4 ms·

Add increasing concentration of wealth in less and less people, increasing job insecurity due to technological advances rendering many jobs completely useless (

Add increasing concentration of wealth in less and less people, increasing job insecurity due to technological advances rendering many jobs completely useless (and transfers even more wealth to those that are already haves and removes it even more from have-nots), the instant access to compare yourself to millions of others around the world... I seriously can't understand why some people scratch their heads around the youth's mental health crisis. I'd be baffled if they weren't depresesd.

taylodl 3y ago
These were all the things the kids were talking about in group therapy - and this was nearly 10 years ago! BUT - I wouldn't expect people who haven't been paying attention to the environment to be paying attention to their children. Or maybe it's the other way around?
luckylion 3y ago
We've seen much worse wealth inequalities in history, we've seen much worse job markets, we've seen much worse wars and pandemics, history was a lot more violent. Really the only thing different there is that "instant access to compare yourself to millions of others". Which is essentially social media. I'm sure there are other factors and everyone can speculate what they are, but "the world is terrible today" is hard to argue because it was much worse before, yet this didn't happen.
- taylodl 3y ago
  Things may have been worse in the past but in the past everybody was in the same boat. Famine? It affected everybody. Plague? It affected everybody. Drought? It affected everybody. War? It affected everybody. Nowadays the systemic problems that are an artifact of modern life do not affect everybody. The richer you are, the less your affectation. This a winner-takes-all and loser-gets-nothing is a byproduct of the neocon ideology that has dominated our politics since the 80's. Forty years on and its causing grave psychological trauma.
  - luckylion 3y ago
    I believe you're romanticizing the past. Famine (often with Drought)? What do you think the alleged "Let them eat cake" came from? The nobility and the bourgeoisie weren't affected, only the peasants. Plague? The motto was cito, longe, tarde: quickly travel far away from the city, and return late. Guess who had that option to leave the plague-affected town for their country estate? War? While not as clear as the others, it's similar: besides a few sons of nobility, it was the peasants that did the dying, not everybody. When is the last famine that saw millions dead in the USA while the rich lived lavishly? Because that's what the past looked like, so "winner takes all" was obviously much more true back then. Society used to be much, much more unequal, capitalism was much harsher. I might be mistaken, but judging that you're on HN and likely work in tech/STEM and had the money to pay for years of therapy for your daughter, I assume you're part of what would previously be called the bourgeoisie -- so there's really no factual reason for you or your daughter to be worried about an increasingly unequal wealth distribution, because you'll have more than your "fair share". I'm not judging, and I don't want to say that her pain isn't or wasn't real, but maybe it's not a rational response to the state of the world and her role in it. If you look to Western Europe, we have similar issues, yet "winner takes all" couldn't be further from the truth here, we have strong welfare states, we have high taxes, yet teens are still struggling, apparently more than usual. We have very few school shootings, we're lifting any restrictions on abortions, we're constantly making it easier for trans people to transition etc etc etc, so lots of things are fundamentally different. Yet we still see something very similar, and we do have cellphones and social media.
    - taylodl 3y ago
      Maybe you should actually listen to the kids. After months of group therapy I can attest to they're telling us. We're just not listening. Continuing to blame social media is all the confirmation they need to know we're not listening. Oh, and the active shooter drills they've been doing at school now for the past 10 years isn't helping anything. Now they worry about going to school and getting shot. Thanks to Uvalde they now know that the police who are supposed to keep them safe in an active shooter situation will just leave their asses flapping in the breeze getting shot it. But hey, let's blame social media. Better yet, let's blame TikTok. We don't like them being Chinese-owned anyway.

taylodl 3y ago

These were all the things the kids were talking about in group therapy - and this was nearly 10 years ago! BUT - I wouldn't expect people who haven't been paying attention to the environment to be paying attention to their children. Or maybe it's the other way around?

luckylion 3y ago

We've seen much worse wealth inequalities in history, we've seen much worse job markets, we've seen much worse wars and pandemics, history was a lot more violent. Really the only thing different there is that "instant access to compare yourself to millions of others". Which is essentially social media. I'm sure there are other factors and everyone can speculate what they are, but "the world is terrible today" is hard to argue because it was much worse before, yet this didn't happen.

taylodl 3y ago
Things may have been worse in the past but in the past everybody was in the same boat. Famine? It affected everybody. Plague? It affected everybody. Drought? It affected everybody. War? It affected everybody. Nowadays the systemic problems that are an artifact of modern life do not affect everybody. The richer you are, the less your affectation. This a winner-takes-all and loser-gets-nothing is a byproduct of the neocon ideology that has dominated our politics since the 80's. Forty years on and its causing grave psychological trauma.
- luckylion 3y ago
  I believe you're romanticizing the past. Famine (often with Drought)? What do you think the alleged "Let them eat cake" came from? The nobility and the bourgeoisie weren't affected, only the peasants. Plague? The motto was cito, longe, tarde: quickly travel far away from the city, and return late. Guess who had that option to leave the plague-affected town for their country estate? War? While not as clear as the others, it's similar: besides a few sons of nobility, it was the peasants that did the dying, not everybody. When is the last famine that saw millions dead in the USA while the rich lived lavishly? Because that's what the past looked like, so "winner takes all" was obviously much more true back then. Society used to be much, much more unequal, capitalism was much harsher. I might be mistaken, but judging that you're on HN and likely work in tech/STEM and had the money to pay for years of therapy for your daughter, I assume you're part of what would previously be called the bourgeoisie -- so there's really no factual reason for you or your daughter to be worried about an increasingly unequal wealth distribution, because you'll have more than your "fair share". I'm not judging, and I don't want to say that her pain isn't or wasn't real, but maybe it's not a rational response to the state of the world and her role in it. If you look to Western Europe, we have similar issues, yet "winner takes all" couldn't be further from the truth here, we have strong welfare states, we have high taxes, yet teens are still struggling, apparently more than usual. We have very few school shootings, we're lifting any restrictions on abortions, we're constantly making it easier for trans people to transition etc etc etc, so lots of things are fundamentally different. Yet we still see something very similar, and we do have cellphones and social media.
  - taylodl 3y ago
    Maybe you should actually listen to the kids. After months of group therapy I can attest to they're telling us. We're just not listening. Continuing to blame social media is all the confirmation they need to know we're not listening. Oh, and the active shooter drills they've been doing at school now for the past 10 years isn't helping anything. Now they worry about going to school and getting shot. Thanks to Uvalde they now know that the police who are supposed to keep them safe in an active shooter situation will just leave their asses flapping in the breeze getting shot it. But hey, let's blame social media. Better yet, let's blame TikTok. We don't like them being Chinese-owned anyway.