Do you think most of under appreciate being alive in this current time period?
Posted by Nature2Love@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 128 comments
We live in an era where we can travel almost anywhere in the world at the click of a button. We can go down to the food store and buy food without needing to hunt or work hard to get our daily meal/s. We live better than pretty much any royal person in previous eras, even those from as recent as 100-200 years ago. We have modern medicine.
We have a myriad of transport to get places domestically without the need for a horse or walking. We now get to experience so much more of even this country, rather than being limited to one area like many would have before modern transport. We can meet strangers online or via apps, even people from other countries.
Via YouTube we get to see other countries and places. We get to learn almost anything we want to from the Internet. We have mobile phones so contact with others is easy. The list goes on. Do we often take what we have in our current times for granted?
jennejy@reddit
No, I'm very aware that there's probably been no better time to be a woman. I have my own bank account and everything
sp4gh3ttt1@reddit
Don't forget being able to work. Never mind that the pay barely supports a family anymore.
pot_on_wheels@reddit
I love that I can now also be a wage slave for 50 years
AirconGuyUK@reddit
Capitalism absolutely swindled us.
Expectation: Double the workers for companies, double the productivity for companies, same wages for workers.
Reality: Double the workers for companies, double the productivity for companies, half the wages for workers.
Cool. Coool coooooool.
glasgowgeg@reddit
Median wage in 1970 was £1,100-£1,200.
The equivalent of £15,491.92-£16,900.28 now.
Median wage is not currently ~£8,000.
AirconGuyUK@reddit
Do you actually believe that?
jennejy@reddit
I mean, yeah, in an ideal world nobody has to grind out 40hrs a week just to fill the fridge but in reality, financial independence matters and it's available to me now in a way that it wasn't even 60-70yrs ago.
AirconGuyUK@reddit
It's weird because we actually solved the financial independence issue with our welfare system.
If you're in a marriage, have no earning potential, have a few kids, then get divorced then you will have a statuatory income from your husband and you will also have money chucked at you by the government.
So what did we actually solve by getting women into work? A sense of purpose? Why can't bringing up the next generation be a sense of purpose? Most jobs are fucking bullshit if we're honest. Look at me now typing comments on company time..
jennejy@reddit
Doesn't seem to have occured to you that a lot of women quite like working
ambluebabadeebadadi@reddit
As opposed to having zero financial independence and relying solely on the goodwill of either your closest male relative or your husband?
MapOfIllHealth@reddit
While also feeling guilty about handing your children off to strangers so you can go to work (if you choose to have them, otherwise you’re judged for not having them).
AshaNyx@reddit
Tbh women have always worked, it's just the more educated and wealthy who started to get jobs outside of the house in the 60s.
paulmclaughlin@reddit
In most places this was limited to roles that were seen as assistants to men.
Even in the 1970s my mum's career choices were limited.
Careless_Squirrel728@reddit
Yeah absolutely love having to circle back 6 times a week when I could have been meeting my friends for lunch, baking, and spending time with my kids
Lynvor@reddit
They always have been able to work.
What's changed is their opportunities and what they are able to work in.
Original_Document748@reddit
Lol I really hope this is sarcasm
Fit-Mistake-4390@reddit
Women couldn’t own their own bank accounts without a male guarantor until 1975. This is in living memory for a lot of people. So no, i don’t think it is sarcasm
DameKumquat@reddit
Not quite - banks didn't have to offer accounts to women until 1975, with or without guarantors. Many did, though, especially if a woman had money. My godmother inherited when her parents and siblings died in the 1920s and got an account with Coutts.
By the 70s, most banks would offer women accounts, but not necessarily on the same terms as men. Bear in mind most men at the time didn't have bank accounts either - pay packets in cash were common into the 90s.
AromaticVacation3077@reddit
Oh away with you and your objective facts.
Lynvor@reddit
Women could it's just bank's didn't have to say yes.
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
My mum wasnt on a mortgage until my parents remortgaged in the 00s, and didn't have a bank account until the 80s, she was also caned DAILY at school for being left handed
jennejy@reddit
What do you mean?
Hanker08-15@reddit
Why would that be sarcasm? Yes, absolutely, we are far from true equality of the genders. But we are also the closest overall we have ever been. I live in a household where the wife is the main breadwinner. Believe me, we are all very aware of what is still missing. But 50 years ago her situation would have been very different than it is today. One can appreciate the progress that was made without discounting the efforts that still lie ahead of us.
Separate-Region2070@reddit
I think down runaway and rise DINKS (Double Income No Kids) generation.
DB-DanCooper@reddit
Does the man of the household know about this?
Koda614@reddit
We’re on the cutting edge of technology and developments sure, but I’m not sure that makes us lucky. There’s a lot of things that even in my lifetime I feel I can look back at in the past and think we were probably better off.
