Just normal midlife? Or does the world sometimes feel unrecognizable to anyone else?

[Anonymous]

I have a feeling that every older generation may feel this way.

When cars were invented? Planes? Vaccines (which were of course, originally recognized as the HUGE progress they still are). For us, I guess it is iphones, which are surely changing how people interact and children grow up.

The part of the world that I cannot grasp is what has happened to the US politically. To have half of the populace (and political parties) doubt the validity of our elections, the health department's expertise and guidance. They elected a man who was clearly dumb, had been charged with sexual assault by multiple women (including his own wife), is a fraudulent businessman. It makes me seriously question if I can feel proud to be an American much longer.

[Anonymous]

I always wonder to myself: where did people get answers to all their inane questions before Google? I constantly google things I'm too embarrassed to ask other people and none of these things would have been in an encyclopedia. That must have sucked!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the world is hard to understand now. There are things/people that are obviously fake or evil and masses of people follow like lemmings.

It's like we've turned into the bad part in a Batman movie. Dark, antisocial and unable to discern that the evil Penguin or Joker or whomever is just a lying laughing buffoon who wants to kill us all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always wonder to myself: where did people get answers to all their inane questions before Google? I constantly google things I'm too embarrassed to ask other people and none of these things would have been in an encyclopedia. That must have sucked!

Haha, I know! In college (mid 90s) I told a hallmate (who I was friends with) that I did not like the chickpeas in the salad bar. She said there were no chickpeas in the salad bar, and what I thought were chick peas were actually garbanzo beans. I said I thought they were the same thing, and she said no, I was wrong. It was basically her word against mine, and I’d gone to a cruddy public high school! She enlisted 2 of our other (more worldly) friends on our hall to support her, and then they laughed at me for being a hick from the burbs. I argued back and we got in a big fight and I was never really friendly with them again. The garbanzo bean instigator went on to go to a really really good law school But holy overreaction on all of our parts!

So sometimes when I am using google, I think about how if it existed in 1993 then i might still be friends with my freshman year hallmates!

[Anonymous]

Op I am sure in the 1960s with hippies Vietnam etc people felt the same way, especially conservative / traditional people
Plus they had the Cold War to freak out over.

[Anonymous]

I am also in my 40s and grew up in the U.S., and perhaps current times feel more turbulent because we happened to grow up during a "lull" in major societal events. It seems to me that the 70s-90s were relatively "quiet" (and I'm talking your average US based person, of course it's different in other parts of the world) -- in that to me the 1990s did not feel so drastically different from 1980 or 1975. Not in the way that the 1960s were a time of huge change or WWII. I'd say the past decade has been a time of big change -- the time when internet and social media really changed how we interacted with each other as a society, Trump and polarization and Covid.

So in sum, we were just lucky to grow up in a slower time, and that's why it feels like things are moving faster now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am also in my 40s and grew up in the U.S., and perhaps current times feel more turbulent because we happened to grow up during a "lull" in major societal events. It seems to me that the 70s-90s were relatively "quiet" (and I'm talking your average US based person, of course it's different in other parts of the world) -- in that to me the 1990s did not feel so drastically different from 1980 or 1975. Not in the way that the 1960s were a time of huge change or WWII. I'd say the past decade has been a time of big change -- the time when internet and social media really changed how we interacted with each other as a society, Trump and polarization and Covid.

So in sum, we were just lucky to grow up in a slower time, and that's why it feels like things are moving faster now.

I'm in my mid-40s and I think you are on to something. Basically it did all feel like a "lull"--late 70s though early aughts kind of felt, well not all the same, but like we were progressing in a slow, manageable, and understandable way. The Regan revolution had basically already happened before I was politically cognizant, the cold war was more of a memory than a real thing in the 80s-90s even as the wall came down, we were at peace (and that was all my generation knew), and even the rise of the computer, while revolutionary in a operational/technical way, really did not radically transform our everyday lives in the way the development of the internet/smart phone/social media has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always wonder to myself: where did people get answers to all their inane questions before Google? I constantly google things I'm too embarrassed to ask other people and none of these things would have been in an encyclopedia. That must have sucked!

