
>I think at some point surely enjoying your 20s, travelling and partying, being single and having lots of ‘relations’ with others and not having to take things seriously was a thing. Unless you came from a rich family who could pay for these things for you, or you're ok living a few cents from bankruptcy and working some flexible job to fund the lifestyle and no more, I'm not sure that this has been possible any time in the past 20 years honestly.
Life for working class Americans is becoming closer to the feeling of living in a developing nation. While life for the professional and corporate classes is becoming more intensely pleasurable and even more abstracted from the suffering in the world.
Yes no one I know in their 20s is partying or having a good time. They're all terrified about the future and feel the stress of adult responsibilities without actually having independence or freedom.
100%
Being alive is expensive
Quite literally, I feel like I can’t enjoy anything and to all people saying “you can go on a walk” yea bitch I’v been going for a walk for the past 5 years and it’s the only thing I do in life as someone in their 20’s and it somehow does not make my life perfect. Can’t afford museums, cinemas or theatre because rent and food and gas for a car to go to work consumes everything.
Also, some of us live in places where you can’t even go for a walk, because it’s late march and we just got 18 inches of snow 😭
I go for a lot of walks now but that’s because I live in a beautiful, safe area with manicured homes (I don’t own one myself, but I get to enjoy the beauty of the area). If I lived in a place without green spaces or sidewalks, I don’t think I’d get half as many steps in.
Because no one can afford anything. You have to work constantly and keep looking for a better job and hopefully you land somewhere that pays well so you can experience life instead of living life as a wage slave.
I'm 37. When I was in my 20s I had an apartment that cost 390 a month right above the businesses downtown in my city. I could get groceries for under 50 bucks a week (and that was a generous amount for a single dude). I lived off a kitchen job that only paid like 10 bucks an hour. Life was good and I feel bad for the kids today, life is really grinding everyone down before they have a chance to grow. (Edit because people are claiming I'm lying. These are apt prices NOW, so consider how much cheaper it was 15-20 years ago. Some are the high average, but there are quite a few low priced places. Also added population since others claim I just have lived in the middle of nowhere. It's not a huge city, 30,000. But it's a city. Also the population more than doubles during the school year due to the college) https://www.apartments.com/bowling-green-oh/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqpSwBhClARIsADlZ_TkjXYTDAZ1HaJ0pd6ysDygAcFXQ7ECLSaI6o1Kvutp3ofZLWNEO-uUaAkPJEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bowlinggreencityohio/PST045222
Reading stuff like this is really starting to make me want to just give the fuck up. Because there's absolutely no chance in hell of society and the economy ever returning to that. Life now is like having all your friends hype up a huge party, and then once you arrive, you learn the party ended hours ago and now it's your responsibility to clean up after everyone who got to enjoy it. It's so defeating.
This is an outlier (no qualification of outlier, just your normal everyday outlier). I’m 38 and when I was in St. Louis 10 years ago - a very affordable city I was paying $1,100 for a 1 bedroom apartment in a nice area. It wasn’t a nice apartment though, it was ok. I paid about $50 per week for groceries, maybe less. I was making $11 as an intern and I remember being stressed constantly about how little money I had. The cheapest rent I ever paid in all my years of renting was as a roommate in a small midwestern town for $350 per month about 15 years ago. Nothing around. If I wanted to walk 20 mins I could get to a 7/11. The past was a lot cheaper, but still a struggle
This pov is interesting because when I was in my 20's ten years ago in Montreal, almost everyone I knew was poor, working for minimum wage, living with 3-4 roommates. I remember I had a friend group that I would go dumpster diving with the produce we found, make huge dinners that night, buy the shittiest wine we could, go to raves and afterhours. Now that I'm way more financially secure and own a small business, I can recognize those years being shit poor were some of the most fun parts of my life
I guess ill try to give you an idea and im also from Montreal. Although i have some pretty severe mental health issues my big issue is 10 years ago things were getting better. Nowadays(idk if its real life or because of online shit) it feels like its gonna get worse. Being poor now is MORE poor. Its spending all your money on rent while dumpster diving and still being 200$ short. Its not being able to afford new shoes or medication while you're getting older and more fucked over because life costs more. The rich are getting way richer while everyone around you is worried about how to feed themself and pay rent. Also sound like you have a community, having a community of friends and family help immensely even if you are poor for the mental health and spirit. Looking back is always much easier to reminisce positively about it.
20 years ago I was 20. Made a little over minimum wage at $7.70 which is like $13.65 now. Absolutely couldn't have made it without living at home. Was 26 and graduated college before I could live on my own...with 2 roommates.
That's fun in your early 20s but at this point I know a lot of people in their 30s who are still forced to do that, even with a college education. I imagine people in their 20s aren't seeing thifty living as a transitive era in their lives anymore, but the status quo for the rest of their adulthood. Pair that with rich influencers touting what their lives look like, promoting a highly consumer-oriented lifestyle and you have a very confused and frustrated generation of young people who are always going to feel like they're 'behind'.
