i am middle aged man, i experienced life since before even computer and smartphone is a thing like today.
back then, i feel that life is much easier, what i mean easier is more simple life, less competition, less stress, fresh environment, and more happiness despite lack of technology.
but right now, everything is just too complicated despite of power of tech, internet, smartphone, and AI helps, i feel that life is much harder right now, what i mean is like competition is everywhere, stressful everyday, crowded city, and i easily depressed these days.
is it just me or everyone else can relate to what happens right now?
im putting groceries on credit. i had a great credit score till this year, i havent even tried making payments on certain things including ER bills. only a matter of time before im bankrupt, and i am also disabled. i have given up on having a future and I’m only 32.
Mid twenties here, same situation. My bank closed my accounts lol
Thirty-something Norwegian here. I am born into a rich, relatively functioning social democracy with a good welfare state. Buying my own home was a real struggle, even with a good salary. Many of my peers will never own, my younger friends will struggle to ever own, or never.
Unfortunately the welfare state is eroding, prices for everything is increasing heavily, and the private sector is a growing leech on the state.
the real problem is capitalism
May your welfare state never erode enough to remove your Healthcare and turn it into exclusively private!
It’s both: it’s just you and it’s everyone else. In the modern age of relatively fast technological development, people tend to get overwhelmed by change in their later years. But also things are getting worse for almost everyone[1] under late-stage capitalism.
Almost everyone living under capitalism, that is. In China most people’s lives have been getting easier. ↩︎
If you talk to Chinese they have the same complaints though.
i am not sure about china but even developed countries such as australia and singapore has their struggles now despite they are one of high income countries.
The United Nations and the World Bank are sure about China.
Wealth divide is worse. We are also in a time of change geopolitically. Also in a time where powerful actors benefit from creating controversy including media, social medial, political, and geopolitical. We live in interesting times.
Describe a time of geopolitical non-change please.
Well, before smartphones people didn’t get bombarded with bad news all the time. The changes were there but we hardly noticed them. Now they’re being shoved in our schnozes to instill fear and push us all to the far right.
Largely from 1947 to 2020.
The Cold War. Transfer of Hong Kong to China. The collapse of the USSR. Arab/Israeli wars. Vietnam and the Peace Movement. The oil crisis. 9/11. End of Segregation in the US. Womens’ Rights especially after the Pill Gay/Trans Rights The Korean War The Beatles
It’s pretty much constant.
All fairly minor. Now we are leaving the post WW2 era. No one knows what is next.
The Cold War, the threat of “Mutually Assure Destruction” that hung over all of heads for decades until the USSR dissolved, was “fairly minor”???
That has not ended. Russia and China have large supplies of nuclear weapons. Just like WW2, Russia has initiate a war in Europe with China, NK, and Iran as allies. China will invade TW at some point. NK may do the same to SK. All of these allies are nuclear powers except Iran which will be.
You’re correct OP. I think the difficulty of modern times is multifaceted. A lot of other comments here speak to various parts of it these days, but I want to add one I’ve noticed related to this issue.
Pre mid-2000’s, technology worked for us. If you look at the hayday of tech (1980 thru early 2000’s), it seemed like every tech innovation was aimed at the consumer. The tech got better and we did too. The tech worked for us.
Nowadays (and I think I can see all this turning course around the time of the 2008 collapse), tech is not for us. The consumer has become the product, and tech is built around working through us instead of for us. Manipulating us instead of helping us. It sucks.
I have no doubt that if the washing machine was invented today instead of like ~100 years ago, they would be the size of car, and only installed in corporate offices. You’d have to go to an office to get your clothes washed. Consumer-level washers wouldn’t be a thing. They’d tie it to work like healthcare. It seems like no one is interested in making quality consumer devices. The consumer devices we do have are designed to become obsolete quickly without any repairability, so you buy another fast (i.e. all modern cars).
