[legitster]

I tend think the problem is that the world is under-stressed.

Personal tragedy used to be unbelievably common for humans. Just consider the sheer number of childhood deaths before the year 1800.

If you are a generation that has been raised in a world with few diseases, famines, foreign invasions, and even fewer things like verbal abuse or bullying - by the time you reach adulthood you are probably much, much more sensitive to any sort of negative emotion anywhere.

It's like growing up in a zero-G environment and coming back down to Earth - you have no emotional muscles.

[PragmaticPulp]

> Personal tragedy used to be unbelievably common for humans. Just consider the sheer number of childhood deaths before the year 1800.

While the troughs of that sorrow are undoubtedly deeper, childhood deaths in your family weren't a 24/7 stressor.

I think the issue is that people can log in to Reddit, Twitter, or even any news website and receive a constant stream of tragedy, bad news, and worry. It's no longer an exception, it's the everyday experience available on demand.

I see this come up in extremely online young people I work with: They're always invested in a new tragedy or catastrophe or drama or concern somewhere in the world, but those worries disappear and get replaced with a new one as soon as the news cycles shift. They weren't actually invested in it, they were just reacting to what they put in front of their eyes for hours per day.

[MrLeap]

This probably depends on the parent. One of my older brothers died when I was in 3rd grade. After that, the head vice was pretty much constant until my mother kicked me out at 14. Things rapidly improved after that.

[pessimizer]

> I tend think the problem is that the world is under-stressed.

I'd say that it isn't the world that's under-stressed, it's upper-middle class NYC/London feature writers. Other people still suffer plenty.

[SoftTalker]

I agree. In prior generations, if you survived childhood you probably went to fight in a war as a young adult (if you were male) or you had a loved one who did and you had to struggle to keep things together at home. If you survived that, you had a hard life working in fields or factories until your body was so broken you couldn't do it anymore. You didn't have time to worry about the types of things that many young people have as their big concerns today.

[bob1029]

In my experience, intentionally stressing yourself in controlled ways (i.e. with exercise) is an incredibly effective way to counteract this issue.