I make no secret of the fact that the human world nowadays grates on me. I think human beings are becoming shallower, greedier and more selfish with every passing year.
If you haven’t already picked up on that vibe from my past blog posts then you obviously haven’t been reading them properly. What’s frustrating is I’m too young to say things like “back in my day…”, but I’m too old to find anything that the youth are into even remotely appealing.
Teenagers and young adults are so different to what I was. There’s this swagger and attitude about most of them that I just find vomit inducing. They have little or no respect for their elders and I find it absolutely disgusting. I have no idea how they’re being raised, but I can say with conviction that it’s the wrong way!
I make no apologies if you’re the parent of a teen or young adult. If they’re a decent kid then disregard what I’m saying. If they’re a little shit then maybe you should pay heed. After all, it’s mainly down to you how they turn out. You’re the one who instils values in them (or doesn’t).
Anyway, I’m not here to berate young people for how much they suck! Nor am I here to point the finger at the parents. I’m here to talk about why modern life is such hell. So much has changed since the millennium and I really don’t think it’s for the better. I’m going to run down five things that contribute to why the world this day and age does my head right in.
- Betting – “But Paul; people have been betting for hundreds, maybe thousands of years”. Yes, they have. It’s always been a pastime of many to have a little flutter on one event or another. There’s no real harm in it in moderation, but that’s my problem. It isn’t in moderation anymore. You can bet on anything at any time! Bet in play it’s called. On the surface it’s a good idea, but let’s get real. None of these betting companies want you to win money. They want you to pour into their burgeoning coffers your hard earned cash. They want you to bet junior’s pocket money in the vain hope you’ll get double, triple or whatever back. I know people who bet all the time on everything and I wonder to myself how they do it. Gambling is a dirty, sordid little world; most who do it do so sans the knowledge of their other half. Those of you who do it religiously are, I’m afraid to say, complete mugs! You claim it’s fun, but I fail to see how betting money on something could be construed as fun. If you’re that easy to please then maybe you should go to the park and try out the swings. It’ll be like the thrill of a lifetime to you if you think betting is fun!
- Duck pouting/gym selfies – I should perhaps have labelled this narcissism, but let’s face it; a lot of people nowadays wouldn’t have a clue what it means despite the fact they themselves are narcissists. Your duck pout photos are f**king stupid! You look a prat! What on earth happened to a nice smile? As for gym selfies, well I could quite happily shove a barbell up the arse of anybody who takes them and posts them on Facebook. What exactly are you trying to prove by being such a show-off? What member of the opposite or same sex are you trying to impress with it? If they’re a person of any substance they won’t be impressed at all. Selfies are something I despise. I hate taking them and I hate seeing them. Selfies taken by somebody who thinks they’re something special are the worst by a mile. Give it a rest!
- Derivative pop music – I listen to house music a lot and one of the core ingredients of house music is the producer’s ability to work in a decent sample a lot of the time. For the kind of house music I like you’ll often find it’s a sample of a funk, soul or disco record and it kind of pays the record some homage. More often than not the producer will have been influenced by the artist of the sampled record. It’s through house music that I’ve become a major fan of funk, soul and disco. I love it all and a large percentage of my playlist is packed with that kind of stuff. Suddenly pop music has jumped on the bandwagon. Producers of pop music don’t pay homage. They butcher! They destroy! They murder! The singers of the remade/sampled song lend their hand to the destruction too. If you think pop music nowadays is good then you need to take a look at yourself. It’s awful in every sense of the word. They all sound the same and take literally no talent to make. Stop listening to it. Stop encouraging these musical murderers to carry on destroying great music. That’s a damned order!
- Payday loans/credit – I’m not going to pick on people who take out these loans. They should be more sensible, but desperation makes a person do daft things and that’s why I despise these payday loan companies. They’re nothing but leeches. They know exactly what they’re doing. They kill with kindness. They use one hand to shake yours while the other silently slips a knife in your back and twists. I’ve known people who have to take a fresh loan out every month because they don’t have enough to clear the last one. In all fairness I’ve heard less horror stories in the last few years. People have either got wise or the payday loan companies have changed their game; I’m not sure which. Irrespective, loans and credit are very dangerous toys with which to play if you’re earning a low income. You drag yourself into a mire where you’re forever paying back debt and it never goes away. I was burned in my younger years and I’ve vowed never to take a loan or any form of credit again until I know I’m financially comfortable enough to do so. So probably never. I urge you to do the same. If you can’t afford it, save. If you desperately need something find an alternative to a bloodsucking loan company or credit card. You’re only screwing yourself if not.
