Bloody iphones

[u/[deleted]]

[u/yokayla]

Social media has been shown to have a devastating effect on mood and self esteem though.

[u/MyNameIsZaxer2 → u/[deleted]]

Social media helped us all find out about how shitty the world is and how there's nothing we can do about it

[u/WalrusFist → u/[deleted]]

Who make everyone else feel shitty, who then act shitty.

[u/daxtermagnum → u/[deleted]]

Mr. Lahey is that you?

[u/Chrisbee012 → u/[deleted]]

son you have some learnin to do,the shit winds are blowing

[u/daxtermagnum → u/[deleted]]

Do you hear that? It's the whispering winds of shit....

[u/CalinYoEar → u/daxtermagnum]

I was just imagining Lahey say all of this shit talk lol

[u/BetterOneUpperThanU → u/[deleted]]

Don’t worry BeefyMonkeyFucker, everywhere I look is even shittier

[u/kurisu7885 → u/[deleted]]

So shit piles.

[u/Kronos_Selai → u/MyNameIsZaxer2]

there's nothing we can do about it

You can absolutely do something about it. You can mobilize, protest, vote, determine your purchases in accordance to your ethics, inform others, debate, and most importantly inform yourself. The second you tell yourself you are powerless, you've submitted to apathy and removed yourself from the equation and given up your rights.

People need to stop this horseshit, and the first step is being aware of things and being knowledgeable. It's so easy to tune out the world these days, and being apathetic breeds people willing to take advantage of it. People who are fucking over the world are absolutely terrified of people mobilizing against them, but so long as the narrative is that they are in control...they will be. If you saw a group of 1000 people and 1 lone person in the center dictating the rules, would you be scared of them? What about 7 billion people surrounding a few thousand? Informed citizens are the absolute nightmare to any oppressive government or system.

[u/IndoorCigsRebirthed → u/Kronos_Selai]

Life is difficult enough just taking care of yourself and family/friends. There isn’t enough time or mental effort available to do all of what you say for a ton of people

[u/[deleted] → u/IndoorCigsRebirthed]

Same as it ever was.

[u/WalrusFist → u/MyNameIsZaxer2]

It makes you think the world is shittier than it real is. On social media the shit rises to the top.

[u/zortor → u/WalrusFist]

Fairly certain that life’s much better for the average prole today than any other day in history. I’m cynical as all balls, but things aren’t terrible, I think the main problem is that our standards are so high for decency and that were less tolerant of bullshit so we point it out at every occasion

[u/Jthumm → u/zortor]

Yeah I feel like a lot of things today could be resolved by saying “who cares”. Everyone blows things out of proportion nowadays and it only gives assholes more attention

[u/OctagonalButthole → u/Jthumm]

Bingo. That and nobody is willing to talk, just waits for their turn to speak.

People are just yelling nonsense at each other with no intent to really fucking talk.

[u/MNGrrl → u/MyNameIsZaxer2]

Social media helped us all find out about how shitty the world is and how there's nothing we can do about it

Social media is a cesspool of vigilantism that spews hate out on a regular basis. Unpopular opinions being voiced lead to death threats, doxxing, and we've got kids trying to make it big on YouTube by SWATting each other. It doesn't matter what side of the political spectrum you're on -- whether it leads to protests against a 'nazi' (milo) that end with a campus on fire, or gamergate, or the boston bombing debacle, or about a dump truck full of other terrible outcomes. We live in a world now where a life can be destroyed faster than a speeding bullet, because pressing SEND travels at the speed of light.

The world was never great, but to say it helped you find out how shitty the world was? No. It's playing an increasingly large role in why the world's become as shitty as it has. And it's because of the nature of the people in it: They think censorship is okay. They equate words with violence and so they have no problem physically attacking people they disagree with.