Technology feels like it’s taking over nowadays and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
AromaticVacation3077@reddit
Sometimes I think that it could be a good thing in the future, just not now. Maybe we're just in the very early days of the tech age, and we can see the possibilities, but at the moment the tech just isn't advanced enough to genuinely improve people's lives. In fact, tech as it stands right now seems to create quite a lot of irritation and inconvenience. Like security - how much work do we have to do to just log in to our bank accounts sometimes? How much does that big tangle of rechargers on the table piss all over our day? What happens to our blood pressure when we're standing in the street trying to remember the password for that parking app we downloaded six months ago, you know the one that demanded 8 characters including two upper case letters, one number, and one special symbol (but not an asterisk or a hashtag)? The one that we registered with our old debit card? The card we had to cancel last week because somebody tried to use its details somewhere in Romania? Maybe there's a day coming when the constant irritations will be ironed out, and tech will genuinely make our lives easy and more enjoyable. Maybe right now we're at the dawn of something - like the early days of electric household appliances where women used to regularly get electrocuted by their hair curlers and washing machines were liable to spontaneously explode.
barejokez@reddit
It's a double-edged sword. Technology has democratised knowledge and massively improved certain tasks. Even something as simple as getting directions to a new location was much more difficult 25 years ago compared to today. As long as I have an internet connection I can translate any sign or restaurant menu in a foreign language, etc etc. As someone old enough to remember the 1980s, the pace at which an average person can make headway is astonishing.
The fact that the internet is also used to spread misinformation and make racist comments is not a good thing obviously.
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
Printing 90 pages of directions from the AA's website 💀
I travelled various Asian countries and experienced lots of non touristy places on my own, with no guide and had some wonderful memories all because of google translate.
barejokez@reddit
Lol, spent a long time doing that. But I also remember looking up street names in the back of an a-z: your destination is in box G4 on page 14, and you are currently on page 96. Good luck!
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
Remember those A to Z map books, my dad had a stack of them in his work van
Ok-Answer-7138@reddit
I think those sorts of mental exercises were a blessing in disguise, everyone who had to deal with that is now a novice cartographer :)
Also, for some reason, 5G mobile seems to be worse than 4G for location accuracy.
barejokez@reddit
There is certainly some truth in that, but not so much when you take a wrong turn and have to do it on the fly while running late!
justaredditsock@reddit
Everyone always does. I think the reason we take things for granted is most of the things don't actually matter. Take smart phones, if they never existed (so no apps) would life be better or worse? Probably better. I think our technological prowess blinds us to the fact that people are more miserable than in recent times. Yes a graph can make everything look awesome, but 30 year old professionals living with their mum because they cannot afford a house makes it seem a little moot.
AromaticVacation3077@reddit
I've never been alive in another time period, so I can't say for sure. But I do wonder. Like you I think about comfort and convenience. The comfort and convenience we have is incredible. But at the same time there's this nagging suspicion all the comfort and convenience is not making us happier. There's even a suspicion people are more unhappy now. Is there something about excessive comfort and convenience that robs us of something important - something human? I guess this comment will be unpopular, because one thing I've noticed is people are extremely defensive if you question their comfort and convenience! They're very attached to it! I watched this ridiculous report on Ch4 news the other day where all these people in Norfolk were absolutely melting down because sometimes they lost phone reception for 15 minutes. It was like their human rights had been violated. Honestly this level of attachment to tech just reinforces my suspicion. There's something wrong - something plain weird about it.
AromaticVacation3077@reddit
I've never been alive in another time period, so I can't say for sure. But I do wonder. Like you I think about comfort and convenience. The comfort and convenience we have is incredible. But at the same time there's this nagging suspicion all the comfort and convenience is not making us happier. There's even a suspicion people are more unhappy now. Is there something about excessive comfort and convenience that robs us of something important - something human? I guess this comment will be unpopular, because one thing I've noticed is people are extremely defensive if you question their comfort and convenience! They're very attached to it! But honestly this knee-jerk defensiveness just reinforces my suspicion.
Eukonidor_Of_Arisia@reddit
When one thinks purely in terms of the 'possessive', i.e. 'have' this, 'have' that, then on the surface it may seem that humanity has everything it could ever want or need.
... When, however, one has progressed from the short-sighted mental processes of a snatching near-ape to a somewhat more dignified, self-aware paradigm, one quickly discovers that to think in such limited terms is not only wildly inaccurate, but self-defeating on an almost incomprehensible scale.
In short, it's essentially choosing the gutter over wonders most of humanity could not imagine. Like a dog eating its own poop, and thinking it's a 'win'.
rohithimself@reddit
You don't miss what you have never experienced. I grew up in India, and as a kid, getting a daily power cut was a regular occurrence. It used to happen in the evening. That used to be the time when we would come out to play hide and seek with the other kids. A 24 hr power supply was nowhere near our dreams.
