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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am a 41 year old European and the world so far seems quite predictable. Perhaps you weren't keeping up with global politics/economics and science, or were not taught enough of it in school? Because where we are vis-a-vis climate change was foretold years ago, along with many alternate but largely similar scenarios; countries made pandemic plans (and directors made pandemic movies) way before Covid hit; the Middle East is still mired in mess, like it's been all my life; China has been on this political and economic growth curve for many years, just like my economics teacher explained in high school. However I am aware that some parts of the US did not have stellar K-12 and university systems decades ago - so some of this may have escaped your notice.

Alternative explanation: since Europe is much slower to adopt and embrace change- from technology to new words- they don't experience as much "future shock" as Americans, who are at the forefront of technology creation and adoption.

I mean, just the explanation that this European joker gives, that they learned everything they need to know in school by the age of 24, says it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am a 41 year old European and the world so far seems quite predictable. Perhaps you weren't keeping up with global politics/economics and science, or were not taught enough of it in school? Because where we are vis-a-vis climate change was foretold years ago, along with many alternate but largely similar scenarios; countries made pandemic plans (and directors made pandemic movies) way before Covid hit; the Middle East is still mired in mess, like it's been all my life; China has been on this political and economic growth curve for many years, just like my economics teacher explained in high school. However I am aware that some parts of the US did not have stellar K-12 and university systems decades ago - so some of this may have escaped your notice.

NP here. Clearly you never took a class in manners, and completely lack empathy. Rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Those conflicts were short and didn't cost much (relative to the last 20 years) in American blood.

[Anonymous]

I am a 32 year old so don't think I have knowledge of the mid-life stuff...
But honestly I feel like I relate a little to OP.
But to me, the changes I don't get are societal.
I feel there is such a breakdown of what to expect from family, community, the public.
My parents turned wacko. Not there for their kids. Their politics and religion are more important than basic family care. I hear about this kind of thing all around America. Family cohesion seems to have evaporated for a lot of us - some sort of tribalism of like minds seems to have taken its place.
Love my community in DC so honestly no issues with that.
But then the public - so many areas and regions of people so uncaring for the greater good - no I have no idea what to expect from them and that in turn makes me feel like I can't exactly know what to expect for myself and my children in the coming decades.
I feel like flexibility and skill-training, adaptability, is key to feeling steady in this seemingly increasingly shaky world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I’m 47. I relate to all of us. At the same time, I’m gay. I did not envision that I could have a normal, boring family, be legally married, and have it be non-issue in my everyday life. So it’s not all bad. But it is sometimes dizzying, and I’m constantly struck by how much of my childhood is now entirely obsolete. More than that, I have always been an “old soul” — these days does anyone even know who Fred Astaire was?! Janis Joplin? The Marx Bros? There’s so much media and so many of my touchstones seem so distant.

[Anonymous]

Wait, garbanzo beans and chickpeas are NOT the same thing? I had no idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, garbanzo beans and chickpeas are NOT the same thing? I had no idea.

They are! the point of that story was that OP couldn’t prove it because no Internet. Nowadays that’s the kind of dispute that would be settled instantly by cap Judge Google.

[Anonymous]

America has changed a lot in the past 20 years. I’m sure it’s been in the works for a long time and I can see how it would be unrecognizable now. Social media, less direct interaction between ppl, less white, more inequality, more expensive basic amenities, more polarized, etc. I love the first three things but everything else has made life harder here for most and amazing for a privileged few. Plus, China gunning for us to fail so it can take over as world leader, which it will if it hasn’t already, and rapidly advancing AI is going to cause enormous changes and this place will be even more unrecognizable soon enough.

[Anonymous]

I remember reading an article about how the design of cars has not changed much in the past 20 years. Which is a reasonable statement, since my 2001 Honda Civic doesn’t stick out much at all even in 2021 when I am in the road. Even Teslas don’t look that different from other sedans on the road. But think of how different cars looked in the 1950s vs the 1970s.

The author postulated that it was because the rest of our lives have been changing so rapidly in the last 20+ years that people didn’t want big changes in their cars.

I have no idea if this is true and I can’t remember where I read it, but it is an interesting idea (I don’t think that I confabulated it… but I am 47, and I can’t remember anything anymore…)