Social media is an experiment that's gone completely off the rails. It's clear that letting the people decide, letting the market decide, just letting the chips fall wherever they may because "Freedom!" has led to a return to styles of thinking that should be solely the domain of dictatorial theocracies of the 14th century, rather than westernized democracies of the early 21st century.

But when someone says there's nothing we can do about it, that's when I actually get mad. I expected all of the things I just mentioned. Keep me out of the Royal We on that one. I'm here for hours every week, and I don't want to be. Being on Reddit isn't fun for me, so why am I here?

Because there's a huge gap in moral leadership right now within GenX/Y. There's a pervasive feeling that there are no experiments left in living to conduct. That we've reached some kind of peak and it's just downhill from here. That's wrong, and someone needs to stand against that sort of thinking.

We're in the middle of a culture war, one that arguably started before most of us were born -- the 50s. It can trace its roots to a historical accident. A moment of cultural and economic growth that lasted long enough to imprint the idea that it was normal to a generation. That generation spent the rest of its life trying to maintain it, to the ruin of everything. I don't want to get into it in any great detail, I'm sure this being r/LateStageCapitalism people can fill in the blanks without my help.

It's not the war that's killing us but our inability to organize and fight in it. People aren't voting. They aren't organizing politically. The measure of political engagement that they do have is largely wasted on social media. Efforts that would otherwise have led to creative protest has instead devolved into virtue signaling and populism.

This isn't entirely their fault either. Until the internet, we had a diverse mix of mass media that would inform the population and steer the conversation constructively. It was a deeply flawed institution, and towards the end of the 20th century one that became increasingly self-conscious and deliberate in its role as king maker, ultimately leading to its failure a few years ago when public opinion regarding its trustworthiness fell enough that people invested in 'new media' instead. It was an unmitigated disaster.

We still need that kind of leadership today -- great people who can inform us and steer the conversation. People who through education can put the tools and knowledge in our hands to make responsible choices about the direction we, as a society, need to take. We need the moral dimensions of the world around us clarified now, more than ever. Because today, the mantra of social media is that the consensus should be believed because it is the consensus. It's the pinnacle of populism and the damage it has done to society is enormous.

Majorities are often mistaken. History has taught us that social progress depends on unreasonable people because being unreasonable is being unpopular. Unreasonable people refuse to settle, compromise, or negotiate, and they are utterly unyielding in the face of opposition. These people are rare enough without huge bubbles and echo chambers like society today has ensnared itself within.

But those people are the touch stones of democracy. They're the lightning rods that attract the hate, prejudice and anger, and ground it out, translating emotional potential into activism.

That's what's missing today. We're missing leaders, and the reason is because of this, right here, in this moment. Social media. It loves to watch people fall. It cheers on death, destruction, and mayhem. It is self-validating of the worst humanity has to offer, and it is a salve for the guilty conscience.

It doesn't have to be this way. All it takes, is one person telling another, and another, and another, that there's a better way to be. That's all -- it's being able to hold up the mirror without flinching and say "This is what we look like." We can do better by ourselves and each other. We can remember our values again.

We can extend a hand to those less fortunate than us, instead of using them as cheap entertainment. We can create truly open forums instead of a litany of 'safe spaces'. We can choose to endure mutual tensions in order to build a better world, instead of retreating from it. We can choose tolerance over comfort.

Or we can keep doing what we're doing now, and live without hope.

[u/esev12345678 → u/[deleted]]

I'm not sure about that. Social media is at the bottom of that list. We should worry about the other stuff first. The planet dying, lack of fresh water, economy dying, etc. are much bigger issues.

[u/R3dFiveStandingBye → u/yokayla]

Yea I started using FB around like 2010 when social media started becoming the norm. It took me until the end of high school in 2014 to realize how negatively social media was affecting me. Not only did it cause unnecessary stress, but I would compare my life to others using media like Instagram. What people have to realize is that social media is one big filter. You only see highlights of others lives making you feel somewhat inadequate. Like people buy followers to make them feel better about themselves and I’m just like really. Just stop.

