Stress - Is life more stressful today?

[TGHusker]

Everyone can vote on this. The article below talks about Millenials and stress but that begs the question - is life more stressful today because of technology?

 

Is life more stressful now than in the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s??   Has technology made life more stressful - is it better to be in ignorant bliss and not know what is going on in the world until Walter Chonkite told you what was going on on the 5:30 news or to know the news on demand?  Would life be better wt out all of the social media mirrors on us and the peer pressure it can create?  

 

My take:  1960s - most stressful decade of my life time.  Of course millenials wouldn't know of that kind of stress as we haven't had a decade like that or a singular year nearly as bad as 1968 (probably a top 5 bad year in our country's history).  We didn't have social media but we had Walter telling us the war dead every night, the Red scare in the back of our mind, race riots, anti-war riots and assassinations (JFK, RFK, MLK).  Yes some bright spots  - moon landing to name one.   But does the stress of social media, cell phones, dying phone batteries match up to the 'end of the world as we know it' stress of the 1960s or the economic and political melt down of the 1970s -  personally I don't think so. 

I don't want to downplay the different kind of personal stress we feel today.  I do think there is additional stress wt constant social media and news feeds - but this is self produced stress - we can turn it off and get off of the merry go round if we desire to do so.

 

Quote

 

Smartphones and digital technology are supposed to make our lives easier, but for young adults, it seems that things may only be getting tougher — and for a slew of reasons. According to one recent survey, about 3 out of 5 millennials (58%) feel life is more stressful right now than ever before.

In fact, the survey of 2,000 American millennials, commissioned by CBD oil company Endoca, reveals that one-third of millennials believe their lives are more stressful than the average person’s life.

 

 

 

https://www.studyfinds.org/survey-millennials-life-more-stressful-than-ever-before/
 

Quote

 

As for how all this stress is affecting millennials, the survey found that participants struggled to fall asleep nearly three nights per week — about 138 nights each year — because of the various issues.

Here are the top 20 stressful scenarios reported by millennials:

1. Losing wallet/credit card
2. Arguing with partner
3. Commute/traffic delays
4. Losing phone
5. Arriving late to work
6. Slow WiFi
7. Phone battery dying
8. Forgetting passwords
9. Credit card fraud
10. Forgetting phone charger
11. Losing/misplacing keys
12. Paying bills
13. Job interviews
14. Phone screen breaking
15. Credit card bills
16. Check engine light coming on
17. School loan payments
18. Job security
19. Choosing what to wear
20. Washing dishes

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

I'm not a millennial.   Was I supposed to vote?

[TGHusker]

Just now, BigRedBuster said:

I'm not a millennial.   Was I supposed to vote?

Yes everyone can vote

[BigRedBuster]

1 minute ago, TGHusker said:

Yes everyone can vote

I'm glad it's a secret ballot so nobody knows how I voted.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I do believe life is much more stressful because of 24 hour news and social media.  It used to be that sitting in Nebraska, you didn't even hear about some of the stuff happening in other parts of the country and world.  And, living in Nebraska didn't make you unique that way.  If you lived in Los Angeles, you didn't hear about some kid going missing in Minnesota.

 

I can honestly say that I don't think social media and 24 hour news cycle has made the world better.  It's just made it different.  

 

Personally, I liked it better back then even though I used technology and electronic information constantly.  

 

That said, life is not more stressful now than back in the 60s or 70s.  

[Ulty]

If a millennial says life is more stressful now than ever, I don't put much stock in that. They lack the perspective of understanding the good times and bad times of other eras. And that list of stressors is mostly ridiculous. Today's socio/political climate is crazy, yet kids are more stressed about all this trivial nonsense.

 

Not all the millennials' fault, though. The generation that raised today's millennials did a poor job of equipping these kids to deal with real problems on their own. The pendulum swings. 

 

 

[jsneb83]

My coworker and I were just talking about this. We both agreed that the 60s was way more stressful than anything today. I would agree that this is the most stressful time of my life (well, maybe other than my time in college), but that has more to do with becoming an adult and having more responsibilities than anything else.

 

I do believe the 24/7 news and social media has made it more stressful due to information overload.

[jsneb83]

10 minutes ago, Ulty said:

If a millennial says life is more stressful now than ever, I don't put much stock in that. They lack the perspective of understanding the good times and bad times of other eras. And that list of stressors is mostly ridiculous. Today's socio/political climate is crazy, yet kids are more stressed about all this trivial nonsense.

 

Not all the millennials' fault, though. The generation that raised today's millennials did a poor job of equipping these kids to deal with real problems on their own. The pendulum swings. 

 

 

#firstworldproblems

[deedsker]

I would say social media in Nebraska is pretty stressful right now. 

[Moiraine]

I think it’s important to separate the causes and the results.

 

I think there is less reason to stress now, but it’s easier to find out about stressful things happening elsewhere. We can find out about all sorts of s#!tty things happening everywhere now. There are also people actively trying to get people angry and vote a certain way.

 

I was born in the 80s so I wasn’t here for the 60s, but at least then you read/heard the news only at set times during the day.

 

I don’t watch news on TV but I view news websites at all hours of the day. Sometimes I think it’d be better if I didn’t/couldn’t do that.

[BigRedBuster]

I was born in the 60s.  I can attest, the potty training was very stressful.

[NM11046]

• I def take breaks from social media - lots that I look at but don't actively engage on (FB, Instagram, Twitter etc).  
• Can't speak to now vs the 60's but it's the most stressed I've been from a global sense (personally have had stressful times due to work but I feel like now issues are more broad and serious)
• Reading thru the millennial stress points made me laugh out loud.  Doing dishes?  Phone screen breaking?  Seriously how sad are those?
• I think it would also be interesting to see how they view their interactions with people - I think they're stressed about things like interviews for more than the regular reasons - like because they haven't spoken to someone in a year, they've just texted.

[BigRedBuster]

3 hours ago, NM11046 said:

Can't speak to now vs the 60's but it's the most stressed I've been from a global sense (personally have had stressful times due to work but I feel like now issues are more broad and serious)

Vietnam

Cuban missile crisis 

President assasinated

presidential candidate assasinated

human rights leader assasinated

rise of drug problems

kent state

 

 

 

 

 

But damn good music.  

[jsneb83]

23 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Vietnam

Cuban missile crisis 

President assasinated

presidential candidate assasinated

human rights leader assasinated

rise of drug problems

kent state

 

 

 

 

 

But damn good music.  

Space Race

Just the Cold War in general

[JJ Husker]

I think most of that list of millennial stressors is laughable. If those things are causing them stress I'd hate to see what a truly stressful situation would do to them. However, I do think life is generally more stressful now than at any time in the past. We've grown accustomed to immediate gratification and basically getting whatever we want, now. 

 

The 60's was a more tumultuous time but I don't think that necessarily equates to stress. Waiting for that draft notice certainly would've been stressful and having nuclear war hanging over your head during the cold war but all the civil Rights turmoil, assassinations, sex, drugs, etc. really are not stressors IMO. Well I take that back....if you were black, then I'm sure some of that was stressful. But today, I really feel no stress from national or world events. I know a lot of people are freaked out over Trump and politics etc. but if that is causing you personal stress it might be time to unplug and relax a bit. It does seem like the stakes for about everything are higher nowadays but that list is mostly pathetic. OMG....OMG.  I lost my phone and argued with my partner. Get a grip millennials.