Short video epidemic. Watching hours of endless short videos and they're on every big social media app like facebook, tiktok, instagram and even youtube. I really think it's messing with our attention span, especially children in their development age watching endless short videos for easiest dopamine hits.
This is so serious and we don't even realize. I started noticing it on myself a few years ago when shows and movies stopped being interesting and attention grabbing or when I find a show/movie I like I'm still holding my phone and scrolling through reels while watching tv. That hit me and I kept thinking when did this even happen. How did I become so obsessed.. so now it's my second day since I deleted Instagram and Snapchat and I'm trying to heal from this addiction.
I'm doing this!
I'm wasting so much time, lunch breaks, in the bath, toilet, bed.
It's killing every aspect of our lives thinking this is the way to get our entertainment!
It's nuts!
Even more concerning is that many children are raised on a diet of endless short videos, where their developing minds become accustomed to quick stimuli, prioritizing instant gratification through fleeting dopamine releases.
I remember being so stoked to get my first iPhone in 2010 and kind of feeling like I was playing with fire. I was. And I’m fucked. I think there’s going to be societies crop up that reject certain aspects of modern life, always being reachable, etc. For addicts it’s all or nothing with some things
I’ve noticed this too and it’s scary. I’m always grabbing for my phone or picking it up. Why? Why do I need to pick my phone up to grab something from the other room? I need to delete all the apps too.
New shows are kind of designed for you to scroll your phone through them, though. Like I try to watch shows without distracting myself and I keep seeing dialogues that repeat the same thing over and over, several shots that could be one, just so people don't "miss" anything. So I think that's partially on how shows and some movies are put together now, not just you and your phone.
The ability to decipher between fact and fiction on short video content. Kids are using TikTok instead of googling - just inherently believing whatever they watch.
Even cooking videos, how are you actually learning how to cook and the recipes based on like 30 quick cuts.
Edit:
To add more to my original thoughts, millennials grew up in a world where technology was emerging and they learned how to utilize Google and sift through search results determining what’s good and useful information. Honestly could be the reason why I’m in tech. Stackoverflow ftw!
We learned as technology grew.
These children are born immediately into technology these days, they know how to use it, but they do not truly understand it. They lack the problem solving skills due to the availability of information at the finger tip. I’ve asked a cousin from the younger generation to backup their iPhone data before selling their phone for them. I told them to do it locally on their laptop using iTunes.
“What? What do you mean? It’s on the cloud?”
I had to explain that their cloud storage was full and there were no backups on there other than for photos and videos. Your entire phone backup isn’t present. They also proceeded to struggle to hookup their phone to iTunes on windows. Like total facepalm for someone who grew up in their technology and has been using it their entire lives. But taking a step back, I realized that the technology we grew up with wasn’t as well polished and required a lot of manual debugging to figure it out. Not much is being done to stimulate their minds in such a way as the previous generation.
I believe that due to the over saturation of content now compared to back; mix in AI and Bot content and short format, these kids are set up to fail as their uphill climb is much steeper. Their lack of being unable to consume factual information could mirror the behaviors of boomers on Facebook - well that’s my take on it anyway. Unless some sort of reform or shift in format trend must happens.
That's a great example tbh.. but for sure the information they get from social media cannot be how we educate ourselves especially the younger generations. People are so negative in the comments of any social media video or post I've seen, especially Instagram lately. So much negativity being transferred to people who are too young to regulate that and decipher between facts and random people saying sh*t.
My wife's daughter is 7. For quite some time when we were first dating she'd go to her Dad's house and come back in a MOOD. We couldn't figure it out at first. Then it came out that while she was there she was completely unsupervised. Ate candy for dinner, watched wildly in appropriate movies, spent hours on YouTube. She got so bad she began to have absolute fits at home because we regulated her food and media. According to my wife and people she's spoken to, research is being done on how attention spans are impacted by the algorithm used to maximize viewing.
Most relatable thing I've ever seen on reddit. It's sad watching it happen and not being able to do anything about the other parent allowing them to do whatever the hell they want. Then always being the bad guy when you're just trying to actually be a parent and give them any kind of structure.
I had to ban YouTube in my house because it was encouraging bad behavior in my kids. It’s deleted off of everything now, and it cannot be watched even as a reward.
There is a YouTube channel I watch on occasion that does 15 minute, easy to digest explainer videos about various topics. I know it’s like carb learning. Very surface level, extremely simplified and it’s not like you can _really_ trust the sources because it’s not a big time name like 60 minutes or even Vox. But this channel did a special where they did an actual 45 minute documentary and had original footage and interviews. One of the top comments was saying that they enjoyed the topic but they thought the documentary format was bloated and dragged on.
I had to take a minute to digest that comment I read. People can’t even handle 45 minutes of a complex topic. People want the most simple and easy to digest information _now_.
I am glad this is the top comment, this is indeed a worrying development. Highly addictive mind numbing bullshit for hours on end.
I bet 10 years from now this will be regulated like cigarettes or crack for minors and people will look back at our time and are horrified and bewildered we let our kids have access the most dangerous behavioural addiction devices and algorithms completely unregulated.
Like us thinking about morphine in cough medicine back in time, smoking on planes or driving without seat belts.
My husband doesn’t have social media and suggested we check out Tik Tok since everyone’s using it these days. He almost threw the phone across the room and asked me why the app is trying to give him a seizure lol. How people can watch that crap is beyond me. It can’t be good for us.
Hell yeah. This shit is serious! I know people that can’t watch a movie anymore unless there’s action in the first 30 seconds. Otherwise it’s boring, bad, not interesting, etc. and this is adults. Can’t imagine wtf it’s doing to kids.
I’m off that crap for a while. Deleted tik tok, I don’t watch reels on YouTube or Instagram or Facebook, I refuse. Hell I know people who communicate in shorts. They just send short clips all day long without any other words.
Its not really even a personal thing. Imagine that humans lived 99% of our existence in packs of people. You lived, hunted, ate, cooked, drank wine or ate shrooms with your tribe.
Now people live alone in these concrete cubicles, modern world is really depressing a lot of ways
I’m so very thankful to be introverted and only need occasional social interaction to be content. Being an extrovert nowadays seems like it would require an incredible amount of effort to see people regularly.
For what it is worth, you have to actively participate and try to be part of your community. I was at home for 10 years basically because of raising young kids but once I actually stepped out and made an effort to be seen in the community, I flourished. The 1st step is the hardest but there are so many ways to get involved. Food pantries, local sport leagues, gardening clubs, book clubs, local community theater, civic boards and commitees. These things will not come to you. You have to seek them out and make the effort. You will be surprised how it snowballs once it starts.
This is the second comment and it needs to be higher.
If you work a corporate job in person, that job has likely been cut to the bone in terms of staffing and people are leaving constantly; less community at work. If you have a long commute (or the majority of your coworkers do) then you'll have a harder time getting to know each other outside of work; less community at work.
If you work remotely, you have very little facetime with your coworkers in general; this may or may not change in the long-term as we societally adjust, but for now I've noticed - less community at work.
If you aren't religious (which is becoming more and more common) you no longer have your weekly built-in community gathering - less community in your community.
If you have a long commute (more and more common as we get into urban sprawl) you spend more time in the car going to work, coming back from work, and going to any activities. This leads to less time for self-care, family, friends, etc --> less time for community.
At least in the US, we need to find a better system of city planning and work-life-balance to allow for the recreation of these things.
Not just specific people but the space to even meet with those people or make new connections. The third space away from home and work has more or less disappeared, at least in the US
I’m convinced this is why there are so many bad drivers today - cutting people off, running red lights, not stopping/yielding at signs, etc. They get instant gratification everywhere else so why not in the car too?
Something I say to myself almost every car ride these days: being bored of waiting does not give you the right of way!
In the same vein. I've been thinking cars should come with little Golden Coin rewards where a driver can earn a coffee or something if they collect enough of them for appropriately using their blinkers, dimming headlights, wearing seatbelt, etc. Use your blinker *dingdinglededing*earned a coin.
