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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is this the way the world is going?

171 replies

Thiscantgoonlikethis · 05/08/2026 10:01

Lack of jobs. 70% unemployment after AI. 2/3 of people currently calling themselves ‘content creators’. No one has money to buy actual stuff anymore, apart from the basics. Lots of people unemployed, no money, constant scrolling on SM watching ‘content’. All trying to make it as ‘content creators’ as views and engagement is the only income viable. It’s a highly precarious income, constantly trying to out do and ‘max’ ourselves for viewing numbers and subscribers. No one has any real purpose, all children, pets, experiences are used for content. Education becomes devalued, no need for school as childcare anymore, whole families can sit and scroll together. School attendance gets in the way of ‘experiences’ anyway. No one works menial jobs as they are all too anxious, depressed, distracted and of course thats nothing to do with social media, it’s a lack of reasonable adjustments and shouldn’t their employers know that they can’t serve customers in their customer service job as it’s too triggering/ anxiety provoking. All pets have to match furniture. There’s no social care. We all die with our hands in claw like positions with very tired thumbs.

OP posts:
Howmanycatsistoomany · 05/08/2026 12:50

LoveItaly · 05/08/2026 11:28

The government seems to be doing its best to destroy UK farming (over 6000 agricultural businesses in the last year have shut) and most of our manufacturing industry has long since shifted to China. AI seems pretty irrelevant to those industries given that they are disappearing or have already gone. The future in the UK looks bleak to me.

tbf it's not just the government that's killing UK farming - I don't think the majority of the UK population give a toss about farmers, as long as they can get their strawberries from Israel in Asda in December.
Here in France farmers are powerful, respected, and not to be fucked with. French people very much prefer to buy seasonal French produce. As it should be.

Newbutoldfather · 05/08/2026 12:50

@AnonyMumAuDHD ,

‘Nope. We’re just in a period of adjustment just like we were during the agricultural and industrial revolutions. We’re also dealing with political and economic volatility on a global scale - again phases of which we have been through before, adapted and survived. That is the beauty of human beings - our creativity and adaptability. AI can’t replace that. Not saying it won’t be painful to live through, but I have every faith we will come out the other side.’

I think that there is a big problem with this analogy. Previous generations of machines did things for us. The ability to think and create was out monopoly.

If AI can think for us, where are the new jobs going to come from? And it is the high paying jobs that will get replaced. Airline pilot, lawyer, trader, actuary…. No reason why AI couldn’t replace humans in the above.

What is scary is that what people want isn’t being discussed enough. If we don’t race ahead with AI, China will, and then they will dominate.

And what will be left with? Service jobs where the clients want human interaction, with the wealthy either doing the few jobs left in AI or just living on income from acquired wealth, and the rest servicing the wealthy or on benefits.

i think op is exaggerating where we are, but we could get there. It is a bit dystopian.

HalzTangz · 05/08/2026 12:50

Thiscantgoonlikethis · 05/08/2026 10:15

Only because anyone with a Facebook profile had their actual job titles removed by Facebook and changed to content creators

dinahdolittle · 05/08/2026 12:52

I'm disabled and housebound. My life is very small. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the state of the world. And the limitations of your life. So I try to live in the moment. It's not easy. And I often fail to practice what I preach. I think of others who are less fortunate. Or how fleeting life is. An accident or an undiagnosed health condition could snuff you out in a heartbeat. So why waste the time you have left worrying about a dystopian future? I live my life vicariously through family. I enjoy sharing in their daily exploits. Even if it's just a walk along the seafront. Or coffee and cake in a garden centre. I love to hear about them.

Put your phone down. Go outside. Get into nature. Appreciate the fact that you can. Because many people can't. And would love to. 🌸

6ate9 · 05/08/2026 12:54

shhblackbag · 05/08/2026 12:48

I will read up on this. I'm not surprised.

Other countries are following. The UK has a massive shortage of carers which is only getting worse.

