Up until recently, before around 30 years ago, in the pre-Google era, the only thing you could do while not working in the local factory was to find a job. But not job job, where they pay you and stuff. Manual work that involves upgrading your manhood skills along with the things around you. Using a hammer, not a keyboard. Or in other words, our fathers learned to fix their cars, the plumbing, cable an entire house without being electrocuted, disarm shrapnel from World War 2 by only looking at the thing for a while.
Unlike us, our fathers, mothers, grandparents, and the people who lived before them, were all – and some of them still are – better, stronger, tougher men and women than we’ll ever be. They can evaluate the quality of a tire by only kicking it. They can weigh everything that fits in their hand with the accuracy of a gram. They’ve never lost an argument and they’ll never stop to ask for a direction. They don’t use Google. They are Google. They know everything. Not like us, the generation that can’t find the grocery store without using the navigation on their smartphone.
Technically, each new peer group should be better than the previous. And don’t get me wrong. Youngsters are pretty good at a lot of things. Modern things. If you need help when playing Call of Duty or any other video game you won’t call your grandpa, right? However, if you have troubles with your dishwasher, or let say a zombie apocalypse really happens tomorrow. Do you think you’d survive without the help of a baby boomer representative?
I don’t think so.
I don’t think we – the modern people – can even survive a day without having access to the internet. But that’s only part of the problem. Besides our addiction to Snapchatting, taking selfies, playing the victim, consuming only bite-size type of content, and using books only as a background for our TikTok videos, there are a couple of other things that might lead to an early cataclysmic event causing our extinction.
So, while the companies situated in Silicon Valley think they’re making humanity a favor with their fancy apps. The world is actually getting a really fucked up place to live right now. Here’s why:
1. Politics Don’t Have A Clue How Our Future Should Look Like
No one really knows what will happen, let say in the next 100 years, but shouldn’t the government worry about this and make something like a plan?
When you hear politics speak they always mention stuff like health care, transportation, city infrastructure, human rights, free markets. Even though these things are of importance, they don’t set a path for others to follow in the long term. Besides, we all know what happens after the elections. The winning party hardly executes more than 30% of what they’ve promised.
But shouldn’t there be a greater purpose? A well-defined message which all presidents pass along to their nations and heirs with the intention of making the world a better place to live in?
Here I’m not talking about the goal of Donald Trump and his vague promise to “Make America Great Again” (while building walls) – whatever that means. Or, the Brexiteers dream of making Britain an independent power, as they are still living in the days of Queen Victoria. Or the plan Russia has – besides Putin’s desire to resurrect the old tsaric traditions and put himself on the top – to unplug from the internet and run its own, independent network, “Runet.”1
I’m talking about a master plan that will feed nations where people are dying from hunger; Figure out a way to increase the health conditions of people in poor countries; And finally, someone actually taking steps to solve the global warming problem.
- Main reason for the world being fucked: The government is focused on quick fixes and band-aid solutions which don’t address the real problems we’re experiencing as a species.
- What we can do to fix things: Replace the aimless and corrupt government – which is kind of mission impossible, but still, it has to be done. Or, stop listening to politics and turn to people who are trying to do something. People like Elon Musk or Bill Gates. And, of course, be a respectful and carrying citizen of the world. Don’t just tweet about doing good things. Do good things.
2. Education Can’t Satisfy The Modern Needs Nor the Needs Of The Young Generation
In school, we’re trained to become factory workers. That’s no longer a secret. In order for a society to function properly, we need people working in the mines and people sitting behind desks analyzing stuff.
But young men and women nowadays no longer want to be lawyers or accountants. They want to be YouTubbers and Instagram models. They want the easy life. A life full of fancy things. Brand deals and sponsorships so they can do whatever the hell they want – travel the world and stuff.
Teenagers aren’t stupid. They can sense that what’s being taught in school is hardly something they can later use in real life.
And since there are still no classes teaching you how to grow your online following in school, the majority of the students are disrespectful towards everything. They don’t feel the needed to learn what’s thought by their teachers because they see what’s popular these days: unboxing videos, topless photographs, video games streaming, etc. Therefore, they never build a habit of learning things. They focus mainly on consumption.
Besides, we all now know that a college degree doesn’t mean shit nowadays. You can graduate with honors and still work as a barista in the local Starbucks. Big companies no longer hire based on your education. They hire based on your skills. And the skills big corporations look for are rarely acquired in school.
- Main reason for the world being fucked: People grow up hating education and never building a habit of learning.
- What we can do to fix things: Interactive way of teaching focused on revealing the true talent of the student. Plus, help teenagers find a meaningful path that can be both beneficial for them and society.
