7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable

[Yassen]

I'd let to draw your attention to an article I stumbled onto this evening which hit so close to home I'll probably be pondering it for weeks to come.

7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable [http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html]

First yes I know it's 3 years old but 1984 was written 62 years ago and that hasn't made it's warning any more invalid or it's message any less powerful.

Now then, onto the article itself. I find it difficult to argue with most of the reasons as it's something I've thought about if never really put into words if that makes sense. It would explain why we're living in some of the best conditions in the history of humanity but still have the highest rates of depression and suicide.

There's really nothing I can add to this discussion so I'd like to hear the opinions of The Escapist on this article, is it garbage/enlightening? How so?

 

[manythings]

How often are the people in the worst conditions counted?

 

[imnot]

heres mine

1.ignorance and
2.stupidity
3.health and
4.saftey
5.actually i
6.can't think
7.of any more

sorry about that, i have to agree with most of them to be honest.

 

[Woodsey]

1. People have moved from Jew-bashing to Muslim-bashing[footnote]I mean we shouldn't be bashing anyone, not that I miss Jew-bashing being popular.[/footnote]
2. People are still homophobic
3. People are still racist
4. The Wii
5. Because it gave birth to more fucking motion controls
6. Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly are allowed to broadcast
7. Lost is now finished

They're pretty randomly generated, and they don't make me miserable, they just annoy me on various levels.

 

[Marter]

Online company has made me more depressed? No, it hasn't.

I'm at the happiest part of my life that I can remember right now, and it's mostly due to online company.

The rest, I'm not so sure about either, but I know that that one doesn't work for everyone.

 

[BonsaiK]

7 things that make me miserable:

1. Internet nihilism
2, How cracked.com is often taken seriously by its readers, when it's just a humour website where just about anyone brave enough to submit something reasonably funny and well-written can potentially get published and have their ill-informed opinions turned into viral links that get spammed on forums for many years to come
3. How many people don't learn from history about how every new communication technology from the book to the telephone to papyrus was maligned and criticised when it first became popular, before gradually becoming accepted by all
4. List threads
5. Technology and cultural change being used as a scapegoat for mental health issues
6. Social-network bashing on internet forums and humour websites (themselves forms of social networks)
7. Not being able to think up a last point to neatly round out this list

And yeah I don't like the article much. I could take it to pieces in a paragraph or two, but, it's just a humour article, so.... meh.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Ugh, if I must.

1. War.
2. Crime.
3. Recession.
4. Climate Change.
5. Starvation.
6. Oppression.
7. Disease.

Makes all them other reasons a bit crap, eh?

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

1. People going crazy with censorship.

2. Motion Control fads.

3. Shitty reality TV shows like "Keeping Up With The Kardashians".

4. The whole 'scene' thing.

5. The raping of the Star Wars franchise.

6. Making a big deal over "Global Warming".

7. Everything being so fucking expensive.

 

[latenightapplepie]

.
Snip

Here here!

That article was garbage. If you want to go making claims that bold you better be a psychologist, sociologist or an anthropologist and have done some bloody research rather than just blinding reaching for convenient conclusions. Don't just be a lame-ass editor with an opinion.

Humph.

NOTE: Russ and everyone at the Escapist are cool, though.

 

[Chogg Van Helsing]

OH, I know

1. Humanity
2. The Planet
3. No zombie apocalypse
4. School
5. Bad grades
6. Can't be bothered finishing my book
7. Dio is dead

 

[Cody211282]

Ugh, if I must.

1. War.
2. Crime.
3. Recession.
4. Climate Change.
5. Starvation.
6. Oppression.
7. Disease.

Makes all them other reasons a bit crap, eh?

All 7 of those have been going on since humans have been around, hell if anything they are less now then ever before, and people were still happier back then.

 

[Downfall89]

7 things that make me miserable:


2, How cracked.com is often taken seriously by its readers, when it's just a humour website where just about anyone brave enough to submit something reasonably funny and well-written can potentially get published and have their ill-informed opinions turned into viral links that get spammed on forums for many years to come

Yeah, this.

OT: Above. Don't take Cracked too seriously. It's like he said in the article: depressing news sells more than pleasant/uncritical news.

EDIT: And is it just me or is that article, contrary to normal Cracked articles, actually pretty depressing?

 

[Furious Styles]

1. People have moved from Jew-bashing to Muslim-bashing.

Well, you say that but what they've really done is add muslims to their repertoire and carried on bashing jews.

 

[Wardnath]

Okay, let's see:

1: ....Fuck. I've got nothing. >_>

In no order:
1. Censorship
2. Censorship
3. Censorship
4. Censorship
5. Stupidity
6. Ignorance
7. Bigotry and hypocrisy.

You're trying WAY too hard. >_>

 

[Woodsey]

1. People have moved from Jew-bashing to Muslim-bashing.

Well, you say that but what they've really done is add muslims to their repertoire and carried on bashing jews.

I guess, but it's certainly taken a backseat in comparison.

 

[Adventurer2626]

1. The job market sucks. And I can't figure out exactly why. If I did and knew it was out of my hands maybe I could ignore it more. Or at least what people who did have control over it were doing. Excuse me if the frustration of no hope for independence whatsoever until I graduate from college sticks in my craw a little bit. If people are even still hiring college graduates by then.

2. [Insert stuff that's not unique to the 21st century like bible-pushers, war, death, unsavory business practices, racism, etc.]

3. More maintenance to do and time consumption because of all the things I'm trying to juggle in the standard 16-18 hour day: car maintenance, computer maintenance, weekly shopping, medical stuff, doing stuff with and for friends and family, personal hobbies, watching movies, playing games and so on. Not all at once mind you but it seems more often than not more time is demanded (in varying strengths of the word) of me than can be given. I'm not even "old" yet and am jealous of my time.

4. In contrast to number 3. coexists number 4. Boredom. Strange how that still creeps up even with more stuff to do. Related are the times when you have your hands tied. Like when you're sick or broke or have done everything you could have done and have to wait (im)patiently for the other party to come through.

5. The feeling of utter confusion/ignorance/naivete about the world around me. I'm pretty sure 50 or 60 years ago no one was as confused about how the world works as I am right now. So many options, opinions, views, concepts, misconceptions, information, disinformation...it's enough to make your head pop. So I cope by going with what sounds most reasonable/logical compared to personal experience and my understanding of the world around me then not giving a damn about the rest, hoping it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass.

6. FADs make me /headdesk

7. Unabashed restrainment by others to adhere to tradition despite the demands of a changing world. Subjective and a can of worms, I know.

 

[Anarchemitis]

1. Greed
all other 6 are Causes of stupidity inn unison with the first reason. Remove the first and we have world peace. Remove the second and we lose America's Funniest Videos.

 

[Continuity]

1. The job market sucks. And I can't figure out exactly why.

Its because the BRIC[footnote]Brazil, Russia, India, China[/footnote] economies are sucking the jobs out of the west.

There, now you know.

 

[Godhead]

1. 9/11

2. Activision and anything Bobby Kotick related.

3. George W. Bush

4. The increased amount of recession that America has been getting.

5. The Iraq "War"

6. ???????

7. PROFIT!!!!