Has everything always been this depressing

[Newbabynewhouse]

Just watching the news and realised that everything is so depressing.. gl0bal warning, floods, gangs, covid, racism..social care tax rise.. I could go on..and on.. Has life always been like this or is getting worse!? I don't seem to remember the world being this bad when j was younger but maybe I was oblivious to it as I wasn't an adult?..

I know it's a bit of a first world issue and there are way worse things going on in other countries but it's really getting me down that everywhere has shortages,:shops restaurants etc never have what you want to order, the quality is awful, people just seem to be so miserable and life just doesn't seem to be enjoyable anymore... is it just me that feels this way?

Global warming* sorry for the typos

YABU - there's always something unpleasant going on here and/or around the world!

We are, however, in unprecedented times, globally, with the pandemic and global warming - and a combination of Brexit woes and the pandemic aren't making things any easier in the UK.

Please try not to make yourself over-anxious about things. Focus on all the things that are lovely in your life. There must be some?

Afghanistan has really brought home to me how this world can be a hell on earth. Never mind the cruelty we inflict on animals on an hourly basis.

Since 2000 world absolute poverty has been reduced by 50%

Nearly everyone in India has access to a toilet now.

It's hard to make things better and practically default to make them worse lol.

Just a bit of positive to counteract the negative - but to be honest I think bad news sells, undoubtedly there is always enough of it around and there always has been really.

Yep, it’s always been depressing. My Mum watched it religiously and I remember feeling incredibly anxious as a child about terrorists. Good news doesn’t sell.

To be fair, when I was growing up in the 80s, the Cold War was very much in the foreground and we lived in terror of the four minute warning. Oh and AIDS was something that terrified us too.

My theory is that it SEEMS worse now because there is rolling news and the internet, and every detail of every crappy event is analysed in minute detail.

My mental health is always better when I avoid the news!

Obviously COVID has been a bigger thing than most, and this in itself is unprecedented.

I think there's just more access to bad news, whereas you'd have newspapers before just once a day, and then tv as well but at set times- you now have 24/7 news channels, access to news online, social media etc. I think in the past ignorance (not the fault of the person but just due to the way info was communicated) played a big part.

@Keepitonthedownlow

Afghanistan has really brought home to me how this world can be a hell on earth. Never mind the cruelty we inflict on animals on an hourly basis.

Nice to see someone acknowledging the way we treat animals. They have the most unthinkable horrors inflicted on them every second of every day for the sake of human greed.

OP I think things have always been awful but we're all overexposed to media these days so hear more about it.

social care tax rise..

The social care tax rise is good news IMO - I’m pleased to see the government is finally doing something about it.

Nice to see someone acknowledging the way we treat animals. They have the most unthinkable horrors inflicted on them every second of every day for the sake of human greed.

I agree.

I'd be happy for my tax money to go to social care.. but they take enough already that seems to go nowhere..so paying more NI seems a bit of kick in the teeth especially since I can't even get GP appointments or my baby immunized at the moment due breakdown of NHS

Remember that the news only highlights the bad shit (that there's plenty of). It was brexit brexit brexit, pandemic pandemic pandemic, now Afghanistan, pandemic, brexit issues, climate change.

Look back through the news cycles.

Doesn't make anything any easier or better but there is shit going on across the world all the time.

Listen to We Didn't Start the Fire. I'm not a Billy Joel fan but he's got a point! Take a break from watching the news. If anything major happens someone will be quick to tell you anyway and being bombarded with constant tragedy is depressing.

Bad news sells. I have the Good News app on my phone: goodnews eu

Over the last few days for example: a dramatic drop in illegal elephant poaching in Kenya and populations of all the large mammals are rising; new techniques mean large scale regeneration of coral reefs is a step closer; a london-based startup is offering cost-effective compostable packaging and leaded petrol has been completely eradicated. Once a day it delivers a synopsis of 6 or 7 really positive stories . I read the BBC news website headlines once a day as well and that's it for me.

Sorry goodnews.eu/en/

WW1, WW2, Cold War, Gulf War, IRA terrorism, 9/11 etc etc.... there's always been depressing news, and that's not even considering what is going on in the developing world . However, it used to be read the daily/Sunday papers and 6pm news, whereas now we have 24/7 coverage, news apps, social media etc so we see more of it more often.

Of course it's been this depressing. For most of human history its been infinitely worse. We're incredibly lucky in the time and place we have been born into.

I don't know where to start, really...

Within my own parents' lifetime, life expectancy increased hugely. Household wealth has increased exponentially.

Within my own lifetime equal ops legislation has made life infinitely better for women. If you had been born three generations ago you would be unlikely to have been allowed to open your own bank account, drive a car or do a job without permission from your husband or father. In many countries of the world women still can't.

150 years ago there was a high chance your children would die before the age of five from diseases which are now almost totally curable. Most fatal childhood diseases in the UK have been eradicated.

Yes we've had a shitty couple of years and yes global warming is a huge, seemingly intractable problem.

But if you seriously think things are worse now than they've ever been you really need to educate yourself a bit.

It probably seems worse because of the internet and 24 hour rolling news.

When I was a child/teen you had the main news bulletins and that was it. They might have extended it if something really significant had happened, but it never bombarded you from every direction.

But there was lots of grimness. Famine in Ethiopia, regular bombings - the IRA, planes crashing due to terrorism or mechanical failure. AIDS, major earthquakes, Bhopal, Herald of Free Enterprise sinking.

Lots and lots of strikes - miners, teachers, the Tories ruining people's lives isn't a new thing.

I don't follow the news, haven't done for years now. I don't need all that negativity inflicted on me, and my mental.health is a lot healthier for it.

Im 53, the news has always been depressing. I was in CND as a youngster, very angry and worried about nuclear war as well as The Troubles, AIDs, unemployment, famines in Africa. Also, thanks to a relative gifting the family a National Geographic mag subscription, I've been aware of and worried about global warming and extinctions and habitat loss since the early 80s!
The natural optimism of youth carries most of its along for a while, wrapped up in all the new exciting things we are doing but when you get older and have less to look forward too it gets harder to switch off.
Basically there was about ten years from the fall of the Berlin Wall when things looked a bit more optimistic but then normal service was resumed.

I remember as a young mother in the mid seventies being told on the news to use less electricity due to global warming . I hardly used any power any way because I couldn't afford the bills but it made me anxious and I tried my best to cut down .
After about 12 months I realised if all the pop stars and actors etc could run swimming pools , then it was perfectly ok for me to have a bath

We also had to use less electricity due to the three day week. There were lots of power cuts.

I'd forgotten about the threat of nuclear war, but I think I'm slightly too young to remember the worst of that, but of course there was the Chernobyl disaster.

Then all the wars in Eastern Europe and other conflict around the world. The poster who said we're so fortunate to be born where and when we are is so right. Most of us have very little to worry about compared with a lot of the world and a lot of recent times.

I don't agree that everything is worse for everyone now, it clearly isn't. And restaurants/shops not having exactly what I want doesn't bother me, the fact that they would even have as many products as they do is a new thing anyway. However yes in terms of climate change it's all downhill from here. Every summer there will be fires and every winter floods, or possibly more fires depending on what country you live in.

There was a good line on the show Years and Years when the characters were having a discussion along these lines "we thought things would always get better, but we didn't realise, we were born in a blip".

Just watching the news and realised that everything is so depressing
That's why I don't watch the news. It gives you a false perspective of the world. They don't care to share happy stories, it does sell!

doesn't sell!