Is modern life too good? Ive often thought there is too much choice, too many experiences that are glamourised as ‘must do’ and too many things that we are expected to buy and own. We are surrounded and so engrossed in technology with everything at a touch of button or screen. Is it all too easy?

It can never be too easy, surely? Progress innit?

The speed of progress seems to be accelerating. I do find it incredible that my kids have grown up just taking for granted being able to reference pretty much anything, via the internet, on a phone, or iPad. Instantly! And with digital telly they can watch anything they want, whenever they like. They can’t imagine a world where that isn’t the norm.

We are surrounded and so engrossed with adverts and materialism

Yep.

Blur had it right.

Mine is pretty bloody amazing.

Depends who you ask – 80% of the worlds population live on less than $10 per day and over 22,000 children die each day due to poverty.

and over 22,000 children die each day due to poverty

How the **** is that even possible ?

How the **** is that even possible ?

A very good question that we don’t ask ourselves enough.

How the **** is that even possible ?

It’s a big world, and you live in the little bit of it that’s living off the back of the rest of it….

It’s a big world, and you live in the little bit of it that’s living off the back of the rest of it….

Fair point to an extent. But not being in a position of power, it’s not really for me to massively influence it alone.

But not being in a position of power, it’s not really for me to massively influence it alone.

And that’s Jenga.

I didn’t say it was your fault..

If you/we think of how much of a loss losing our child would be though… that’s a massive massive amount of loss going on in the world, which is easily argued, completely unnecessary…

Sheesh… eye-opening.

There is an issue that the more choice you have the less often you’ll be satisfied with what you get.

Ben Sharpe discusses it well if you’ve got 20 minutes to spare

He makes interesting points about a time when you got married as soon as you could, had children as fast as you could and so on, now all those things are choices rather than social imperatives people worry about whether they’re making the right choices all the time.

Theres also questions of real measures of happiness. If you measure being happy had being healthy, safe, happy to know and meet your neighbours, able to feed and clothe yourself and have a warm dry home then we’ve stopped making those advances of late, the choices we now have are meaningless diversions.

Today we’re a roughly 4 time richer nation than we were at the end of WW2. Increases in our wealth over that time have incrementally made us happier – they’ve reduce child mortality, they’ve given us indoor plumbing for all, children don’t have to go to school without shoes like my dad did. Universal health care, NHS dentists so that you don’t have your family club together to have your teeth pulled out a 21 to save you future costs and so on. No more 6 day weeks. Holidays, having enough free time that you own clothes other than your work suit and your sunday best to do all these leisure activities in. Around about the mid 80s getting wealthier as a nation stopped making us measurably happier. The changes our increasing wealth offer us are irrelevant – its the difference between a 60″ telly this year and a 80″ telly next year – who cares. We were once just happy to have a telly that just worked without your dad having to hit it

Too distracting, maybe. If talking about us minority who live in luxury compared to the other 90 percent…

Working with twentysomethings in the great outdoors I realise increasingly that they (all of us to a degree) often aren’t ‘in the world’ – constantly looking for distractions from the living, tactile World, choosing digital ‘infotainment’ and withdrawing from social life, choosing so-called social media. The luxury of choice can somehow proportionally draw off the desire to experience ‘real’ life, sensory/tactile challenges and pursuits, new experiences…choosing detachment or a shadow of a real experience, enjoyed vicariously via digital proxy.

‘IRL’ is (ironically) an increasingly abstract concept for many today?

On the other hand we had lots of stuff when I was at school which they don’t have today.

Rickets
Diptheria
Polio
TB

Around about the mid 80s getting wealthier as a nation stopped making us measurably happier.

around about the time the unions lost the power to force these changes on a reluctant political system and we were all told society doesn’t exist, by weird coincidence.
Back in the 18th and 19th century we came within a gnat’s chuff of going down the French route and forcing the Haves to hand it over to the Have Nots. We’d better be sure we are ready for something similar to happen on a global scale, sooner or later.

On the other hand we had lots of stuff when I was at school which they don’t have today.
Rickets
Diptheria
Polio
TB

Don’t worry with all the anti-vaccine people they will soon be back !