In short, for the 1980s me, those were the best times. For the 2060 you, those may be the best times.
nickgardia@reddit
No. We live in a time of insanity, where far right grifters are controlling the global political landscape, and the physical environment we live in is being destroyed by our neglect. Not a great time to be alive. Hopefully at some stage the world order will right itself.
PapaJrer@reddit
'far right grifters are controlling the global political landscape' - this is clearly nonsense.
nickgardia@reddit
Numbers don’t equate to measure of control
PapaJrer@reddit
Rich is not the same as far right. Not ie capitalism or globalisation.
Which far right ideologies do you believe are prevalent across the globe?
geoff_plywood@reddit
It doesn't seem to be the Right controlling the global agenda, tbh
Lulovesyababy@reddit
Far left grifters too.
MaverickMcdoodle@reddit
Yes but 100 of years ago we would of spent our whole lives with our families everyday. Men would go out to hunt which is considered a past time now and women would tend to the familes and camp all day. Then when the men would finsih the hunt everybody would spend quality time with each other and tell stories. The pipe of peace, make love, rinse and repeat.
Now most of us spend ungodly hours doing mindless jobs just to keep a roof above our head. Then most of our free time is spent looking at a screen slowly being divided on issues like LGBTQ, immigration or whatever other bogeymen the elites can throw at us. Also if your really wealthy you can literally get away with being a pedo.
We may live longer but is it better to be king for a day or spend your whole life a schmuck!.
GrumpChorlton@reddit
And you think that was 100 years ago?
100 years ago was 9 years after the 1st world war. In the mid 1920’s we had insulin, TV, Automobiles, household refrigerators, and sliced bread!
Very few men went out hunting for food and, as many lived in houses,there wasn’t much need for women to tend “the camp”
The US had Prohibition and the Great Depression.
Nowadays we have much more technologically advanced society. Yes, we made many great advances, but given that the majority of people struggle to put food on the table, travel isn’t an option. And birth rates are dropping because of the cost to raise children. Fascism is on the rise. The USA is no longer a democracy and the world waits with bated breath to see what diabolically insane thing their Dictator in Chief is going to do next. Israel is committing genocide in the Middle East. Russia is at war with Ukraine and constantly threatening European countries.
Consumer goods are relatively cheaper and the standard of living has risen, racism is on the rise, misogyny and misandry still exist, Homophobia still exists, there are still many people living in poverty.
What I’m saying is I don’t think anyone under appreciates it. We are all living it and it’s not that great. Unless you’re in the 1%, but the DGAF about the rest of us.
MaverickMcdoodle@reddit
No i said 100 of years ago. When we were tribes.
GrumpChorlton@reddit
Are you talking about hunter gatherers? That died out during the Neolithic transition when people discovered agriculture.
I can sort of understand what you’re trying to say, but you are mixing things up. Before the Industrial Revolution things were hugely different and people did spend more time with their families. I’m not clear as to how you thought we were all hunters, though. Yes, some countries were tribal, the North American continent, Africa, Australia, for example. Egypt was cultivating crops in the Predynastic Period, that was 6000 BCE to 5000 BCE. For Britain, tribal culture started to end after the Roman invasion, so 43ad to 410ad. That’s over 1600 years.
And the thing is a lot of what happened back then and how they lived bears no relation to how we are now.
If you are really interested to learn more about hunter gatherer society and the effects of mankind’s evolution, Yuval Noah Harari wrote a book called Sapiens. It’s a bit dry, but it’s an enjoyable read.
MaverickMcdoodle@reddit
I wasnt trying to paticulary pick out a moment in time and if i had anything in mind it would be more around the native american indians before the setllers arrived.Im from the uk so im aware it was nothing like that at this point in time.
I am just trying to point put that just because we have all these fancy things and live a lot longer doesnt actually mean that we have a better quality of life.
However thank you for the reading suggestion. I will take a look when I've some spare time.
PapaJrer@reddit
There's little to stop people choosing a life similar to that today. Most seem to not want it though.
MaverickMcdoodle@reddit
You just cant go living in the wild after being raised in captivity.
MonsieurJag@reddit
That's more like 10,000 years ago.
100 years ago you'd likely spend 72 hours/week working in a factory or down a mine for a pittance until a lung disease got you, if an unguarded piston or conveyor belt didn't get in first.
MaverickMcdoodle@reddit
100's not 100.
mlopes@reddit
Yeah this is what I was going to say. We have all of those commodities, but we spend our lives in the rat race. The idea of "work hours" is something that came out of the industrial revolution. Before that, people did work hard, but it didn't take over their lives because they weren't chasing eternal economical growth.
Glittering_Vast938@reddit
I once had no running water for a while and really appreciated it when my supply was reinstated.
flangeflangeflanges@reddit
Yes I do think people dont appreciate how easy many things are. I do. But that’s because I remember life before the internet. Before everyone having a phone in the house. Before central heating etc. But I suppose it’s hard to appreciate things you’ve always had that become the norm.
callisstaa@reddit
Sometimes you adjust to the newer tech though. I would happily watch movies over and over on VHS as a kid with tracking lines across the screen and washed out colours but there's no way I'm sitting through a 420p movie nowadays.