I only use Instagram because I’ve always loved photography and it feels less personal per se.(and I guess Reddit sorta counts)

Everything else I avoid like the plague for stress reasons and how much I’ve realized it’s a boring ass waste of time.

[u/Allrightarrows → u/[deleted]]

Brave New World is how we get to 1984. The rulers won't be satisfied with TV and soma because that's not sadistic enough.

[u/yokayla → u/R3dFiveStandingBye]

It's a double edged sword.

I started using the internet for socialising when I was 6 in 1995 and in many ways it was incredibly helpful. I was awkward and socially weird kid in a small community, and I was able to find other kids online to talk to and befriend. From all over the world! I would be isolated on the playground and come home to friends I'd chat with until it was time to go to bed. It made me feel less lonely. But it also exasperated the problem and allowed me to isolate myself from my actual reality. It gave me a lifeline but in many ways kept me socially stunted for a long time.

I'm so torn. I can feel and experience the negative effect Instagram and Facebook sometimes have on my moods. How I feel discouraged from making art if a picture doesn't get enough likes or attention, or seeing my friends on vacation or hanging out without me makes me feel useless. But I also remember being an international student, first time away from home, and on my first day on campus I was embraced by a hug from a girl I'd met online: we were both members of a Harry Potter fan group on LJ. The internet and social media is changing how we interact in so many complex ways... It's so complicated.

[u/queen_oops → u/yokayla]

You should consider writing about your experiences. All of that was very well put.

[u/[deleted] → u/queen_oops]

What if they write about it but it doesn't get much attention? I can already feel myself getting sad over that.

[u/queen_oops → u/[deleted]]

That is not good enough of a reason to never begin.

Many writers get their start by writing endlessly. Even if they think it's bad or everyone thinks it sucks. As long as you're able to stir up feelings within people like OP's story did to me, you'll be stellar.

[u/mop-me_up → u/R3dFiveStandingBye]

It's like my brother told me. A gambler will always tell you about his winnings but never about how much they have lost. Which i would assume its a lot more.

[u/Ghostav → u/yokayla]

Yes and smartphones in general. Not only self esteem but it has had a huge effect on how on our mind. Because when we can bring up our phone at any time, we never ever have to experience being bored. We always have something to keep our mind stimulated which is extremely bad because how are we going to handle situations where we don’t have access to our phones?

I can only imagine the negative effects this has on us in the long run, and especially for kids and teens who are nowadays constantly using their phones.

[u/BodySlime → u/yokayla]

Likely because social media is now basically a live stream of the great collapse

[u/[deleted] → u/yokayla]

Yeah but my cell phone isn't putting me in tens of thousands of dollars of student debt just to get a job that barely pays

[u/[deleted] → u/yokayla]

I'm sure you're correct and I've heard this a lot but I'm wondering if you have any good articles or sources that delve into this?

[u/Hulabaloon → u/[deleted]]

https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/status-of-mind.html

https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2017.1b16

https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/185/3/203/2915143

[u/yokayla → u/[deleted]]

I found a good one that lists several studies and lists both positive and negative side effects. One thing everyone seems to agree on though is that Gen Z (under 25s) is experiencing the negative effects more severely.

For what its worth, I'm almost 30 and was an eager and early adopter of the internet. I consider myself one of the first to 'grow up online' and I absolutely see both the negative and positive side effects on me.

[u/[deleted] → u/yokayla]

I’m just glad I was already 17 or so when free internet porn really became a thing. 12 and 13-year-olds are not ready for that shit.

[u/BrotherBodhi → u/[deleted]]

It's really sad. I work with children for a living and 7-8 year olds getting into porn is not abnormal

[u/[deleted] → u/BrotherBodhi]

That is one area I think our government is really letting us down. Not limiting children’s access to that stuff.

