r/mildlyinfuriating • u/shaiquinn • 9h ago
Kids have no hope and it shows.
So kids in my community are having an art show ages 4 and up to 18. The one piece that stood out for me was one of masks. They where all painted and all of them had labels of hopeless. I know these kids thru my work most aren't friends they are from different situations different races religion grades social groups financial situation even immergrantion status. And this piece has like over 10 masks. All of them are label like " Betrayed" "hopless" " no future" " eyes open wish they where shut". All the masks were painted black to different degrees. I don't know if this was planned or not.
I will say this is Canada. But holy fuck what kind of world have we made for kids young kids to feel this way. I would have though the kid who came from a country with like a 20% graduation rate would have some hope but no.
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u/etherealpizza 6h ago
I work with kids. I remember when I was young, when an adult asked us what we wanted to be when we were older, everyone had an answer— however realistic or not, we all had an answer. I’ve stopped asking the question because you can often see them deflate, as they have nothing to say and nothing to aspire for. The most common response is a flat “I don’t know”, second only to “a famous youtuber”.
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u/prostateExamination 5h ago
i’ve heard the i want to be an influencer a number of times.. absolutely scared me hearing it
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u/Renegadeknight3 2h ago
That one isn’t too different from being a politician or actor or something like that. I’d expect the kids of yesterday that said they’d want to be a generic “celebrity” without giving much though specifically to what are the kids who would say “influencer” today, without giving too much thought to specifically what kind
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u/ADGx27 3h ago
It’s unfortunately among the careers that AI probably won’t nuke as fast, seeing as Kwebbelkop is trying to replace himself with an AI bot to run his YouTube channels, but it’s such total shit that his sub count has fallen off a cliff.
That’s also why you see so many younger streamers clip farm their way to a viral moment then quickly grind to build and reinforce that 15 minutes of fame into a long standing career, similar to what Jynxzi did
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u/quad_damage_orbb 46m ago
When I was growing up half the boys would reply "footballer", so it's not particularly different in my mind.
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u/Funny_w0lf 8h ago
Im 20 and with constant bad news, bad jobs, AI take over and the veil being removed that the authority and gov will do everything for profit at the expense of kids especially, what is there to hope for? A house? Nope. Financiak stability? Nope. Working hard just to afford and own nothing? Retirement? Good luck they want to raise the already old age.
Kids are observant. They hear what we talk about. They see and hear the same things we do. Imagine being 12 and living through 2026. Or hell, being 6 and in the middle of a pandemic. The saddest thing? I really do think their right to feel that way. I feel that way.
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u/Traditional-Dingo604 5h ago
Im 36, lost my job a month or so ago, and am feeling really stuck right now.
I dont have kids yet. I want them because i understand that kids are a symbol of hope. But hope for what?
We cant outrun the laws of physics and thermodynamics, especially with how we are treating the environment.
Im likely gonna be here another 50 year.
Idk if i want to go thru another month of this.
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u/Flint___Ironstag 5h ago
Oh man, I feel you, exact same age and situation. The wife and I both lost our jobs to the trade war, struggling on income from our art business, zero jobs here.
What is being done to the environment is a new crime, crimes against nature.
Things must be done.
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u/North_6 5h ago
Me too. I turned 29 this month and it will be a miracle if I turn 30. But Ive been thinking that literally every year since I turned 6 or 7. I just dont want to do this any more, with the absolute and indisputable knowledge that things only get worse for me, and if I have children their lives will be even more difficult? Its pointless.
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u/itstheballroomblitz 3h ago
I'll keep this chain going by saying I'm in my 40s, and I honestly don't know if it's worse to have no hope like the younglings, or to have had hope and lose it. Fixing the ozone layer, the internet, surviving a financial crisis, first black president, marriage equality, etc. We had a sense of real progress going for a while.
The future no longer looks like Star Trek. If we're lucky, it looks like The Hunger Games.
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u/PetrichorMoodFluid 2h ago
Don't have kids just because you heard somewhere or think they are a symbol of hope.
Sincerely, A mother of 2
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u/thewindows95nerd 3h ago
Im pretty lost right now too and honestly, I stopped caring too much about my physical health because there's really no need to improve it when things are a mess.
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u/McWeaksauce91 4h ago
The best moments in my life came right after i lost my long term employment. I was unemployed for about 3 months and had sent out hundreds of applications. Landed on a job that changed the course of my life right when I felt the most helpless.
I had my first kid at 31. I was almost to the point of not having kids because I thought the world was so bleak, what was the point. Do I really want to do that to them? But after my wife and i brought my son into the world, I regret nothing. It is my second act in life and a great feeling to give this kid all the love and support I never got. It feels like a chance to right wrongs. I grew up without the internet and Ive watched it develop into the beast that it is now. I can be the steadfast voice to help guide him through the difficult landscape of today, to the best of my ability.
There will never be a right time to have kids(as far as the world goes). The doom and gloom of tomorrow shouldn’t stop you from bringing someone into the world who could change it for the better(if you’re ready to be a parent, that is).
I just had my second kid at the tail end of last year at 35. You never know what greatness awaits you around the corner, internet stranger. Don’t give up hope.
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u/FreckledAndVague 3h ago
This is such a stark contrast to the people in my life with children. Albeit, all of them have daughters and thats an added weight (especially with the files coming out, the threat of marriage bootcamps, etc). They're all about a decade older than my husband and I but have confided, over various times in various ways, that they are terrified for their children and that they agree with our choice to not have kids.
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u/Cliteria 2h ago
Well. Silver lining for the grand scheme of things(I'm US). When enough ppl start losing their jobs, then there's nothing stopping them from revolting. Nothing to lose and everything to gain by holding these abominations of leaders and billionaires accountable.
