Elmo’s wellness check uncovers existential dread and despair on social media, nobody's ok right now

I am also alive because cat.

the psychological impact of a cat existing near you never fails to impress.

I have the same thing with my dog. I made an attempt when I was 18, then got a dog at 20. I’m 24 now and still struggle a lot with depression, wishing the attempt had worked and all that, but would never do it now because I can’t imagine leaving my dog all by himself.

Commenting in both of these comments so y'all both see it, but be careful with having a living thing as your safety net. It’s tough to think about, but at some thine they will pass and the ground will fall out from under you. Speaking from experience here.

Edit: Sorry if that’s dark, not trying to drop the mood on an already moody topic.

Global warming is kind of a big one to not list...

don't forget all the layoffs happening despite already being overworked, understaffed, and bombarded with RTO propaganda

I promise that people who are "not ok" are literally not even thinking about how Windows is getting worse. I'm a sysadmin and if windows was perfect my life would still be equal levels of shit, it's such a non issue that I'm amused you brought it up

You forgot "on track for a 10c rise by the end of the century"

And social media completely destroyed the fabric of society

Well damn, Windows gets invasive and I am DONE

Holy first world problems, batman!

Elmo might be on the inside….

But his puppet masters are still fisting him all the same. (Sorry for ruining childhoods.)

All I can say is you're not alone and I really wish I could give you a hug right now, friend. :(

I got this favorite literary passage for you though. I think we all ought to hear it a bit more often:

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam…

Sam: I know! It’s all wrong! By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam : That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

Let's remember this was written by a fellow who survived the hellish trenches of WW1. A conflict that felt ridiculously pointless for all the bloodshed it caused.

Here we are in our own figurative trenches. We are weathering our own crisis after crisis, wondering if it's all worth it in the end. "But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow."

We can't give up and give in to despair, because friends, family, people we don't even know, need us to all keep each other going. Our time will come. Don't give up on exposing this nonsense in the most loving way you can, showing people alternatives, and building the resistance to State and corporate tyranny. One changed mind at a time.

Fuckin amen! I often think of what I could be doing with my life if I was financially independent. It just feels like so much of my time is just wasted at being at my job. It's fuckin depressing...

Somethings gotta give soon...

As someone who has kids who are now just becoming “adults,” “that funny feeling” just keeps getting worse. I worry they’ll never be able to afford houses or families of their own and with the constant rising costs, we won’t have anything to even leave them. I wish I could bury my head in the sand and think everything will be just fine, but I can’t anymore.

God damnit. Am I leaving comments from alt accounts in my sleep again?

Small comfort, but the thing with Fascism is that it is a cult of power. Nobody is safe, anyone can be targeted, including those who support it most fervently. Anyone with half a brain knows that under fascism they're one week and whim from being the next target, so know that you aren't alone.

I've seen Elon Musk nick'd as ElMo, so it get's meta...

And you're not wrong, hence here.

Let’s see, I’m a month away from being $500 short on rent. Me and my wife separated this year after 3 years. I’m a single parent of a two year old. I was diagnosed with autism and panic disorder last august at the age of 35. My mom died of a fentanyl overdose in 2021, two weeks before my son was born. I’ve been dealing with work burnout after working in food/retail management during Covid, the lockdown, and customers cussing me out over Covid policies and being disgusting in general. I changed jobs, hate the current job, still burnt out. And I’ve had Covid 3 times and my lungs haven’t been the same since the first time.

I’m honestly doing OK. I’ve found my passion for my hobbies again and am feeling confident I can weather this

Sorry to dump all that on you . It’s like therapy.

The only reason I've not killed myself is cos I've been failing for 20yrs to do it. Don't expecyt me to enjoy this fucked up existence just because I have no fucking choice but to live in it.

Life is just a different type of prison.

I think that “heads buried” comment may just be the newest “kids these days”. It was always complaints going back to television, then radio, even as far back as carrying newspapers on the morning trolley.

I know it often seems like people just aren’t engaged - but it’s usually how they engage, for better or worse.

Right? Buddha laid down the science of the four Noble truths a long ass time before the internet.

Suffering is an ancient companion of our species.

You're not whiny. Don't denigrate yourself the way boomers bullied you to. Your feelings and concerns obviously do matter.

If you've been working hard at work to get a promo, it's probably time to get that promo, but externally. You'll probabaly get better pay that way too.

When putting together your resume, remeber to use the xyz format for your job successes "achieved x, doing y, with z results". This helps provide hiring managers and recruiters an idea of your performance and what type of results you can likely deliver for their team.

Enjoy the day off

You are going to suffer every day just to avoid 4 interviews?

I interview for a new job every now and then, like twice a year, even tho I don't hate my job.

It's a fun process that can only go well (worst case, everything stays the same) and you practice your interview skills. And you get a first hand peek into the job market to help you negociate your current job conditions. And you get to know new people, companies, processes and technologies.

Work to live, not live to work

Same here. The mountain I frequent just put in a high speed lift, went operational Dec 24. After Christmas they got rain for at least a couple of days during break and I didn't even try skiing then.

My kids went sledding one day last season and one day so far this season. The ground barely freezes so the mice and ticks will be in force come spring.

I'm in New England so further south but I do remember the times we had snowy Christmases and could skate on the ponds. Hopefully my kids might be able to experience that but I have my doubts, I doubt I will ever see that again.

I live in Iowa but work remotely for a company in Minnesota - we got like 2 feet more snow than Minnesota did with the blizzard a few weeks back. The climate has been so crazy these last few months

mostly, excluding .ml and kbin accounts, those people need to chill the fuck out.

(not literally everyone, obviously. they just have a tendency to be very passionate)

Good luck at the Mayo Clinic, but I hear their Ketchup therapy leaves something to be desired.