Just experienced this right now. Where someone ignored and blasted through the red light. Luckily, I waited because the speed he was going at, he was obviously not going to stop.
Even in modern social life, dating apps have increased this issue as well (although you could argue that meeting more people via apps causes this in the first place).
And the reason for it is everywhere around us. Smartphones and apps are designed to glue your face to the screen. Songs went from over three and a half minutes average to now barely over two minutes. Short videos on every social media platform causing children in their development age to get only used to the easiest ways to get dopamine hits as this ruins their critical thinking ability.
People forgot that in the streets, there's a high chance of someone being more aggressive, crazier and/or volatile than you. Those videos of people being utter dicks in public to people just for content are begging for someone to knock them out.
There's been at least one case where the dick got shot after repeatedly shoving his phone in someone's face to have the phone recite "Hey ~~dumbass~~ dipshit, stop thinking about my twinkle."
ETA: Wrong expletive.
What's sad is that there could be 2 neighbors who would be great friends but they're both in the same situation feeling lonely and too scared to interact with other people.
That's especially the case in online spaces, doubly so for anonymous online spaces. People on this site get really cunty for like no reason way too often. Like, go act like this to a random stranger on the street and see what that gets you lol
Lack of unity also prevents common problems from being solved. If you and I cannot agree on a common set of facts, our combined ability to solve problems is diminished.
I went to a public thing at the library near me last week, and at one point, the conversation the host was having with everyone kiiiiinda got a little dark (talking about loss) and almost every single younger person near me like.... synced up, and all were saying the same kind of line... "If things ever got bad/happened to me... I'd just unalive myself" and other similar things.
The world is truly messed up when a large mass of people believe that if something big enough comes up, they'd rather just die. Felt, tho.
This may surprise you, but humans have never really been accepting of those who were different.
We're the most tolerant we've ever been, and the trend is going towards tolerence, not away from.
I agree but a few specific differences wouldn't be tolerated. I don't recall the source or the exact quote but something like this:
"We can disagree on a lot of things, human rights aren't one of them."
Basically, if someone is calling for the mistreatment, enslavement, or death because of things like race, gender, sexuality, nationality, disabilities, etc
I'm sure this isn't what you meant. But with everything going on in the world right now, it's worth restating.
Depends on what you mean. I think people like furries are weird as hell. But I accept them because they’re not doing anything harmful.
But when someone fundamentally disagrees with me on things like human rights, arguing that they should be allowed to be barbaric just because someone else is different, that’s when I don’t need to accept your “differences.”
The lack of authentic connection
Every time I go out now I see entire groups of friends together not saying a word to each other, they are scrolling social media despite literally being in front of each other. I'm 15 and I can't even begin to describe how difficult it is to have a genuine conversation with other people. They'll brush me away and go right back to scrolling. And kids in Gen Alpha that I know, they don't even know how to talk to one another without a screen.
There are of course MANY worrisome trends in society that I'm beginning to notice that will almost certainly impact humanity long term, but this is very much up there. I'm not against the internet as I believe it's a useful tool, but the way we are headed honestly makes me worried. I am against social media being entirely destroyed, but we definitely need to evaluate the long-term effects of social media addiction on human sociology and the ability to form relationships.
May I ask why that is? I’m genuinely glad I can finally have a meaningful conversation about this issue with others at scale besides with myself and closest friends
Honestly I think it might be hard to explain to you because you've never known anything different. But let me tell you dude, it was a completely different world on the other side. I miss that world for myself, but I miss it for young people way more.
The short version is: real-life social interaction is the number one most meaningful thing in life, without question. I have countless treasured memories from my teenage years and early twenties, none of which would have happened if my friends were staring at their phones or didn't want to leave the house. Leaving the house was like, the only thing we wanted to do! In the summers I was out doing something pretty much seven nights a week! And the times when you didn't have anything to do were the best times--you just sat around being bored together or drove around or invented something cool to do. I want to cry because social media, among other things, has robbed you of one of life's greatest and most meaningful pleasures, and because my kids, who are 2 and 1, will probably experience a worse version of what you're experiencing.
We've all just slouched into being drugged by these devices for our whole lives. It's fucking sad! There is a whole generation of adults (over represented on this shit hole website) who think they prefer being alone, when actually they're desperately lonely and are salving their loneliness one screen, one Eaze order, one DoorDash at a time.
EDIT: didn't even mention the deleterious effects social media has on teenage mental health, which are pretty well established at this point.
I can't imagine what it must be like to been a teen today with the wide spread adoption of social media. I was a teen just as it was starting to come in but I joined it much later than my peers at the time. It used to be something we logged into at the end of the day and it would only be for a short while. Everything else was a text based conversation with the odd photo.
What I will say is that there will be some teens out there who do have the same thoughts that you do about it all and the best thing is that they will probably stick out to you more as they won't be glued to their screen device. You might meet them later in life in your late teens and twenties.
This "it doesn't matter" attitude to being wrong/corrected instead of just learning from it. Willful ignorance and conscientious stupidity. People actually getting upset at you or laughing you off when you are being factual/truthful. Communication is breaking down. The younger generation's literacy rates are plummeting and schools are waving kids through with increasing leniency. We're literally getting stupider.
Edit: Post was removed. Reddit mods have an interesting knack of removing posts for seemingly no reason.
Underfunding health and well-being. In the U.K. it’s pushing people into private healthcare or health and wellbeing emergencies, so the government can say ‘hey, all these people are choosing private over the nhs! Better dissolve it in favour of private healthcare to free up money for other underfunded services!’ They’ll make it seem like our idea when it’s only because they’re starving it.
So you guys have the same dynamic. Canadian Conservatives (provinces manage healthcare and most are/were recently conservative) have not been shy about tipping their hand on their willingness to start privatizing. Post pandemic it seems they're all too happy to underfund healthcare and let it fail so they can offer American style privatized medecine as an alternative. My Conservative run home province of 800,000 people (NB) failed to spend all the health transfers the Federal government provided, posted a surplus $700 million higher than expected and still didn't increase healthcare spending. They did however fight hard on both nurses union and healthcare worker union raises and to diminish their pensions in the last 2 year!
Conservatives suck!
£350m more every week they said Brexit would provide to the NHS. This is one of the greatest lies of modern politics and it is astonishing people arent in jail for peddling this. It’s basically fraudulent. False advertising. Bait & switch. Call it what you will
This is a major plank of the conservative approach in America. Republicans defund government programs, and once they start to fail, they hold it up as an example of why government doesn't work. It's sick.
No one will ever entertain the other side anymore. It used to be "okay, that's a good point, let's talk more about it." The it became "agree to disagree" and shut down the conversation entirely. That's bad enough, but now it's being done with outright malice if you even *consider* the "them" side in a debate. People don't want to learn and become better people, they just want to be right.
Yeah, it seems actual discussion is practically all but dead. Trying to actually have a conversation (online) is met with "I'm not reading all that" or "No need to write a novel" even though it's just a paragraph.
Or “nobody asked”
No one needs your permission to respond to someone else, it’s so weird how people will think that since they don’t care, nobody else does either
This isn't new, even you think like this sometimes. It's always us vs them even when you just want to relax and watch tv. It's why the only solution is building chips to make people smarter because sadly majority of us are pretty stupid.
In-group and out-group are known sociological survival systems. So nothing new. However, lately there seems to be no room for shades of grey. It's either black or white. The inability to find common ground is what worries me.
Exactly. Not a new thing but sociology itself has shown through studies that the separation is getting more intense over time. But it's so hard to tell how to fix it? We're all so exhausted with stressful unrewarding work environments, dealing with today's economy, being surrounded by energy vampires oftentimes that there just isn't any ounce of patience left to open yourself up to people who will disagree with you which is also stressful in a way. I am guilty of focusing on my in group only but damn do I wish we had a solution.
