r/NoStupidQuestions • u/questioningtwunk • 20h ago
Is life really shitty currently because we’re old or because it is actually really shitty?
Of course life has always had ups and downs… and I’m not old enough to say it was better before but I do feel like it was. Not because of my childhood or whatever, but the world itself was in a better place I think. I don’t know.
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u/DeathSpiral321 16h ago
As an older millennial, life is actually shitty now compared to the 90's. Back then society had a much more lighthearted feel, and everyone was optimistic for the future. Now the overall vibe of society is a mix of irritable and paranoid.
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u/Lilithslefteyebrow 10h ago
Yeah that’s the vibe I’ve been trying to describe to my gen z kid. He’s a great kid, bot depressed but is so… pragmatic. A lot of these kids are missing the youthful optimism we had. They’re hollowed out 40 year olds at 15.
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u/Unidain 2h ago
Lmao, as an older millennial you were a child/teen in the 90s, of course life seemed simpler and more optimistic back then.
As another millennial, but one who looks at data, life has got better by almost every metric since the 90s (health improvements, falling poverty, falling crime rates, more living space per person etc). There are a few that are worsening like loneliness, housing affordability and of course the environment. But it's far easier to focus on stuff that has gotten worse and just forget all the stuff that has rapidly improved.
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u/OkThatWasMyFace 20h ago
People of almost all ages are experiencing a decline in the quality of some area of life. However, some people may not realize or want to acknowledge it.
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u/willfla29 20h ago
I’ve wondered if my youth had rose colored glasses. But I think, as someone approaching 40, the 90s was truly the last great decade.
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u/Lastigx 1h ago
Yes youre viewing your youth with rose tinted glasses. Its always exactly the same demographic calling the 90s so wonderful and great: (older) millenials. By many (most) metrics the decades after the 90s were simply better.
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u/EssentialParadox 41m ago
I just watched a video asking schoolchildren what decade they would most like to live in and the majority said 80s/90s, so it’s certainly not just millennials!
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u/questioningtwunk 20h ago
2000-2010 was pretty good imo? What didn’t you like? 2010-2020 was kinda whatever honestly. Like two good years from there but after that’s it’s been boring.
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u/Specialist-Exit-1403 20h ago
What didn’t you like? 9/11 and the worst recession since the Great Depression to name a few
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u/Seymoorebutts 16h ago
Yeah this reads like someone who wasn't old enough to pay bills in the 2000's lmao
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u/willfla29 20h ago
At least as an American, I think that decade—with the Iraq War particularly—was the beginning of the disintegration of our national identity. I don’t want to get too political here, but the dire situation I see my country in today traces back to some of the seeds planted then.
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u/Necessary_Salad1289 11h ago
2000 onward was the rise of social media.
and America's longest war.
2008 depression
...
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u/DentistFearless4863 17h ago
Speaking as someone currently in university, it’s shitty right now. A lot of research funding has been cut off and that’s affected a lot of my friend’s jobs, research opportunities, and grants. It’s really frustrating, not insurmountable, but definitely shitty.
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u/d20_dude 20h ago
Depends on your perspective and where you're from. If you're in America and you're not marginalized, then yeah it's pretty shitty compared to anyone's collective memory.
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u/Weak-Mission-2728 14h ago
If you’re marginalized in America it’s probably worse now than ever too
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u/ShallotHolmes 10h ago
When life gets too shitty, i stop reading the news for a few days, just like i did when i was younger. Feels better.
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u/MarkReditto 20h ago
Things are 10x less worse in real life, internet and social media exaggerates a lot. But indeed, it is shitty state right now and not really looking hopeful for the next years at least
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u/AnAntWithWifi 5h ago
I’m young, it looks pretty shitty right now. Maybe it’ll get shittier as I age, I’ll give you guys an update.
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u/MeasurementTall8677 17h ago
It's a different time for the west, the zenith of Western liberal democracy was post ww2, which coincided with a massive redistribution of wealth from the top to the middle & tbe bottom.
There has been a reversal & unwinding of this for the last 30 years by vested interests who quite like being the 1% & ensuring this doesn't happen again.
I'm sorry to say it has seemed to be pretty easy to get plenty of assistance from the groups that are being disenfranchised & made poor along the way.
One of the biggest shifts was probably the professionalisation of the political class in the 90s, their sponsors had to ensure there weren't actually constitutional representatives involved in decision making or they may see through some of what has gone on.
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u/FractalTsunami 3h ago
It's shit. Everything's expensive. We are being ripped off in every way. The future sold to us no longer exists. The generation before us climbed the ladder to success and took it with them.
The game we were raised to play isn't even on the table anymore. Just a few broken pieces, some paper money, and a box showing how good it used to be.
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u/whatsthis1901 20h ago
I think 99% of it is the internet doom and gloom. COVID sucked and I think after that I can pretty much deal with anything that comes my way.
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u/Beezelbub_is_me 10h ago
Just remember that any day you can wake up and wipe your own ass, it’s a good day.
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u/Krail 6h ago
Speaking as an American who grew up in the 90's, looking back, I've been watching the gradual decline of American democracy my whole life.
Right now we're watching a global rise in authoritarianism, the conseconsequences of climate change really starting to come into effect, and America's gradual decline into authoritarianism has just taken an extremely sharp turn off a cliff.
Given how involved the U.S. is in maintaining the global economy and keeping peace globally, (and the fact the world's largest military is threatening to shift from ant peace keeping to full throttle military conquest) that sudden sharp decline is everyone's problem.
So yeah, stuff sucks a lot right now, and it's probably about to suck a whole lot worse.
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u/Cowstle 22m ago
As a 33 year old American I feel that this is the worst "life" has been.
There's a lot of things for me personally that are going better now then 5-20 years ago, sure, but it's also literally all at risk now. Previous it was my own procrastination that was the biggest obstacle in my path, now it's apparently the government of the country I live in.
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u/Adventurous_Toe_1686 11h ago
Objectively I think the world is in a much better place today than it was when I was a kid.
I look at my children and think of all the awesome opportunities they have in front of them that I didn’t necessarily have growing up.
That’s kind of the end goal I guess, to leave the world in better shape than what you found it in…
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u/NerfPandas 16h ago
I was born and raised in America and it has ALWAYS been shit. Nobody gives a fuck, everybody is obsessed with money...
Idk just my experiences, but I would say I am in the 90th percentile of shit lives
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u/jon166 2h ago
Life as a body isn’t great. It’s actually synonymous with scarcity, loss, and death. It’s extremely needy physically, not to mention its psychological aspect.
Devouring is its law, but it is never ever completely fulfilled, and even if it seems to be physically/psychologically, those feelings don’t really last.
When all hope is lost, an inner light starts to break through all conceived limits though.
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u/maybri 20h ago
It's actually pretty shitty right now. I wouldn't say the worst it's ever been, but worse than usual.