So yea, I think when you add this on top of everything else, it help explains what is amiss with life today. My 2c
you are totally correct, it feels like tech is no longer for us, we are the product and we are forced to buy stuff with planned obsolescence, also they are getting more expensive.
yes, join your local communist party
OP, it’s also going to sound like a cliche, but touch grass. The cancer-like tech companies want to replace your sense of community so that they have more power over you. F them, join a local group, and find yourself feeling more powerful when you have a real community behind you.
I think about it this way.
In 1995 I could leave the house with nothing in my pocket except $10.00 and have a great day. Ride the bus with cash, get food with cash, buy stuff with cash. If I needed a ride there were free phones to car services in most stores.
Today, if I go out the door I need cash, a credit card, and a phone.
i dont have credit card so its manageable but phone is absolute must, most car services apps and cashless payment use it
Back in the day, it was always keep a quarter in your shoe so you could always make a phone call.
I don’t like the idea of having financial information on the phone. No Apple pay. In my area you need a credit card or metro card to get on a bus, so you have to have the phone and the wallet. And cash in case there’s a power blackout
Life isn’t that bad yet but owning things is starting to become impossible. You used to buy and own things now you are more and more only allowed to rent them. Be it movies, video games or your house.
Marx and Engels predicted that economies would become dominated by rentiers
I think this is due to increased alienation. We’ve become more isolated and distanced from one another and, more importantly, more distanced from our own creative self. This is what happens when production is largely automated but humans are still involved - we turn into small faceless gears in a big mechanism.
Sounds like things have been good for you in the past. I am happy for you, and wish you a return to the good times.
They say happiness is all about expectations, but I haven’t expected anything good and I am still disappointed.
I believe it’s a mix. Both ‘nostalgia goggles’ and straight up facts.
What I mean is that, when we were kids or teenagers we didn’t see things the same way our parents did. They were the ones struggling, and we were pretty much just playing around and complaining of mundane stuff. So it’s hard to tell how much ‘easier’ life was back then… we were just young.
But at the same time I do completely agree that the advancement of technology and growth of USA giant corporations really fucked a lot of things up badly. While back in the day we couldn’t find answers or information to everything so easily, we lived a more ‘natural’ life, where everyone actually expected things to take a while to happen: you had to wake up, literally read the news if you wanted, take the car or bus to the job, and just then you started working, and while working you had to do some research and so on.
Nowadays things either happen immediately or you’re tagged as lazy or something like it. You wake up with a lot of e-mails or message notifications on your smartphone, and people expect you to answer these demands ASAP. It’s not expected anymore that we do each thing in it’s own time anymore, and the volume of work is much bigger because you’re expected to solve problems much faster. This volume of demand and unrealistic expectations definitely generate stress and anxiety, which are huge health issues nowadays.
And the fact that we now realize, thanks to the amount and speed of information we have today, how the industry leads are fucking everyone up without consequences doesn’t help in the slightest, since it leads to a feeling of being powerless and exploited.
It’s definitely getting worse, you’re not imagining it.
They like to say we are doing better than ever because the the numbers and technology are great. Yeah, I might not be starving, but what’s the dignity in a rising tide of techno-feudalism and serfdom? And the technology that, in another society, could have freed us from long hours is instead being used by the ruling class to further exploit us.
Yes it is, we are being squeezed! We have less ways out. I’m far better than I ever was, actually have better health, and fitness. Yet, it is hopeless.
i am suprised you still motivated enough to keep health and fitness in check despite of how bad things going on right now
I mostly don’t, my job forced me to be fit and lean. I at most hydrate, shower, and shave. I eat whatever garbage I can, and sleep in a dump.
My father revealed a secret. If he feels it is funny to just have secret income while letting me handle the debt, it’s going to be less funny when I give my 2 weeks in October. Maybe I will survive, or maybe kill myself. Will see.
But I can’t be sane with this kind of job, need to self-correct.
so its forced, i hope all the best for you