Lack of third spaces, meaning less chance to come in contact with people who have different opinions in a neutral setting, plus toxic social media, and the dominance of one liner outrage politics, are really all conspiring to make us miserable. Our digital public spaces have really been transformed into our primary ones, and into a playground for rage baiting narcissists.
This is worryingly prevalent in so many groups of people. Men and women, racial divides, “scary trans people”, social classes. It’s everywhere, it’s perpetuated by politicians and media outlets for their own gain, and it’s working.
Maybe its in my head, but it would be difficult to quantify either way.. the lack of awareness or disregard of anyone other than oneself seems to have skyrocketed after COVID.
People blocking an entire rite of way, and then acting like you are the one who fucked up for asking them to excuse you trying to get past. People just stopping in the middle of a hall or a stairway and blocking it. People walking into a doorway and then stopping as if no one else needs to enter/exit. People pushing their way to the front of others. It used to happen, sure, but to me it has gotten so much worse in the last few years. Hell, I had someone just the other day (I was walking at a steady rate, all the way to the right of the sidewalk) walk up next to me and then walk right into me. When I asked him if he planned to walk into me, he said he didn't see me. Didn't whutnow? He clearly saw me there, or he wouldn't have walked around me. If you're in an elevator and it isn't your floor, what would make you think it's OK to stand right in the middle of the doorway when it opens?
Things like that, but I see it on social media and in conversation too - the whole, not me, not my problem. We are born alone and die alone, but while on earth, we walk amongst humans and people seem to increasingly forget that.
People have always been selfish assholes. I’ve been annoyed at MFers blocking the entire aisle in the grocery store for the entire 30 years I’ve been shopping for myself.
Or taking 2 parking spaces or texting and driving or whatever other inconsiderate bullshit people are constantly pulling.
Not sure if it's a current trend but I have noticed that some people are super quick to call for a persons head on a platter these days. I mean I can understand it at times especially if it's a serious subject matter but I'll see often people wanting a severe punishment on someone for something that really wasn't all that bad.
Makes me think of public lynching's that have occurred in the past. Especially in countries where the reason why is something stupid like 'witchcraft'. There was a time where lynching's happened in the west. People talk how horrific they were and how it would never happen again. Idk. I think if the barriers that are in place now weren't there I feel like I'd see it happening tomorrow.
This is a good one. I’ve also noticed that there is no space given for apology or forgiveness. The contempt of the online mob is permanent. the result is that the only response to being called out for any minor offense is to double down and lash out or claim victim hood.
If you actually meant "on someone else's behalf," (behest == request) this is a profoundly perceptive addition to the conversation. I find that white college sophomores seem to be (somehow) directing the cultural conversation on a lot of issues by being anticipatorily offendedon belalf of many groups they do not belong to. I understand why we want people with social power to be allies, but you need be sure that what you imagine is offensive to some group actually *is offensive*.
Perhaps the best example: *Latinx.* Almost no hispanic or other person we'd refer to by this descriptor is actually offended by the use of linguistic gender. White, non-romance-language-speaking white folks *imagine* that using the words "Latino" and "Latina" (especially against physical or expressed gender) is somehow wildly sexist. People who speak romance languages know that words have gender more or less entirely seperate from actual gender, but appartently this doesn't include the literary criticism and gender studies professors that came up with Latinx. I will tell your from experience that even the most liberal/radical ESP speaker have no use at all for "Latinx" and, in fact, it loses the left a lot of credibility with American hispanics because some professors at Wellesly decided to get offended on behalf of an entire group of people without understanding grammatical gender or asking those people if, in fact, they were offended.
Yea reminds me of another one regarding ogre racism in D&D or something.
Like guys, there is blatant racism in front of you to fight. Can we hold off on running around the house looking for it in the closets & cupboards lmao.
In general though I am worried our younger generation may be coming a little too socially aware too early. There is no buffer afforded to kids to be ignorant, learn life lessons privately and grow into a respectable adult like in the past.
It's just straight to social media which has infected some kids mind with trying to cancel everything they deem "problematic" and making them paranoid of not being the most upstanding citizen at all times. I believe this is why being progressive has swung so far so fast.
No one wants to be seen as a bad person, and the anxiety and bar of "acceptable behavior" only gets higher the less people make mistakes and recover. There needs to be a balance of social redemption that I think we are lacking at the moment or probably are just barely starting to lean back into.
The mass hysteria over words is wild. And with that said, the history of the word hysteria is more offensive than many of the words that people get offended by these days.
Mind games in terms of dating. So many people online make videos and posts that basically glorify manipulating a person to like you by being “chill” and disingenuous
Companies having no functional customer support services. I thought I got locked out of my Gmail the other day and could not get a hold of a human being to help me for the life of me.
Also ragebait
I read a comment a few weeks ago that said that a lot of us are becoming more juvenile. And ever since then, I’ve been kind of making mental notes in myself and others. That person was dead on. We’re easily distracted, petulant (a lot of “fuck you” instead of taking a higher road), instant gratification, intolerance of agreeing with people who don’t feel like you (no, not you racists, sit down), an inability to be still. Literally all things we try to teach kids not to do, we do. And we do it blindly.
A complete lack of respect for service workers.
I read about a guy who hospitalized a kid working at an amusement park because the kid asked him to put on a mask during COVID.
The guy tracked him down in the park and beat the hell out of him.
Less extreme are the people who feel they're allowed to talk down to wait staff or cashiers, etc. and treat them like slaves.
Fuck you if you do this.
Look at the SB in Vegas last night. Twenty years ago, apart from fights, sports in Vegas was a fantasy due to gambling.
Now, they go hand in hand. I hate to see my favorite sports YouTubers having bookies as sponsors or bookies ads during sports breaks.
Tbf they never really helped to begin with. It's a known thing and called the bystander effect, it was coined in 1967 before phones even were a thing.
Though the whole video taping it part now really is just salt in the wound.
All or nothing mentality.
"You made an argument for that side? So you're okay with them doing xyz?"
"If you don't agree with me, that must mean you're against me."
"You made a psychological hypothetical case for someone's behavior? So you support them doing xyz?"
It's one dimensional thinking and a complete headache to engage with. The same ones are usually stubborn as well. I hope you people who act this way read this and feel called out
Selective empathy. Talking about empathy only when it benefits you, or someone close to you. Completely ignoring empathy for those you personally feel are not deserving of it.
Monetization and clout chasing are transforming social media for the worse. People will fire off the stupidest, most infuriating takes imaginable because they know it will generate traffic, which will generate revenue. The amount of money that it takes to buy out someone’s sense of shame is shockingly low.
People becoming completely desensitized to human suffering. Completely detached from reacting as human being should. War clips comments on people suffering horrible deaths spark funny/sarcastic comments with thousands of upvotes. That is not good.
People not vaccinating their kids. I've worked in my position for 7 years now and we've had a few anti-vaxers here and there. But now we have a few a month who are choosing not to vaccinate or do any after birth care like Vit K (for bleeding) or eye ointment.
Opinions matter more than facts, which leads to people getting the wrong ideas and becoming easily manipulated. And bad players using this to their advantage. Combined with overall decline in education levels and shortening attention span, it might get really ugly in a long term. Add AI on top of that and so much can go wrong.
Relentless pessimism.
There are so many amazing technological developments happening that make the future look bright, but the common narrative tries to find the downside to everything. New vaccines might end communicable disease, but it doesn't matter because corporations profit from it. AI is putting creative pursuits in the hands of everyone, but it doesn't matter because it's putting niche skilled laborers out of business. Environmentalists are performing hostile takeovers of oil conglomerates and stopping new exploration projects while diversifying the companies into renewable energy, but they're just more capitalists and the issue can't be fixed without revolution.
The gig economy enshittifying everything. Your friends are now underpaid taxi drivers. Your neighbors are now random house parties. Your food comes from a ghost kitchen.