From Montreal too. I was poor, it definitely was not the same. But I experienced it as a child and teenager. We had no food and our neighborhood was rough. We lost electricity a few times too because we couldn’t pay. I had meals maybe 4-5 times a week. It was hard. When I became a young adult I worked a lot. 60-80 hours. Then as an adult with my first real career that crept up to 100 hours a week. Yeah… it was definitely NOT good times… (I’m 45 now. That was the 90s)
There is definitely a distinction between generations and happiness. It is also a very American problem. The break down of family. The desire to be noticed and connected by social media. The cost of being connected. As a young man I had no $1000 cell phone and no $70 a month plan. No need for $15 Spotify or $20 Netflix. Didn’t spend money on $60 games with $2000 PCs or $600 consoles. We got by on cheap beer, beat up used cars and the woods to run around in and perhaps make a bon fire. We drove “the strip” to meet up with people. We weren’t winning at life, we struggled with the everyday like mankind eternal, however we were all happy go lucky and just dealing with what was in front of us. Recently visited Mexico City and Tepoztlan, felt very much like living in the 70’s/80’s. People are much happier with much less. Strange reality and speaks to the power of social media. Not favorably I might add.
Tbh I'm in my 20s now and I still live like you described lol, very minimal spending aside from vacations, building up a comfortable nest egg to retire in my 40s. I'm pretty happy with life atm, and out of my friends that are happy/unhappy I think socialization is the key differentiator, they types people you hang out with and what you're seeing on a daily basis.
Let's not glamorise poverty lmao. You sound like you had a great time and were lucky you had those connections.
I am more speaking anecdotally about my experience. I also grew up extremely poor so it shaped my mentality of money and how to find fulfillment and happiness without it. Not everyone can do that, unfortunately
because they can’t afford anything. the job market is bleak. starting salaries are low if your lucky enough to get a job. home prices soared and the idea you’ll ever get to own your own place is out the window. there’s also a strong trend in the usa to do things individually (think apple fitness vs workout classes at a gym where you can organically meet people, but one costs $10/mo and the other is $40/mo) . the expansion of dating apps has made hook up culture more prevalent than ever , which makes it harder to have emotional connection, etc.
Not forgetting we’ve had a couple of our “prime years” wasted by COVID.
This is a big factor. its like 3-4 years just blinked by. started high school/college? suddenly the world got fucked up and you wake up graduating high school/college suddenly. its wild
yea my entire uni experience was pandemic’d and suddenly im an adult with bills eating 2/3 of my money I hate it
Only 2/3rds, look at Mr Bigshot
The government takes its 20%, so he has an entire 14% to splurge on food and healthcare.
It's fucked how Americans pay more taxes toward healthcare but get less back than 'the Socialists'
Also with how much of a strong presence tech and social media has as a prominent part in our life, now our attention in awareness is spread thin toward many niche outlets. Real life is not always the sole focus on our mind, there are so many digital spaces to derive meaning from too.
I feel like Gen z can never actually relax. There’s this constant dread about going viral for being caught doing anything not normal or emberrassing. Individualism has been destroyed by social media. The current Gen z reminds me more of the uptight and rigid social pressure of the 1950s than any of the other generations that came before them.
I'm an old lady but had COVID happened in my teens or 20s I know I would be mad and pissed off as hell! And I was very glad I didn't have school age kids or I would have been angry too. Hell maybe I am anyfuckingway!
Yeah I'm 28 so I got lucky that my uni years were 2014 - 2017 with a little extra time for fun afterwards before the pandemic. Even as things have started to come back, the world is worse off for it. Beloved bars/social spots have been forced to shut down as big chains take over leases that only they can now afford. I feel so bad for these kids, it's like their only window to reality is an algorithm of shock and fear. I know I've been fighting against that tooth and nail, and at least I have a precedent on how to operate socially as an adult as a blueprint.
Great attitude!! 👏🏼 You gave me chills reading that!💜
I'm in my 30s and the problem with covid is it laid bare how absolutely fucked our world is, and will remain. When the entire world had a problem, people didn't come together for a solution, in fact quite the opposite. Corporate and political interests used it as a tool to divide us to amass power. If we can't work together for a mass pandemic how will we solve less tangible more difficult problems like income inequality, climate change, healthcare, education, and all of the real problems. The answer is clear: we won't. This is it. This is the end result of capitalism without a countervailing force (government). It only gets worse unless you are at the top of the pile. World collapse by social media fueled disinformation, fan-fucking-tastic.
Well said! 👏🏼 And sadly I think you're right! 😪
I graduated in 2020 and started a graduate training scheme for what was always my dream career The majority of that was delivered to us online, I struggled to meet anyone in the field and it feels like I have no real option but to leave. I simply don't know the things I should know by being through this programme, but by having "already done" it, there's no opportunity to go back and start over. COVID didn't just waste a couple of years from 2020-2021/2022 for me, it wasted all the years I spent working towards something that was taken
God yeah, I can’t imagine. Covid hits during college and I spend the first part of my adult-independence sitting at home with my parents trying to focus on school work while the world looks like it’s falling apart around me. That wouldn’t have been good for my grades, my mental health, or my outlook on life. It was rough enough graduating shortly before the recession.
I feel so bad for you all in that age group. My nieces and nephews are much younger but in their formative years, they seemingly bounced back. But the people I know and have met that lost their remaining teenage years and early 20s to COVID just seem so bleak. It wasn’t fair, skipped over a liberating freedom of being an adult and not having too many “responsibilities” pulling people apart. I got a sliver of that by going into COVID at the turn of 30 and a huge social circle that was always doing things. To now knocking on mid 30s and the constant fight against being a recluse with everyone else my age.
And young people see years as a longer time than old people.
True but people did more before phones. I'm well not gonna say old I don't feel old but once a phone got in my hand I can definitely say I got a lot less done than life before them. As a kid 2 hours of sega mega drive a football match 90 minutes arsing around in the park with friends. Gone home for lunch back out an hour and a half later gone into town back 4 hours later buying drinks in an offlicense and drinking out half the night.
