Poll: "First World Problems"

[Phuctifyno]

I wonder if people in third world countries update their statuses all like:

"it's raining out and here am I am without an umbrella (to turn upside down and drink from for a month!!!) FML third world problems" or

"just got my cherry popped! the rapist thought my purity would cure his aids. third world problems lol", or

"just three more paychecks away from being able to afford death by gun instead of machete. third world problems LMAO (except L is for lob and A is for arm)".


Frankly, it's something I've been saying for years, because complaining about stupid shit is taking for granted the rights and freedoms that being lucky enough to be born in the first world affords you. Sure, everybody has the right to complain about anything, at any time, but doing so doesn't make you not a useless turd.

Now that everyone else is saying it though, it's become meaningless. Because now it's just a thing to say to fill space, and nobody even thinks about the words as they're saying or typing them. Maybe it's just an awkward baby step in the right direction to broader paradigm, like putting up with environmentalists' or vegetarians' smugness? First world problems I guess, lol.

 

[lord.jeff]

In most cases I've seen it is a phrase for people who don't have a real counter point to your argument, can't think of a counter point so I'll just pretend the argument is beneath me.

 

[Swyftstar]

When I first heard it the guy who said it was saying it about something he had just complained about and then laughed it off. So, I always thought it was just a joke and a way to feel better about life's little nagging occurences. I think people are taking the expression a little too seriously and using it as something else to complain about on top of what they were already just complaining about.

 

[JEBWrench]

I wonder if people in third world countries update their statuses all like:

"it's raining out and here am I am without an umbrella (to turn upside down and drink from for a month!!!) FML third world problems" or

"just got my cherry popped! the rapist thought my purity would cure his aids. third world problems lol", or

"just three more paychecks away from being able to afford death by gun instead of machete. third world problems LMAO (except L is for lob and A is for arm)".

>.> <.< I may be enough of a troll to make that twitter account.

Anyways! On-topic:

The poll is missing my answer, which is both. Referring to people's problems as first-world problems is most certainly legit. But people should also be able to complain about whatever they want.

Including first world problems. Complaining about first world problems is a first world problem.

 

[TheEndlessGrey]

Newsflash: Some people are dicks. They will say whatever they think is funny in order to put you down. Whether your problem is legitimate or not isn't even the question. It's why are you hanging out with this dick?

 

[Bazaalmon]

Err, I always thought that "first world problems" referred to people making an enormously big deal out of trivial shit.

Like someone spilling soda all over themselves and then declaring that their whole life is ruined and that they might as well just drop dead.

Pretty much this. I think the best example that I've encountered is this total ***** with rich parents who goes to my college. Verbatim: "My parents bought me the black iPad instead of the white one! I hate them! My life is ruined!"

Seriously, they just GAVE you an iPad, who gives a shit what the color is?

If you bought an iPad that broke after a week, that's not the triviality required to be a "first-world problem."
If someone gave you a free iPad and you don't like the color scheme, that is trivial enough to be qualified as a "first-world problem."
You can complain about it all you want, but it just makes you look like a jerk.

 

[Branovices]

I think you'll be a whole lot happier in life if you realize your problems are usually very small compared to what they could be. If you're warm, healthy,shod and under a sturdy roof... anything short of a personal tragedy really is trivial. That doesn't mean you can't try to fix a problem on a tech support forum, but it does mean getting really upset over truly trivial nonsense does not invite sympathy.

 

[Ledan]

I usually use it on people just as a joke, to try and lighten them up.
It depends on context, but when I/my friends use it's more of a "don't worry, it's not too bad". It isn't meant to guilt people, or make slight of their problems, more of a reminder of how serious/not serious their problem actually is.

 

[2xDouble]

If an argument can be boiled down to "I paid for X, I should be getting Y", just stop. Caveat emptor, bitches.

If you have a legitimate concern the product is not "fit for purpose" (what it says it does, not what you assume it should do), then by all means, speak up.