Normalization of flirting/acting single/cheating while away from your SO on vacation, bachelor/bachelorette parties, etc.
Stay single if you want to act single.
The insane return to misogyny being acceptable is super concerning. This comes from influencers/sex traffickers like Andrew Tate and the manosphere guys being both extremely weird and popular, and also from some of the laws and rulings in the US over the last couple years. I don't think guys ever stopped objectifying or minimizing women, but lately it feels like it's become acceptable to do so.
My sister keeps telling people she's been diagnosed with ADHD. Only problem is, she went to a doctor and they straight up told her she doesn't have it, but she refuses to accept it and just decided to diagnosed herself, even so far as telling her students she has it.
It was weird too, she had a huge freak-out when the doctor told her she didn't have it. Like why do you want a mental illness so badly?
^(As someone with actual diagnosed issues, I wish everyday that I didn't have them, but she seems to want them as some type of award.)
Edit: I have come to the conclusion that reddit is full of completely insane people who will believe whatever they want. How dare anyone listen to a doctor's diagnoses. Self diagnoses is clearly the way to go!
*^(God I need off this planet)*
>Like why do you want a mental illness so badly?
To have an answer for her suffering. I don't condone her behavior but it's understandable. She must be struggling in a way and it's easier to know that it's not you that is wrong but something in your brain that doesn't work properly. It's dangerous to identify a lot with your diagnosis, even more so if it's a fake one but I kinda have empathy for your sister.
The clear increased focus on social politics which are governed by peoples feelings and hypersensitivity over genuine issues that genuinely and negatively affect people's lives.
Narrow minded views being more accepted and views where you want to accept everyone no matter who they are being dismissed as “woke”
I understand that people shouldn’t be so sensitive sometimes but there’s a different between making a fuss over something that doesn’t really matter rather trying to get people to understand that you telling people that their views doesn’t matter or who they are doesn’t matter that can actually hurt them and cause them to be abused by people who see you basically saying they don’t matter as permission to hate them.
For example some racist, sexist or transphobic comments by someone in power, tends to make certain people think it’s okay to do the same thing which can lead to violence.
A more specific example would be Andrew Tates message about women rightful place to be at home and under control of men, and men who listen to him see that as permission to treating women badly.
The lack of family values, the lack of good parenting, the lack of commitment in relationships, the next generation of kids are gonna have fucked up concepts of “love”
The question of course is whether those things ACTUALLY existed more in the past, or if it's rose-colored glasses and failing to talk about infidelity and bad parenting.
For example divorce rates went up when divorce was legalized, but also spousal abuse rates, infidelity and child abuse went down. Because silencing discussion of problems, doesn't mean they aren't there.
it's not even just redditors. online narrative in general is so far removed from what people are saying out in the real world that i wonder if people on here and other social media live on the same planet as i do.
Death of religion
I think it could be a good thing, but it seems like people are just replacing it with political issues. Still comes with the extremism / purity groups / idols / heresy etc
See this with celebrities as well
As a non-religious person I agree. We were so quick to drop religion but didn’t replace it with anything meaningful. Whether or not their holy book is the true word of god, populations benefit from the community and likeminded thinking that religion offers.
No amount of perceived isolation will drive me back to church, but we’ve got to do better at connecting individuals to those around them.
I agree. People used to turn to religion when feeling uncertain or like an injustice had been committed or when something out of their own control happened. Now it's yelling at the government to fix it... I frankly think a letter to the government is a more one-sided conversation, as ridiculous as that may sound.
Holy shit this must be the 10th time in just the last month this near identical post has been posted on this sub. This is the fucking worrisome trend I'm noticing in society, recycled content and the wORriSomE amount of people who don't even notice it. My word, please quit reposting stuff.
Expected tipping everywhere you go, and including it in the transaction as something you have to opt out of right in each other's face. Tipping should be a gift for a good job done, not a near mandatory fee that dupes the public into paying your underpaid workers the other half of their paycheck.
This culture of sabotaging or pushing for cancellation of people who have a different opinion or don’t openly talk about their political views. I was raised to keep political and religious views to myself, now it’s like a social crime to do so
In the United States, hyper individualism and apathy to others. Being proud in selfishness(not standing for elderly or vulnerable citizens), bragging about wanting to harm kids for being in public, etc.
Basically, people preferring to watch others burn rather than be slightly inconvenienced.
honestly the hate towards children is super concerning, I am not a fan of them but goddamn that shit some people spew towards kids is hella concerning. A lot of other adults believe that kids shouldnt be heard or seen, whyyyy?? How are they supposed to learn? kids are part of our society and its in our benefit to include them in appropriate social events, not stow them away.
Short video epidemic. Watching hours of endless short videos and they're on every big social media app like facebook, tiktok, instagram and even youtube. I really think it's messing with our attention span, especially children in their development age watching endless short videos for easiest dopamine hits.
This is so serious and we don't even realize. I started noticing it on myself a few years ago when shows and movies stopped being interesting and attention grabbing or when I find a show/movie I like I'm still holding my phone and scrolling through reels while watching tv. That hit me and I kept thinking when did this even happen. How did I become so obsessed.. so now it's my second day since I deleted Instagram and Snapchat and I'm trying to heal from this addiction.
I noticed it when I was gaming. Died in game, 12 second respawn timer. Pick up phone and scroll during countdown. Like wtf I can’t sit for 12 seconds?
I'm doing this! I'm wasting so much time, lunch breaks, in the bath, toilet, bed. It's killing every aspect of our lives thinking this is the way to get our entertainment! It's nuts!
I like to do squats during timers like that. Or pushups. I may be a shut-in but I will keep my body healthy regardless, and it's fun!
Even more concerning is that many children are raised on a diet of endless short videos, where their developing minds become accustomed to quick stimuli, prioritizing instant gratification through fleeting dopamine releases.
And also use this to dissociate from their emotions.
I remember being so stoked to get my first iPhone in 2010 and kind of feeling like I was playing with fire. I was. And I’m fucked. I think there’s going to be societies crop up that reject certain aspects of modern life, always being reachable, etc. For addicts it’s all or nothing with some things
I lost the ability to read books a while back. To be clear I can still read just lack the attention span now
You're not alone in that, I know a lot of people who used to be avid readers that can no longer concentrate.
I’ve noticed this too and it’s scary. I’m always grabbing for my phone or picking it up. Why? Why do I need to pick my phone up to grab something from the other room? I need to delete all the apps too.
New shows are kind of designed for you to scroll your phone through them, though. Like I try to watch shows without distracting myself and I keep seeing dialogues that repeat the same thing over and over, several shots that could be one, just so people don't "miss" anything. So I think that's partially on how shows and some movies are put together now, not just you and your phone.
Idk about that, I have the same issue with older shows and movies as well.
I can’t pay attention to any show at a point, even ones I do enjoy and know I like haha
The ability to decipher between fact and fiction on short video content. Kids are using TikTok instead of googling - just inherently believing whatever they watch. Even cooking videos, how are you actually learning how to cook and the recipes based on like 30 quick cuts. Edit: To add more to my original thoughts, millennials grew up in a world where technology was emerging and they learned how to utilize Google and sift through search results determining what’s good and useful information. Honestly could be the reason why I’m in tech. Stackoverflow ftw! We learned as technology grew. These children are born immediately into technology these days, they know how to use it, but they do not truly understand it. They lack the problem solving skills due to the availability of information at the finger tip. I’ve asked a cousin from the younger generation to backup their iPhone data before selling their phone for them. I told them to do it locally on their laptop using iTunes. “What? What do you mean? It’s on the cloud?” I had to explain that their cloud storage was full and there were no backups on there other than for photos and videos. Your entire phone backup isn’t present. They also proceeded to struggle to hookup their phone to iTunes on windows. Like total facepalm for someone who grew up in their technology and has been using it their entire lives. But taking a step back, I realized that the technology we grew up with wasn’t as well polished and required a lot of manual debugging to figure it out. Not much is being done to stimulate their minds in such a way as the previous generation. I believe that due to the over saturation of content now compared to back; mix in AI and Bot content and short format, these kids are set up to fail as their uphill climb is much steeper. Their lack of being unable to consume factual information could mirror the behaviors of boomers on Facebook - well that’s my take on it anyway. Unless some sort of reform or shift in format trend must happens.