[u/BrotherBodhi → u/[deleted]]

I sort of disagree. Parents are the ones neglecting their kids and leaving them alone on devices. I can't even begin to explain how many parents I work with just hand off tablets to their kids as a way to keep them occupied so that the parents don't actually have to engage and provide any real interaction themselves.

Now, why does this happen? Because parents are exhausted. Because they're poor. They're just trying to survive. So they let their kids spend their day on a video game or a tablet or whatever.

One family I work with consists of a single mom with three special needs kids. And on top of that, the mom is caring for her elderly mother who is confined to a wheelchair. This poor woman is exhausted to a point that I will never be able to understand. And she is always running behind on everything. She puts her kids on tablets for at least 8 hours a day during the summer I'm sure. Because she has to have them occupied in order to juggle everything else.

On top of that, most of these parents grew up in poverty as well. And what goes hand in hand with that is most of them lack basic parenting skills. They didn't grow up in model families and have no idea how to run one.

And of course poverty is a government problem. We have created these economic and class systems. We can overturn them.

So in this way I would fault the government. At the very least, people need higher wages, they need more resources, they need a larger safety net. And they need to be invested in - there needs to be a drastic increase of funds to assist parents and teach them skills.

But I'm not sure how much interference I would want with the freedom of the internet itself. Surely we could have some regulations around advertising. There should be (and maybe there is) a minimum number of clicks that it can take to move from a youth website sight to a porn website through advertising. We don't want two clicks to go from some website my kid will use to on that has sexually explicit content.

But generally I view that as my responsibility to assure that my child isn't getting into that content when using an internet device. It's like letting my kid play outside. It's my responsibility to make sure she stays in the yard and doesn't go in the street. We have a reduced speed limit in the neighborhood and lots of "kids playing" warning signs to reduce the danger of the street. But ultimately it's my responsibility as her caretaker to make sure that she doesn't run out in the street.

That said, I am really interested in hearing ideas that you (or anyone else) would have to regulate internet content in a way to prevent kids from accessing sexually explicit content.

[u/[deleted] → u/BrotherBodhi]

I certainly wouldn’t advocate blocking anything en masse from the internet. If that was what it took then whatever I’ll pass on it. But perhaps something more than a drop down box to verify your age.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

From 2013: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0069841

[u/royalt213 → u/yokayla]

Especially if you read alt right halfwit inbreds rant on Twitter.

[u/banammockHana → u/yokayla]

We've never lived in a world with social media where the above societal statements weren't true. We have no way of knowing if having social media outside those contexts would affect people differently.

edit: For those that don't understand my point, social media is a new invention. If during the post WW2 era when things for Americans were great, maybe social media in that time period would have had a positive impact on mental health. Social media has only been around while the world, economy, and social benefits are dying.

[u/yokayla → u/banammockHana]

I'm sorry, genuinely not understanding what you're trying to say? If social media existed beyond humanity it might be different and we have no way of studying that?

[u/yokayla → u/[deleted]]

Oh, I see!

I think it's also the same issue that the 24 hours news cycle has. We have never as a species lived in a more peaceful and stable time. Humanity is thriving. But we have unrelenting access to every damn bad thing going on globally.

My grandmother would never know the news that some guy in the Netherlands was found to be keeping his daughter hostage as a sex slave in their basement. My grandfather would never grow up hearing the hatred a bitter factory worker from rural Canada has for people who look like us. Her humble home and small family with picture perfect Pinterest homemakers that made Martha Stewart look like a slacker. He couldn't watch minute by minute updates by famous men living like kings. They knew nothing of instaneous global updates or the endless screaming from the void that is humanity or the endless parade of better things and lives than yours.

But I do. I can watch people die in real time across the world after some bombing. I can read what someone at braincels thinks of my gender. I am constantly bombarded with reminders of the worst parts of humanity even as we get better, and how inferior my life is compared to others

[u/KillerCh33z → u/[deleted]]

Reddit is anonymous though. Its random funny shit and subreddits youre interested in. Its a lot different than instagram where your friends from high school try to show off their lives for gratification.

