I’m 43, almost 44, years old and went through a bought of alcoholism during the early part of the pandemic. I went through treatment and have been fine since. However, I can’t help but feel that all the news in the last few months is just the worst. Between the AI bullshit, the wars, the effects of capitalism, and the political situation in general it’s just the worst. Is it just me or have other folks noticed the same trend?

Edit: I should have also mentioned the enshitification of everything tech related.

Edit 2: Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. For some more context, yes I’m American and live in a state that’s about to ban the wearing of masks in public. I haven’t had a drink in over year and have been in therapy for 3 years. I don’t watch any news sources and rarely read media websites. But yet, that information seeps into my life somehow. I donate blood, I make charitable donations, and try to live a good life. I have 2 amazing kids and a great wife. It’s just hard to not end up in a doomer mindset at times. A Bitcoin company bought a power plant up here that has an existing lease to use a lake as cooling water, and it’s heated up the lake to the point that it’s killing fish.

  • Adderbox76English
    5·
    6 months ago

    Short answer. Yes.

    Long answer: I’m 48. And while some of what we are feeling is certainly a sense of “back in my day” nostalgia, its certainly not the only cause.

    We are from a strange generation who were old enough to remember a world before all of this, and young enough to adapt to all of it with relative ease. ( “this” being a transition to an online existence)

    Even one generation before us just simply struggles with it. And just one generation after us, while still “born” before this all became a thing, were to young to truly experience it.

    So we have a very unique and valuable perspective to offer; one that says "yes, things seemed better back then, and that is likely most certainly true for many things. But some things were likely just as fucked up back then and we simply didn’t have the internet screaming it at us 24-7. And perhaps right and left were not quite as polarized as they are today because of it.

    Just my Gen-x take on it.