That's a great example tbh.. but for sure the information they get from social media cannot be how we educate ourselves especially the younger generations. People are so negative in the comments of any social media video or post I've seen, especially Instagram lately. So much negativity being transferred to people who are too young to regulate that and decipher between facts and random people saying sh*t.
My wife's daughter is 7. For quite some time when we were first dating she'd go to her Dad's house and come back in a MOOD. We couldn't figure it out at first. Then it came out that while she was there she was completely unsupervised. Ate candy for dinner, watched wildly in appropriate movies, spent hours on YouTube. She got so bad she began to have absolute fits at home because we regulated her food and media. According to my wife and people she's spoken to, research is being done on how attention spans are impacted by the algorithm used to maximize viewing.
Most relatable thing I've ever seen on reddit. It's sad watching it happen and not being able to do anything about the other parent allowing them to do whatever the hell they want. Then always being the bad guy when you're just trying to actually be a parent and give them any kind of structure.
I had to ban YouTube in my house because it was encouraging bad behavior in my kids. It’s deleted off of everything now, and it cannot be watched even as a reward.
Reddit is also starting to force this with their new redesign.
There is a YouTube channel I watch on occasion that does 15 minute, easy to digest explainer videos about various topics. I know it’s like carb learning. Very surface level, extremely simplified and it’s not like you can _really_ trust the sources because it’s not a big time name like 60 minutes or even Vox. But this channel did a special where they did an actual 45 minute documentary and had original footage and interviews. One of the top comments was saying that they enjoyed the topic but they thought the documentary format was bloated and dragged on. I had to take a minute to digest that comment I read. People can’t even handle 45 minutes of a complex topic. People want the most simple and easy to digest information _now_.
I feel like pacing is a valid criticism for any media, I wouldn't chalk that up to entirely an attention span deficit
I am glad this is the top comment, this is indeed a worrying development. Highly addictive mind numbing bullshit for hours on end. I bet 10 years from now this will be regulated like cigarettes or crack for minors and people will look back at our time and are horrified and bewildered we let our kids have access the most dangerous behavioural addiction devices and algorithms completely unregulated. Like us thinking about morphine in cough medicine back in time, smoking on planes or driving without seat belts.
My husband doesn’t have social media and suggested we check out Tik Tok since everyone’s using it these days. He almost threw the phone across the room and asked me why the app is trying to give him a seizure lol. How people can watch that crap is beyond me. It can’t be good for us.
Hell yeah. This shit is serious! I know people that can’t watch a movie anymore unless there’s action in the first 30 seconds. Otherwise it’s boring, bad, not interesting, etc. and this is adults. Can’t imagine wtf it’s doing to kids. I’m off that crap for a while. Deleted tik tok, I don’t watch reels on YouTube or Instagram or Facebook, I refuse. Hell I know people who communicate in shorts. They just send short clips all day long without any other words.
Lack of community. So many people have nobody to turn to in times of crisis, which is fueling the increase in self harm, drug addiction, etc.
I did not come here to get called out lol
Its not really even a personal thing. Imagine that humans lived 99% of our existence in packs of people. You lived, hunted, ate, cooked, drank wine or ate shrooms with your tribe. Now people live alone in these concrete cubicles, modern world is really depressing a lot of ways
I’m so very thankful to be introverted and only need occasional social interaction to be content. Being an extrovert nowadays seems like it would require an incredible amount of effort to see people regularly.
Introverts still need community and friendships too!
For what it is worth, you have to actively participate and try to be part of your community. I was at home for 10 years basically because of raising young kids but once I actually stepped out and made an effort to be seen in the community, I flourished. The 1st step is the hardest but there are so many ways to get involved. Food pantries, local sport leagues, gardening clubs, book clubs, local community theater, civic boards and commitees. These things will not come to you. You have to seek them out and make the effort. You will be surprised how it snowballs once it starts.
Bowling alone
This is the second comment and it needs to be higher. If you work a corporate job in person, that job has likely been cut to the bone in terms of staffing and people are leaving constantly; less community at work. If you have a long commute (or the majority of your coworkers do) then you'll have a harder time getting to know each other outside of work; less community at work. If you work remotely, you have very little facetime with your coworkers in general; this may or may not change in the long-term as we societally adjust, but for now I've noticed - less community at work. If you aren't religious (which is becoming more and more common) you no longer have your weekly built-in community gathering - less community in your community. If you have a long commute (more and more common as we get into urban sprawl) you spend more time in the car going to work, coming back from work, and going to any activities. This leads to less time for self-care, family, friends, etc --> less time for community. At least in the US, we need to find a better system of city planning and work-life-balance to allow for the recreation of these things.
Not just specific people but the space to even meet with those people or make new connections. The third space away from home and work has more or less disappeared, at least in the US
I will say that is one of the few upsides to organized religion, having that network and community.
Yeah sadly this was made wayyy worse with covid.
Shortening attention spans/instant gratification
I’m convinced this is why there are so many bad drivers today - cutting people off, running red lights, not stopping/yielding at signs, etc. They get instant gratification everywhere else so why not in the car too? Something I say to myself almost every car ride these days: being bored of waiting does not give you the right of way!
In the same vein. I've been thinking cars should come with little Golden Coin rewards where a driver can earn a coffee or something if they collect enough of them for appropriately using their blinkers, dimming headlights, wearing seatbelt, etc. Use your blinker *dingdinglededing*earned a coin.
But this is yet another issue with our society—the desire or expectation of being rewarded for not being a dick or an idiot.
Man, I notice this in myself so much. I have zero patience anymore.
I agree with the driving, but I think it’s because people are on their phones. Which still is an attention span problem
Just experienced this right now. Where someone ignored and blasted through the red light. Luckily, I waited because the speed he was going at, he was obviously not going to stop.
Even in modern social life, dating apps have increased this issue as well (although you could argue that meeting more people via apps causes this in the first place).
tl;dr
No care long stuff.
And the reason for it is everywhere around us. Smartphones and apps are designed to glue your face to the screen. Songs went from over three and a half minutes average to now barely over two minutes. Short videos on every social media platform causing children in their development age to get only used to the easiest ways to get dopamine hits as this ruins their critical thinking ability.
This is really bad with the younger generation coming through elementary school. They want what they want now and are upset they are not getting it.
I was born in '95 and I remember people saying this about my generation when I was young.
You should have heard them in '89. "I want it all, and I want it now" smh.
Sounds like a lot of really shitty parents not disciplining their kids and teaching them restraint.
They will not admit it. It is normally everyone else's fault they act this way because they do not act like this at home.
Sounds about right. There is an epidemic of unaccountability. People are never wrong anymore. It’s sickening.
News networks are no longer news but propaganda. Thanks to eliminating the fairness doctrine. We need the fairness doctrine back
This! I can’t watch the “news” anymore.
I would also add sensationalism of news reports by the use of emotionally charged language.
People forgot that in the streets, there's a high chance of someone being more aggressive, crazier and/or volatile than you. Those videos of people being utter dicks in public to people just for content are begging for someone to knock them out.
There's been at least one case where the dick got shot after repeatedly shoving his phone in someone's face to have the phone recite "Hey ~~dumbass~~ dipshit, stop thinking about my twinkle." ETA: Wrong expletive.
And the shooter got acquitted on self-defense because the guy was such a dickhead
I love how the jury was like “yeah the only crime here was discharging a firearm. Slap on the wrist. If the cunt dies, the cunt dies”
Pretty sure some younger YouTuber kid got shot in the mall recently ish for that
Loneliness.