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
There was ritual with putting a VHS on (or did to an extent) now it's doom scrolling on streaming
Ok-Answer-7138@reddit
Before every house had a phone? I thought that came about before WW2? 🤔
DameKumquat@reddit
Ha! No. Even when I was at a private school in the 80s teachers would ask "is your mother on the phone?", meaning 'do you have a phone at home', though I think by then we all did.
But in the 90s, students generally didn't have phones in their houses, or they were incoming calls only, after someone hadn't paid a phone bill. You'd trot down the phone box to call anyone.
flangeflangeflanges@reddit
No, not at all. Lots of people didn’t have phones. That’s why there were so many phone boxes everywhere. All my friends who had better off parents had them in the 70’s but we didn’t get a house phone until the early 80’s.
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
Like going to see if your mate is in to come out to play and you knock their door and if theres no answer.
Someone I know now thought it was rude I left my car to ring his doorbell and didn't just stay in the car and message 'here' to him 😂
NotAnotherAllNighter@reddit
I think we could be a million times better off given the tech and advances we’ve got if we didn’t live in a shitty system where billionaires run things in their interests while 99% of the rest of us are forced to compete over scraps. We have enough money to fund better living standards for everyone, house everyone, feed everyone and build better infrastructure if only we distributed wealth more fairly. Instead we’re going from one economic crisis to another due to greed and power plays by the elite. And that’s just the UK, things are far worse in other countries.
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
We do also weirdly suffer with the crab in bucket mentality too. My (working) SIL gets abuse from non working neighbours because she works and os actively trying to get out of a council flat.
Ok-Answer-7138@reddit
The irony, if only her neighbours could appreciate where their benefits come from.
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
Right! She used to have a mix of elderly neighbours and other working mums and they've either all passed or moved on and absolute scum moved in
uneasy-chicken@reddit
Vaccines
MaryMaryQuite-@reddit
We can only do all of these things if we have the means to do them… it’s not the same the world over and even developed countries have significant poverty.
Delicious-Series-316@reddit
And yet I’m still worse of than my parents
Coffee_Queen_69@reddit
Did you get high?
Sinarum@reddit
Mental health (depression, anxiety, etc) has been getting worse in UK, despite everything now being more convenient.
Costs of living and inflation is worse (people are now less financially free), and there’s more loneliness. Luxury / glamorous lifestyles are normalised online (which subconsciously makes people compare themselves and sad that their own lives aren’t like that).
visitingshortly@reddit
Actually when we consider date. Real term living standards eroded circa 2016-2018 onwards in the Uk. Wages stagnated and housing affordability relative to wages declining. Cheap global travel has now been an issue for decades but specifically in the UK our living standards are eroding.
This view that we shouldn’t complain and things are great as we aren’t in the medical age is misplaced.
blackleydynamo@reddit
At least in well-off countries, if your kids get flu, measles or diarrhoea they're not going to die. Which was a sizeable risk until surprisingly recently, in the wider historical picture.
spoo4brains@reddit
I appreciate it, but events in the US show how easy it is to lose all the progress we have made, so we can't be at all complacent.
Lonely_Touch_43@reddit
Just remember this does not apply to… most people in the world
360Saturn@reddit
I mean. If you can afford to do those things.
CarelessTangerine185@reddit
Medicine/health.
Most of the people you know would have died long ago if not for modern medicine.
If I had survived infancy/childhood, I would definitely have died from blood loss in childbirth. Instead I had a blood transfusion and was absolutely fine a week later.
RaspberryJammm@reddit
Conversely I'm disabled from a virus that only came into existence 7 years ago, maybe if I'd lived in another time period I wouldn't be.
Banes_Addiction@reddit
Depends what you mean by "current time period".
I'm perfectly well aware how much better my life is than it would have been if I had had been born 100 years earlier. I'm not sure about 30.
33backagain@reddit
Modern medicine was only invented 150 years ago. Before that infant mortality was close to 50% and old age was 60s if you made it that far.
Imagine no electricity or running water or flushing toilets. Most of that is extremely new in human history.
And even the older boomers grew up when there was rationing and extreme poverty. And lost a lot of their family to two world wars.
Perspective should be hundreds of years, not 50 years.
Original_Document748@reddit
Just because we have come a long way doesn't mean we dont have a way to go , you can appreciate what youve got while also understanding things need to improve in other areas of life.
33backagain@reddit
I think the point is, most people don’t appreciate how far we’ve come.
Adanar01@reddit
100%, we have a winner here
Substantial_Bus5687@reddit
"We live in an era where we can travel almost anywhere in the world at the click of a button. "
"We have a myriad of transport to get places domestically without the need for a horse or walking."