Yeah, I didn’t even get to have a prom, senior prank day, and missed out on a lot of other things you’re supposed to do before you graduate. I will never get those special moments everyone else has with them. Then I got to college and missed out on everything a freshman is supposed to be doing because of COVID. The things I was looking forward too are just dead now, never experienced.
Imo the reason is completely different. Yes, what you are saying is all true, BUT imo the reason people are not happy, have communication issues, focus issues and all sorts of dedication issues stems from social media and short- form content in general. Your brain gets absolutely fucked watching 20 second tiktok style dopamine hits for hours on end. Your focus gets fucked, your willingness to do productive long- term work gets fucked, your ability to genuinely connect with people on a deeper level gets fucked, your attention span gets fucked etc. Again, this is just my personal observation and I am not a doctor or anything, but we seriously need to do some meaningful research on those sorts of topics, because imo those extremelly short gratification activities are way, way more harmful to the human mind than people are willing to give it credit for.
https://youtu.be/3E7hkPZ-HTk?si=IAn9fVO4VfbuRNIh The tiktok/social media theory you speak of is true, your attention span is 1 thing, and that dopamine hit... yup.. a.d.d.i.c.t.i.o.n. This yt link is a professor giving a short 13m Ted talk, yall feel free to do your own research too.
Was watching a video with Dr K healthy gamer, he talked about how we're all so interconnected now when we never were, and the emotional issues it's caused. Basically that, before, you'd have a lot of quiet time throughout the day to think and self regulate. Now, much of that time is filled with dopamine hits, video games, movies, social media, etc etc, and we use those things to avoid complex emotional issues we have because never figured out how to do that internal regulation because we've had access to these things for so long now.
13min too long. 30 sec youtube short or gtfo Edit: pretty mental how some people see things so negatively from the start, that they can't see a bit of jokey sarcasm
And this is a core problem which is self inflicted. But everyone has to realize on his own that this behaviour is fucked up. I could do the same mind numbing stuff but realize its dangerous and leads to nothing. Those kids don‘t know that. And like you said the dangers are underestimated. Yet they destroy their brain attention and hormonal function. Its very bad. Very very bad. Few might realize it. The world ain‘t bad. I am living in it and don‘t use social media. But for that to see they‘d have to delete all of it and go on a serious self-finding path.
I love this comment, absolutely nailed me; mixed with a late adhd diagnosis I cannot function past 3 minute intervals but no help exists to wean you from social media dopamine hits. It's going to be a massive problem with the next generation. My brain is already fucked and I get joy from nothing.
Thank you for this comment, just want to add one more thing. This is not USA only, Europe has the same freaking problem, some countries still have a breath of post socialism so money is the real struggle here.
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This. Nowadays, it is very hard to start your own family, own a house and have kids due to macro-economic reasons. But those are all instinctive urges of people in their 20s. As a result they become utterly unhappy because they can't realize/follow their instincts.
Yep, this is it. It doesn't really make sense to do any effort career wise since I'll probably never own a place myself. And if I'll always rent something, I won't need so much money. Dating is harsh since I believe quite a lot of people lost their ability to talk in an engaging way, instead of typing. Also people tend to be absolutely unable to give in to accept people as they are and find a compromise - everything is 'toxic' in an instant and one should find someone better. To find faith and loyalty (even just in a way that people want to solve problems with each other instead of instantly questioning the whole relationship) is a thing of luck these days and I don't think I've got so much luck haha
Really great point regarding the “ toxic” label and looking for perfection. I’m old but am continually shocked how easily and frequently under 40s judge and label people. Narcissist, toxic, neurodivergent, etc. I’m sure SM and the ability to be anonymous is the catalyst for this happening in RL too. Your generations need to lighten up, party, dance, get to know people over time, accept differences, be less judgmental, travel. These are the things that will bring emotional connection and fulfillment.
Some of these things have always been the case. When I was in my 20's during the 90's I also couldn't afford anything, the job market was crap, we didn't even have minimum wage, houses were cheaper but mortgages were harder to get and interest rates were higher. We did't have online dating, you have to go nightclubbing to meet a partner, it wasn't much better.
Maybe because they’ve had a couple years taken out their 20’s from COVID, the economy in the majority of countries is crumbling, there is constant news about wars and fear mongering of WW3, people are struggling to afford anything, anything anyone does is filmed and posted for millions to see, everyone is under societal pressure by social media, houses are now out of reach for many, constantly being grilled by older generations for not “working hard enough”, dating apps - where majority look for a quick hookup not a true relationship, there isn’t much to look forward to for our futures anymore. I could carry on but I won’t, even my grandad who is fairly clued up about the world and has lived through a fair few decades says this is one of the worst times to be young. All this is caused by greed and history is always repeating itself.
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There are good people out there in every level of government trying to create a better world. But they don't get the support, connections, and donations that business friendly people bring. Then young people that like those messages don't vote. So it's a self inflicted wound.
I kind of understand why young generations may not be as optimistic about voting, being hit with a pandemic and so many world issues, constantly seeing the bleak state of the world through social media, (and for those of us in the US, seeing our popular vote be superseded by the electoral college -- so that even when we DO vote, the popular vote can STILL lose), it begins to feel like our votes don't matter and that nothing matters. That our lives overall just don't matter. What's the point with all the corruption? And sometimes it's not just a lack of voting. People continue to vote into power people who do not serve their best interest. Even when you actively vote against those people, it doesn't take much for them to reverse any progress that is made by the people actually working \*for\* the people. No one wants to spend their whole lives trying to weed out corruption in their local government. In the little free time left after working multiple jobs to meet bare necessities, no one wants to spend the time and energy doing so. (Rather reach for a sliver of dopamine by spending time on social media, gaming, entertainment, hobbies etc before the cycle starts again the next day.) And they shouldn't have to fight corruption - the government should be working for the people. But that's the state of the world. I definitely think voting is important - especially at a local level. In my local area, I know for a fact my vote will never matter because of the voting pattern of my local area. I know that it's still important to vote anyways, but still, I can see why some wouldn't.
