To be clear, I'm not siding with the "then was better" argument. It would take surviving an apocalypse for me to go back to the way things used to be. I'll likely always feel this way. I believe you can overcome becoming set in your ways and not keeping up with the times if you're vigilant about it. I'm just noting that I believe there is a correlation between increasing depression and decreasing attention spans with the rise of instant gratification to all of our hedonistic desires.

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Posted by TbirdSpur2010

ALAMO CITY

Member since Dec 2010

134026 posts

Posted on 2/2/16 at 9:19 pm to VagueMessage

Truthfully, I'm more towards the median when it comes to this. The past wasn't always better, and neither is the future always preferable.

quote:
I'm just noting that I believe there is a correlation between increasing depression and decreasing attention spans with the rise of instant gratification to all of our hedonistic desires.

This is where being vigilant in keeping up with the times, as you said, is key. If you walk back that assertion of more expedient gratification being the driving force behind depression, one can make the argument that we should live like the Amish/pre-industrial times in order to truly be happy. All due respect to the Amish, but frick that. People found ways to happily coexist with a myriad of advents throughout human history that brought about gratification more quickly--the current era is no different, just the latest iteration of the same.

What truly irks me, though, is the predilection of millenials to shite on their own generation just as quickly as their elders. That's not healthy--stand up for yourselves just like your predecessors did.

Of course, that could just be me failing to keep up with the times of current generations becoming more self-deprecating in order bridge the generational gap more easily, to bring this whole charade full circle