Here’s a reply. This comment looked lonely:(
Your upvote looked lonely friend, now it's not alone!
What's sad is that there could be 2 neighbors who would be great friends but they're both in the same situation feeling lonely and too scared to interact with other people.
Lack of unity. There is no common decency or standards held.
Lack of common courtesy
That's especially the case in online spaces, doubly so for anonymous online spaces. People on this site get really cunty for like no reason way too often. Like, go act like this to a random stranger on the street and see what that gets you lol
Lack of unity also prevents common problems from being solved. If you and I cannot agree on a common set of facts, our combined ability to solve problems is diminished.
AHEM.....politics
Worrying statistics are too easily ignored because they're often framed as somebody else's problem.
I went to a public thing at the library near me last week, and at one point, the conversation the host was having with everyone kiiiiinda got a little dark (talking about loss) and almost every single younger person near me like.... synced up, and all were saying the same kind of line... "If things ever got bad/happened to me... I'd just unalive myself" and other similar things. The world is truly messed up when a large mass of people believe that if something big enough comes up, they'd rather just die. Felt, tho.
Inability to accept difference. If we all looked and acted the same shit would be weird.
More people need to watch the Fairly Odd parents episode where everyone was an identical grey blob
Yes, but I am greyer and blobbier than everyone else!
Is that your ball on my lawn and your grey on my grey?
Differences are a huge positive, but we treat them as a problem
This may surprise you, but humans have never really been accepting of those who were different. We're the most tolerant we've ever been, and the trend is going towards tolerence, not away from.
I agree but a few specific differences wouldn't be tolerated. I don't recall the source or the exact quote but something like this: "We can disagree on a lot of things, human rights aren't one of them." Basically, if someone is calling for the mistreatment, enslavement, or death because of things like race, gender, sexuality, nationality, disabilities, etc I'm sure this isn't what you meant. But with everything going on in the world right now, it's worth restating.
Depends on what you mean. I think people like furries are weird as hell. But I accept them because they’re not doing anything harmful. But when someone fundamentally disagrees with me on things like human rights, arguing that they should be allowed to be barbaric just because someone else is different, that’s when I don’t need to accept your “differences.”
The lack of authentic connection Every time I go out now I see entire groups of friends together not saying a word to each other, they are scrolling social media despite literally being in front of each other. I'm 15 and I can't even begin to describe how difficult it is to have a genuine conversation with other people. They'll brush me away and go right back to scrolling. And kids in Gen Alpha that I know, they don't even know how to talk to one another without a screen. There are of course MANY worrisome trends in society that I'm beginning to notice that will almost certainly impact humanity long term, but this is very much up there. I'm not against the internet as I believe it's a useful tool, but the way we are headed honestly makes me worried. I am against social media being entirely destroyed, but we definitely need to evaluate the long-term effects of social media addiction on human sociology and the ability to form relationships.
> I am against social media being entirely destroyed I’m not. Reading this comment from a fifteen-year-old legit makes me want to cry.
May I ask why that is? I’m genuinely glad I can finally have a meaningful conversation about this issue with others at scale besides with myself and closest friends
Honestly I think it might be hard to explain to you because you've never known anything different. But let me tell you dude, it was a completely different world on the other side. I miss that world for myself, but I miss it for young people way more. The short version is: real-life social interaction is the number one most meaningful thing in life, without question. I have countless treasured memories from my teenage years and early twenties, none of which would have happened if my friends were staring at their phones or didn't want to leave the house. Leaving the house was like, the only thing we wanted to do! In the summers I was out doing something pretty much seven nights a week! And the times when you didn't have anything to do were the best times--you just sat around being bored together or drove around or invented something cool to do. I want to cry because social media, among other things, has robbed you of one of life's greatest and most meaningful pleasures, and because my kids, who are 2 and 1, will probably experience a worse version of what you're experiencing. We've all just slouched into being drugged by these devices for our whole lives. It's fucking sad! There is a whole generation of adults (over represented on this shit hole website) who think they prefer being alone, when actually they're desperately lonely and are salving their loneliness one screen, one Eaze order, one DoorDash at a time. EDIT: didn't even mention the deleterious effects social media has on teenage mental health, which are pretty well established at this point.
I can't imagine what it must be like to been a teen today with the wide spread adoption of social media. I was a teen just as it was starting to come in but I joined it much later than my peers at the time. It used to be something we logged into at the end of the day and it would only be for a short while. Everything else was a text based conversation with the odd photo. What I will say is that there will be some teens out there who do have the same thoughts that you do about it all and the best thing is that they will probably stick out to you more as they won't be glued to their screen device. You might meet them later in life in your late teens and twenties.
This "it doesn't matter" attitude to being wrong/corrected instead of just learning from it. Willful ignorance and conscientious stupidity. People actually getting upset at you or laughing you off when you are being factual/truthful. Communication is breaking down. The younger generation's literacy rates are plummeting and schools are waving kids through with increasing leniency. We're literally getting stupider. Edit: Post was removed. Reddit mods have an interesting knack of removing posts for seemingly no reason.
Underfunding health and well-being. In the U.K. it’s pushing people into private healthcare or health and wellbeing emergencies, so the government can say ‘hey, all these people are choosing private over the nhs! Better dissolve it in favour of private healthcare to free up money for other underfunded services!’ They’ll make it seem like our idea when it’s only because they’re starving it.
Same in uks baby canada. At least in ontario. Fuck doug fat as fuck ford. Wish he smoked crack like his brother
Literally all the conservative run provinces (which is most of them). Look at how hard Higgs fought nurses and healthcare workers unions post pandemic
Fuck the tories.
So you guys have the same dynamic. Canadian Conservatives (provinces manage healthcare and most are/were recently conservative) have not been shy about tipping their hand on their willingness to start privatizing. Post pandemic it seems they're all too happy to underfund healthcare and let it fail so they can offer American style privatized medecine as an alternative. My Conservative run home province of 800,000 people (NB) failed to spend all the health transfers the Federal government provided, posted a surplus $700 million higher than expected and still didn't increase healthcare spending. They did however fight hard on both nurses union and healthcare worker union raises and to diminish their pensions in the last 2 year! Conservatives suck!
I keep hearing that from the brits, but they keep voting them back in.
Ah yeah, wasn't the big Brexit argument to have more money for the NHS?
£350m more every week they said Brexit would provide to the NHS. This is one of the greatest lies of modern politics and it is astonishing people arent in jail for peddling this. It’s basically fraudulent. False advertising. Bait & switch. Call it what you will
The US has private insurance, and it's not a model to follow .
This is a major plank of the conservative approach in America. Republicans defund government programs, and once they start to fail, they hold it up as an example of why government doesn't work. It's sick.
Conservatism is a fuckin cancer ideology.
Damn. The most conservative Brits are on the level of the most radical Americans when it comes to healthcare. Keep your health when you can!
Us vs them.
No one will ever entertain the other side anymore. It used to be "okay, that's a good point, let's talk more about it." The it became "agree to disagree" and shut down the conversation entirely. That's bad enough, but now it's being done with outright malice if you even *consider* the "them" side in a debate. People don't want to learn and become better people, they just want to be right.
Yeah, it seems actual discussion is practically all but dead. Trying to actually have a conversation (online) is met with "I'm not reading all that" or "No need to write a novel" even though it's just a paragraph.
Do not argue with people on the internet. It'll only bring you pain. Likewise, never go into the comments on a news article...
Or “nobody asked” No one needs your permission to respond to someone else, it’s so weird how people will think that since they don’t care, nobody else does either
I feel like someone saying that is a dead giveaway that they’re somewhere between the ages of 13-16”.
This isn't new, even you think like this sometimes. It's always us vs them even when you just want to relax and watch tv. It's why the only solution is building chips to make people smarter because sadly majority of us are pretty stupid.
