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Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

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Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#391

Post by wickoff »

austincheney wrote: post #34
WhompingWindows wrote: post #9

Social media's ills, rising wealth and income inequality, rising sea levels, mass extinction event, crumbling roads, shit wages, corruption in government and industry, governments overwhelmingly filled with representatives of other generations with different priorities...there is a huge list of reasons to be pessimistic and they are constantly thrown in our faces online.

It’s really hard to take that seriously. If social media is causing you heartburn then back away from it or delete your accounts. I deleted my Facebook account nearly a decade ago and deleted my Reddit account last year. Nobody is forcing you to be a drug addict slave of online media. Some of your list looks like entitled anxiety desperately in search of sympathy. For example you mention rising sea levels. Do you own…

Not everybody is that self-aware, I would argue that the majority isn't.

You have to look at it from a statistical angle. What percentage of population is capable of not falling prey to sophisticated machine learning algorithms which optimize for engagement rather than the user's well-being?

You are still commenting here for some reason. Does this bring any value to your life?

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#392

Post by CalRobert »

atemerev wrote: post #23
izzydata wrote: post #7

I'm surprised that half of people would believe businesses are making a positive impact on the world.

Unless you live in North Korea (and perhaps even there), everything that your life depends on is brought by businesses.

This mindset is why our planet is boiling. Pretty sure plankton aren't worrying about quarterly growth.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#393

Post by flipcoder »

rubicon33 wrote: post #38

My wife and I are not having kids. If you could sum it up into one short explanation as to why: My wife and I don't believe that the future is going to be a better place. Chief among the reasons are wealth inequality and buying power. If I can barely afford to buy a house now with a great job, I shudder to think what my kids would be faced with.

I think a lot of this has to do with a shift of our worldviews from previous generations. People are growing more fearful, and have less trust in long term commitments like marriage working out and they view life decisions as more risky and not worth the effort versus the payoff. I don't share this view though.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#394

Post by flipcoder »

tathougies wrote: post #55

Millenial here, and I just don't understand why my generation is so pessimistic. Things are simply better than when we were children. Perhaps it's having immigrants for parents, but my life just seems great compared to my parents and my aunts and uncles.

Maybe it's just anecdotal, but I know too many people these days that are like this, very pessimistic nihilists who don't see that life is worth any effort or risk. I unfortunately have had friends whose general negative worldviews turned into clinical depression and suicidiality. It seems to me that worldview and mental health are related more than people like to admit.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#395

Post by ddebernardy »

benatkin wrote: post #171
bfrydl wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Firstly, life is pointless and meaningless without children That seems like a very personal opinion you should be stating with much less certainty about other people's lives.

There's more to what GP said. It took me a while to figure it out: > life is pointless and meaningless without children, or as a fallback without taking care of others This implies that the type of people who genuinely don't want to have kids, and don't have some circumstance in life holding them back from having kids, don't care about others. It's not the first time I've heard it, but I disagree with it. It's the yu…

> This implies that the type of people who genuinely don't want to have kids (...) don't care about others

Not the slightest. It merely raises that those whose life doesn't revolve around putting a smile on someone else's face are living a rather unfulfilling life. Others here would usually, but not necessarily, be your children, family circles, etc.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#396

Post by downrightmike »

refurb wrote: post #71
makerofspoons wrote: post #30

"Climate change, protecting the environment and natural disasters topped the list of most respondents on a personal level, but less than three in ten of both the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts cited it as a worry." This is surprising. As a Gen Z-er this highlights the kind of bubble I find myself in- my friend group is almost universally in a state of despair about the collapsing biosphere. Climate change and mass exti…

Climate change and mass extinction are the chief reasons I am pessimistic about my life. Can you name another time in recent history where the end of the world wasn't near? WW1, Great Depression, WW2, Mutually Assured Destruction, Swine flu, AIDS, Cuban missile crisis, etc, etc. The correct answer is it's always been this way and what we're going through right now isn't really all that new.