Fast travel ruins the experience of open world games, and it also ruined Game of Thrones. Same principle applies in the real world.
---
"We can go down to the food store and buy food without needing to hunt or work hard to get our daily meals."
" We live better than pretty much any royal person in previous eras, even those from as recent as 100-200 years ago. "
Lucky you, I work two jobs just to afford food and a roof above my head. Let alone eating good.
---
"We have modern medicine which is absolutely massive, and has been a game changer globally."
Yes, depends on whether one can afford it or not, or whether your country has universal healthcare.
---
"Rather than being limited to one area like many would have before modern transport."
This is a modern misconception of the past. You can fact check it.
---
"We can meet strangers online or via apps, even people from other countries."
I don't want to meet people.
---
"Via YouTube we get to see other countries and places."
which kind of ruins it. It's so much more fun to read about a place, and then get there without knowing how it really is.
---
"We get to learn almost anything we want to from the Internet."
But are we actually any wiser? I think not.
---
"We have mobile phones so contact with others is easy. "
I don't want people contacting me out of nowhere, unannounced, 24/7.
And I don't want to carry a tile in my pocket whenever I go out.
Write a letter. Then I could just check my mail box once per day in the morning then be off on my day.
---
"Do we often take what we have in our current times for granted?"
It's all about perspectives. But I do appreciate power drill, electric saw, and lawn mower.
doommaxxer@reddit
I feel like I’m so alone in this but I’d rather have a horse and walk everywhere. I don’t believe humans are supposed to live like this at all. I think the natural roles of men and women have mixed together and I don’t think it was supposed to be this way. I don’t think we’re supposed to see the entire world or have everything at the click of a button.
We’re supposed to live in little tribal communities in nature. We aren’t supposed to live til 100 years old. We’re not supposed to live under fluorescent lighting for 8-15 hours a day and then go home and sit inside scrolling on another little blue light box. Don’t get me wrong, some things are great - medicine, not really worrying (too much) about dying. But I think the human experience has been completely lost. We’re all slaves now. I’d rather spend the day homesteading and chilling with my village without ever going on holiday or having a car.
Modern life is so bland. We have everything - yet we’ve lost everything too.
I do think I’m autistic though so I’ve never really fit in properly. I wish we had a choice on how to live. And yeah there’ll be people saying well why don’t you just get a tent or whatever and go live the life you want, but it wouldn’t be. Not allowed to hunt, there’s loads of laws on trespassing and all that jazz. It’s not really a real lifestyle option here (UK) at least.
If I had the choice I would’ve rather not been born. I feel like my natural real life has been taken away from me. I don’t want to go to work every day. I want to hunt and forage and sit by the fire. I wanna sleep when it’s dark and rise when the sun comes up. I wanna create things. I’m too tired. Pretending takes it out of me.
doommaxxer@reddit
I saw someone comment about ordering something for sewing. It’s coming tomorrow. I cannot help but think of the pollution, exploitation of workers, the billionaire getting more money etc where it seems as though so long as they don’t have to wait to get their pins they just don’t care. This isn’t a dig at that person but I think it’s just how a lot of people are now.
I see almost everything this way. I work in construction and I see us putting plastic in the ground and ruining natural habitats just so someone can have a swimming pool. It makes me feel sick.
gorilla998@reddit
Antibiotics
Acrylic_Starshine@reddit
For me its the internet.
Just the power of information and being able to do it all with a device which fits in your hand. Get paid onto it and pay on it.
Atlantean_Raccoon@reddit
I really don't, if anything we over appreciate our time. If you skip back 50 years or so many of our current problems did not exist. We had affordable and social housing, we had an NHS that hadn't been overwhelmed yet, we had jobs that paid enough for a one worker family to live a modest but comfortable life that also came with a degree of job security.
Our lives now are pretty much built around the premise that we are simply the primary resource of the process of generating ever increasingly intrusive data about us to be subjected to the mega-tsunami of shit that is the inescapable presence of ads. The wealth gap is beyond obscene, the education system is completely fucked with underfunded, structurally and metaphorically crumbling schools and higher education so costly that even some of our brightest simply can't afford to go. Saying that, education is not quite as fucked as the state of parenting in this country.
It was also better back then because at the time village idiots, local nutters and those suffering from the effects of multigenerational inbreeding were isolated from each other so they weren't able to coalesce in to something that posed a societal threat. Now they can connect with their own kind and propagate their batshittery far and wide in seconds on their phones etc. It's spread so far and wide that they're even setting up their own political parties.
Atlantean_Raccoon@reddit
I really don't, if anything we over appreciate our time. If you skip back 50 years or so many of our current problems did not exist. We had affordable and social housing, we had an NHS that hadn't been overwhelmed yet, we had jobs that paid enough for a one worker family to live a modest but comfortable life that also came with a degree of job security.