Regards to the question of "ability" to complain: Complain all you want, just don't expect any sympathy.

captcha: dish fall sales event. Speaking of not fit for purpose...

 

[aba1]

Iunno seems like the new popular phrase to say . It's annoyig a fuck, but just wait for the fad to kick in . What i hate though is people that take stuff from the internet and say them in real life . I first person to say that to me in real life gets slapped and i will say " did that hurt? At least you didn't lose a limb , first world problems".

hahahaha that would be so funny... best idea ever!

 

[Something Amyss]

There are some valid applications, but people use it all the time because ponies. If someone's all "FML" because their daddy didn't get them a porsche, yeah. Usually, though, it's just douchebaggery.

 

[lacktheknack]

People complain too much. That's all there really is to it.

There are legitimate complaints and illegit complaints.

And many...MANY people seem to miss out on which is which.

This. As it is with everything.

Some things just aren't worth complaining about, and it's eleven or twelve different kinds of irritating when that's what people complain about.

See: Yesterday's "Wii Us can be bricked if you don't follow simple instructions!" debacle.

 

[Your Gaffer]

Who cares what other people think? It is a free country and you can complain all day if you like, just like other people have the right to say your complaints are overwrought and overblown.

 

[Callate]

I think I like it better when the complainer acknowledges a "first world problem" to head off the "well, that's nothing compared to what the price of rice is doing to poor countries in southeast Asia" comparison.

Seriously, no one is going to put a stop to complaining on the Internet; after pornography and videos of kittens, it's more or less the major function of the thing. But unless a "first world problem" actually relates to a more significant one (as might be argued to be the case with the recent "Conflict Minerals" article), the most that's required is tuning the complainer out.

 

[DoPo]

Err, I always thought that "first world problems" referred to people making an enormously big deal out of trivial shit.

Like someone spilling soda all over themselves and then declaring that their whole life is ruined and that they might as well just drop dead.

This would have been fine, and I actually think it started out that way, however, people use it ALL THE TIME. You can seriously go to a support forum somewhere, and say "This software doesn't work" and you can get someone going "first world problems". OK, that exact scenario is not that common but there is nothing stopping it from happening. The phrase can and is actually used in response to any mentions of problems that aren't about starving children in Africa and so on. That's what's annoying.

 

[Gylukios]

People can only understand what they've experienced. That is not intrinsically their fault, it is just the way we as humans work.

Do not blame the trivial complainer for his complaints. He speaks from his specific viewpoint, his understanding, his experiences, which are necessarily unlike any other. In the grand scheme of things his complains are trivial, but from the scope of his limited understanding they are important. Does that make them meaningless? No.

Most, if not all of the people touting "First World problems" as a response to complaints they see as trivial compared to "Third World problems" are just fools looking for a way to feel superior to their peers. It is just the voice of the ignorant, purporting to speak for those whom they do not understand to make themselves seem more worldly. It is that very ignorance, that lack of understanding while believing they do understand, which leads to much wasted effort to help the "Third World," if we can be so arrogant as to name something like that.

Until we can achieve true understanding without misconceptions, which may prove to be impossible, these types of issues will always exist. Do not blame the individual, blame human nature.

 

[kickassfrog]

People complain too much. That's all there really is to it.

There are legitimate complaints and illegit complaints.

And many...MANY people seem to miss out on which is which.

I was going to post, but this sums what I was going to say up quite nicely.
Say, missing the bus, or getting soaked by a car driving through a puddle and spraying you are fairly legit complaints.
That frame rate issue OP is on about is just fucking stupid.

 

[Mr.Cynic88]

First World Problems:

My 30mbs internet speed is hindered by my outdated router.

My 2005 car stereo doesn't have an auxiliary cable slot, but is modern enough that it doesn't have a cassette player either, which means I have to listen to my ipod using a somewhat staticy radio transmitter.

I hate waiting for a digital game purchase to download because I want to play it NOW!