What are the cons of living in this day and age?

True privacy is gone. We live in a fractured disconnected society. umm they just criminlized salvia…

Technology has almost completely separated us from nature. People talk on cell phones rather that walk in the woods or hear the sounds of nature.

I agree about the privacy. Did you hear about the man with the excellent credit that American Express lowered his credit rating because he shopped at a dollar store once?

We can live long enough to get Alzheimer’s disease and various other maladies that only the elderly tend to face. So much better a hundred years ago when 40 was considered old!
Seriously, I’ve asked my grandfather this question (he’s 90) and his response is that he would never want to live in society as it was as a child. He believes that progress has been good and that people romanticize the past. He states that the things we view as societal evils of the day today have always been around, but people didn’t talk about them as openly as they do now, and he prefers the current style of talking about them.
For me, I’d say the one bad thing is nuclear technology for warfare. We’ll never be able to move backwards from that, so it is a threat that will hang over mankind forever. One advance we certainly didn’t need to make!

No more extended family, distance from food production (no one has chickens or raises a pig each year, or plants a family garden) you are no longer assured that your children will do better economically than you did, people don’t play as much music in the home any more (every home used to have a small piano or organ) The “Bowling Alone” syndrome has affected neighborhoods so the social structure of towns has broken down, CEO’s used to get paid 40 times what the workers earned, now it’s more than 500 times, people don’t know how to shoe a horse or milk a cow, it’s hard to work on your own car if you don’t have a computer, you can’t call “Information” any more, families don’t seem to enjoy the movies together in the same way they used to, I could go on.

All that being said, we also live in a less racist, more inclusive society now (including gender issues, though things are imperfect) and I think that is healthier.

@pdworkin – Why is it bad that people don’t know how to shoe a horse? (And BTW, I do raise chickens, pigs, and grass fed beef, and plant a garden each year… that is a matter of lifestyle choice). Most people don’t realize how much hard work it is to raise their own food, and many people are physically incapable of it. I think it is good that people no longer have to raise their own food and have other option for sustenance. I also remain attached to my extended family and play music in my home all the time. I see the fact that many families don’t do that as a sign of improvements in all the different choices people have for entertainment… They can choose what most suits them rather than choosing to either play with sticks they found outside or playing music.

@juwhite1 I also remain attached to my extended family and play music in my home all the time Aren’t you glad you do? And as for the rest, I named things I miss, that matter to me. I liked knowing how to deal with farm animals, etc. YMMV.

Less excitement from not having to run away from hungry lions and bears.

The internet, medical advances, and technology.

@pdworkin

Houses might not have a piano or an organ, but keep in mind those instruments are pretty expensive. There’s a piano in my house, but there’s also electric keyboards, and my brother has a drum set and a guitar. Tons of people have instruments like guitars and even pianos aren’t that uncommon to see in people’s houses. Maybe I’ve just been to a lot of musical houses, but I don’t think it’s too uncommon.

@Question

Some of the cons (people have already mentioned) would be the way technology takes over other forms of communication often. I see it as additional communication, not meant to replace other forms of communication. Life is more complex now than it was in previous times which can lead to more stress. We’ve created technology that can destroy the whole world or at least large parts of it (nuclear technology).

@DominicX You believe that families gather round in the evenings and sing together for entertainment? Wow, you must live in a different neighborhood than I. Here people mostly watch TV.

@pdworkin

You said “play music”, not “gather round in the evenings and sing together for entertainment”.

And TV is not always a solitary isolating activity. I watch certain shows with my parents and/or my siblings and there’s plenty of communication and discussion.

“gather round in the evenings and sing together for entertainment”.

Those were the good old days. I do miss them.
Family was so much more connected in my day.

Fuck me, I said it wrong.

Well my grandparents were very upset at all the interracial dating and women who chose not to marry.

Who cares what those fogies think? They fucked up the world.

@tinyfaery Yeah. Throw out the baby with the bathwater has always been the height of wisdom. Never acknowledge that someone who was wrong on one important issue could ever have been right on another.

<<shakes head>>

there aren’t a whole lot. give me any con of today and I’ll give you a worse alternative that used to be the case 200 years ago.

Friendships have changed. I’m as guilty as anyone else of feeding into this. It’s so easy to send a text or a facebook message to maintain a “friendship.” It feeds into leading people to think that can replace a phone call or an actual face to face meeting.

There are wayyyyyyy to many to list. I’d have liked to live in the 1950’s. Life was pretty easy and it would be like Fallout 3. But then there wouldn’t be the Internet. :(

@Bugabear lol life was easy? how so?

@ABoyNamedBoobs03 I’m actually not sure. Thats just what my Grandparents and parents say.

@Bugabear I suppose they meant technologically. you didn’t have to know a lot to be successful, tech wise, because there really wasn’t a whole lot to know comparatively speaking in every day life.
But in any other term aside from mentally, I actually think it would have been harder living in your grandparents earlier years. More manual labor intensive, the realistic threat of nuclear war, lower life expectancies and fewer ways to treat otherwise fatal diseases and injuries, etc.

Yeah. Like I said I’ve never been there and I suppose Fallout 3 doesn’t really portray and accurate picture of what life was like in the 50’s. Just kidding. But seriously I see your point. I think we take for granted all of our luxury’s like a dishwasher and Medical advancements. Dont get me wrong I like our current time period but theres just something about the 50’s that appeals to me. Besides it’s not like I’m ever going to go there.