- Social media as a means to air dirty laundry – I don’t care what people post on Facebook, Twitter or wherever else. It’s your profile; do as you wish. However, if you do post stuff that really has no place in the public domain then expect to be ridiculed or slated. Calling out friends or your other half is something you just don’t do, even cryptically. Some things should be kept between two people. If you’re sharing it amongst the masses then you’re attention seeking; that’s the long and short of it. Then there are the short, ambiguous statements such as ‘I don’t know what to do anymore’ or ‘so pissed off’. You might as well say ‘lavish me with attention’ instead. It’s really pathetic! Worse is when somebody asks what’s wrong and they respond with ‘DM me’. Why not just DM them in the f**king first place?! Those prepared to respond are the mugs in these situations. They’re playing a game with you and you allowed yourself to get sucked in. If you have something you want to say then say it. If you need a friend then send a text or a DM; same if you’re annoyed at somebody. If you can’t publicly disclose information about something then don’t give any information at all. Stop attention seeking!
So there are five things that get on my nerves about how the world operates nowadays. I could go on for another ten thousand words and still only be warming up, but I’ll leave this one where it is.
Some people believe the world is working better now than it ever has because of all these freedoms we have where networking is concerned, but I wholly disagree. I had plenty of friends before social media came along and I’d still have plenty of friends if it never had. While I’m grateful for the friends I have made via social media, I still believe it’s gone over the top. People conduct their lives on it. That isn’t healthy.
I’m going to close this one here. I haven’t checked Facebook for at least an hour…
What grates you about modern life? Do you think the world is better now than it’s ever been and I’m just a stick-in-the-mud? Please post your thoughts and questions below and let’s have a good chat about modern living.
Image Credits
Image header from By All Means Necessary
Image one from Save the Student article ‘Make money from Matched Betting (full guide)’ by Owen Burek
Image four from DJ Techno
Image five from Daily Mail article ‘Payday loan firms told to clean up their act or face closure: Companies given 12 weeks to sort practices’ by Sean Poulter
Image six from Bane Tech
The Adventures of an Average, White Man...© 
Chuckling again at how you just speak total sense, yet it has an air of revolution about it!! because to challenge the ridiculousness and bonkersness of modern living just isn’t done, especially by a young-ish person.. The world is frankly crazy and laughable. More crazy than I am, and I have a diagnosed mental illness haha 😂 I do like the odd post with selfies on my blog though…so I hope you’ll give me some special dispensation for that error of sense 😋 I don’t pout like a duck though. I smile. Radical! 😊💕
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Your selfies are tastefully done. I’m talking about the grotesque, “look at how hot I’m not/popular I am”, attention whorish selfies. Gym selfies really can fuck off especially! If you’re building a photo casefile of your progress then go ahead, but why does it need sharing with everyone? Oh, that’s right…ATTENTION WHORE! Look at how sexy I’m not, but will definitely be. Indeed. Blow my mind with how you worked your arms today. So much more interesting than talking about, say, relativity, the origins of species or Sartre’s existential theories. No, I’m boring for being entertained by that stuff and not the gym. ME! I am boring.
I’m just past the point of caring which societal sheep I offend anymore. If they weren’t in my face with their bourgeois crap then I wouldn’t be in their face with mine x
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I completely agree with you. More people should speak out about the bonkersness of this. You and me are pretty vocal, so good candidates for this type of mission me thinks! X
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I just think it’s time the sheep got to fucking grips with the fact that they’re modelling themselves on what they’re being told they should be, not what they want to be. They convince themselves that’s what they want to be in the end because they’re weak willed. Slaves to society. They’re up in our faces with this crap and it’s time people like us got up in their faces too xxxx
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There is discussion of sheep and goats in the post that I wrote but haven’t typed up yet 😉 I couldn’t agree with you more. You’re my blog twin I’m convinced Xxxx 🙂
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Once again Paul you have written a piece that gets people thinking. As your top five are not what people would imagine or possibly consider, you are asking people to broaden their thinking and views of today’s society.
Your discussion points are very well highlighted and invite people into the blog.
Well done bud, possibly your best so far, in my opinion.