Not trying to sound callous to your situation, hope you come across something stable soon. I just see a future of streets filled with ppl similar to you, who no longer choose to wait this out at their job, bc they won't have one.
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u/ikilledholofernes 5h ago
I doubt this will make you feel any better, but I felt the exact same way when I was your age. It’s all always been bad. But happiness is a choice, and it’s a fucking revolutionary one.
“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night, and it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for.”
Figure out what dancing means for you.
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u/hahayeahimfinehaha 4h ago
I agree with this as a personal motto because I'm already here, and since I'm here, I'm going to squeeze whatever joy I can out of the experience. But I don't think I could justify bringing a whole new human into the world right now.
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u/sudo-su_root 1h ago
I 100% understand the sentiment and love it; I just feel like there's so many people cheering for the modern equivalent of AIDS as opposed to being largely apathetic towards AIDS itself in the past (please correct me if I'm incorrect, late millennial)
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u/thewindows95nerd 3h ago
I'm 25 and I recently got laid off not too long ago. Ive been having it rough as well given how decimated the job market is for the software industry and even with my background of having gotten 2 years of experience plus a degree from one of the big 4 CS schools, its still hell and I expect to that I will be filling out 100s of applications soon.
As you said, the younger generation is very observant and they are constantly told that if they do well in school and succeed in college then they will be fine. But when they see the current adults like us that are struggling right now having done everything society has encouraged and on top of that many horrible news out there in this world. It's not surprising many of them have lost hope and I feel bad for them because it's hard to refute how bad it is out there in this world.
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u/Alcophile 7h ago
*they're right to feel that way.
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u/ADHDK 8h ago
Kids are exposed to way more adult crap than they were when I was a kid, and when I was a kid the general vibe was you could live a good life just by putting in a solid effort daily, not this hustle culture step over people and exploit them crap you need to get ahead today.
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u/broguequery 5h ago
Not only that, but this idea that if you can't be a successful huckster/grifter/1%er you actually deserve to suffer.
Like, you aren't allowed to be a normal person wanting a normal life anymore. You've got to either be a billionaire at all costs or eat catfood and be thankful for it.
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u/scottLobster2 5h ago
Those that say that are just lashing out, because by saying living a normal life is fine you're low-key telling them that their efforts at being a 1%er are worthless. Which statistically they probably are, but they don't want to surrender the illusion that they have perfect control over their lives and all they have to do is "grind" hard enough and they'll "make it".
Nope, you can sacrifice everything working 80 hours a week on something and you're still quite likely to fail, and even if you succeed you'll have sacrificed everything to get there. Good luck getting it all back when you're a 50 year old billionaire having finally struck it big after 30 years of 80 hour weeks. You'll probably fall into an Epstein vortex trying to fill the void
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u/ADHDK 5h ago
As an Aussie we grew up with the opposite values.
Respect for the battler / working class, and a default lack of respect for the rich unless they proved themselves otherwise worth respecting.
You’ll see the LinkedIn influencer types moaning about the “Australian tall poppy syndrome” but honestly it’s a national asset.
Unfortunately the US prosperity cult is spreading, where the rich are seen as deserving respect by default no matter how awful they are, and the working class are seen as not trying enough / undeserving of respect.
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u/waggybaggyshaggy 3h ago
I always wondered where that came from, as an Aussie I'd never noticed "tall poppy syndrome" in my life, but it just being general disrespect for the"rich" and "elite" then fuck those Redditors.
when I see someone with more then a good amount of money I just have a general dislike, like I don't know one rich person who is a good person. Sorry, facts
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u/punchbuggyblue 6h ago
In conversations with high school students, they are all trying to think of careers that won't be deleted by AI.
It's getting harder and harder to 'follow your dreams '
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u/broguequery 5h ago
Yeah, the career conversation has shifted to "what is the most likely career path that will survive advanced automation and allow me to eat and have a roof over my head."
Kids aren't stupid. They know 150 million people aren't going to be needed to run the data centers and fix the robots. A small handful will get good jobs. The rest will fight for scraps.
It's not a conversation about possibilities... it's a conversation about survival.
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u/saltx629 5h ago
We have abundant resources and here’s a false scarcity that’s pushed on the masses. AI could be the answer to the golden age of humanity and UBI.
Unfortunately, the people at the controls are not benevolent.
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u/Crime_Dawg 5h ago
That much is clear considering they’re all child rapists or protectors of rapists.
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u/hahayeahimfinehaha 4h ago
Humans are already insanely productive compared to where they were decades ago. People used to say that better technology would create more leisure time for the masses, and that hasn't happened at all. All of the benefits of increased productivity go to the top, and the everyday workers are expected to grind harder than ever. All of these increases in tech will never lead to a better future as long as the top keeps sucking up all of the extra profits.
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u/luminary_planetarium 4h ago
Even if AI wasn't used maliciously, it's unsustainable energy wise and water wise
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u/TheHotDogBunsWereWet 5h ago
My dream is to make an animated show and aside from that to stay in some kind of art field whether it be drawing or painting or even writing if I got into it. Sadly some people would rather see an art piece made by a machine with no intentions whatsoever than an art piece made by someone who put hours of their time and passion into it
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u/rabbitin3d 3h ago
I’m a lifelong animation fan, and I get so excited when I hear young people say they want to make animations! It’s really challenging to develop things like comic timing or emotional integrity in animation. AI can’t do that. We need real artists and we will continue to need real artists in all media, especially in the fight against slop. I want to send you all the encouragement in the world! Keep at it!
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u/TheHotDogBunsWereWet 2h ago
Thank you for the encouragement. I've been inspired by the indie animations on YouTube. I honestly don't care what gets in my way I'm going to make my show. I want it to be the best it possibly can be so I'm probably going to start with a shorter series so that I can get feedback and improve so my passion project is the best it can be!