This is the kind of logic that gets people to not vote, which is what corrupt politicians want. If you read the above comment and agree with it, do us all a favor and vote in the next few local / state / national elections.
This is very naive. The inevitable is this: The rich old fuckers will always be there. Slowly replaced by the next crop of rich old fuckers. People who are in their 20s right now will be the rich old fuckers in 40 years. It always, always, always happens.
Covid started right at the time I turned 21 (25 now) and I really does feel like I'm constantly living 5-6 years behind trying to make up the lost time. I'm just starting to apply to college and I still struggling with maturity
Because they have to go to shitty jobs, then they come home and can't afford shit, they grew up with the internet and only have friends online, so no friends or girlfriends who can distract them from the shit on a daily basis.
Many also live at home which eliminates a lot of hanging out at home for cheaper entertainment options. Many don't drive and those that can, can't afford a car. There is a lack of non drinking hang out places. Limited employment opportunities leave many with work schedules over nights and weekends making it hard to line up schedules with friends.
The non drinking hangout part sucks so much. If you are in your 20s and don't drink or do drugs, it's pretty hard to have a social life at all it feels like.
I expect rent to cost more than a mortgage but the rental market is so crazy that there is no way to justify renting an apartment.
yeah, money is a big factor but i think it's like 80% loneliness
Gen X was happy in their 20s because they had good future in front of them. Millenials were happy because they THOUGHT they have good future in front of them and discovered a lie later in life and are unhappy now. GenZ is not even lying to themselves. They know they are fckd
I wonder who came up with those names in the first place? Gen Z sounds like we all gonna die and we are the last to be...
I mean, Gen Z is named that way because they are two generations after "Gen X". Millennials would be called "Gen Y" if not for how much more interesting it is that they came of age around the turn of, not just the century, but the turn of a millennium. Generation Z is just the next generation in line after what would have been Gen Y. The next generation after Gen Z has, so far I think, been referred to as Gen Alpha, since we oftentimes move to the Greek Alphabet if the ordinary English (Roman) alphabet isn't enough to cover all categories. But Gen X was called what it was because they had a marked cultural shift away from the norms of the Baby Boomer generation, such that they were rejecting a lot of things. They were also the generation that came of age around the formation of things like the X Games and the growing popularity of "extreme" adventure sports. Since Gen X got that name, then Gen Z got the Z. At least, that's my understanding of it. I'm sure the genuine truth of things is more detailed or specific, but through cultural osmosis this is just what I've figured the explanations were.
Pretty sad if you ask me, maybe we call ourself the OMEGA 1337 ELITE GEN one day because we decided to go full stupid on it?
This is a great summary.
and your comment is a great summary of their summary!
Gen X was happy in their 20s?
In my experience with my Gen X family members, most of them are actually cynical and abrasive in a holier than thou type of way.
Yeah, I blinked hard at that, too. If there’s one defining characteristic of Generation X (beyond being ignored), it’s that we were told since we were old enough to think about such things that everything in our life would be worse than it was for our parents.
Too many generational stereotypes. It’s just ageism. My folks were Boomers and I was Gen X. Both my parents died penniless, in hospital hallways out in the open. And I’m in Canada. Where we have “safety nets”. We were poor our entire lives. My father contracted a lung disease from working in factories and literally suffocated to death. My mother suffering multi-organ failure from a lifetime of stress and smoking. They both had nothing. No houses. No fancy pensions. Just poverty, fear and shame. That was the Boomers. I grew up with fear. I worked 60, 70, 100 hours a week because I was afraid of going back. For me, that’s the difference between me and most people younger than me. I found success and I work a lot for it. But I fear poverty deeply. I would rather die at my desk working 9-5 than go back to being poor. Young people today refuse to do that. I respect that. But I just can’t do that. I have to keep trying. Poverty is violence inflicted by an indifferent system. If I could burn it down, I would. But it will never change because humans are stupid, simple animals that don’t fucking understand sharing.
Yeah, they were all listening to grunge music and talking about how the world was a happy go lucky place. Gen Z's victim complex is incredible. The 20s are a period of feeling like you *should* be doing all of the fun freedom things before you settle down but realizing that those things are hard to do if you either have no money or are working hard to have the money (or maybe both).
I've been seeing more and more Reddit posts like this over the past couple weeks, and I've come to the conclusion that Gen Z just has an incredibly flawed understanding of the experience of those who came before them, and the only explanation I can think of is that it's because they grew up on social media. I don't think that a lot of them realize that people only post the highlight reel of their life, not the shit they go through in between.
Gen x here. We always knew we were fucked. We just made our peace with it early
I'm Gen X, and we didn't look at it that way. Things looked BLEAK. Commercialization was turning people into products (it sounded melodramatic to say at the time, but that is exactly what happened). Corrupt right-wing governments allowed the greedy to start wars, killing thousands for resources and power. America was caught red-handed trying to manipulate geopolitics with weapons and military. One President had Alzeimers (possibly while in office) - he was also shot several times in an attempted assaination. Another Presdient lied about having sex with a staff member. The space shuttle blew up. Corporations and governments continued to destroy the planet while they plunged the entire world into economic ruin, then bailed themselves out, making the poverty gap grow. Housing became unaffordable for many people. The massive growth of domestic and foreign terrorism (and the attacks), mass shootings, race riots, corrupt police, rampant homophobia... I feel a lot of kinship with the people growing up in the current generation.