I was reading Ben Franklin's autobiography and he noted that he had a neighbor who always thought the world was going to end and was paying rent about 4x of what he would have spent if he had bought his home when Ben first came across him and his end of the world views. The neighbor didn't believe in investing because it was the end, but now can't afford to own because he didn't believe in the future. Moral of the story is that if you focus on the bad future, and don't try to invest for yourself, your going to be in a bad spot. But the future comes whether you like it or not, spend time minding your own business and make plans to improve your future. Sure the climate is going to get bad, but if you don't prepare yourself, it will hurt even more. People have been living in deserts for generations, we can survive and we will. Be mindful of your impact and reduce it, but don't fret the future, it comes regardless of your view. Especially in this forum, the people here can have an impact and digitize the world, reduce paper use, reduce carbon use, invent ways to be more efficient. The sooner software eats the world the better off the world will be, help it along.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#397

Post by ddebernardy »

arbitrary_name wrote: post #253
ddebernardy wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the future is going to be a better place either, but I don't buy for an instant that it's a good reason for you to not have kids, or the actual reason you don't have any. Firstly, life is pointless and meaningless without children, or as a fallback without taking care of others. And secondly, why should you, who are aware of this, be the ones ending up not reproducing, essentially mimicking the storylin…

“Life is meaningless without children” Citation requested. I dont want kids because I am not convinced life will be that good for them. You dont get to question my reasoning for that. Instead, consider why rational, educated people might come to that point.

You forgot the second part of the sentence. As to data, there's plenty of evidence in the wild that caring for others and having quality relationships (with your children family, friends, whoever) have mental and physical health benefits.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#398

Post by ddebernardy »

eutropia wrote: post #373
ddebernardy wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the future is going to be a better place either, but I don't buy for an instant that it's a good reason for you to not have kids, or the actual reason you don't have any. Firstly, life is pointless and meaningless without children, or as a fallback without taking care of others. And secondly, why should you, who are aware of this, be the ones ending up not reproducing, essentially mimicking the storylin…

Movie plots are not reality and don't make for compelling arguments. As someone who plans to adopt kids rather than adding another human to an overcrowded planet, people who act like life is meaningless without reproducing strike me incredibly narrow-minded. A third point as well -- humans are not manifest destiny. There is no imperative for our continued existence in this universe, so we have no obligation to reprod…

I think you missed a part of what I wrote. By deciding to care for adopted kids you're firmly into the caring for others territory I put forward.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#399

Post by ddebernardy »

hiram112 wrote: post #350
ddebernardy wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the future is going to be a better place either, but I don't buy for an instant that it's a good reason for you to not have kids, or the actual reason you don't have any. Firstly, life is pointless and meaningless without children, or as a fallback without taking care of others. And secondly, why should you, who are aware of this, be the ones ending up not reproducing, essentially mimicking the storylin…

> life is pointless and meaningless without children This view won't be well received on a forum with a lot of millennials and Gen-z, but as a millennial myself (late 30s, though) without kids, I would actually agree with you to an extent. I've already lived and travelled the world. I've volunteered a bit. I've worked and saved money and can afford what I want. And none of these things really do matter the older I ge…

If I may nitpick, you cut the quoted sentence in half.

And to expand on what you've noticed yourself, as I wrote in a separate answer, there's plenty of data to support that caring for others is not only fulfilling but also gives health benefits to boot.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#400

Post by atq2119 »

ryandrake wrote: post #387
refurb wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very insightful comment! When all you've heard for the past 40 years is the end of the world is around the corner, and that doesn't turn out to be true, you start to tune it out.

Yup, I’m over 40 and there’s definitely a “Boy who cried wolf” effect in play here. I’m tired of having to be constantly outraged about the latest environment disaster that’s sure to kill us all this time!

Except that unlike in the story, there really were wolves, and we managed to take them down.

CFCs and the ozone layer are a good example: there was a wolf, there was decisive action because people listened to the warnings, and we managed to beat the wolf.

Carbon emissions are an entirely different scale of problem though because so much of our economies is built on them.

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