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?

Listen to We Didn't Start the Fire. I'm not a Billy Joel fan but he's got a point!

Aaggh! Me and DH can't stop singing Billy Joel now!! it's a good reference though. Good old Billy, he def had a point!

@JaneJeffer yes those lyrics We didn't start the fire are very apt.

My grandparents saw two World Wars, my parents were born at the beginning of WW2, I grew up during the Cold War, plus the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and my eldest was born as the Gulf War was in the headlines.

As I've become older I've been trying to look more deeply into the histories of all these things and it appears humans as a species are extremely tribal and warlike.
I've also seen how some news stories are everywhere and people grab onto them as the cause of the day.
Currently Afghanistan is in the news and we are all very shocked, but hideous things have been happening in Ethiopia too, but their government did a news blackout.

Dreadful things are happening, I agree, and no one civilisation is safe from a breakdown (I believe we are considered to be just four meals away from anarchy)

What's new is the way we all have the platforms to shoot our mouth off online. Rolling news is highly detrimental to our mental health, I think.

Personally I have taken to studying what's going on from an observational perspective, trying not to get over emotional, while doing my best to look after what is in my circle of influence.

Basically I try to have pragmatic approach to what is going on, whilst living my life as a decent person, doing what I can to support people and causes I care about.
I also look for the good news, and agree it can be hard to find.
I pray, quite a lot!
My approach helps prevent me fall into an emotional puddle of despair.

On second thoughts, Billy might be wrong..if we didn't start the fire, then who did?!

It was always burning, since the world's been turning @BooseysMom sorry for the ear worm!

@JaneJeffer.. Aagghh! Please, not again! I had managed to lose the ear worm but now it's back at 3.40am! 😅

For this reason I don’t watch the news anymore. I couldn’t stand to depressing news . If it’s not corona it’s cancer or some horrific act happening to people. I know it’s real life but it just wasn’t doing me any good .

@LukeEvansWife

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!

This

When I was young, in the sixties, much of news was what went on in government, droning speeches , debates. So easy to ignore. Also the rest of the world was 'other' so you didn't empathise with distant wars and there would be limited film footage. Probably black and white.
Now we relate to 'foreigners' so because news is global there is always a horror story somewhere to report. Often you can do as little to help as in the past. Better to stay away from rolling news.
Global warming is depressing though, to say the least.

It's as good today as yesterday.

It's the 24 hour rolling news which makes it harder , I can look up all the bad stuff on my phone or on the PC etc , it's all in front of me. Plus everything is repeated numerous times on the news as well so we remember it more.
Technology isn't always a good thing.
I just turn it all off when it gets too much sometimes.

[quote colouringindoors]"We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe". 8 Oct 2018.

There are a lot of people with their heads in the sand

www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report[/quote]
The people with their heads in the sand are:

• Global corporates involved in churning out more and more mass produced goods
• Energy suppliers incl decision-makers;
• Food manufacturers
• Airlines driving people's purchasing wants and likes towards multiple frequent flights per annum, which sets bad behaviours
• Governments

The common man/woman is not putting their head in the sand, they make dIddly squat difference in real terms. And they get the fall out of all the bad news in the media to have to cope with in their daily lives. Anxiety levels through the roof.

I control my consumption of news media to the nth degree because I know that short of my already low carbon footprint which has been thus all of my life, I can do very little by being shocked and horrified. So I don't allow these negative images to invade my MH. I cannot control the behaviours of the world, only my own, plus influence my nearest and dearest positively.

Oh god aids and nuclear war terrified me as a kid in the 80s

What makes me laugh is Extinction Rebellion movement use mobile technology - the penny hasn't dropped clearly that server farms saving all their data in Silicon Valley is a massive detriment to the environment yet they grind London to a halt and stop ordinary people getting to work, going to hospitals etc.

They're the ones with their head in the sand!

If you just turn off the news then you’ll find that life is as beautiful as it’s ever been.

I've switched it off. I still manage to follow what's going on but it's easier to balance it with positive information.

Also about twenty percent of it is sport in which I have zero interest.😄 And the occasional culture sections have no relevance to my interests so I'm left with disaster reporting. It was a no brainer to turn it off.

There's many ordinary people supporting Extinction Rebellion. Perhaps it's the strong name that puts people off. But I wouldn't worry - preventing ordinary people from going to work in offices (and helping the landowners and wealthy corporations above all else like lemmings and voting for the very same) really won't matter when the human race is no longer here.

On the other hand, the shops and restaurants etc are open and lockdown is over. We live in the western world, not one of these desperately poor countries where people are trying to escape from. And the sun is shining. And remember that only bad news is considered worthy of report. Good news isn't newsworthy.

@bagelsandoranges

There's many ordinary people supporting Extinction Rebellion. Perhaps it's the strong name that puts people off. But I wouldn't worry - preventing ordinary people from going to work in offices (and helping the landowners and wealthy corporations above all else like lemmings and voting for the very same) really won't matter when the human race is no longer here.

Maybe not but quite frankly when people need to keep their job, put food on the table and pay their rent, or get to hospital etc that's a far more pressing priority to them, and there's no sin in that.

That's the trouble with XR, they think their cause is so very much more important than the realities of every day life, that others don't have the luxury of getting all anxy about - they're just doing their best to survive day to day.

@anewchapterishere

For me, the end of the actual planet due to climate change is the issue I can't shake off. It's happening in a very tangible way now and if I think about it too much I get very tearful and panicky for my children.

It's not the same kind of thing as covid, Afghanistan, etc. It's literally the end of the world. Terrifying.

This