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Thank you mate. As you know I like to think outside the box and what I’ve listed are genuinely things that I feel contribute to the dullness of society as people. So many folk are lacking in any sort of personality nowadays. That’s to say lacking individuality. Their personalities all seem to be getting drip-fed to them from the same bag of crap
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Keep thinking outside the box. You are certainly getting people thinking.
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It’s about time people actually did think rather than always being told
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Quite a few years ago I ran into a bit of a financial meltdown. In desperation I turned to a payday loan company. Did the borrow a bit more to pay off the next instalment. Eventually I refused to pay the company any more money. After a few phone calls from this lovely company I explained why I was refusing to give them another penny. You are a company that targets people who can’t get a loan from sensible lenders because sensible lenders know a loan will just cause more problems for you. You lend me money because my situation means I probably won’t be able to repay you. Now you act surprised that I can’t pay you back the money you offered me knowing that I would only use a company like yours through desperation. Even after 10 years I get the odd email off them but they never did get another penny off me. The government of the day realised that these companies target the desperate and were charging extortionate interest rates. People getting so desperate as the companies increased the debt with each missed payment some people saw only one way out and took their own lives. More rigid rules were put in place and this is why you have noticed not as many horror stories as you did in the past. I made a stand against the fat cat parasites and won.
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I got a real sense of satisfaction reading that. Really glad to hear you stuck it to them. They are parasites of the worst kind and shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Their purpose was always to plunge people into a perpetual loop of debt. Like a high interest credit card only much worse. I’m glad the powers that be eventually stepped in to right it all
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Of course your a bit of a stick in the mud. Lol 🙄 But you do make some valid points on things that some people do. My personal peeve is freakin pokemon go.
However, I don’t feel that the world is worse off as a whole. Just by judging kids that I know personally, they are more understanding and accepting of differences in others, where as when I grew up everyone ran around calling each other gay retards. Also my kids know way more way sooner than I ever did. But as you say, there are those misguided parents who produce children who curse at them and don’t listen for a damn, and have zero respect. They’ll probably end up as CEOs.
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It is a generalisation in terms of the less positive, I admit. I’ve met some really intelligent and ‘mature’ (I hate that word) young people who get the world in a way the older generation don’t. But there are so many younger people who are so disrespectful and rude to older people and it’s absolutely disgusting. I entirely blame the media, TV and pop culture for this. Even kids TV where children are often made out to be more intelligent and better in general than adults. That’s conveying a poor message to me
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Yes! I forbid my kids to watch a lot of Disney shows because the adults are always showed as idiots and the kids are assholes to them and a lot of times each other. I’m not sure who they have writing their shows. Oh and those commercials where they make the men out to be morons, like they used to do in the 50’s commercials to women. Its insane. Why does someone have to look like a moron? It doesn’t make me feel better about the product.
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You and I need to somehow go for a beer and put the world to rights! Haha. There’s this commercial for Clearscore.com and, as you say, it’s a pointless venture whereupon the point of it is that the girlfriend talks to her fella like he’s a piece of turd. They need to lay off this humour bullshit in advertising because actual funny commercials are like 1 in a thousand at best. Just advertise your crap and go away!
I’ve never been a big fan of Disney cartoons. It’s always been a big cringefest. I like some of the Pixar offerings, but even they are few and far between these days.
What we see on TV has so much to answer for where the attitude of kids is concerned. Not videogames though. If a thirteen year old is influenced by GTA V my question is this…what’s a thirteen year old doing playing a game that’s rated 18 parents?
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Exactly, don’t be surprised when your little kid starts talking about shooting and stabbing when you let him/her watch shit where that is the norm. Although, most kids realize that its only a game/show and don’t emulate.
A lot of sitcoms do the moron husband bit too, and I hate it. The condescension is the same as they did to the women in the past, only they’ve switched characters.
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I’m confused too. I don’t know what is wrong with the kids, I’m not that old but old enough to know that many children suck, they lack home training. There’s something very wrong with this generation. So many parents are too busy to train their kids, I know it’s hard, but it’s for everybody’s good and safety. I love the points you listed out as well on modern life. I love reading your posts😀💝
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Thank you very much 🙂
Yes, society today baffles me. I was born at the wrong time. I grew up while the internet wasn’t widely available to the masses. I was 16 when I got my first mobile phone in 2000 and I could literally only call and text off it. I was 23 when Facebook became the social media site of choice.
It’s completely changed how the minds of young people work and not in a good way. Too much has changed too quickly. The youth are dictating how the older generation should live. Little wonder the world is on its knees
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