The feeling that we've peaked with less to look forward too

[jaybee]

Do you get this? I increasingly find myself feeling this way about a lot of things. I admit that my age (mid 30s) will play a role but I keep feeling like many different things used to be better and more enjoyable and that things these days are just so influenced by money, that often we are limited as to what the future will bring both technologically and in terms of general happiness in life.

I'll give just a few examples...

- Clubbing - died out which is pretty sad.
- Mobile phones - drip fed gradual "changes" and very small improvements.
- Gaming - the actual game content, feeling and emotion has not felt as special over the last decade.
- Roads and train infrastructure - our roads are in poor condition and our train infra is decades behind. It seems unrealistic to ever foresee it being good. Our "peak" could be here, which is unfortunately more "the best we can do".
- Fast car/bike ownership - again our roads are poor and cameras everywhere. High costs to run and stricter emissions and a push to elec.
- TVs - Since 1080p flat screens we haven't gone very far. Even top end TVs have uniformity issues.
- Football - too many reasons to list, it's just not as enjoyable as 90s/00s
- MotoGP and F1 - I find myself skipping through highlights and don't really look forward to new seasons.
- Pubs - Of the ones that survive, they tend to be refurbished with a restaurant bias losing all character.



I often feel that life was much more simple in the 80s/90s when kids played with lego and dolls and went round to each others houses to "knock" for them to come out. Back then the future of electronics and computers and stuff generally really, was kind of exciting. Always something new around the corner. Now it feels like there's just nothing to look forward to even when we do see the back of COVID.

Have we peaked or am I being an old, negative nelly? Is this just an age thing where you become more wise/knowledgeable and there is less to "wonder" about, because you simply know the answers, which allows for less romance and fantasization of the future?

 

[jaybee]

I'm not depressed and not having a mid life crisis lol. I'm fine, and there's plenty of happiness in my life but I do just think sometimes the future is a bit meh due to consumerism and the point we've already got to.

 

[jaybee]

About mobile phones....you are missing my point I mean to say I agree with you that they are already good enough. I don't ever find myself wanting more. I'm just saying it's sad that we pay £££ or sometimes ££££ for the latest phone for it to be a refresh of an already capable device. SO don't buy them then....yeah...I generally only refresh when mine has literally given up the ghost. I'm just saying when I used to do this....it used to be exciting to get a new phone. Now it's like....meh. Same old.

 

[jaybee]

Some people in this thread already said what I meant in a better way actually.
It's not just the specific examples I made. It's in general, a feeling that we've coming out of the curve of exponential improvement and advancement and that we're kind of peaking. Even in the things like entertainment like sports, they have become so driven by money that they have lost their identity.

 

[jaybee]

The clear evidence says we're living in the safest, most enjoyable period that humans have ever experienced.

What evidence?

We're also in the UK/western world, meaning we're miles ahead of about 95% of the world's population for security, freedom, health, education etc.

Which is not disputed.

We can pretty much decide to do whatever we want (within the law), be that career, social, hobbies etc. We can make our lives our own.

Well as you can see from a lot of the replies, the feeling is that our very freedoms have generally been eroded more over the years. There are more laws and restrictions today than ever. Open spaces/land is harder to retain for public access more and more for example. The highstreet is/has died out. The cost of living rises faster than wages so disposable income is going down gradually. I would say people on average have less ability to do what they want since they are restricted financially, especially when you consider the broken housing market putting the squeeze on the younger people.

If you're miserable and wish you lived in 1920's Britain, you seriously need a reality check, wake up and appreciate the fact you have privilages beyond the approximately 100 billion beople that have come before you.

Where did anyone say they wanted to live in the 1920s?


It's not really a moan...it's a highly specialised OCUK GD moan. Jeez give me some credit.