[budadre75]

'Broken' should be read as people not having great relationships and mental health as once people used to have; families falling apart, couples divorcing, more single-parent families, less people marrying, much higher depression rates, high suicide rates, people reporting not having any friends, lots more people shutting in. Note that I am talking about several modern societies at once, Asian and Western societies.

[lisper]

Modern humans have to deal with a lot of stuff that was not part of our ancestral environment. It's not too surprising that this causes stress.

[reitanqild]

There is also a lot of stress we don't have to deal with - at least here in the west, like keeping food stocked for winter, worrying about bears and wolves, worrying about various crippling or deadly diseases that used to be commonplace etc etc.

[bloak]

Those are some things we don't have to deal with, but what's the connection with "stress"? Did people actively worry about getting leprosy or polio? Was that really a cause of "stress"? Perhaps it was; I don't know. For me, driving in bad traffic, when I'm late for an appointment, can be stressful, but thinking that I might get Alzheimer's, so perhaps I should sort out wills and power of attorney... not so much. And if we didn't have today's complex legal system, they'd be nothing to worry about at all, because what could I possibly do about it, except perhaps attend mass and say my prayers?

[Hextinium]

Ironically the lack of these stressors may also contribute to people strengthening family bonds because they cannot survive without them.

[LifeLiverTransp]

Well, people can vote to opt out- and they do.

[ecwilson]

Opt out is not a real option. The world is not set up for that anymore. What are you going to do -- go squat illegally somewhere until someone chases you away? Eat pigeons? It's not as easy as you make it sound to escape the framework of our society. I'd love to be proven wrong.

[laughfactory]

Agreed. I would summarize modern society the same way. In some ways life is vastly improved over prior generations, but I think that masks an alarming amount of b societal decay.