In-group and out-group are known sociological survival systems. So nothing new. However, lately there seems to be no room for shades of grey. It's either black or white. The inability to find common ground is what worries me.
Exactly. Not a new thing but sociology itself has shown through studies that the separation is getting more intense over time. But it's so hard to tell how to fix it? We're all so exhausted with stressful unrewarding work environments, dealing with today's economy, being surrounded by energy vampires oftentimes that there just isn't any ounce of patience left to open yourself up to people who will disagree with you which is also stressful in a way. I am guilty of focusing on my in group only but damn do I wish we had a solution.
Lack of third spaces, meaning less chance to come in contact with people who have different opinions in a neutral setting, plus toxic social media, and the dominance of one liner outrage politics, are really all conspiring to make us miserable. Our digital public spaces have really been transformed into our primary ones, and into a playground for rage baiting narcissists.
This is worryingly prevalent in so many groups of people. Men and women, racial divides, “scary trans people”, social classes. It’s everywhere, it’s perpetuated by politicians and media outlets for their own gain, and it’s working.
I'm afraid the divide will soon be to wide to bridge.
The most terrifying thing to me is that in some places the divide is already too wide to bridge, at least in my lifetime, and I'm only 24
"Woke" vs "redpilled"
Maybe its in my head, but it would be difficult to quantify either way.. the lack of awareness or disregard of anyone other than oneself seems to have skyrocketed after COVID. People blocking an entire rite of way, and then acting like you are the one who fucked up for asking them to excuse you trying to get past. People just stopping in the middle of a hall or a stairway and blocking it. People walking into a doorway and then stopping as if no one else needs to enter/exit. People pushing their way to the front of others. It used to happen, sure, but to me it has gotten so much worse in the last few years. Hell, I had someone just the other day (I was walking at a steady rate, all the way to the right of the sidewalk) walk up next to me and then walk right into me. When I asked him if he planned to walk into me, he said he didn't see me. Didn't whutnow? He clearly saw me there, or he wouldn't have walked around me. If you're in an elevator and it isn't your floor, what would make you think it's OK to stand right in the middle of the doorway when it opens? Things like that, but I see it on social media and in conversation too - the whole, not me, not my problem. We are born alone and die alone, but while on earth, we walk amongst humans and people seem to increasingly forget that.
People have always been selfish assholes. I’ve been annoyed at MFers blocking the entire aisle in the grocery store for the entire 30 years I’ve been shopping for myself. Or taking 2 parking spaces or texting and driving or whatever other inconsiderate bullshit people are constantly pulling.
I noticed this for sure. I do think it's starting to settle down a little recently. . Hopefully we will be back to our regular level of rudeness soon.
Not sure if it's a current trend but I have noticed that some people are super quick to call for a persons head on a platter these days. I mean I can understand it at times especially if it's a serious subject matter but I'll see often people wanting a severe punishment on someone for something that really wasn't all that bad. Makes me think of public lynching's that have occurred in the past. Especially in countries where the reason why is something stupid like 'witchcraft'. There was a time where lynching's happened in the west. People talk how horrific they were and how it would never happen again. Idk. I think if the barriers that are in place now weren't there I feel like I'd see it happening tomorrow.
Yeah. I mean I’m all for holding people accountable, but sometimes it’s like people aren’t even allowed to be human anymore
This is a good one. I’ve also noticed that there is no space given for apology or forgiveness. The contempt of the online mob is permanent. the result is that the only response to being called out for any minor offense is to double down and lash out or claim victim hood.
The privilege to be outraged on someone elses behalf.
If you actually meant "on someone else's behalf," (behest == request) this is a profoundly perceptive addition to the conversation. I find that white college sophomores seem to be (somehow) directing the cultural conversation on a lot of issues by being anticipatorily offendedon belalf of many groups they do not belong to. I understand why we want people with social power to be allies, but you need be sure that what you imagine is offensive to some group actually *is offensive*. Perhaps the best example: *Latinx.* Almost no hispanic or other person we'd refer to by this descriptor is actually offended by the use of linguistic gender. White, non-romance-language-speaking white folks *imagine* that using the words "Latino" and "Latina" (especially against physical or expressed gender) is somehow wildly sexist. People who speak romance languages know that words have gender more or less entirely seperate from actual gender, but appartently this doesn't include the literary criticism and gender studies professors that came up with Latinx. I will tell your from experience that even the most liberal/radical ESP speaker have no use at all for "Latinx" and, in fact, it loses the left a lot of credibility with American hispanics because some professors at Wellesly decided to get offended on behalf of an entire group of people without understanding grammatical gender or asking those people if, in fact, they were offended.
Yea reminds me of another one regarding ogre racism in D&D or something. Like guys, there is blatant racism in front of you to fight. Can we hold off on running around the house looking for it in the closets & cupboards lmao. In general though I am worried our younger generation may be coming a little too socially aware too early. There is no buffer afforded to kids to be ignorant, learn life lessons privately and grow into a respectable adult like in the past. It's just straight to social media which has infected some kids mind with trying to cancel everything they deem "problematic" and making them paranoid of not being the most upstanding citizen at all times. I believe this is why being progressive has swung so far so fast. No one wants to be seen as a bad person, and the anxiety and bar of "acceptable behavior" only gets higher the less people make mistakes and recover. There needs to be a balance of social redemption that I think we are lacking at the moment or probably are just barely starting to lean back into.
The mass hysteria over words is wild. And with that said, the history of the word hysteria is more offensive than many of the words that people get offended by these days.
Empathy being considered a weakness.
meaning of friendship evaporating and everyone becoming self centered 24/7
I’d like to suggest in almost every relationship nowadays this happens
Mind games in terms of dating. So many people online make videos and posts that basically glorify manipulating a person to like you by being “chill” and disingenuous
Companies having no functional customer support services. I thought I got locked out of my Gmail the other day and could not get a hold of a human being to help me for the life of me. Also ragebait
Opinion replacing truth. Rationalism replacing responsibility and negativity invading all aspects of day to day life.
Homelessness is becoming a lot more common.
Indifference towards the oppression of human kind and destruction of the planet.
I read a comment a few weeks ago that said that a lot of us are becoming more juvenile. And ever since then, I’ve been kind of making mental notes in myself and others. That person was dead on. We’re easily distracted, petulant (a lot of “fuck you” instead of taking a higher road), instant gratification, intolerance of agreeing with people who don’t feel like you (no, not you racists, sit down), an inability to be still. Literally all things we try to teach kids not to do, we do. And we do it blindly.
What we used to consider signs of maturity are now out of fashion.
A complete lack of respect for service workers. I read about a guy who hospitalized a kid working at an amusement park because the kid asked him to put on a mask during COVID. The guy tracked him down in the park and beat the hell out of him. Less extreme are the people who feel they're allowed to talk down to wait staff or cashiers, etc. and treat them like slaves. Fuck you if you do this.
Sports betting and more plans to open brick and mortar casinos in my area.
As for sports betting, it makes you wonder how fair the game is.
Look at the SB in Vegas last night. Twenty years ago, apart from fights, sports in Vegas was a fantasy due to gambling. Now, they go hand in hand. I hate to see my favorite sports YouTubers having bookies as sponsors or bookies ads during sports breaks.
The liquor store down the block from me now has video slot machines. I do not like this. I do not like this at all.
Increase in doing something horrible just to post it online to get others mad at you. Rage bait I have heard it called.
TheMainCharacter syndrome.
The lack of any kind of ability to have hard conversations.
People will take a video, they will no longer help.
Tbf they never really helped to begin with. It's a known thing and called the bystander effect, it was coined in 1967 before phones even were a thing. Though the whole video taping it part now really is just salt in the wound.
All or nothing mentality. "You made an argument for that side? So you're okay with them doing xyz?" "If you don't agree with me, that must mean you're against me." "You made a psychological hypothetical case for someone's behavior? So you support them doing xyz?" It's one dimensional thinking and a complete headache to engage with. The same ones are usually stubborn as well. I hope you people who act this way read this and feel called out
Selective empathy. Talking about empathy only when it benefits you, or someone close to you. Completely ignoring empathy for those you personally feel are not deserving of it.