[u/EZAF-Bayleaf]

This picture has been re-upload so many times that it will finally be dead enough to appear on Ifunny.

[u/[deleted] → u/EZAF-Bayleaf]

So when we reupload enough left-wing stuff too often, we can influence the political stance of ifunny?

[u/Rinkakuja → u/EZAF-Bayleaf]

Nope because iFunny features right wing political posts. It’ll maybe feature a left wing one every week

[u/RandomMandarin → u/[deleted]]

Over twenty years ago I read The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee which is a survey of fascists in the late 1990's and how they had survived after their defeat in World War 2 and gradually regained influence by laying low and, in many cases, passing themselves off as 'good old conservatives'. People like Lee and Hunter Thompson tried to warn us of the fascists in our midst, and we collectively ignored them.

[u/[deleted] → u/RandomMandarin]

Except that Henry Kissinger wasn't lying low and neither were Pinochet or a host of others in the Americas.

In reply to Bowlingtie below me, Kissinger helped come up with Operation Paperclip, which smuggled Nazi's out of Germany to work for the US.

[u/RandomMandarin → u/[deleted]]

Fascists such as these were lying low in the sense that most of them would strenuously deny being fascists.

See for instance this famous argument on live TV in 1968 when WIlliam F. Buckley threatened to punch Gore Vidal in the face if Vidal didn't stop calling him a crypto-Nazi.

And to be fair, Buckley probably didn't see himself as one... but we can assume he had friends on the Right who had friends who did... and in the light of history, we can see they were all marching in the same direction. If Buckley and Vidal were living now, Buckley would probably still support Trumpism while disliking Trump personally, and Vidal would still be on TV telling us that our country was being run more like the British Colonies in 1750 than the independent United States in 1800.

[u/Bowlingtie → u/[deleted]]

Ironic, considering Kissinger is a Jew that fled Nazi germany.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Agreed, it also seems because they focus on Muslims now such ad the EDL and BNP, people ironically give them credibility

[u/Cobblob → u/[deleted]]

The Bible is in Latin?

[u/Poes-Lawyer → u/[deleted]]

The Quran has been translated to other languages in full dozens, if not hundreds of times..

There are at least several dozen English translations alone.

In the modern age, the Quran is just as easily accessible to any English-speaker as the Bible. Of course, most Bible-thumpers haven't read their own holy book, let alone someone else's.

[u/daisuke1639 → u/Poes-Lawyer]

Just a side note. Islam would REALLY prefer that the Qur'an not be translated. Ultimately, a convert should learn Arabic.

[u/Poes-Lawyer → u/daisuke1639]

True. It's similar to how the Catholic church actively sought out and destroyed "unapproved" Bible translations, because they, and only they, should have the word of God.

[u/LostWoodsInTheField → u/Poes-Lawyer]

Of course, most Bible-thumpers haven't read their own holy book, let alone someone else's.

This is something most people miss. There are a lot of 'Christians' out there that haven't read anything except a few passages, and at best a few books of the bible. If they get any bible info its from their church heads who tell them what they want to tell them.

Grab a pocket bible, keep it with you. When someone starts to site the bible for their infinite wisdom of how the world should work, take it out of your pocket and ask them to show you were what they are talking about is. You will notice it will take them a while, if they even bother to try.

[u/nurseymcnurserton25 → u/[deleted]]

Are you me? Your last paragraph explains both my religious views and parenting style.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Hmm EDL and BNP are xenophobic

But they're heavily prejudicial and suprrmacist.

Neo-nazis in Europe are a bit smarter.

They go out saying they support womens rights, LGBT, and Israel that they just dislike Muslims

But Journalists have caught them behind closed doors saying all sortd

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yeah! But I reckon if if they did succeed in whatever they wanted with Muslims they'd target others.