Thisismyfinesthour · 05/08/2026 12:55

6ate9 · 05/08/2026 11:44

IQ is no longer rising. It’s begun to decrease.

That is worrying, but it is very obvious it is decreasing seeing a lot of people glued to their phones and screens like zombies. The brain dead wander aimlessy among us already. Relieved I will be long gone when it really goes to shit.

HalzTangz · 05/08/2026 12:56

Thiscantgoonlikethis · 05/08/2026 12:42

But we are having a jobs crisis, look on here, look at all the graduates out of work. I am on a forum for people on UC, so many posts now say ‘my child has left education and need their own UC claim, they are disabled, I am disabled’. It’s unprecedented. And I don’t think they’re faking it. We have never been more sick and unhappy.

There's a shortage of jobs because the government keep pushing retirement age up

shhblackbag · 05/08/2026 12:56

And what will be left with? Service jobs where the clients want human interaction

This reminds me of how unsettled I felt when, after placing a food order with a waitress, my meal was delivered to my table by a robot server. It was last year in Canada. Not my photo but the robot was similar to this one. It felt so weird to me. EDIT: My experience was at Denny's.

Is this the way the world is going?
Morepositivemum · 05/08/2026 12:57

No. It’s the world you’re seeing but you have to ignore some of the hideous stats because otherwise you’re missing the nature, the caring, the beauty, the people helping people they don’t have to, the volunteers, the carers, the expanse out there. And tbh I don’t know why content creators get such a bad rap- they’re working aren’t they? And they’re entertaining people or educating them? I think stop reading the news and get out there, get nodding and smiling and saying hello, read books, go for walks x (from a mw worker about to do a nine hour shift but ready for it as I had a productive morning but also a fun one!!)

Gowlett · 05/08/2026 12:57

Tsham · 05/08/2026 10:23

I think your vision is overly dystopian and pessimistic, however, I think we are witness to the beginning of the end of the human race, or Western civilisation at the very least. It’ll see us out, probably, but everything has its time and everything ends; we’ve had a good innings but it’s maybe time for whatever comes next.

Yes, I agree. COVID has delivered a new era, the beginning of which was the Millennium. Followed by the Financial Crash, 9/11 was also a factor. We are here now. It’s happening fast.

LittleYellowHat · 05/08/2026 12:59

No, most people have ordinary jobs

shhblackbag · 05/08/2026 13:01

6ate9 · 05/08/2026 12:54

Other countries are following. The UK has a massive shortage of carers which is only getting worse.

It's the same where I am in Scandinavia, which is why I'm anticipating it will happen in the (near) future.

youalright · 05/08/2026 13:03

I agree with you maybe what you're saying is the extreme end but this stuff is already happening the jobs market is dire and only going to get worse

Sasha07 · 05/08/2026 13:05

I tried working in care homes. The job is fine, it's the toxic colleagues who made it horrible. Three different homes. All the long termers or generally miserable faces were in cliques. Being civil and decent is on the decline from what I've witnessed in various jobs. I have friends who also work with arseholes. They leave eventually because of them, not the job. I don't know if it's from lockdown or social media, maybe even trash reality TV, but everyone feels like because they have a thought, it needs aired like it's fact. Life isn't Love Island where we need to bitch at/against eachother. The standard of people being just nice to eachother is affecting people who want to work, too

6ate9 · 05/08/2026 13:05

Thisismyfinesthour · 05/08/2026 12:55

That is worrying, but it is very obvious it is decreasing seeing a lot of people glued to their phones and screens like zombies. The brain dead wander aimlessy among us already. Relieved I will be long gone when it really goes to shit.

🤣🤣 So true though!! People’s attention spans have shrunk.

Imbusytodaysorry · 05/08/2026 13:09

Tsham · 05/08/2026 10:23

I think your vision is overly dystopian and pessimistic, however, I think we are witness to the beginning of the end of the human race, or Western civilisation at the very least. It’ll see us out, probably, but everything has its time and everything ends; we’ve had a good innings but it’s maybe time for whatever comes next.