I'm glad you got an appointment! I've been passively following your story through your comments and I'm rooting for you. I really hope you find answers soon!

Oof..

how can I help alleviate your suffering?

drugs and/or guillotines

This is why I shut down reddit once and for all. It was all ragebait, sad news, doom and gloom. They posted a very, very, very horrifying, very sad news on the frontend that affected me for weeks. You know when people post "That's enough reddit for me for today"? I said "that's enough reddit for me for good!"

Reddit used to be a fun place. I legitimately went there knowing that, five minutes in, I'd be laughing my ass off.

I can only imagine Twitter must be much, much worse.

Lemmy.... hm, Lemmy is going down that path. I try to stick to my tech community subs, but every now and then I check the frontpage and, if it's not a bunch of deadhorse memes, then it's stuff like this "nobody is ok" post.

I'm almost convinced that an AI (or "dem illuminaccies") are trying to bring the mood down on everyone on the internet, so it's easier to harvest their organs or something.

I'd have to say I'm doing alright myself. I don't make a lot of money. I'm not happy with politics and other things in the world but I'm thankful for what I have and that I am okay. I actively work to make my life better in whatever ways I can. I've met tons of people who don't and are unhappy.

I think people are unhappy are more likely to say something in response to something like the Elmo tweet rather than say "I'm doing great/good/alright."

Tbh I just want to work a job that can pay the bills and support a potential retirement. For so many of us this is all we want. We are willing to work, just not to some abhorrent degree or in wholly unreasonable, inhumane conditions. Many of us aren't asking to become filthy rich, just rich enough that things like bills and a scraped knee don't extend our retirement age another 20 years.

I think asking is good, and this may be worth getting into for other reasons - but know that this is a one way trip.

I'd suggest starting with the things that helped me unfuck my shit (partially, anyway!). First, if you haven't already, check out Kurzgesagt's Optimistic Nihilism video. If you find that interesting, continue on to absurdist philosophy, especially Camus (Sisyphus, Stranger) and Sartre (Nausea). After that, existentialism - I think I'd probably start with Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Once you begin to get a feel for these ideas, I think a high-level reevaluation of deeply held beliefs and how you perceive the world around you becomes inevitable.

In terms of your question and what you are seeing, I believe these trends represent a larger collective awakening. Not a miracle, but something borne out of necessity: for anyone brave enough to take their head out of the sand for thirty seconds, environmental concerns alone are completely fucking overwhelming, and obviously that's just a start.

I do take solace in this development, though. Somehow, even without actively studying philosophy, teens today (and even younger!) appear to have, to a degree, an intuitive understanding of these concepts. That's wild! When I was in high school in the late 90s, genuinely thinking for yourself wasn't tolerated the way it is today. Sure, there were punks and goths and whatever, but for anyone who dared to question the paradox of asserting one’s uniqueness through group affiliation, the road was much bumpier than it seems to be today.

I actually had to remind one of my children at around 10 years of age that she should be careful telling her peers things like "god isn't real and nothing really matters" ... admittedly she was raised in a "we always respect people with different beliefs even if we find it difficult to respect their beliefs" home, so the "god isn't real" part wasn't a surprise, but she found existentialism on her own.

Consider the complexity of the humour in memes today - I think a lot of older folks dismiss it as vapid and banal, and while some definitely lands there, the baseline tends to include a lot more irony, sarcasm, and even elements of these more abstract philosophical ideas in ways that older generations tend to struggle with. At first glance it appears completely nonsensical, but upon superficial understanding it quickly becomes "antisocial" and offensive: how dare you find camaraderie in joking about suicide, and do you really think the collapse of civilization would be a good thing? This is more than gallows humour.

And perhaps your comment was more flippant than my initial interpretation and this will just come across as obtuse and condescending - I hope not, as that is definitely not my intent. If it was sincere and you are just beginning down this path, I hope my perspective makes a difference for you. I suspect it is obvious, but my own experience with this was not pleasant; it took me many years to find my way through and feel ok about continuing, in the broadest sense. With a bit of discipline and thoughtfulness, I think you should be able to mitigate the psychological risks inherent in exploring some of the more fundamentally challenging implications of nihilism.

I am legitimately trying to figure out why the fuck it is I am seemingly the only person in the world who is okay right now.

This is how I felt in 2020-most of 2022, while everyone seemed to have their worlds crumbling around them I felt wonderful. Then my best friend lost his battle with alcoholism and depression, and things have not gotten better, it has been just one kick in the nuts after the next. But I am persisting.

• Your quality of life is about to be destroyed when billions are made homeless through environmental disaster.

You're not okay, you lack empathy. Me as well, I have nothing to complain about, and I am able to enjoy life despite all the shit that's wrong in the world, but I can read the room and don't feel the need to rub that in people's faces when clearly a lot of people are struggling. Also, I am sad for those people and frustrated that voting isn't enough, while doing "enough" would mean giving up a large part of my comfortable life, not because that's what it would take, but because too many people are doing jack shit to improve the world, or rather actively contributing to the clusterfuck that the world is in.

My favorite will always be the scrooge one he did on Christmas Wednesday

It's not just people on social media though. Everyone is having a hard time.

We work too long for meaningless jobs; we don't get time for hobbies, ourselves, or with our families; we can't afford housing or groceries; we're either stuck in traffic or on the way to being stuck in traffic; all our information is being sold to companies so that they can force more ads into our faces...

Life sucks right now for everyone because that's just how the people in charge want it to be for us.

Yeah, I for one am pretty ok. Family is good, work is okay, can't complain about much.

Which sounds weird to write. Maybe that's why nobody writes "I'm allright" and you just read about people complaining.