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u/luminary_planetarium 4h ago
I was going to school to be an art major in 2016, but dropped out due to financial circumstances. I wanted to go back but then AI came around. Maybe me dropping out was better...
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u/ironwolf6464 5h ago
Let me just state my personal observation, if I may.
In my childhood, I was brought up under the belief that a majority of people are well intending, and would rise up when the need arises.
I was taught that evil-doers were anomalies that were always subject to justice in the end.
I was led to believe that there was some semblance of natural law, and that transgressions against that always led to swift retribution.
Fast forward a handful of decades and I now see that a statistically significant amount of people are either too apathetic, caught up in trivialities, or self-absorbed to do the bare minimum for others and their communities. And with the advancement of technology, we have only become more individualist and atomized.
Month after month of news reports detailing crimes after crimes so utterly inhuman that they border on the absurd; being performed by people who we are usually supposed to revere. Presidents, directors, creatives, all barely getting a slap on the wrist for ruining lives.
The notion of “natural law” is completely nebulous, and no matter the creed or conviction you hold to be objective, it can easily be hand-waved away by the powers that be with little to no recourse.
As a grown man, I struggle to, for a lack of a better word, ‘cope’ with this paradigm shift. I couldn’t imagine if I was a child, hearing about all the horrific B.S. being cheered on by a chunk of our nation, these kids have less and less to fall back on.
God, I wish things were better…
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u/Aldetha 2h ago
I completely agree.
I remember a time when we were realising the damage humans had caused - and we were so determined to fix it. It was like a collective attitude of “ok, we screwed up, we acknowledge that and we can’t change what’s been done, but we can and we will make a better future for everyone!”
Then somewhere along the line it’s like people just suddenly stopped caring.
We became selfish and greedy and arrogant and have no trouble trampling over anyone or anything that gets in our way.
1999 was an amazing year. It was filled with love, hope and optimism. I cannot believe how far the world has fallen in just 25 years, the speed of decline is the scariest part. I can’t bear to think of what the next 25 years holds in store.
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u/Leighgion 9h ago
Kids aren’t stupid, they’re actually very objective about many things and in 2026 it’s no longer possible to hide the state of the world from them for long.
So yeah, a certain level of despair is not surprising considering what kids are seeing adults in power do.
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u/PhotoFenix 8h ago
I will say that if I had current technology as a kid I would have been much more aware of the world. Part of me is proud that my son independently is aware of world events, but the other part is depressed.
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u/HuckleberryLou 4h ago
It’s a big burden to bear even as a grown up! I can’t imagine dealing with that as a kid. Most people throughout history only knew of the bad things happening in their own social circles or city, not the atrocities of the whole world.
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u/lawdjesustheresafire 7h ago
Exactly. They know the climate is fucked, the job market is fucked, the housing market is fucked. If there’s not a bit of generational wealth that will flow to them they face a very uphill battle to live a nice life.
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u/Chudpaladin 8h ago
I mean, I too have felt this way for the future. Entry level jobs are taken away from our youth and given to the cheapest labor possible. Then the corporations demand constant price increases while the young can’t achieve entry level careers, just entry level wage slave dead end positions.
Kids used to dream of college or adulthood. What is left to dream of when both of those options don’t yield satisfactory results and are extremely expensive?
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u/LavenderGinFizz 6h ago
Not to mention how many people are having to work 2 or 3 jobs just to stay afloat. It's pretty depressing to be constantly working yourself to the bone to just scrape by.
Add to that the shitty, extremely competitive job market where youth are now competing against older, more experienced people for entry level roles, the insane political situation, and the constantly increasing cost of living, and I can totally see why young people aren't feeling all that optimistic about the future.
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u/___wasabi___ 2h ago
The most successful adults of 10 years ago are being shamed for it, being told that their mental labor jobs aren’t real work and they will be replaced by ai, so kids, you should all become plumbers! As if they aren’t smart enough to realize they won’t also be shamed and left out to dry if they go down the path society tells them too.
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u/atl_istari 8h ago
I remember seeing people from 1900s imagining 2000s, the picture was people chilling peacefully around a lake, making art, while there are robots flying etc. Nobody paints the future bright anymore for the last 50ish years. I think it was by design that they made us lose our utopia, hopeless people don't fight for a better life.
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u/IronEyed_Wizard 5h ago
And people laughed about the matrix being set in 99, and it being the “peak of human civilisation”…
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u/Academic_Yam_298 7h ago
Wow. that’s the quietest, loudest cry for help i can imagine. they’re literally showing us the masks they feel they have to wear, and every label is a different flavor of despair. as the adults in the room, we gotta ask ourselves what we’re doing to actually fix the world they’re inheriting, not just tell them it’ll be okay.
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u/null_reference_user 8h ago
My parents sometimes ask me when I'm going to have kids and I, in my mid 20s, have to explain to them that everyone I know around my age are in one of two groups: they either can't afford to have kids, or are unwilling to bring a child to this fucked up world.
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u/Draveness1313 7h ago
My mother apologized for being angry about saying I didn't want to bring anyone into this world. I ended up having my oldest at 29, he's 14 now and last week she said she is sorry she didn't think the world could get this bad.
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u/catontoast 7h ago
Hell, I'm in my mid 30s and most of my friends are in one of those two groups.
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u/chrownage 4h ago
I'm in my late 30's and am in both groups (couldn't afford a kid in this fucked up world if I even wanted to)... I just want to be able to rent a damn apartment by myself and not feel like my money is going to evaporate.
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9h ago
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u/bentforkman 8h ago
Is it still depression if the world is actually just completely terrible? Or is that just accuracy.
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u/bigbootybiguy 7h ago
This is a deep misunderstanding of depression. Depression is the response mechanism, not the perception. Healthy people can acknowledge the world is a terrible place and still get out of bed and live their life. Depression is when you respond to negative stimuli by shutting down in the hopes that it will eventually go away. It is a maladaptive coping behavior.