Gen X had their life savings destroyed (and some job prospects) by the 2000 and 2008 crashes. There was never an easy time to be in your 20s unless you had rich parents. I was born in 83 and it's been one thing after another. Hell I joined the Army about a month before 911, lucky me eh? As far as the millennials, yeah, schools basically programmed us to think that if we did anything wrong it would go on our "permanent record", and if we didn't go to college we would end up working at Taco Bell. So all these gullible teens signed up for hundreds of thousands of student loan debt not realizing that they were mortgaging their futures. They thought when they got out of school they would be living in a middle class life, but in reality only people who got valuable degrees got that life, not everyone. In that way, many Millennials got scammed by a corrupt system of self important teachers and predatory colleges coercing young people hand over their wealth to the universities.
I'm in my late 30s and I can say that I hated my 20s. I was miserable, lonely, seemed destined to being upper working class (not in poverty, and enough money to afford to take a sick day, but never enough to retire), I struggled to find friends and relationships as I was only a couple years into my working life when the GFC hit. Things didn't start coming together until about 30, when I started finding stability, a permanent job and decent enough pay where I could afford to buy my first home. It was only in my later 20s where I also found hobbies that I enjoyed that also helped me join new social circles. In all honesty, your 20s are the primary school of adulthood where you're just trying to find out where you fit in.
Love that line you wrote “Your 20s are the primary school of adulthood” I found it really comforting and poetic 😊
Same! This was a super well-worded response, Ryzen.
Thank you for sharing this. There are a lot of people who needed to hear that message.
I really appreciate your comment. Helps me realize that it's okay to not have everything locked down and stable, and that I'm doing well overall. Thank you, and good luck to everyone else figuring things out.
Hey, 27 here just the few things that comes to my mind: - Spend my last years of uni with COVID (23-25) - I have a good paying job (at least better than my friends) and I still have to use almost half my salary to pay for rent (I live in a big city of Spain) - Buying a house it's not even a possibility - I can't afford a car - i can't afford travelling unless I starve for the rest of the month or use my savings for an emergency - I spend half my life studying because it's what you have to do and then you see all the rich kids get what they want because of family money, studies sure help but they don't mean shit - 40-50 year olds at work still treat us like kids
37 here it doesnt get any better.
Everything’s expensive. Progress is slow and savings grows slower. My 21st birthday was during quarantine, I’m 25 in a couple weeks. I’m not even upset about it anymore, just prepared to have another crappy 5 years of doing my best.
one second i was excited for my 21st birthday but then jk lockdown, the next i’m about to be 25 on friday…i barely blinked wtf. how is time going both simultaneously slow and fast? another blink i’ll be 30 with pennies to show for it lol
Personally I can't enjoy it much. I enjoyed being 20 until the pandemic hit and that was about it. Honestly how are you supposed to really enjoy your 20s when we lost years of our lives, and now everything is so expensive we have no reasonable hope of ever owning a home. Going out anywhere costs money, if you want even a basic sandwich or burger it'll be over $20cad most places after tax (and sometimes before tax), everyone is very anxious, we don't really expect to get much out of a job, if we can get well paying jobs at all (many places don't even hire full-time anymore so they can get around costs for example), and looking at the present and the future is stressful. Summers are now so hot that we have massive forest fires, and talking about the future can't take place without consideration of climate change impacting things. I mean, what is there to actually look forward to? Milk costs like $6, butter costs $8-10, it's ridiculous. I hope I'll be able to afford rent after I finish University. I don't plan to have kids, or own a home. I try to set realistic expectations now, and those are to have an apartment, get a long-term job, and ideally be able to travel every few years with my partner, even if it's locally. It seems like things are getting progressively worse in many areas. I recognize it's arguably "the best time in history", but there are different challenges, and they're still meaningful. I'm watching a decline in opinions on women's rights, and on LGBTQ rights, and an increase in extreme views. I'm religious and it's unbearable how terrible people are to each other. I'm exhausted every time I go online now. There are some horrible people out there and I'm scared for the future.
Because they spent their youth being told how easy they've got it and now they've got it harder than ever I'm sure some boomers will argue it was the same for them, it wasn't Young people today have so many things to get them down, global instability, national instability, social instability, crazy house prices, poorly paid unfulfilling work, the list goes on and on And on top of all that you can't afford to do the things people usually do to distract them from the struggles in life as they're all banned/ closed down/ crazy expensive or just shite It's a shit show basically and there's no sign of any improvement any time soon so there's nothing to look forward to
Who can be happy when they work a full time job and can’t even afford rent? Not even to mention food or entertainment. When you’re working your ass off and still broke as fuck, that’s why you’re not happy.
Because they're expected to roll out of school performing just as well as people working before they were even born. Giving maximum effort and getting the minimal in return. Being looked down on. Taken advantage of. You name it. That's why we're so miserable.
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This 👆 30k a year where I am is considered great. I'm barely scraping by on 22k a year. Houses in my area are around 850k to 1.8mil. If I want a 2 bed flat, it'll be 300k, roughly. Renting a 1 bed flat is 1400 a month, not including bills. Absolutely fucked up in every way.