Sadly. I agree with this

ThatSunnyCrow · 05/08/2026 13:11

Get off the internet and go for a walk to clear your head FFS. In the media and on the internet things are dreadful, in the real world not so much. Unemployment is about 4.9%, nowhere near the levels we saw post 2008. The 70% figure because of AI I am assuming you have invented.

And even allowing for the fact that life has got harder recently - house prices, food prices etc, there is no better time to have been alive at any point in history. Healthcare in particular.

You’re also very down on social media for someone posting on Mumsnet at 10am.

So yeah, go for a walk, deep breath, experience the real world. It’s not as bad as we’re being told it is.

godmum56 · 05/08/2026 13:13

you can call yourself a content creator till you are blue in the face, on facebook, you just click the button. It doesn't mean you will ever make a penny out of it.

Mingou · 05/08/2026 13:32

Tsham · 05/08/2026 10:23

I think your vision is overly dystopian and pessimistic, however, I think we are witness to the beginning of the end of the human race, or Western civilisation at the very least. It’ll see us out, probably, but everything has its time and everything ends; we’ve had a good innings but it’s maybe time for whatever comes next.

People have been saying this for ever. Every new paradigm is the end of fucking civilization.
Plus ca change......

wishingonastar101 · 05/08/2026 13:41

Most people I know are in full-time work. Most adults I know do not engage deeply with SM. Most children I know are not allowed on SM.

But 'normal people being normal' doesn't make a great headline.

Octavia64 · 05/08/2026 13:46

We were talking about robot carers at my seated exercise class the other week.

(It’s all disabled people)

one person was all for it because she has autism and also hates being dependent on people to move (she is hoisted from bed to wheelchair).

personally I’m not sure we are there yet with robots, the vast majority of care is in the person’s home so it’s not in a standardised or stable environment.

robots have done quite well in factories (simple movements that are repeated) and there are a few agricultural robots (the last series of Clark sons farm showed some for arable)

how they’d do in a hoarders house is a different story.

I bought a robot vacuum in the hope it would help but by the time I had put all the guard tape up to tell it not to go down the stairs my cats attacked it and in the end I got a human cleaner (and she’s great)

kittensinthekitchen · 05/08/2026 13:51

Yawn

HollyhocksandPeons · 05/08/2026 13:54

Sorry, no, not the case for many people.

Mapletree1985 · 05/08/2026 13:59

Tsham · 05/08/2026 10:23

I think your vision is overly dystopian and pessimistic, however, I think we are witness to the beginning of the end of the human race, or Western civilisation at the very least. It’ll see us out, probably, but everything has its time and everything ends; we’ve had a good innings but it’s maybe time for whatever comes next.

Human beings won't die out. We're like cockroaches - adaptable and resilient. But western civilization* contains the seeds of its own destruction, because it's predicated on consuming the planet's resources at a rate which cannot be sustained.

*Currently the world's dominant civilization. Every country is buying into it, playing catch up. Everybody wants cars and TV and air-con and takeaways and luxury goods and three foreign holidays a year. But the planet isn't capable of providing that lifestyle for everyone. We just can't continue like this.

6ate9 · 05/08/2026 14:08

Mapletree1985 · 05/08/2026 13:59

Human beings won't die out. We're like cockroaches - adaptable and resilient. But western civilization* contains the seeds of its own destruction, because it's predicated on consuming the planet's resources at a rate which cannot be sustained.

*Currently the world's dominant civilization. Every country is buying into it, playing catch up. Everybody wants cars and TV and air-con and takeaways and luxury goods and three foreign holidays a year. But the planet isn't capable of providing that lifestyle for everyone. We just can't continue like this.

Edited

That’s the problem, no one wants their standard of living to drop for the “greater good.” Most people want to consume whatever they want.

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