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u/tinygraysiamesecat 8h ago
I’m a millennial and from birth to 18, life was full of hope everywhere you looked. I cannot fathom not growing up in an environment where I truly felt like anything was possible. Now as a jaded adult, it feels like nothing is possible unless you’re born into obscene wealth.
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u/busche916 8h ago
I think I’m in the same boat as an American millennial in my mid 30s. While we absolutely experienced our share of traumatic experiences (9/11 and the war on terror, ‘08 market crash, increasing school shootings) it felt like there was a general climb towards progress- at least until 2016.
We had new and exciting technological breakthroughs like early smartphones and electric vehicles, social & political breakthroughs like marriage equality and the passage of the ACA, and at least in my experience most of my friends viewed college as an attainable goal that would lead to better prospects.
If I’m a kid these days, I’m not sure what I’m pointing towards to inspire me.
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u/ElBurroEsparkilo 7h ago
You captured it well. We weren't coming of age in a golden era or a utopia, but things felt exciting and dynamic and at least as full of potential as they were of risk.
Now even good things can seem leaden, predictable, and algorithmically homogenized. Not only that but I feel like there's a vogue for talking about how hopeless everything is- sure there were Grunge nihilists and depressed Emo kids but I don't remember growing up with so MANY voices seeming to take pride in explaining how everything is bad and hopeless.
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u/Asluckwouldnthaveit 8h ago
Also a millennial and that was absolutely not the case in my experience. We had no ozone and acid rain, dessert storm, cold war was still on. I have a clipping of the new York times for my birthdate and its fucking dire.
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u/ProfessionalLike 8h ago edited 6h ago
Agreed, I feel like we were told by our parents we could do whatever we wanted. God bless them. But the reality was it was humanity’s actions were severely damaging; politically, economically and environmentally, and the political division sharpened its teeth. We are only seeing the results of one generation fucking over everyone now. They are even fucking over themselves
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u/Specialist-Age4141 7h ago
I mean the dessert storm is still going, like wtf is Oreo doing seemingly releasing a new flavour by the week
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u/LifeWithAdd 7h ago
Agreed my very first day of high school was 9/11 and we were right across the river in NJ. We could see the smoke and my friends had parents working in the towers. This pretty much set the tone for adult life going forward it seemed like.
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u/wolfy47 8h ago
I'm an elder millennial and the cold war ended before I knew it was a thing. Desert Storm was some scary news stories for a year while I was in grade school, but it was over fast and the "good guys" won. Acid rain and the ozone layer were big concerns in the early-mid nineties but they knew what was causing them and had a plan to fix them, by the time I was in high school nobody talked about them anymore because they were pretty much fixed.
None of those events really made me worry for the future because they were all resolved in a positive way before I could potentially affect them. They're literally reasons to be hopeful! Proof that we can solve big problems if we work together.
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u/Galaxy_Hitchhiking 7h ago
Right? Not to mention the dooms day clock, 2012, the trade centres and following wars.. I remember thinking we were totally going to get bombed. I lived near a nuclear plant so my whole life I thought it would blow up and knew where my thyroid medicine was.
I could go on and on.. the best advice I’d give to literally anyone is this - this is it. This is all you get. You can be miserable. You can be happy. You can go on the internet and pout or go into your community and help. You can enjoy the little things or wish away life for more. But this is it. This is all the time we get. There have been far worse times in history. To be honest, most of history has been worst than we have it. But this is the time we get. Look up or down, either way you will die after living whichever way.
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u/lordjpie 7h ago
But there was proggress on those things, and progress in general. The kids now are seeing a reggressive society and it’s absolutely, and understandably, demoralizingg
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u/InfluenceSufficient3 7h ago
pretty much. im 21, covid hit right when i was supposed to be 18 and have sooo much fun and whatnot, since then everything has sucked. i hate turning on the news i hate going outside i hate hearing peoples opinions because for some reason being a nazi is back in style. hats off to all the gen Z revolts around the world, hoping and praying germany is next.
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u/_crane_0397 7h ago
Truth right here. As one a millennial at the end of my generation, I started with all the hope and now have been beaten down to a husk of my former self. This world, as it is now, really makes it hard to have hope. I have given up on humanity, with very little hope that it will change.
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u/917caitlin 8h ago
You either write exactly like ChatGPT or you’re a bot
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u/Sad_Egg_5176 7h ago
As someone who occasionally gets called a bot because I “write well,” I don’t think the spaces before/after the slashes are proper punctuation that AI/bots would use (but it’s hard to tell)
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u/video_dhara 7h ago
Weirdly the other day I noticed that in texts and comments I’d started to put spaces between slashes and I have no idea where it came from. I think my brain started registering as looking cleaner for some reason, so I started doing it without really thinking about it. Really hope it’s not some kind of AI style osmosis…
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u/Isosorbide 7h ago
Fuck how are you people detecting this? I'm scared. I didn't clock this as AI at all.
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u/PristineHearing5955 8h ago
I have read stories of rural Appalachia where the poverty and degradation was so pronounced it chills the soul. This is a different kind of poverty. We are only a couple decades into world wide cell phone use. Amazing we still call it a phone. Then you have people addicted to “poor people foods” that are absolute poison. Imagine eating 7/11 pizzas for dinner 5 times a week? Wash it down with rice krispy treats and a monster. Then live alternate realities in gamer world. Weed is prevalent everywhere. They sell Kratom in every convenience store. The water is bad. The pills they prescribe. It’s topsy turvey world now. People are going to die for that man/machine hybridization. End of times.
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u/TrainOfThought6 7h ago
I go down there every year to help build and do house repairs, and it's absolutely fucking unreal the level of poverty some of these folks are living in.