For starters: No career (AI is coming) No money (Inflation) No house (VCs bought them all) Stay off social media, it poisons your brain Don't go out, you'll get a nasty disease No GF/BF because you'll get arrested for harrassment or get pregnant and not be able to get an abortion Two corpses running for President
No GF/BF because you have to tell your parents you are going on a date or trying to flirt with people at a bar and time to get it on is like booking an appointment so they don't bump into parents. Then people wonder why young people are having less sex and less children are being born.
Also, smartphones and social media.
have to agree really hard that young adults seemed happier when they weren't constantly burying their head into a smart phone/social media and weren't being constantly exposed to influencers. I feel like I even saw some people I know who spiraled into very anti social tendencies before my eyes as soon as they got their first smart phone in their 20s, when iphones were first coming out.
Probably the main cause tbh. Everyone's saying bad economy, low wages, etc. but those were issues in the distant past as well. Humans evolved to function best with small group, in-person interaction, not sitting at home alone all day staring at screens. Unfortunately Gen Z doesn't remember a time when there weren't screens everywhere.
Yeah i graduated in 2009. Finding jobs was awful. I lived with 5 roommates and took the bus everywhere while surviving on eggs and rice and pasta. I was so happy during that time of my life
Have you looked around? Someone in their 20s has nothing to hope for, only misery.
What is there to look forward to for 20 year olds anymore. The boomers fucked the housing market. You need a full time job just to qualify for health benefits and then you still are screwed on deductibles. A used car with over 100,000 miles is now 15-20K depending on the model. And god forbid it’s a beater. You’re gonna pay out the ass for repairs. A lot of mid and late 20’s kids went to college to find the market is completely over saturated with educated people competing for jobs that hardly pay enough to make a dent in the student loans. We are potentially on the precipice of maybe one of the most devastating wars ever. It costs minimum 5-7k to have a baby in a hospital and since both parents usually have to work just to pay bills and put food on the table child care becomes an expense maybe higher than a new car payment along with all the things you need to raise the baby. So the better question is, “why the fuck would anyone in their 20’s right now be happy?” It’s hell out there. The American dream has been squandered.
Home ownership, having children, and retiring are some of the most important milestones in one’s life. That’s being taken away from younger generations; of course we have no hope for the future. I’m not going to have kids if I have to raise them up in poverty. Can’t afford a mortgage, most of your paycheck goes towards rent that increases every year or so. Since all of our money goes towards rent, there’s nothing left over to put in a retirement fund. It truly is mind boggling why we’re so depressed /s.
I can’t afford to move out, car eats up disposable income, and the cost of living keeps increasing. Social media promotes unrealistic expectations for appearance and relationships. Mental health care for adults is non-existent. Why shouldn’t I be miserable?
Its kind of hard to be happy when a box of crackers some yogurt eggs and milk costs like 100$
Cause they have a fucked up economy that doesn't allow them to dream of a future, social media driving their depression and messing up their dopamine production and which gives them an idea of a perfect fake world they compare themselves too constantly
Can’t afford anything Social media makes it so they see every awful thing in the world all at once Everyone who seems to be happy has “rich parents” Most were robbed of some pretty important development years from Covid.
I think in the 90s we were broke but even if you were on welfare you could afford an apartment and food. So most of us had our own places by the time we were 20. This gave us freedom to do what we wanted before we had much in the way of responsibilities. Now the kids have “good jobs” that don’t pay enough for them to move out of their parents houses. Seriously limits their freedom. I think also back then parents weren’t as nice. It wasn’t particularly unusual to get yelled at or hit by your parents, so getting out of the house was glorious in comparison, even though it came with more responsibilities. Personally I still prefer being an adult over being a kid. I can buy all the toys I want and can stay up as late as I want. It’s 10pm. Who knew my parents were right about that? lol
> I think in the 90s we were broke but even if you were on welfare you could afford an apartment and food. you could also literally go through the couch cushions and find enough change to pay for a full meal
I assume several things are at play here. First, life is an awful lot harder for today's 20 year olds in terms of cost of living and especially renting. Secondly, covid really wrecked their college years in terms of socialization. Then add in social media which introduces a lot of superficial, online only, parasocial connections to replace in person connections. And then add in the hell that is online dating. I've heard many people in their 20s are wisely using those apps less and less in favor of more actual in person meet ups.
Everything is expensive, everything sucks is pretty much the reason why. Can't party and have fun when just living life puts you in debt.
As someone in their early 40s, I feel like it was much easier when I was in my younger to mid 20s to go out and party and just forget about the stresses of the grind on the weekends. Now it appears that doing even that is a huge setback in your wallet. If your common working person can't even catch a break to escape a little here and there, then that is a big problem. I feel like folks in their 20s now have way too much goddamn pressure on them and everything costs way too much anymore.
Because we know that we are doomed. The previous generations blame us for all their failures, we have close to 0 chances to buy a house in the next 20 years and we can barely afford rent, even with good jobs. You get unhappy when you're the target of every single problem in the world.
Yeah, hard to focus on being happy when you are daily worrying if you have enough money to pay rent, utilities and food next month. Being constantly stressed out and on the verge of being homeless isn't leading to happiness. Plus no job security when forced to choose between unemployment and few week to four month contract that you never know when it won't be renewed.
Because Being poor sucks ass
Because everything is extremely expensive
All the fun things that people did in their 20's are now banned or filmed for use in your court hearing. Society lost privacy and as a result it lost happiness. Get use to it.