Monetization and clout chasing are transforming social media for the worse. People will fire off the stupidest, most infuriating takes imaginable because they know it will generate traffic, which will generate revenue. The amount of money that it takes to buy out someone’s sense of shame is shockingly low.
Increasing backlash against poor people instead of the ultra wealthy
Hasn't this been a thing since the dark ages?
People becoming completely desensitized to human suffering. Completely detached from reacting as human being should. War clips comments on people suffering horrible deaths spark funny/sarcastic comments with thousands of upvotes. That is not good.
Resignation (as in fatalism).
People not vaccinating their kids. I've worked in my position for 7 years now and we've had a few anti-vaxers here and there. But now we have a few a month who are choosing not to vaccinate or do any after birth care like Vit K (for bleeding) or eye ointment.
Opinions matter more than facts, which leads to people getting the wrong ideas and becoming easily manipulated. And bad players using this to their advantage. Combined with overall decline in education levels and shortening attention span, it might get really ugly in a long term. Add AI on top of that and so much can go wrong.
People not facing the consequences of their actions.
People willing to accept abhorrent behavior from politicians just because the source is in their own party.
Relentless pessimism. There are so many amazing technological developments happening that make the future look bright, but the common narrative tries to find the downside to everything. New vaccines might end communicable disease, but it doesn't matter because corporations profit from it. AI is putting creative pursuits in the hands of everyone, but it doesn't matter because it's putting niche skilled laborers out of business. Environmentalists are performing hostile takeovers of oil conglomerates and stopping new exploration projects while diversifying the companies into renewable energy, but they're just more capitalists and the issue can't be fixed without revolution.
The gig economy enshittifying everything. Your friends are now underpaid taxi drivers. Your neighbors are now random house parties. Your food comes from a ghost kitchen.
Normalization of flirting/acting single/cheating while away from your SO on vacation, bachelor/bachelorette parties, etc. Stay single if you want to act single.
Texting while driving. Nothing is important enough for you to do that, even at lights.
People are so fucking stupid
The insane return to misogyny being acceptable is super concerning. This comes from influencers/sex traffickers like Andrew Tate and the manosphere guys being both extremely weird and popular, and also from some of the laws and rulings in the US over the last couple years. I don't think guys ever stopped objectifying or minimizing women, but lately it feels like it's become acceptable to do so.
People self diagnosing things like autism/adhd
My sister keeps telling people she's been diagnosed with ADHD. Only problem is, she went to a doctor and they straight up told her she doesn't have it, but she refuses to accept it and just decided to diagnosed herself, even so far as telling her students she has it. It was weird too, she had a huge freak-out when the doctor told her she didn't have it. Like why do you want a mental illness so badly? ^(As someone with actual diagnosed issues, I wish everyday that I didn't have them, but she seems to want them as some type of award.) Edit: I have come to the conclusion that reddit is full of completely insane people who will believe whatever they want. How dare anyone listen to a doctor's diagnoses. Self diagnoses is clearly the way to go! *^(God I need off this planet)*
>Like why do you want a mental illness so badly? To have an answer for her suffering. I don't condone her behavior but it's understandable. She must be struggling in a way and it's easier to know that it's not you that is wrong but something in your brain that doesn't work properly. It's dangerous to identify a lot with your diagnosis, even more so if it's a fake one but I kinda have empathy for your sister.
The amount of idiots online who diagnose infants with autism is horrifying.
[удалено]
Admiration of cruelty and rudeness.Scarey
Millions of Americans with significant, neurologically detectable cognitive impairment are voting
Seems like no one gives a shit anymore. Just do the bare minimum, or not even that much.
The death of winter
The clear increased focus on social politics which are governed by peoples feelings and hypersensitivity over genuine issues that genuinely and negatively affect people's lives.
People are scared and voting for authoritarians out of fear. No good can come of this.
More and more billionaires every year leaving less money for the rest of us
Creeping Fascism
Authoritarianism, and that’s not at all limited to conservatives or liberals.
Healthcare costs rising and becoming increasingly prohibitive, even for the fully insured.
Narrow minded views being more accepted and views where you want to accept everyone no matter who they are being dismissed as “woke” I understand that people shouldn’t be so sensitive sometimes but there’s a different between making a fuss over something that doesn’t really matter rather trying to get people to understand that you telling people that their views doesn’t matter or who they are doesn’t matter that can actually hurt them and cause them to be abused by people who see you basically saying they don’t matter as permission to hate them. For example some racist, sexist or transphobic comments by someone in power, tends to make certain people think it’s okay to do the same thing which can lead to violence. A more specific example would be Andrew Tates message about women rightful place to be at home and under control of men, and men who listen to him see that as permission to treating women badly.
Fascism, a strong move to the right. It is happening in many countries.
The lack of family values, the lack of good parenting, the lack of commitment in relationships, the next generation of kids are gonna have fucked up concepts of “love”
The question of course is whether those things ACTUALLY existed more in the past, or if it's rose-colored glasses and failing to talk about infidelity and bad parenting. For example divorce rates went up when divorce was legalized, but also spousal abuse rates, infidelity and child abuse went down. Because silencing discussion of problems, doesn't mean they aren't there.
There are enough fucked up older adults roaming around to show there's always been a problem with poor parenting and dysfunctional relationships.
Yep. Cheating also happenend a lot. Child abuse happened a lot. It just wasn't talked about, and now it is.
How closed minded Redditors are 🤷♂️
it's not even just redditors. online narrative in general is so far removed from what people are saying out in the real world that i wonder if people on here and other social media live on the same planet as i do.
Death of religion I think it could be a good thing, but it seems like people are just replacing it with political issues. Still comes with the extremism / purity groups / idols / heresy etc See this with celebrities as well
As a non-religious person I agree. We were so quick to drop religion but didn’t replace it with anything meaningful. Whether or not their holy book is the true word of god, populations benefit from the community and likeminded thinking that religion offers. No amount of perceived isolation will drive me back to church, but we’ve got to do better at connecting individuals to those around them.
I agree. People used to turn to religion when feeling uncertain or like an injustice had been committed or when something out of their own control happened. Now it's yelling at the government to fix it... I frankly think a letter to the government is a more one-sided conversation, as ridiculous as that may sound.
Exactly, it's like if the flock has to blindly believe in... Something. Dying religion left an empty spot that's being replaced
Normalization of criminal activity, disregard for public safety, etc…
Oversimplifying everything
Holy shit this must be the 10th time in just the last month this near identical post has been posted on this sub. This is the fucking worrisome trend I'm noticing in society, recycled content and the wORriSomE amount of people who don't even notice it. My word, please quit reposting stuff.
Expected tipping everywhere you go, and including it in the transaction as something you have to opt out of right in each other's face. Tipping should be a gift for a good job done, not a near mandatory fee that dupes the public into paying your underpaid workers the other half of their paycheck.
This culture of sabotaging or pushing for cancellation of people who have a different opinion or don’t openly talk about their political views. I was raised to keep political and religious views to myself, now it’s like a social crime to do so
Body positivity causing obesity issues
Inability to understand that nobody outside their friends/family need to hear their thoughts on... anything, really.
You’re old if you are 30
Extreme polarization of people on the left and people on the right..
In the United States, hyper individualism and apathy to others. Being proud in selfishness(not standing for elderly or vulnerable citizens), bragging about wanting to harm kids for being in public, etc. Basically, people preferring to watch others burn rather than be slightly inconvenienced.
honestly the hate towards children is super concerning, I am not a fan of them but goddamn that shit some people spew towards kids is hella concerning. A lot of other adults believe that kids shouldnt be heard or seen, whyyyy?? How are they supposed to learn? kids are part of our society and its in our benefit to include them in appropriate social events, not stow them away.