Our lives now are pretty much built around the premise that we are simply the primary resource of the process of generating ever increasingly intrusive data about us to be subjected to the mega-tsunami of shit that is the inescapable presence of ads. The wealth gap is beyond obscene, the education system is completely fucked with underfunded, structurally and metaphorically crumbling schools and higher education so costly that even some of our brightest simply can't afford to go. Saying that, education is not quite as fucked as the state of parenting in this country.
It was also better back then because at the time village idiots, local nutters and those suffering from the effects of multigenerational inbreeding were isolated from each other so they weren't able to coalesce in to something that posed a societal threat. Now they can connect with their own kind and propagate their batshittery far and wide in seconds on their phones etc. It's spread so far and wide that they're even setting up their own political parties.
Street_Coyote_179@reddit
I think the most under appreciated thing is that we’re on a rock hurtling through space and somehow life began here and has evolved into so many amazing things that are completely unique to earth and we now have art, culture, technology and music.
Maybe if everyone appreciated how special our planet and all its inhabitants are, we would stop all the destructive behaviours.
Send all the billionaires out to space to get that life changing astronauts perspective on our planet, if they still want to horde wealth and be idiots banish them to Mars.
GoldAndDogs@reddit
Yeah and some people will always be that way. Everything could be perfect and they’d still create something to moan about. Living today in the UK is better than almost any other option anywhere or anytime in the past and people still act like they’re living through the blitz.
A lot of people could solve a lot of their problems by being grateful and changing their perspective.
CountTruffula@reddit
There's so many obvious and major failings how can people not complain. We have areas of water designated as public swimming spaces spread throughout the UK, of them all currently only one is considered safe to swim in due to all the shit and pollution
Pollution that is publicly committed because the fine and slap on the wrist is preferable to doing it the proper way. So many of our conservation and agricultural laws overturned, way less hedgerows and control on what pesticides farmers can use
There's 60% less insects in the UK than there was 20 years ago, think about what driving down the motorway used to be like with them all getting stuck to the windscreen. Our bird population is plummeting, idk how rural/urban you are but while urban UK advances the rural side is absolutely collapsing
We won't have hedgehogs, swifts or all the beautiful flower meadows before long
And the people perpetrating that are blatantly doing it for profit at our expense
GoldAndDogs@reddit
Now try and write a paragraph about everything good and what you’re grateful for. The fact you’re moaning about what you’re moaning about probably means you aren’t on the verge of starving to death.
CountTruffula@reddit
I'm clearly not but that doesn't mean everythings fine, observable, illegal and almost irreversible change is being enacted on our environment right infront of us, just because we're not hungry doesn't mean it's not something to campaign against or complain about
It's retarded to see that and think ah well it could be worse, no worries
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
The amount of creating ones own misery is astounding.
Online-Demon@reddit
Ain’t that the truth
Historical_Project86@reddit
No. It's a fallacy to say that we should be grateful to live in such an era. If we lived in another era, we wouldn't actually know what we were missing, hence that would be the best time to live.
It's like saying that someone is "living their best life". Nope, they're doing what's known as living their only life, it is in fact impossible not to "live your best life".
Rant over. 😄
ILikeXiaolongbao@reddit
I live abroad and can call my parents every day for unlimited time absolutely free
Alternative_Pie_1597@reddit
I don't think people appreciate being one of the planet's elite enough. As for the time period I would prefer one that wasn't rushing over a cliff.
Classic-Wafer-7838@reddit
I agree, and especially if you're a woman or LGBT+, this seems like the best time to be born in.
I definitely fall into the trap of romanticising the past sometimes, but when I stop to think about it, I quite like being able to own property, have my own bank account, not have to be attached to a father or husband etc.
Although, realistically, I'd have probably died before I reached puberty anyway. I had scarlet fever A LOT as a kid.
Brettstastyburger@reddit
It's interesting that you've touched on mobile phones and the internet as a positive towards the end. I think we talk in absolutes too often in today's society so wish to avoid doing so, but you've touched on some of the undoubtable benefits of this technology already.
To counter, I think it's that very same technology which has made society worse and more miserable. It's invaded almost every aspect of our society, you go to the cinema or theatre or gigs and people cannot stay off their phones. You go camping and children just 9+10 are running around with their iPhones, families take projectors because they cannot spend a few nights away from a screen. Primary aged girls bully and abuse one another via WhatsApp. Nightlife has deteriorated rapidly as there is the risk of everything being caught on film and put on social media. Access to online porn is destroying mens brains, our politics is increasingly driven by internet algorithms designed to induce hate and anger. People are exposed to constant negativity or constant streams of celebrity or influencer slop. People are spending vast sums (collectively) on Chinese slop from TikTok and Temu and food slop from eats apps.
boringfantasy@reddit
We live in a crisis of meaning. The abundance of material does not help.
BourbonSn4ke@reddit
Yes
We do take it for granted, I get ill and I can see a doc or buy pills and it helps to ease it and cure it instead of a local witch doctor swinging my cat around his head and trying to eat its bollocks.