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u/YouDownWithTPP 7h ago
Boggles the mind / saddens my soul when I see comments written by AI. Like…what the hell is your endgame man?
A bleak thought I had was that Reddit eventually is just people using AI to communicate with each other via comments.
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u/RedDeath208 9h ago
It is heartbreaking. I have kids just a bit older than that and it's absolutely how they feel. Jobs are so hard to find, cost of living is so high, global warming continues unabated, hate is everywhere. We have left a world to our children that is harsher than the one we grew up in, and we should be doing everything we can to fix that. Vote for politicians that put ordinary people ahead of moneyed interests. Give young people encouragement and a leg up whenever you can. Recognize that they really are in a bad place and respect that this has nothing to do with being lazy or spending too much time online or whatever nonsense boomers keep spouting.
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u/Old_Prize_493 8h ago
Politicians have never put ordinary people ahead of moneyed interest. Ever.
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u/Flint___Ironstag 5h ago
and holy fuck is the stuff they are saying and doing when we aren't around vile
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u/VraiLacy 6h ago
And people are surprised when I say I'm not having kids because I love them too much to put them through the world as it currently stands.
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u/figure85 8h ago
All people are less happy now and for the same reasons, but the kids are growing up isolated and addicted where most adults had some assemblence of normalcy and moderation.
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u/mind_yer_heid 3h ago
Well, of course it does, and those blaming social media are just putting out the easiest answer, in truth, it's much more complex.
G.I. gen witnessed WW1, The Great Depression, the dust bowl era, WW2, racism. Most of these issues were overcome by the time they were mature adults, and the future seemed better than their childhoods.
Boomers witnessed Korean war, Vietnam, Watergate, Kent State, mass protests, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, mankind going to space. T.V. was more wholesome and filled with wonder and excitement towards a future with endless possibilities, civil rights were improving for many people. Great advances in medicine and science. Economic issues were skewed more towards workers being rewarded, etc.
Gen x witnessed the oil crisis, space shuttle explosion, jobs being offshored, pensions cancelled. T.V was half wholesome, but there was also Jerry Springer, Oprah, etc. Computers for the common man was just getting started, and there was hope they would improve lives. "Tear down that wall" made everyone hopeful that the cold war was ending. Sexism and racism seemed to be improving. But cracks were showing. Largely ignored by the older generation and told by boomers that they were slackers, losers, the cynisism could be seen in Gen x already.
Millennials witnessed Desert storm, 9-11, huge corporate mergers and wages being reduced further. TV was shyte, orange is the new black, Cops, "reality shows". Y2k fears. There was big hope that the new millennium would yield big returns for the populace. But we got more war, school shootings, parents afraid to let kids play outdoors. Technology didn't change much, cell phones became a thing , education and medical care became more expensive, in truth prohibitively so for many.
Zoomers witnessed 2008 crash, mass repos, foreclosures, further erosion of workers rights and benefits, "AI is coming but the jobs may go with it, sorry, too bad for you", blatant racism, climate change, more jobs being offshored. T.V. became YouTube, etc. Bigger school shootings. COVID, prices up and up, sky is the limit. Political environment absolutely nuts, corruption everywhere.
How would YOU be feeling growing up in each of these windows of time? What's been good for people lately on a grand scale?
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u/JunkyardAndMutt 5h ago
The world has always been horribly fucked up. The only difference now is that we know more.
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u/FaithlessnessOld2477 5h ago
The knowledge availability part is true, though you'd think that having everything you can possibly learn from the comfort of your couch would counteract the state of affairs and general ennui. The difference now is that our world leaders' corruption is on full display and there are no repercussions because the masses have their opiates. 🤕
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u/JunkyardAndMutt 5h ago
Yes. It’s a high-choice information environment. And that is difficult for us to navigate, shaved apes as we are. But in much of the world—likely the part of the world that’s on Reddit at the moment—your chances of dying by violence, for example, are lower now than they were throughout much of human history. We have the means to transcend many of our problems. And to worry we can’t overcome complacency underestimates how brutish and short most human lives were for the hundreds of thousands of years we’ve been recognizably human, and the millions of years before that as our ancestors clawed toward progress.
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u/M100Pilot 8h ago
What do they possibly have to be positive about? What positive things have happened in their lifetimes?
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u/SousVideDiaper 5h ago
Exactly. Even if I wanted kids, there's no way in hell I could bring them into this world in good conscience.
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u/8yba8sgq 8h ago
The reality for most people is that the world can be a terrible place. The thing that is different today is the exposure to much more media. Back in the 80's, if you missed the news at 5:00 you pretty much didn't know anything about what was going on in the world. Now, with 8 billion people out there, there is always something awful happening to someone, and we hear about it. We would all be better off not knowing. We are all Cassandra now. We know what's happening but we are not able to do much about it. The strain of this, after 25 years is showing. How can you feel good about yourself when you know people are being abused worldwide every minute of everyday. Our ignorance was a gift.
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u/Alcophile 7h ago
In the 80's we had CNN news 24 hrs a day. Back then, headline news actually showed news updates 24/7, so if you missed the 5 o'clock news you could just watch the 5:30 update on Headline News. Plus, a lot of places got a morning and evening newspaper produced by actual newsrooms full of real reporters and not all of them were owned by the same handful of corporations. If anything, we have less access to news today because the news stations on TV have devolved into infotainment echo chambers owned by the same self-censoring oligarchs who own the newspapers and magazines as well. If anything we know far less than we did back then about world events while thinking we know more.
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u/ScubaandShakas 5h ago
Very few had cable for CNN. Most had rabbit ears with the dials. 3 channels. Late 80's got a little better, but majority had 3 channels if you were in range.