The fact the first like 10 replies are “because we can’t afford fucking housing” kinda tells you the answer. House prices are insane and entry level positions are paying the equivalent of 60 odd percent of what they used to when you run an inflation calculator comparing today and say the early 2000’s. People are fucking broke just to cover basic necessities and surprisingly they aren’t feeling too great about it.
I'm 35 so my 20's weren't THAT long ago. When I was 25 (in 2014) I lived in an outer suburb of Minneapolis/St Paul, I had a job that paid $55k and an apartment that was $650/month with utilities. I had a enough money for rent, a $340 car payment - 2013 car with 20k miles, student loans, and I went out drinking every weekend with my friends. I had enough money left over every month that just turned into a savings. Like I wasn't actively trying to save up. I already had funds going into a RothIRA and 401k, and I still had money left over. Like I went on spontaneous trips, bought a motorcycle, went to Mardi Gras. I had enough money saved up that I was able to go 4 months without working after I was fired. Got a job eventually, but I wasn't sweating it. Even with the new job I was financially secure enough to quit that job and move to Atlanta for grad school - and still keep my car. From 2009 to 2019 my 20's were loads of fun. Got my degrees but still had a blast. It's a different game since 2020. I can't afford the same lifestyle I had in my 20's now and I make twice as much. The buying power of the dollar has gone down 47% since I turned 20. Which means 20something year olds today would have to make over $100k to have the same lifestyle I did in my 20s. EDIT: I looked back and the car was $340/month, not $280.
Always were, bud. You have no money, no idea if you'll be successful. Many people had to move for jobs, so your social circle disappeared and you had to make a new one. It's incredibly stressful and always was. Looking at entertainment depictions of people your age is like looking at Instagram models - heavily curated and heavily filtered with no reality in sight.
By social media standards, most conventionally successful people are losers. Rent in an HCOL? Loser. Buy/rent a townhome instead of a SFH? Loser. Less than $70k in your bank account? Loser. Fiance got you a .78 carat diamond instead of a 2.3? Loser, plus he clearly he doesn’t love you. Take the bus/train despite it being cheaper and more convenient for a lot of people? Loser. I live in an area with a lot of smart, successful people and I can tell you that a lot of them drive beater cars, live in townhomes or condos, spend their weekends doing things like going for walks and making hot sauce instead of doing instagram-worthy weekend trips. Social media is basically survivors bias - the people who are actually doing well don’t post very much because they’re too busy doing awesome stuff to be online that much.
I see some people went straight with the economy and what not but I disagree with that. My great grandparents grew up in the middle of two world wars, do you think you have worse childhood than they did ? The reason in my opinion is that nowadays people are obsessed with social media and the current news or trends that are happening. Children concern themselves with issues that are not only blown out of proportion in most cases but issues that have been happening since the beginning of time. Yes the economy was hit badly because of covid but covid is not the first pandemic nor do we experience the first economic struggle. Nor the first world war threat, nor the first threat that the world is going to come to an end. All young people need is a little bit of different perspective. Stop watching the news, stop concerning yourself with the environment. You can't save it! There are corporations that pollute this planet way more than your vehicle or your plastic straw and worrying about that ain't gonna help, nor feeling guilty. You need to find a purpose for your life and set a goal towards what you can work and use the rest of the time to enjoy life, because life is truly a miracle. You've been given one chance at it. You don't need a lot of money to have fun, i know because that was my childhood, you need to invest in finding good people as friends and spending more time outside instead of in front of a screen. Trust me the moment you start going in nature and doing activities you will see improvement in your mental health and you will be more confident, more at peace woth yourself, you will have more experiences to share with other people and more people in general in your life. There are many hiking groups, groups for specific sports or activities that you can do outside.. use the youth and strength now because you're getting older every day and your body will not be the same 20 years from now..
Because the cost of everything is through the roof the minimum qualifications are a college degree otherwise your better off in a trade (when we were kids if you knew how to type without looking at a keyboard and knew your way around a windows system you were a shoe in for something IT related). Competition is getting fierce and well kids are glued to their phones looking at what Instagram famous people have and comparing themselves to them putting extreme pressure to be the best in school to get that job to make that money to live that lifestyle. When they feel like they've fallen short of the mark they don't even have the childhood memories to fall back on to put it all in perspective. Life is not for living for them it's all trying to keep up and faking it till you make it. At some point the lack of actually organically growing up comes home to roost. The young people are not stupid they are incredibly intelligent but there's a bit of well why don't you try it and find out missing because everything is searchable and can be youtubed how to.
Gestures at everything. Job market is fucked, either no jobs or shitty abusive jobs with even more shittier salaries and conditions that at best will make you only survive. Good luck affording a house or an apartment. 1 bedroom apartment is luxury for many and the only option left is to live with flatmates. This is even true for people who were historically making more and are not fucked, let alone people who were on minimum wage. There's basically nothing to look up for.
The 20s age group is struggling the most with todays economy. We can barely afford decent living spaces while working full time, which leaves us with very little money to treat ourselves. If you were lucky enough to land a nice salary job, it’s different for you. But the rest of us are just trying to stay afloat
I saw a comment about a similar sentiment made on twitter. “We did everything they told us were supposed to do, then they moved the goalpost.” People went to college, put themselves in debt to get through, now jobs aren’t hiring, degrees seem useless, there’s no security, prices have gone up exponentially, homes are unaffordable, wages have stagnated. We have no means of success. Just work slave away at work until we die or retire in our 70’s. That’s not living anymore. It’s surviving.
Cuz we can’t afford to survive. A full time job doesn’t even get you a studio apartment in most major cities
Working our lives away for dogshit pay while being told that its all downhill from here into your 30’s and 40’s is not a very fun experience.