3. People Are Getting Even More Selfish
Do you know why people share stuff online? Probably you’re thinking about the following reasons: 1) To support a cause they believe in; 2) To express themselves; 3) To grow and nourish their relationship with their online friends…
There are other reasons. But the main one is that people share stuff online to feel good about themselves. To feed their ego and to disguise their selfish motives behind altruistic behavior. It’s scientifically proven that each new like and each new comment gives us a little dopamine hit. And dopamine – if you still don’t know – is the feel-good hormone.2
And since the photo editing tools are getting easier to use and widely available, we tend to get even more likes per post. More likes
But outside of our disorganized rooms, and online existence, we’re rarely as entrepreneurial, creative, and thoughtful as we say on Instagram.
Social media feeds our false self.3 Our desire for attention grows with each new like but our willingness to do better work decreases because we think that stuff should just happen for us. We think we’re worthy of more just because we have “followers and likes” and people like our “genuine images.” Unfortunately, when reality strikes, we get fired,
- Main reason for the world being fucked: People create, and later grow, a false self through filtered images and phony statuses and eventually they start believing in their own shit more than they should. Unfortunately, their real self remains weak and lacks the qualities it actually needs to handle the hurdles of life.
- What we can do to fix things: Spend less time updating statuses and more time honing your skills.
4. We Value Material Possessions Above All
We tend to collect a lot of things during our life span on the planet Earth. Small things. Large things. Noisy things. Things that produce more things. Things that go inside other things. Things we need to build (repair) other things in order the things we initially bought to be still the things they are.
It’s confusing, I know. But we grow up adoring all kinds of different things. Especially the expensive things and the ones we don’t yet have. Ahh… That’s the holy grail of things. The category of things we all cherish and praise. If we don’t have it, it must be special.
Yes, no matter how many things we own and clutter our homes with, there is always something missing. Something that will somehow make our lives complete when we get it. And once we do get it, we no longer want it. But, “probably that other thing will make my life perfect…” So, we live this hamster wheel life where we’re in constant pursuit of more things but we never actually reach a state where we are truly satisfied.
And do you know why we want more things?
Because we want to constantly feel good.
- Main reason for the world being fucked: The constant pursuit of more things will never lead to satisfaction. Even worse, it will lead to a brainwashed society with no values and no real purpose to evolve.
- What we can do to fix things: Evaluate our relationship with things. If we learn to be satisfied with less we’ll feel better. Besides, we’ll start focusing more on nurturing our relationships.
5. We Want To Constantly Feel Good
Our grandparents spent their youth on the field – either involved in a war or planting crops. Most of us, however, will probably never understand the true definition of manual labor. In a way, that’s good. The more we can outsource hard physical work to be done by machines, the more time we’ll have on our hands to focus on improving, even more, the quality of our lives. However, we rarely use the time we have to enhance our craft our way of living. We use it to feel good about ourselves.
We’re surrounded by algorithms and systems that have the power to make us feel good all the time: Video games, social media likes, one-click purchases, an ever-growing library of movies and TV series making you question the need to have real friends.
Since there are so many activities to explore in the world today (most of them actually free and online), people can hardly focus on doing only one thing. Since you can watch a short clip, right now, that will make you feel good instantly. People grow up possessing no discipline, not even the desire, to postpone the instant gratifications surrounding us. There is always something “new” happening. And in our minds, this “new” thing is always better than the task we’re currently executing.
We become directionless. Without a real purpose. With one single desire. To have fun. And fun is all around us. Thanks largely to the internet, the world is like an all-you-can-eat buffet. And most of us are never full.
- Main reason for the world being fucked: In an automated world where fun and feeling good are a click away, people can hardly focus on one task. We grow up demanding to feel good all the time and careless of everything else.
- What we can do to fix things: Become more discipline. Start a long-term project to understand that good things take time to happen. Find a greater purpose. Start a blog. Plan a tree.
Some Closing Thoughts
We live in a globalized world where everything
While the generation that raised us can change 4 tires of a car with nothing but a hammer in under an hour. Nowadays people spend most of their time restlessly sketching ideas about what part of their brilliant selves to reveal next to the world.
News flash: Nobody cares.
The future doesn’t look so bright in terms of keeping the planet in peace. If people continue to care only about themselves and obsess about online media and global fame, we won’t have people involved in the community. Such that care about making progress.
So, to end this long and agonizing post, I’d say that it’s not the world that’s fucked up, it’s people who are fucked up. People have become so materialistic, impatient, self-centered, and greedy. Fortunately, there is a way out. If you want to make a change, start caring more about others. No matter what you’re doing.
Read more. Think more. Do more good things and focus on slow progress. Not fast consumption.
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Footnotes:
- You don’t believe me about the latter? You can read more, here.
- Your brain releases dopamine when you feel pleasure – while eating your favorite snack, during sex, while playing video games. The “feel-good” factor, however, is one of the elements behind dopamine’s darker side: Social media and some illegal drugs stimulate its release and increase the amount of dopamine in the brain. The increased feelings make users susceptible to addiction.
- False Self is an artificial persona that people create. In most of the cases is very early in life. They develop this better self to protect themselves from re-experiencing trauma, shock, and stress in close relationships. While the False Self appears polite, well-mannered, flawless, real. Internally, they feel empty, dead or an impostor.