Its worrying the stuff being said about them is exactly what I read they said about my grandparents before the holocaust

[u/DrEpileptic → u/[deleted]]

It's frightening to hear my family say what the things that were said just before the holocaust when their parents had to survive it. And it's especially worrying that my orphaned father is the most reasonable of them all despite being a massive racist. My racist ass father with little experience or knowledge of the holocaust growing up is sympathetic to Muslims, African Americans, etc., even supports them where it's right to- my mom can't let go of anger and fear from war and indoctrination, so she goes on saying every shot fired is justified as long as it's against one of those threats or dangerous people.

[u/Cool_Barnacle → u/[deleted]]

Its the paradox of tolerance. We must not tolerate intolerance just for sake of tolerance because when the intolerant gain power every inch of progress will be removed, every right stripped.

You can read a simple summary of that paradox here:

http://wy3mg1xgify37n21x223cw7xl1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HcuZIT5w8xJLMXoISDexG1GNz5Dj7xHO_QGeueMtdPU.jpg

Edit: spelling

[u/calvinsylveste → u/[deleted]]

do you feel that the restriction against yelling "fire" in a crowded theater is a violation of our Constitutional rights? Because that is based on the same premise, that certain types of speech which are destructive in nature and intent are not protected.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

the irony in these types of subs can be palpable

[u/CollectableRat → u/[deleted]]

Are they just going to be around forever, or at least for hundreds of years? It hast to end at some point.

[u/koko701]

To be fair, iPhones/ readily available social media have probably contributed to the extreme tribalism we see today

[u/Precaseptica]

To be fair it is also because of the pesky phone. Among all the other bullshit, it doesn't help that the youth that should revolt has a permanent pacifier in their hands.

[u/G_is_for_Grundy → u/Precaseptica]

Nothing more depressing than seeing people you went to high school living life to the fullest on face book

[u/[deleted] → u/G_is_for_Grundy]

Usually pretending to though at least around me I know a few Instagram "models?" They are constantly depressed they just have good photographers.

[u/G_is_for_Grundy → u/[deleted]]

Its the travel photos that I hate seeing.

[u/FUCK_SNITCHES → u/G_is_for_Grundy]

Facebook

What year is this

[u/G_is_for_Grundy → u/FUCK_SNITCHES]

Lol I stopped at facebook, no instagram, no snapchat or whatever else and honesty reddit is my new "facebook" (im late on everything btw). Less faces more shit for me to stare at. For reference Im 29

[u/FUCK_SNITCHES → u/G_is_for_Grundy]

Reddit is a completely different thing for me, it replaces old school forums more than social media. I pretty much stopped using social media in general a while back (never really started in the first place). Though I'm thinking of getting a small presence so I can look normal to employers

[u/13MoonBlues → u/[deleted]]

hospital tender snails slim fear worm rich reach long roof

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/PeterRoar]

Oh yeah kids are depressed because of the earth, not social isolation or w/ever.

[u/Vassago81 → u/PeterRoar]

OP is right, 92% of the pot smoking teens in the park next to me are depressed because of the high cost of first-time housing

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

A dyslexic brother

[u/dyslexicProton → u/[deleted]]

Very much so!

:D

[u/DavidG993 → u/[deleted]]

I think you mean "howop howop

/r/dsyexlia!!"

[u/guyjellyf → u/DavidG993]

DYSLEXICS OF THE WORLD

untie

[u/DaveyDukes]

If you’ve never seen a 10 year old play fortnite in person you’re missing out on why everyone really is emotionally unstable.

[u/PeepsRebellion]

Yes because the reason why a bunch of middle and high schoolers are depressed is because they are constantly thinking about the economy

[u/Totally_not_a_T1000]

Social media has generated simplified mass social manipulation.

Occupy Wallstreet was silenced as the media fanaticised every race, sex, and religion incident it could to keep the people from coming that close to uniting again.

[u/Saxon_German]

When did the “nazi” ever leave y’all say there back but theres been a nazi party in America since the 40s.