Haha, I know! In college (mid 90s) I told a hallmate (who I was friends with) that I did not like the chickpeas in the salad bar. She said there were no chickpeas in the salad bar, and what I thought were chick peas were actually garbanzo beans. I said I thought they were the same thing, and she said no, I was wrong. It was basically her word against mine, and I’d gone to a cruddy public high school! She enlisted 2 of our other (more worldly) friends on our hall to support her, and then they laughed at me for being a hick from the burbs. I argued back and we got in a big fight and I was never really friendly with them again. The garbanzo bean instigator went on to go to a really really good law school But holy overreaction on all of our parts!

So sometimes when I am using google, I think about how if it existed in 1993 then i might still be friends with my freshman year hallmates!

LOL that story is hilarious

[Anonymous]

End of world is near. I accept it. We did it to ourselves by all the disrespect for the gift of life.

[Anonymous]

When you are younger, time feels like it is moving slower. When you’re older, time just seems to fly by. So even if things were changing at the same pace, it would feel much faster to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:End of world is near. I accept it. We did it to ourselves by all the disrespect for the gift of life.

The world isn’t ending. Human life on it may end at some point though.

[Anonymous]

A great philosopher once explored this very question and produced one of the most insightful explorations of "the world is going to sh*t" feeling you'll find anywhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A great philosopher once explored this very question and produced one of the most insightful explorations of "the world is going to sh*t" feeling you'll find anywhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g

He should produce a Part II and pick it up where he left off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also in my 40s and grew up in the U.S., and perhaps current times feel more turbulent because we happened to grow up during a "lull" in major societal events. It seems to me that the 70s-90s were relatively "quiet" (and I'm talking your average US based person, of course it's different in other parts of the world) -- in that to me the 1990s did not feel so drastically different from 1980 or 1975. Not in the way that the 1960s were a time of huge change or WWII. I'd say the past decade has been a time of big change -- the time when internet and social media really changed how we interacted with each other as a society, Trump and polarization and Covid.

So in sum, we were just lucky to grow up in a slower time, and that's why it feels like things are moving faster now.

I'm in my mid-40s and I think you are on to something. Basically it did all feel like a "lull"--late 70s though early aughts kind of felt, well not all the same, but like we were progressing in a slow, manageable, and understandable way. The Regan revolution had basically already happened before I was politically cognizant, the cold war was more of a memory than a real thing in the 80s-90s even as the wall came down, we were at peace (and that was all my generation knew), and even the rise of the computer, while revolutionary in a operational/technical way, really did not radically transform our everyday lives in the way the development of the internet/smart phone/social media has.

All very true. I have said this often in thinking back to the 90's - we didn't know how good we had it. Yes, there was a recession, but overall we watched the Berlin Wall/collapse of the Soviet Union on live TV, we witnessed expanded opportunities for women, climate change was something you heard about every once in awhile, we had no endless wars based on terrorist threats that are still alive and well. Overall it was a very hopeful time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also in my 40s and grew up in the U.S., and perhaps current times feel more turbulent because we happened to grow up during a "lull" in major societal events. It seems to me that the 70s-90s were relatively "quiet" (and I'm talking your average US based person, of course it's different in other parts of the world) -- in that to me the 1990s did not feel so drastically different from 1980 or 1975. Not in the way that the 1960s were a time of huge change or WWII. I'd say the past decade has been a time of big change -- the time when internet and social media really changed how we interacted with each other as a society, Trump and polarization and Covid.

So in sum, we were just lucky to grow up in a slower time, and that's why it feels like things are moving faster now.

I'm in my mid-40s and I think you are on to something. Basically it did all feel like a "lull"--late 70s though early aughts kind of felt, well not all the same, but like we were progressing in a slow, manageable, and understandable way. The Regan revolution had basically already happened before I was politically cognizant, the cold war was more of a memory than a real thing in the 80s-90s even as the wall came down, we were at peace (and that was all my generation knew), and even the rise of the computer, while revolutionary in a operational/technical way, really did not radically transform our everyday lives in the way the development of the internet/smart phone/social media has.

All very true. I have said this often in thinking back to the 90's - we didn't know how good we had it. Yes, there was a recession, but overall we watched the Berlin Wall/collapse of the Soviet Union on live TV, we witnessed expanded opportunities for women, climate change was something you heard about every once in awhile, we had no endless wars based on terrorist threats that are still alive and well. Overall it was a very hopeful time.

I think we don't remember the 90s very well.

We had the Persian Gulf Wars, Bosnia, Somalia, and the Rwanda Genocide. I mean, really really nasty stuff. And this is all that I can remember without Google. I'm 45.