Problem is now we seem to be the most stressed generations and some of it is caused by ourselfs, instant gratification, social media addiction, 24/7 working etc
Also companies and governments are causing alot of problems while law and order is for the poor and rich do what they want and the expense of everyone else
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
Absolutely true, we also have monumental amounts of poverty, food and housing insecurities, a changing climate and love island
HugsandHate@reddit
I'm just glad I wasn't born in a poverty stricken country, where you'll have to work basically slave labour until you die.
But I am grateful for all the nice things they get us! They're like Santa's little impoverished elves.
Now, please excuse me. I have so much doomscrolling to do, and my iced coffee is getting warm.
Rare-Quantity5503@reddit
The great philosopher of our time, James Anthony Patrick Carr, once spoke about how we simply get used to things. How good we have it doesn’t seem wildly good because we live it, yet those from decades past would see our standard of living as incredible.
His example was cancer. If we were to cure cancer today, kids born tomorrow would live in a world that had never had cancer deaths and they just wouldn’t know how crazy that would be to everyone reading this post right now.
Lopsided_Snower@reddit
I think the mainstream media try to do the best they can to make us think we're not, most of us would be a lot happier and grateful if we avoided the internet and based our view of the world off real-world experiences
We need to now make sure that AI helps to allow the many to work less, rather than helps to make a few even more rich
paradoxbound@reddit
It’s still better than almost every era in history but for ordinary people, it’s been getting worse for decades.
Rare-Quantity5503@reddit
Most of this site absolutely, especially in the UK.
You read people’s comments and they begrudge a generation because those who did mange to buy houses had the price go up. But they ignore things like less than half the country had something as simple as a fridge, even less a car, women weren’t allowed a mortgage.
And that’s people in their 60s.
People in their 90s had it even worse. The 100-200 range you say, even worse.
Relative poverty in the UK right now is better than Kings had it.
dopaminecollector@reddit
I think a lot of people have a poor sense of history. We’re the richest we’ve ever been as a population. We have access to an unbelievable amount of cheap goods that just weren’t available to most people even 20 years ago (TVs, computers, clothes, cars, pretty much every kind of electrical good are relatively cheaper now). Food is relatively cheaper for Brits than pretty much anywhere else in the world. Our infrastructure works and is accessible to more or less everyone. Cities, towns and villages are safe and better maintained than they used to be. We’re constantly told things are worse than ever, but I don’t see it honestly
WorcsBloke@reddit
Probably yes. Infant mortality was enormous until modern medicine, and so was death in childbirth. I remember pre-internet days and while I am deeply sceptical of much social media, the basic ability to talk easily to people around the world is a massive advance in communications.
I think the people saying "But awful people have so much power" maybe skim over that this was also the case 100 years ago, 200 years ago, even 2,000 years ago. With the exception of things that rely on technology, pretty much every appalling abuse you can imagine that happens now happened centuries ago as well. If you want a specific example, think to yourself in detail about what Roman slavery could mean for a child. Without getting too graphic, most of the things you've read in Epstein weren't just possible, they were legal and unremarkable. And that was twenty centuries ago/
Daft-Count@reddit
90s were much better. Living standards have massively declined
Difficult_Egg_4350@reddit
I occasionally think about all the reasonably minor things that have happened that, less than 100 years ago, may well have killed me. Obvious ones like childbirth where the rate of mother/infant death has plunged, but also things like an infected cut, an abscess where the infection started to spread, basically anything where you have needed antibiotics or not become ill because of vaccines. Even stuff that isn't life and death like braces for a twisted tooth, or just living in a house with central heating and clean running water were rarities not all that long ago.
But yes, most of the time I take these things totally for granted. But that's because we have never know any different. My grandmother remembers polio being a big thing when she was a child, for example, but never in my lifetime has it been something to worry about, so of course I take it for granted.
Ok-Answer-7138@reddit
There are many caveats and exceptions to this narrative. For example, the late 90s to early 2000s were better in my opinion, we still had all the necessities we do today in one way or another, but with less inflation, attainable house prices and the internet was just for fun.
Even if we go back before the industrial revolution, people had problems, sure, but they knew who they were and believed god was behind everything, including their place in the world, and work may have been tough but it was seasonal, so no work in the winter. And also communal, so everyone in the village worked together, without all the mental distractions we have today, I imagine it was a fairly calm existence.
In today's world we have a lot less to worry about, yet somehow we worry more. In the grand scheme of things we're all better off today than anytime in history, but we can't pretend like there's nothing hugely wrong with modern society. Rates of anxiety and depression seem to keep rising among the western world, as does addiction and self-image problems, now add that to late stage capitalism where it's becoming near impossible for young people to own a home, even car finance deals are starting to look like mortgages, having said that I would much rather be living 20 years ago than today.
