I feel like this is mainly because things keep getting worse so you look back and think “Hey maybe that wasn’t so bad after all”
The social media algorithms were definitely much different in 2014. They tended to promote links to outside articles and trending topics, even if those links were to BuzzFeed listicles. In 2015/16 they had all changed to trying to keep people engaged on the original site, so they started pushing rage bait that would get people arguing in the comments.
In 2014, everybody was talking about what color that dress was. In 2015, Breitbart was like the number 3 most popular shared “news” site on Facebook.
Hey I’m not saying that far back. We were actually on a pretty good path for a while there in like the 70’s-90’s.
Things weren’t good but it seemed like things were actually geared toward making life better for everyone.
Then the fire nation attacked.
Ironically, that is actually the decline:
Factoring in the fact that the civil rights act was passed in 1964, there was a decade (of extreme racism and misogyny) where things looked “up” to certain privileged people. But not by the 80s or 90s
This in one picture captures exactly why I keep a diary.
I’ll be reminiscing about a time some years ago, feeling feelings about it - but if I want to know what I really felt, I can just look it up
It’s powerful and humbling.
I did when I was trying out CBT and meds using specific questionnaires and charting the results. It was super helpful to figure out what worked and what didn’t and have data to back that up.
troubleshooting medications is a great use case, thanks. i assume you wouldnt find it helpful once you settled on the meds?
lots of elderly track their various pain estimates, and its therapeutic for them.
Rofl probably most people too busy just getting by, like surviving. But I write to relax instead of TV or video games usually, so I get pretty wild with it.
I’ve got a super subjective “emotional compass” doodle that I can quickly scratch out in the margins.
I do wish I’d started sooner, but doubt I’d have had the patience/headspace for this stuff before middle age perspective came a knocking
There’s not a lot of metrics (the potential of getting better healthcare being the exception), that aren’t objectively worse globally. I’d be curious what your diary says to that…
I mean it’s super self centered, so it comes out mostly as guilt or gratefulness or a stirring like I should be doing more for my community. Pandemic onward it kinda went into overdrive.
Like nowadays I have multiple homeless encampments within 15 minutes walking distance, which was absolutely not the case pre-pandemic.
I’ve faired alright though, hence the guilt etc
Things that have been improving:
- Global poverty rate (going down)
- Global average lifespan (going up)
- Global literacy rate (going up)
- Global internet access (going up)
- Global infant mortality and maternal mortality (going down)
The reality is, most of the world by many metrics is getting better over time. There are things that threaten this (climate change and increasing authorititarianism) and it has slowed, but overall we are still generally positive trajectory wise. In fact, I would say that in most metrics that matter, we are improving.
The planet is sleep walking into a global climate collapse and an global fascist era like nothing history has ever seen.
Pretending we’re not because right now some graphs are curving up because of previous momentum is pretty dangerous.
I did say that healthcare is an exception and most of the stuff you mentioned is healthcare related… When you’re riding the rollercoaster up to the top of the hill, do you think it goes up forever? I don’t think any of these positive trends are going to last longer than a generation at BEST.
A friend who had been through rehab explained the concept of euphoric recall to me. I had been missing an ex, and it helped a lot.
Well at least in 2014 the republicans were still pretending they weren’t all racist scumbags.
I think it’s a matter of scale, back in 2014 they were scumbags with a thin veneer of “decency” that veneer got sandblasted off and now there’s only a bag of hate left.
That 2001 nostalgia tho