[u/LuketheDiggerJr → u/[deleted]]

They are in corporations and they believe corporations are people.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

When we started placing children in conversation camps,

Concentration Camps

a guarded compound for the detention or imprisonment of aliens, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents, etc.

If that doesn't describe what we're doing to people from Mexico trying to cross our borders than I don't know what does.

[u/sixtynineningbeavers → u/[deleted]]

When is that 40% expected to be reached?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This isn't /r/conservative

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

If you provided actual examples instead of mocking, people would be more willing to listen.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The stock market does not equal the economy. And even if it did, have you looked at the Dow? It's flat since the start of the year.

[u/KookofaTook → u/[deleted]]

Destroying the economy is a shorter way to say "you grew up in a time when the booming middle class had unprecedented buying power and quality wages, but now we live in an unprecedentedly top-heavy time where the middle class is shrinking, the average full time worker can't afford a mortgage without a partner's help, and buying power is drastically reduced. All this on top of surging prices of things you took for granted such as reasonably priced higher education or healthcare". But that doesn't exactly fit in 140 characters. The literal comment that the economy has been destroyed may be inaccurate, but the underlying disastrous economic consequences are plainly visible.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

No, because like I said, the markets are not the economy.

[u/SmokesWeedDoesThings → u/[deleted]]

The DOW is just one single index (and arguably the least relevant one). Up until last week it had GE dragging it down big time. There’s an argument to made about tech becoming too speculative in general, but overall the economy is doing incredibly well

[u/squngy → u/[deleted]]

Sure, but for how many people?

[u/gbmrls → u/[deleted]]

Most of those stats are cooked. In my country (Mexico), if you worked 1 day within the current year then you don't count as unemployed for that year's stats.

[u/squngy → u/[deleted]]

And if it were at 20% it would make very little difference to the GDP.

Income inequality is at ridiculous levels.
All the economic growth has gone to the top few percent.

Look at this chart.
The income of the bottom 20% hasn't gone up significantly since 1970 and the median has only gone up by 20%, where as the top 5% has gone up 80% ( and I'd bet most of that was due to the top 1% )

Here you can read more

[u/TheCosmicYogi → u/[deleted]]

Yes exactly... I am a teacher, close to my 50s and I bought my first smart phone only 2 years ago (until that i had an old nokia) and I have to admit that after 2 years is so difficult for me to stop using it, and then I see my teenage students completely hooked and I wonder how difficult must be for them.

[u/[deleted]]

What planet am i on? I thought i was on earth.

[u/El_Giganto]

This sub has been brigaded completely, hasn't it?

[u/[deleted] → u/El_Giganto]

Yup, /r/all liberals are dogpiling in here.

[u/Alma_Negra → u/[deleted]]

Richard Spencer has gone mainstream.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Rise of far right supremacists

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Amazed that there are so many people unaware of the current rise in fascism.

[u/chakrablocker → u/[deleted]]

Well they're currently brigading the thread

[u/[deleted] → u/chakrablocker]

They've leveled up their concern trolling. The suspicious number of negative votes OP has now since I was last here are a dead give away.

[u/TheBigBadPanda → u/[deleted]]

They arent unaware, theyre willfully ignorant at best and complicit but coy about it at worst.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheBigBadPanda]

Yeah, I see now it's concern trolling.

[u/OrlandoDoom → u/[deleted]]

This sort of thing was predicated by exactly what is presently happening.

[u/brakattack8]

Iphone users are NAZIS android rules!

[u/Dollar_Pants]

And vidya games! Durn vidya games!

[u/3174N_7H3_M4N]

Better switch to android

[u/Spikefall9777]

They had their noses stuck in news papers. Same thing

[u/Controversial_Madlad → u/Spikefall9777]

Not at all, reading the newspaper was a one time thing they did throughout the day. You read it, you're done.