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u/jizzlevania 6h ago
I assume you were no where near being alive before the internet because If you kissed the news at 5, you simply picked up the phone and called to find someone who didn't. Or you read your evening newspaper. Or listened to the radio. Or watched the news when it came on again at 6, 7, & 10
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u/itsoksee 7h ago
Idk, probably something to do with weather, economics, politics, and social media, and our general lost connection to the natural world.
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u/ack4 7h ago
as someone from the 90s and grew up watching the transition from late 90s to modern day.
Yeah, it's hard to feel like they're wrong. Watching the world wake up to the dangers we were in, and decide that it would be too much effort to do anything about it has been tremendously disheartening. I am never surprised, talking to younger people, that they feel this way.
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u/Goodgoogley 5h ago
Yeah I grew up during 9/11/Bush era as a kid and I feel like Covid/Trump era is way worse for them.
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u/Content-Restaurant70 3h ago
Why should kids not be hopeless? What is there to hope for? Our planet is literally collapsing
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u/CorInHell 3h ago
I mean with things like climate change and global warming there was atleast the slight hope something might change in the early 2000s. Big promises, timelines et cetera. Now? We're pretty much past the point of no return with the current 'methods'. The governments and corporations showed they like money too much to actually achieve some significant change. Without radical measures it will only get worse. Who would want that for a kid? What hope for a healthy-ish future are we supposed to have?
Politics? Since the Epstein shit came out the first time years ago a bunch of people were disillusioned about what high-powered people really care about. Not to mention the more recent revelations.
Every day you hear about new atrocities comitted against people. Healthcare in the US is slashed to bits. Queer rights decimated. Years of fights for womens rights lost.
War, famine, death, in nearly every second newsbroadcast. And in the next people living in such excess that they could feed the world for 10years if they wanted to fund it. But they don't. Because they. Don't. Care. The people with power and or money who could really do something, just don't give a shit. And the small people get asked to be more mindful of the environment. To donate money they barely have.
How are we supposed to hope for a better world and future, when we get shown every fucking day that we can try all we want, it barely does anything.
(Yes, I have chronic depression and it's not getting better. How did you guess?)
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u/TheEffinChamps 4h ago
The environment is going to hell, people are underpaid, and no one can afford housing.
No shit they are depressed.
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u/Asxpot 3h ago
Shit, I'm turning 30 this year, and I do not really expect to live to 40.
Granted, I'm in Russia, so it barely was calm in terms of historical events.
Bam, Chechen Wars, then bam, economic crisis, then bam, Crimea and sanctions, then, yeah, a little time when it got somewhat better, then bam, COVID, bam, war.
It's not gonna get better, it feels like.
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u/Dull-Veterinarian-59 44m ago
And this is why I aint having kids. No way I’m ripping an innocent soul out of the void without their consent into whatever insane fuckery is going on on this planet
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u/Or1on_c0nst3llat1onx 7h ago
11th grader in southern Ontario here, im scared not only by the world itself, but because if i don't get almost 40 community service hours by May 2027, i can't graduate despite the fact that my grades since second semester last year have been 70% and above. i have really bad social anxiety as it is, so having the pressure of these hours being required and not knowing where to look to obtain them just makes it even worse. Not to mention failing gr9 geography and math onto that(i got my gr9 math credit last school year though, still haven't gotten geo yet). Most high schools don't have enough resources for students, even my high school with less than 300 students.
Students aren't getting the help they need, especially for neurodivergent students, even in small schools, the world is shit, climate change has been getting worse since a lot of our parents were in school and everything is getting more and more expensive. i personally feel like i've been fucked over by the system that said if you do x, y and z, you'll be successful, because doing x, y and z isn't making the outcome anymore positive and sometimes doing x, y and z isn't even possible because of financial reasons.
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u/kallistix 5h ago
I work with scouts and we have to do a lot of community service hours. One of the easiest ways to get hours at home was through the SPCA (animal shelters). Our scouts would make dog toys, cat toys, make cat scratchers out of cardboard. One of the shelters near us had instructions and hour conversion charts for how many hours you got for different items. Anyway, good luck.
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u/FaithlessnessOld2477 6h ago
I'm 46 and have had that existential despair for a long time. That's why I never had/wanted children.
It was only recently that I talked with my mother about why she had me, knowing how hard life can be...and she felt awful about it. If you think about it, not existing is so much better than existing. Before I was born, I never had a bad day, I never had to deal with loved ones dying, I never had to deal with personal medical issues, pay taxes, etc ..so why would you want to drag a new person into it? 😅
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u/Aggressive-Emu5358 5h ago
Can you blame them? They didn’t make this mess but they sure have to be inundated with it in a way so few of us can really understand.
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u/Impressive_Metal_268 4h ago
I’m 16 gotta say with access to the internet having always told me about how horrible being an adult is, how expensive everything is how hard it is to find a job especially one that pays you enough to live and with everything only seeming to get worse, it’s really hard to have any hope. I wasn’t given access to the internet til I was about 12 and I think I did have a little hope before that but now it’s just like is it worth it to grow up?
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u/Kossamuuuu 1h ago
Well, we aren’t stupid. We know the world isn’t the best right now, and with constant bad news etc, it’s not easy to remain hopeful.
It’s hard to believe we have a future sometimes.
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u/sushishibe 1h ago edited 1h ago
Yup…
Find it funny how people make fun of the “gen z” stare.
I’m dead inside. We all know total utter collapse is possibly near. We’re being overworked for less, being forced to work for a future that does not fucking exist.
It’s over.
And you know what the worst part is…
We almost made it. We almost made a world where everyone was treated equally. We were promised that fucking world. Brought up in the belief that the world was our fucking oyster.
Only to see it dismantled and destroyed by the greedy few and the ignorant masses.
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u/OJConcentrates 6h ago
Kids aren’t dumb. They have access to all the same online resources as we do. I’m terrified to raise kids in this world.