CountTruffula@reddit
Maybe but then also all my rivers and beaches are polluted, it's no longer considered safe to swim in all but one of the UKs public swimming areas. We have 60% less insects than we used to 20 years ago. Way less birds, way more pesticides and pollution killing our wildlife.
Inequality is at all all time high, cost of living Vs minimum wage is fucked. The high street is dying and being replaced by the convenient online shopping you mentioned. The convenience of it enables them to gain a monopoly on most suppliers and price gouge independent and local shops so it's almost not worth going there.
Plus global warming is rendering areas along the equator uninhabitable during the peaks of summer as it reaches and stays at over 50°c for days at a time even in shade. There's going to be a literal wall of death expanding out from the equator each year
The internet is great, can be really useful but to act like it isn't mainly used to spread misinformation and divide us would be wrong.
Transport is great I agree with you there, very few downsides. It's a shame they privatised it all and let it get so expensive where I live. Actually way cheaper to drive but they get all these contracts so they don't need to make it affordable to the public
I can't help but focusing on the obvious corruption and fucking over of the public though. Thames water loses a quarter of its water every year to leaks because they've had shit infrastructure for ages that they won't spend money on fixing because they don't pay for the losses
The amount of people illegally and knowingly dumping shit into our rivers and beaches is too high. They just get a fine, if they get anything, and a slap on the wrist so it's actually preferable to doing it properly which would cost more
Our governments are so openly corrupt in their destruction of our planet it's just a bit of a joke. Data centre opened up north and within a week everyone's tap water in the borough had gone brown with pollution because they didn't set everything up right. Ofc it took months of campaigning to even get it into court
BalthazarOfTheOrions@reddit
Absolute the best era to be alive. If we want to be more specific then you could argue that we peaked at either 2007 or just before the pandemic in 2019, both which doled out big financial hits (among many other things), but still we're very much in a net gain era.
MapOfIllHealth@reddit
Yes. This is a wonderful time in history. For humans.
For other species, and the planet as a whole, it’s a shit show and only going to get worse.
Informal-Intern-8672@reddit
Don't want to sound negative but I'm not so sure modern living is something we should appreciate. I appreciate the little things that fit in with life now, like having a machine that can make my clothes clean and fresh by pressing a few buttons and being able to access my money and get whatever I want to buy without even leaving the house, since we have to work our arses off to the point of exhaustion to be able to be able to cover our bills and give ourselves a few treats. But is life really better having so much free time, you end up lying on the couch scrolling your phone for 4 hours getting fat on takeaways?
EyeAware3519@reddit
A lot of people on here moan about the internet and social media but I grew up in a time before all of that. The world is a much better place now.
Busy-Doughnut6180@reddit
I bought the wrong bobbins for my sewing machine. I've just woke up, remembered this fact, and am about to order the correct ones online which will probably arrive tomorrow. 40 years ago, I'd have to go to a specialist shop, or do one of those catalogue orders and wait a couple of weeks.
I don't think it's necessarily under appreciated but easy to take for granted because it has become so normal just how easily we can get most things here.
blushaudio@reddit
I think the internet (including social media) is both the best and worst thing. It’s such an amazing tool for meeting people across the world to share interests and ideas, which was great for me growing up in the countryside surrounded by people I had little to nothing in common with. I’ve developed a good few skills and formed real-life friendships directly because of it.
Unfortunately, it’s also susceptible to corrupting influence from people with lots of money and a desire to spread misinformation (enshittification), so you have to sift through a lot of rubbish (and now AI slop - hooray!) to find anything meaningful.
Sweaty-Possession-19@reddit
I do agree that we probably take for granted how good our lives are comparatively to those living 100+ years before us. I mean, even just 50 years ago alot of people still had their toilets in the garden.
But arguably, the one thing that makes life have feeling and meaning has been lost, hunting for food, raising children as a village. Everything has become available.. And we that I feel there are consequences.
tulki123@reddit
There is definitely a balance to be drawn, there are new and unique challenges in modern life but (generally) anything that is a threat to life and health we are so so fortunate with nowadays.
What always focuses my mind when I’m having a tough day is that when my dad was a young child they had food rationing and when my mum grew up they were one of the fortunate ones in the village to get an indoors toilet!
StruttyB@reddit
Yes, well it’s certainly better than the alternative.
zentimo2@reddit
Yes, though it is understandable, as the recent period of decline from 2008 onwards is foremost on people's minds. We're still incredibly lucky, relatively speaking, to live in this time and place, we're just a little less lucky than we were 15 - 20 years ago.
scrotalsac69@reddit
We love in an era that is remarkably peaceful. This gives everyone the time to moan about less significant stuff as things become a bit more simplistic if you are trying to avoid being shot or blown up.
Overall everything is improving in general compared to history, but nothing is ever a constant, don't get me wrong there are still loads of stuff that needs working on but in general we are better off (everything not just financially) than ever before
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