Two things I can see.
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Life in the developed world getting tougher and the middle class is shrinking
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Social media seems to make people unhappier and angrier
Major Depression was epidemic in the US back in the 90s, which prompted the SSRI boom. The problem was that few were ready to acknowledge the toxicity of normal post-industrial life, especially as the Soviet Union was collapsing and Reagan and George H. W. Bush were deregulating the work environment bact to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
So yes, the dissolution of the middle class and rise of wealth desparity were already concerns, but social media wasn’t yet a factor. This isn’t to say it’s not a factor today, especially when we use social media as an alternative to actual social contact.
The psychiatric sector is now recognizing we can’t treat people using the standard medical model, assuming people can be treated while still in a toxic home and work environment. It would be like treating a kid for asthma while he was living in the Los Angeles smog crisis; there’s a limit to how much treatment can help in those circumstances.
- Social media seems to make people unhappier and angrier
Is it something inherent to social media that’s doing that, or is it the toxic algorithms designed to drive “engagement” and ad impressions that used by commercial social media that’s doing that?
The algos, ads and click-bait engagement economy exacerbate the problem, what is a consequence of the profit driven nature of current platforms.
A big factor is the replacement of actual social contact with social media. We need to get actually interpersonal once a week or so. Some of us need hugs or dancing or meals together, and the current overworked society doesn’t really allow for this kind of engagement in its time constraints.
It’s like living on fast food, rather than home-cooked meals.
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No healthcare, unaffordable housing, billionaires blaming poor people for everything, corrupt politicians blaming poor people for everything, women losing body autonomy, somehow Nazis have returned…
Feel free to keep adding to this list
Climate change. (Often in the manifestation of wildfire smoke.)
Not only the destruction of the environment per se, but the fact that science has shown us how to solve it, yet the populace is unwilling to make personal sacrifices or otherwise change their lives up a little for the greater good.
Capitalism is destroying the world, not the populace
I can’t go outside rn without a KN95 because Canada is on fire and the smoke is blanketing everything. That definitely doesn’t fill me with joy.
I nearly had a aneurysm when I hit up drive-thru for lunch today and they had a sign that starting July 1st the city of Edmonton will require a $0.15 surcharge for take-out bags.
Never mind the fact that the fucking price of a burger has almost doubled over the past 3 years, better make sure we punish people for switching from plastic to paper.
Single-use plastic shopping bags (including compostable or biodegradable plastic shopping bags) can no longer be distributed, and businesses must charge at least 15 cents for a paper shopping bag and at least $1 for a new reusable shopping bag.
Edmonton buddy!!!
For me it comes down to basically having more and more things to feel worried/anxious about and fewer and fewer things to feel excited about every year. Partially I guess it is normal part of aging (but I’m supposed to be in my prime year for fucks sake) but there are also objectively shitty things that make it difficult to be hopeful that my mood/feelings about the world will improve. The acceleration in enshittification of the internet doesn’t help. At least Lemmy is a breath of fresh air in this regard.
Our sphere of awareness has grown to encompass the entire world. We are aware of everything nearly immediately. Our sphere of influence remains small for the vast majority of us. In my opinion this explains a lot.
Indeed. Nicely worded.
And couple this with the fact that we are actively being conditioned that it is up to us to change things: “it’s your personal footprint that matters”, “vote with your wallet”… It’s not even that I disagree that personal action is important. It’s mostly that these narratives are a way for the corporations and governments to shift the blame from systemic to personal. And then we end up with feelings of paralysis because you can only do so much and guilt about not doing enough.
Well, it’s becoming a civilisation-wide problem. Yeah.
But hey. Do not give up just yet. Okay?
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well it is easy to be depressed (at least in turkey) inflation is 110% (keeps rising) you can’t buy shit or do shit, fun activities to do outside are getting lesser and lesser, nothing feels the same anymore, and reddit closing down and the web getting shittier isn’t helping. but life goes on
Hey man Greek person here I hope in the future our countries can be friendly and we can all have peace of mind. I have hope that my and future generations will leave the past behind.
i don’t have any issues with y’all, it’s the politicians that are causing the anger and i don’t care an inch about them. i think the future generations will fix this issue
cost of housing is slowly bleeding my bank account dry and i literally wouldn’t be able to survive here if i wasn’t a strong enough cyclist to not need a car, but sure, everything’s fine
Homeless survey just came out for San Diego. Not only are most homeless not transplants from other states (as the popular myth goes), they grew up in San Diego. And they didn’t suffer one big financial problem. They slowly fell through the rental system until there was nothing left they could afford.
We need housing reform. We needed it a decade ago.
“B-b-b-but… muh backyard! I don’t want to have to share it with, uhhhhh… ‘criminals’! Building anything other than massively unaffordable single family homes and car dependent neighborhoods is going to ruin the character of the town!”
“Building bike lanes would ruin the quiet, village-like atmosphere of this town.”
“What? Sorry, I can’t hear you over the roar of traffic!”