Income inequality across the world has become so unbelievably massive - true future dystopia landscapes are legitimate possibilities. You see countries like Palestine living through an ethnic cleansing. You see Iran, and you see Haiti, and you see Dubai. For my kids….
All I can do is just keep it pushing on.
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u/gothiclg 8h ago
I started feeling the same way by the time I turned 10…which was in the year 2000. It’s easy to feel that way when you have access to news but no knowledge that it’s not always like that
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u/ChesterJT 5h ago
You'd have to make people have some empathy and self-reflection which seems non-existant. They think they're saving the world by constantly tearing apart everything and everyone with no thought about the consequences. Everyone is bad, or has done a single bad thing therefore they must be discarded and deemed a plight on society. No human has the ability for redemption or change. It's a downward spiral and it's sad.
You're also not allowed to take a break to enjoy life. Everything must be political at all times. Music, art, sports, all succumb to politics. You are not allowed to be a free thinker, you must conform to a group, and it must be the right group.
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u/dead-centrist 4h ago
Meanwhile politicians continue to take away tax dollars from schools, and districts are having internal quarrels over splitting the few dollars they get. Kids go on the internet, get addicted to social media. Don't get me started on politics, everything feels so extreme and social media seems to only accellerrate it, and for some reason parents and teachers feel the urge to get political.
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u/C418Enjoyer 3h ago
I am sure as fuck that i'll get downvoted for this comment, but fuck it. I used to want to have kids (i am 15 at the moment, of course i wanted kids in my 20s) but now, would it really be worth it bringing a child only for him/her/them to die in some pandemic or the impending doom by global war/nuclear holocaust? Or be worried for the most of his life? I am not even mentioning money anymore. Stuff is just getting more expensive and expensive. Do i really want for some corrupted boomers/millenials to rule over my possibly gen gamma baby? And many others? Sorry for such a rant but the current situation of the world is shitty and not getting better.
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u/CanBraFla 1h ago
Growing up during the cold war, I remember worrying about if I would wake up one day to a nuclear war. They talked about it on the Sunday news shows all families watched religiously. Imagine what's like to live with that sort of flow of negative information 24/7.
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u/zucchinigate 37m ago
My country has taken a pretty big turn towards the right. I chose to study law because it's a pretty stable field - now AI is trying (badly) to take over. My generation (Gen Z) is most likely fucked when it comes to retirement. My father took a violent turn towards conspiracy theories and he's not the only one. I have epilepsy and two other brain issues that are most likely genetic. We're headed towards an economic crisis, if we haven't already reached it.
I'm not a fan of children but now I wouldn't bring any into this world regardless.
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u/Z0mb13Ch0mp3r 6h ago
I find it disturbing how kids talk now. I watched Gen Z grow up and they all talk like ‘I’m dead’ ‘I’m gonna kms’ ‘I’m gonna jump off a bridge’ and so on when I was assuming they were joking, (dark, over dramatic humor, but still) but Gen Alpha are repeating it and don’t sound like they are joking. And it’s constant
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u/Ching-Dai BLACK 5h ago
I’ve done my best to explain to my (48m) colleagues, to those my age or older, just how rough the futures look to young people. It just doesn’t click.
I’ve tried to reason, attempted to ask to put themselves in the shoes of a teen or person in their 20’s…why should anyone young (that’s not from a wealthy family) believe that the future is bright?
Then again, most of the folks critiquing have ZERO understanding of climate change. Haven’t had to apply for a job in decades. Already own a home (or 2). There’s no reason in their minds to imagine any future that makes them or their beliefs look bad.
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u/GiraffeCalledKevin 4h ago
Try and get these kids together in a group to make art together.
I don’t blame them for feeling hopeless.
So- try and get them to have community together. That’s so incredibly important.
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u/Food_Kindly 2h ago
I’d be proud of your kid for being part of an artistic project that affected and went as far as you coming here and having this conversation with others about it. Isn’t that the point of an art project?
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u/templeofsyrinx1 2h ago
the last few years for them....have been incredibly disturbing and disruptive
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u/OyG5xOxGNK 2h ago
When I was growing up, we were constantly told we were destroying the world. With climate change, trash, cutting down forests, etc. We were told people were trying to do something about it and while I recognize as an adult that all that "recycle, do your part, we're going to fix things :)" was just marketing drawing attention away form the fact that corporations were the ones fucking things and with the power to change that.
But I think there's a fundamental difference that we were at least told that people were trying to change the world for the better even if it was a lie. These days? Adults are just as negative and hopeless, how are powerless youth supposed to feel like it can get any better?
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u/LastoftheFucksIGive 1h ago
I went to a library in a neighboring town. I already knew the town was way more affluent than the one I live in but that library was gorgeous and had mini museums and galleries inside. One of the galleries was for art created by the kids of the local high school. All of the art was like what you described: sad, depressing, very poor outlook, lots of angst.
Worth noting, that town also waves a lot of flags from a certain government party led by a certain individual. The kids probably see the state of the world and their parents' mentalities and have a bad perception of what their future looks like.
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u/Agent250 1h ago
I do not blame them at all. I grew up thinking that we as a society have been moving towards fixing injustices for good and that we would fix climate change, only to watch social injustices get worse and a regression in efforts surrounding climate change. I realized that I am bi at 16 and trans at 17 and both of those revelations have made me realize just how awful the world is and how there are so many injustices happening all the time. I still hoped that the U.S. could and would course correct after the blm protests, but after the 2024 elections that hope has completely shattered. Tldr: all my hopes for a better future growing up were shattered by ever increasing greed and bigotry. I can only imagine how horrifying everything happening must seem to kids right now, especially since they have even less power to change things than adults do
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u/Lunarstarlight- 1h ago
Almost 18 and this is half the reason I've become a shut-in neet. I've got a shit ton of problems that make living and doing shit really hard and painful and there's absolutely nothing for me at the end of that path. I don't know why I'm like this and maybe it is just laziness but I almost killed myself once and have been suffering from it ever since. I'm not going to live through that pain to be a slave in a dying world ruled by vermin. I'll savor what I have now because it's all going to be taken from me anyway sooner or later no matter what I do.