Depends if you mean the privileged British group to which STW-dwellers belong (by definition of having enough free time and money to play around on mountain bikes), or the rest of the UK, or the rest of the world…

There’s a few metrics to suggest UK, at least, is not good at all, despite lots of basic needs being met and very high levels of material wealth:
1. Falling living standards
2. No wage rises for the foreseeable
3. Record amounts of personal debt
4. Only the very wealthy can afford the security of buying a house
5. Increasing levels of mental illness
6. Increasing levels of over-weight and obesity
7. Increased competition for our skills from other countries and technology
8. Increased tendency to shut ourselves away from the outside world (driving, staring at your mobile when walking down the street or out with friends, social media (yes I know I’m on social media)
9. Ageing population, living for longer going to cost taxpayers a fortune
10. Poor role models for leadership whether politicians, media or at work…

On the other hand, if you’re Chinese, South Korean, Brazilian, African etc, your living standards are going up and up and up.

I think we’re seeing a historical re-balancing of wealth and political power away from the West and towards the South and East to a more equal position across the Globe.

To the West, used to being the most wealthy and powerful since the Industrial Revolution, this will feel negative and like a loss which may well lead to more conflict. I suspect this will take a generation to play out until the new world order settles down and everyone gets used to their new positions…

We’d better be sure we are ready for something similar to happen on a global scale, sooner or later.

It feels like this is already happening. This may be a paranoid delusion, but the current trends towards an rentier economy, reductions in social mobility, increased personal debt, increasing gaps between rich and poor, falling real incomes, destruction of human and workers rights etc all suggest that the rich/powerful can see this coming and are pulling up the draw-bridges to protect themselves.

As tragic as the loss of life of any child is due to disease, malnutrition etc (whether western or 3rd world), we must balance this with the fact that the global population growth seems to be fast getting out of control.

70 years ago the global population was around 2 billion, today it’s around 7 billion, in another 20 years it’s predicted to be somewhere between 9-10 billion. Yet already there are plenty of people on the planet who are going very, very hungry, and increasing environmental destruction and exploitation of our rainforests, oceans and atmosphere.

And in the midst of this most people seem to be more preoccupied about updating their Facebook status on their brand new smartphone or watching re-runs of X Factor on TV.

Yes I (and my child) are part of the population problem too and somehow I get the feeling that this will not all end well . . . .

Lots of interesting points, especially maccruiskeen. I spose the younger generation are measuring happiness increasingly through items bought and less experience. Im finding that in my late 20s im increasingly getting sucked in to the infotainment and trying to take a step back by just going out for a ride or actually visiting friends. My work is a fairly good factor in restriction too.

I can see this false presumed happiness is going to cause real problems for soon to be future generations who have grown up with it but what next?

I can see a society that cannot communicate in a generations time. It’s so sad I hope I’m wrong, but kids who don’t lark about and laugh when in a group because they’re all on their phone don’t make me feel too hopeful 🙁

To the original question, no modern life isn’t too good. It’s too easy, and certainly no happier. I’m eitting ,ight now with a beautiful 10-week old boy snoring on my lap and I’m worried about how I’m going to raise him to be a good and happy person.

I reckon the social exclusion and instant access to information that people have by being constantly glued to a device is just a very early step on the path to transhumanism.

But I wonder if and when a future generation does see a technological singularity (when we can make anything) will it create a massive divide between the haves and the have nots, or will the trickle down of technology mean everyone gets the good stuff, a bit like my deore mech benefiting from the 2009 xtr design?

no it definitely isn’t too good, I really think we have some big problems in the making and some that are here today. But we are better at creating the illusion of things being good, most significantly, debt.
mortgaged to the hilt and a shiny car on which you pay finance is not a ‘good thing’, but most will aspire to it.
I’m also in the life is too easy camp, the increasing paternalism from the state and its various organisations, and the increased dependencies (entitlement?) of society. We’ve become fat and mentally weak as a nation, quick to complain but less likely to help ourselves.

The distractions thing I also agree with, but this is definitely not limited to kids, or the next generation.

All of the above is the complete antithesis of what makes a person happy.

Percepetions are subjective.

The idea that previous generations were happier or even sadder is rubbish. life is what it is. We accept where we find ourselves, each generation repeats the process.

Modern life is neither too good or too bad. Its just life. You each need to find the little things in your life to make you happy. I say this and dont do it enough myself.

Nobody gets out alive.

Once you accept that life is pain and suffering maybe you’ll see the times inbetween that are joy and happiness.

Theres a mix of things here that seem to be a factor. Consumerism and ease of access to too much information are big factors. Expectations are high of everything and results dont match up. Im not saying I dont love my phone, laptop and tv but Id prefer to be going out with mates far more.

i guess life looks wonderful if you gag the naysayers.

Define good.

In my view “life” was probably better 20 years ago. People weren’t quite so self-centred and mobile phones and the internet hadn’t turned people into complete and utter ****.