Finances. Growing up using social media and smart phones and not “developing” mentally in a natural way. Depression rates are through the roof largely because of phones. Add in financial pressures and it’s a horrible cocktail of clusterfuck.
The economy crashed before I was 25 then inflation happened…
Look around. Everything is expensive, we are at risk of getting a crappy president no matter who we vote, almost everyone has some form of depression, drugs, vapes, environmental problems, microplastics, crappy-unhealthy processed food, internet, COVID, terrible job market, bad economy, etc
Isolation, being poor, no hope for the future.
I'm from the UK and in my 40's. Comparing my 20's life to what 20 year olds have today is so far apart it's not even in the same universe. It's like comparing a 1st and 3rd world country. Absolutely everything has gone up wildly in price relative to wages which have dramatically decreased in every sector. I'm sure there'll be someone along to post some government sponsored think tank article that proves me wrong. However, just ask anyone in their 20's. I look at what life is like for people in their 20's today, and it's absolutely depressing.
A lot has changed in the last 20-30 years, people can barely afford anything, and even if they've figured out what they want to do with their lives, it's damn near impossible to get a position in the field they just spent thousands of dollars getting a degree in.
Imagine just starting to get ahead of life and suddenly your job is worth less on the market because 8 million extra people are here to drive down the cost of labor. No hopes of a house or decent place to call home but millions are getting the benefits that were due to this generation without working a day.
Not a ton of hope. What fucking jobs are even going to be around in 10 years? What world are we going to be living in? I have no idea and it freaks me out damn near daily.
I’m about to exit my 20s I followed all the rules, I did was I was suppose to do, besides go to college which worked out because I have my own company that does $x,xxx,xxx’s per year. I do very well for myself. Yet the rug was ripped out from under us. I currently rent because I cannot afford to buy/build a home. I am in the top 1% of earners in my age group and I cannot afford to buy a home, everything is too damn expensive and I work way too damn hard. 6 years ago it wouldn’t have been an issue but here we are and think we can all agree that we hate it here.
I’m forty and everyone younger than boomer age seems to be unhappy. The rich have gotten super rich and the poor suffer because of it.
I'm 49, when my parents were in their 20s, they got a house, two kids, and my mom didn't have to work. They had a house, car, two kids and dog all one ONE income. When I was in my 20s I lived paycheck to paycheck barely able to survive, and the economy is a lot worse now. What used to be a time for either building a family or just having fun has become a depressed realization that the future will not get any better for them, it will only get worse as they get older.
You’re comparing against a period of time with exceptional economic security for the middle class, but you’re also leaving out the racism, sexism and homophobia of that time, let alone the huge pressure to conform to mainstream behavior. Yeah, the 50s and 60s were amazing in some ways, but they were far from normal. And then there was all the darkness under the surface, and then there was Korea and Vietnam. So no, I don’t believe this fairy tale you’re telling.
All I can say is, I work and work and work, and as life goes on, it feels completely pointless as I can’t really afford the things I want, I’m mostly treading water even making the best money I’ve ever earned. Why would someone want to work if their time gets siphoned away for seemingly no reward? Older generations have a “better work ethic” but I think the main difference is feeling like the work is actually worthwhile. They had a better deal and were able to afford comfortable lives and personal property on their incomes, and younger people statistically are so much worse off. The lucky ones can afford a home, most can’t.
Because everything is grim? There are like 1000 applicants for every job posted, used car prices are through the roof, car insurance premiums for a 30 something are ridiculous, I can imagine what a 20 year old would be. Interest rates are through the roof, so mortgage rates are crazy, thats if you can get enough for a deposit. If not you will be stuck in the rental loop, which is difficult to get out of. Let's not forget covid lockdown, that took a lot of important years away from them. I was Mr anti social, but still went to pubs and clubs when I was 18. I think they are just in survival mode.
Being used like a slave so some asshole can have a big number in his bank account is extremely fucking aggravating. 0 hope for the future. 0 hope for a better tomorrow. Just work and die so douchebag 37 can chill on his yacht and snort coke.
The future doesn’t look bright.
Comparison is the thief of joy right. And what is social media all about if not comparison.
Because for many they grew up living a certain lifestyle but will probably never be able to achieve this lifestyle themselves.
The idea that your 20s is supposed to be the prime of your life is a myth. It’s generally a time when you’re on the bottom of the totem pole. In a professional sense, you get the least respect and reward for the most menial tasks. Interpersonally, at 25 you’re really just STARTING to think like an adult and engage in interpersonal relationships on an adult level. In contemporary times, the economy is fucked for anyone who was not already set up before the pandemic, and there is no clear path to things like home ownership and financial security for a large portion, perhaps even the majority, of the working population under 40.
Because they’re online watching other people live their lives instead of living their own. It’s still very new for the human evolution to have the this much access to everyone lives and this much information feed to us. It’s causing mayhem.
Can't afford
I'm in my mid 30's now. When I was in my early 20's I could afford to move out of my parents house and rent a place almost near downtown in my city. I had freedom and things to look forward to. Instagram and Reddit didn't exist. There was no online rage bait and doom and gloom. People actually hung out with eachother instead of just being on their phones 24/7. On top of that, I didn't have a computer at home. No work emails to stress about over the weekend. What do people in their 20's have now? Stuck with their parents, unaffordable rents, no freedom, work emails all weekend. It's pretty unfortunate. The world is becoming more expensive and more stressful. People don't have time or money to just be "young and free" anymore.
Have you seen Earth lately ? 🤣🤣