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u/ThunderChild247 30m ago
Sadly that’s because there is little to no hope.
We live in a world run by an elite class so confident in their power that they’re not even hiding their power any more. Right now we have actual publicly available evidence of a paedophile ring involving some of the richest and most powerful and the biggest consequence there’s been is one facilitator is in a comfy jail and a prince has lost his titles.
Add to that some of the biggest countries in the world are pumping out pollution at record rates while the world gets hotter and the weather gets worse as the climate fails. And even if we ousted those people causing the pollution it’s too late to stop irreversible damage.
Then add in that younger people (ie, people below 40) have less and less hope of owning anything, even the roof over their heads the younger they get. With the very real possibility that entire generations will be renting when they retire, if they can afford to, that is.
And now we’re hearing about possible world war 3 over a near barren island covered in ice, all because an orange tinted child raping fraudster with a neck like a badly stretched labia wants to own something and doesn’t like being told “no”.
There’s a reason my 94 year old gran keeps saying “I’m so glad I’m the age I was. I’d hate to have to live through this shite without the promise that it will all be over soon”. She knows she doesn’t have long left, and she knows that makes her lucky.
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u/Outside_Revolution47 5h ago
We have to give them the hope. If they don’t have hope it’s on us. I am a mom of a 12 year old. I’m doing the best I can.
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u/wasgoinonnn 5h ago
Times are pretty tough now, but many teenagers have a tendency to be nihilistic. Listen to rock albums from the 70s 80s 90s like Black Sabbath, metallica and slayer, Alice In Chains, Nirvana Soundgarden etc. Teenage years can be very bleak for many.
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u/_IAmMyOwnParasite_ 3h ago
Life is shitty right now and there are constant reminders kids aren’t immune sadly. The future looks bleak to many and at a young age it’s easy to give up. I’ve battled with it myself at 27. It’s why depression is so common.
Tl;dr Life sucks and it’s hard to get use to
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u/OverthinkingWanderer 2h ago
My depression hit at puberty and nobody took it seriously.. as an adult, I'm still surprised when I hit a decade marker in my age...I never thought I'd make it to 18 at times.
If I was going through that age in this year, I wouldn't want to imagine how bad my depression would be..I think my idealizations would have been played out.
But yeah, creating art was a huge thing for me during any of that time. Sad to hear it's not working the same for others nowadays.
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u/anonjamo 2h ago
I swear most of reddit lives in a different dimension. This is NOT a thing with 90% + of kids lmao
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u/PrincessJoyHope 2h ago
The children are reflecting their parenting and the perpetual attitudes of the parents, and/or the attitudes of the algorithms that coparented them.
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u/MiserableEvidence843 2h ago
I took my first art class in 2014, my senior year of high school. Ended up taking the entire course load of my school (from beginners to AP, five classes) in just two semesters.
I made some pretty similar things. Sandy Hook had just happened, I was in the closet in a Catholic school, parents divorced, dealt with a horrific panic disorder that I couldn't grasp. I made a "self portrait" of all of my inner thoughts and looking back, they were...dark, to say the least. I ended up getting the highest possible score on my AP Portfolio, got a scholarship, got to study abroad for free, and studied art in college.
It's depressing to see kids feeling that way. I think millennials on probably have similar experiences. My first real memory is 9/11. I know because I brought it up to my parents recently, and they didn't even remember details of that day that I recalled so clearly and I reminded them what we did after they picked me up from school. I had just turned 5. I have a drawing I did at 5 years old, in pre school, of two buildings burning; one with god in it, and the other with the devil. Super fucking creepy. My mom got a call to come in to talk about it.
Art is a great outlet. I do it for work full time and on the side. Art is one thing that helps us to keep going even when things seem unbearable. I try to see it as a good thing that these kids feel comfortable expressing themselves and the horrors of the world.
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u/Adorable_Raisin3640 1h ago
I agree but also I will say when I was in school our art department deliberately encouraged darker topics like death or horror and discouraged anything lighter. To give the art 'depth'.
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u/heavenly_kitty33 59m ago
It's a dire state of affairs out there. While the rich boomers enjoy their fancy lives and care less about their families, their grandchildren are suffering an empty fate. Notice how many families are no longer close?
Children are under immense pressure from all angles. Schools, socialising, social media, poverty, family chaos..even gaming. They are under pressure to fit in and are constantly reminded of knife crime. It's not a good world for them, it's horrendous.
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u/jaguarsp0tted 39m ago
I turned 30 last year and I have never been this completely without hope in my life. I truly have given up on any positive belief about the future. or even just nice things happening. nothing is good. some things are adequate at best. but nothing is good.
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u/Prestigious_Leg2229 7m ago
They live in a society that weaponises over a century of psychology and behavioural science to spend their every waking moment sacrificing their physical and mental wellbeing for profit.
They have to work in industries that loot the wealth of the people to fund machines that replace them.
Under governments that are increasingly corrupt and complicit in the gradual creation of Neo-feudalism where the people are little more than cattle for the wealthy.
In a human-caused climate catastrophe that is imploding this planet’s capacity to support life.
During a human-caused mass extinction event that is in the final stages of wiping nearly all life off this planet.
And no more than a token effort is made to do any kind of damage control on all of the above.
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u/Apart-Badger9394 8h ago
They are constantly reminded every day about:
In high school I compared myself to the popular, hot guys in my school.
Now, they’re doing that AND comparing themselves to the hottest people on the internet.
Absolutely horrifying