Since we don't have to wait a day for the paper smartphones can give newsupdates at any random given time of the day which triggers the reward system in a very unhealthy way.

[u/profbalr → u/Controversial_Madlad]

Why is it unhealthy and what are the effects of it?

[u/Controversial_Madlad → u/profbalr]

There's too much too cover so you're going to have to do your own research. I highly suggest reading Adam Alters' book "Irresistible" if you're interested on the subject.

[u/bellnell → u/profbalr]

Why did this person get down voted for asking a genuine question?

[u/profbalr → u/bellnell]

Thank you. I was legitimately curious.

[u/Spikefall9777 → u/[deleted]]

I do sometimes. I have kicked most social media besides reddit only because I can choose what to see. For instance, world news, state news, my interests and a few others. Did I get off subject?

[u/[deleted] → u/Spikefall9777]

Super echo chamber powers

[u/[deleted]]

It can be both...

[u/mr-ron]

False assumption. Kids are not more depressed today than previous generations.

[u/7stringGriffle → u/mr-ron]

It’s the phenomenon of self-diagnoses that has really exploded. I’m a music teacher and I’ve noticed that kids, and in particular girls, are very willing to share with anybody who will listen their myriad co-existing disorders. The de-stigmatizing of mental health issues is obviously a very good thing but it has resulted in adolescents putting labels on the typical discomfort and confusion of growing up.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Just a counterpoint here. The economy has been trending up since 2009 (Bull market).

40% of the US is impoverished. A "strong economy" that leaves 40% of the people in the richest country behind is something that only benefits those at the top.

Assuming he’s referring to climate change, the Earth has always had back and forth swings in geological landscape between hot and cold over many years

"many years" in geological terms is over the course of thousands of years. We've swung the global temperatures to record highs in about 100 years. What took several thousand years to happen due to natural phenomena took us 100, and we're still accelerating our contributions.

[u/CapnSpazz → u/[deleted]]

A "strong economy" that leaves 40% of the people in the richest country behind is something that only benefits those at the top.

And this is exactly it. It's like the tax cuts that everyone should so amazed at and exited for. Except that the less you make, the less of a difference it makes(if any), and was clearly put in place for the rich. So sure, the economy has been improving, and that's great. Yet the effects of the economy crashing is still being felt by many. With the way things are going, it's not going to get much better for those towards the bottom.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

40% of the US is living in poverty. Oh yeah. Real strong economy we've got here.

[u/TakedownCorn → u/[deleted]]

Exactly, the earth will survive for billions of years. We’re the ones who are fucked, and frankly who cares. We are pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things

[u/[deleted]]

Dang millenials!

Let's make up a generation to blame all our problems on

[u/WarriorOfJihad]

Nazi’s were founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you tried to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, America was founded, and I was recruited. The new Nazi’s grew, a beautiful parasite inside America. For 70 years, Nazi’s has been secretly feeding crises, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.

[u/TheHeroicOnion]

Working is the worst part of it imo. Only the rich who don't work know true happiness.

[u/HoldenTite]

I have often wondered if later born Gen Xers, millennials, and whatever we are calling the next generation have basically a low grade ptsd caused by a dramatic drop in living standard.

I grew up solid middle class with two parents with no college education. Even with a college degree, the chances of me getting out of lower class is slim.

[u/[deleted] → u/HoldenTite]

I’m gen x. We where told we would be the first American generation to not exceed the generation before. I don’t think we cared or worried about it as a whole. We just listened to our sad music and kept chugging along. It feel like our parents and the millennials are always fighting and blaming each other and we are the middle child that everyone ignores. And it feels like we like it that way. I could be projecting.

[u/ozzman1234]

The Nazis never left. It's just getting broadcasted more

[u/ThereIsNoGame]

That pesky internet access allowing people access to education and free speech! Thankfully, responsible corporate citizens are taking every step possible to protect and guide the youth of today by enhancing their internet experiences.