Why do people like life so much?

[Bronson99]

Life isn't supposed to be enjoyable. Having free time to pursue hobbies is a pretty modern concept. For the vast majority of humankind throughout history, life has been a simple matter of survival. It is only in the past couple hundred years that anyone has felt entitled to free time and enjoyment. We have traded in around-the-clock hunting, house-building, farming, back breaking labor and homesteading for sit down office jobs, hour-long commutes, gym memberships, and dentist appointments.
I'm not really sure what my point is, I just want to point out that it's not all that bad, and you probably have much more to be thankful for than you realize.

All is relative. Different times, different problems.

I'll agree modern medicine and technology in general makes some things a lot easier. But then again if you have always had access to modern medicine/technology, you wouldn't know what it's like to live without it. Instead, you have different problems. Simple.

 

[Kiwong]

Then why spend time on this site? Sounds like you are firing on all cylinders. Is there something missing?

Why? Because it is my choice to do so. I suffer from anxiety, but I am also getting on with my life and often enjoying it. I'm not wishing for a fantasy life back 200 hundred years ago, I am getting on with the one I have. Maybe you'd go back to your dreamed of better time and find that it was not all you hope it would be, and still complain?

 

[S_Spartan]

Why? Because it is my choice to do so. I suffer from anxiety, but I am also getting on with my life and often enjoying it. I'm not wishing for a fantasy life back 200 hundred years ago, I am getting on with the one I have. Maybe you'd go back to your dreamed of better time and find that it was not all you hope it would be, and still complain?

Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't but I do know that I do not fit into these times. As the poster above said, different times different problems. We may have reached the peak of technology but we have also reached the peak of narcissism.

 

[bsammy]

I didn't say it's that easy. But you can do it. If you can get a new job, but won't, and still complain about it... :idontknow:

what, i already have a good job im talking about OP and many in their situation..here in usa its difficult to just up and get a different job especially when you factor in that job might be even worse than current job

 

[Kiwong]

Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't but I do know that I do not fit into these times. As the poster above said, different times different problems. We may have reached the peak of technology but we have also reached the peak of narcissism.

At least there are more treatment options for mental illness in the present. Social anxiety is actually recognised as a condition to be treated. It is possible to visit a forum like this and talk about the condition, there are crisis phone lines.

I wouldn't feel better off in a time when I could be sent for Electric convulsive therapy, or in Victorian times finish up in a mental asylum simply for suffering from anxiety or depression. I'll take the present, thanks

In the past suffering from a mental illness was not even acknowledged.

 

[Odo]

Life isn't supposed to be enjoyable. Having free time to pursue hobbies is a pretty modern concept. For the vast majority of humankind throughout history, life has been a simple matter of survival. It is only in the past couple hundred years that anyone has felt entitled to free time and enjoyment. We have traded in around-the-clock hunting, house-building, farming, back breaking labor and homesteading for sit down office jobs, hour-long commutes, gym memberships, and dentist appointments.
I'm not really sure what my point is, I just want to point out that it's not all that bad, and you probably have much more to be thankful for than you realize.

I agree 100%.

I also think that as soon as you get what you want, you feel happy for a while, but then you adjust to it and it isn't enough anymore. So really, happiness is always going to be a fleeting thing.

This is why everyone should have goals.

 

[Still_Waters]

My feelings exactly. I'm sure others feel this way too although they might not be willing to admit it but they feel it deep inside. Showers are the worst for me. My anxiety for some reason sky rockets when I'm in the shower and getting out of bed and hopping in the shower is such a drag. Showers are supposed to be so relaxing but not when you're in a hurry.

Life is boring. Painfully boring. Excruciatingly boring.

You get up every day 2 to 5 hours earlier than you would if you didn’t have to go to work. You spend the next half an hour in your bathroom, wondering fruitlessly what the meaning of life is. And then the next half one commuting, longing for the day you’ll be magically rich.

Time now to waste 10 or more hours in a disgusting, depressing, utterly impersonal office, doing all kinds of monotonous tasks you couldn’t for the love of your life care any less for. Only you have to. There’s no escape from work. You’re trapped.

Gone by those 10 or more hours of never-ending boredom, you come back to real life and are finally free to do whatever you want.

Only you’re not.

You still have to run some errands, buy some groceries, do some housework, walk out your dog, maybe pay a visit to your dentist. Only then are you allowed to attend your local gym, which you must do thrice per week in order to keep you healthy.

And so it’s already time for dinner. You eat rapidly and throw yourself onto the couch. You do now have time to enjoy your hobbies (which, by the way, are definitely one too many). You put on a good movie and doze off 20 minutes into it. You wake up as the ending credits roll, startled by the suddenly loud music.

Tomorrow will be another day. A better day, that’s one thing for sure.

Only it will be just like today.

But hey, the weekend is just around the corner! Let yourself rejoice, for you’ll soon be able to make up for all those hours you haven’t been able to sleep during the whole week.

And then will come Monday.

 

[Bronson99]

Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't but I do know that I do not fit into these times. As the poster above said, different times different problems. We may have reached the peak of technology but we have also reached the peak of narcissism.

100% correct. It is all about the materials, the goals, the accomplishments, what you've got now and how much more you plan to get in the future. That is today's life and it comes with its own problems.

If you're unlucky enough to have an issue that prevents you from being confident (and this goes especially for men), then of course you are not always going to be content, not when you see how "the average guy" is going places and getting things done, and seemingly not even breaking a sweat doing it. And you get to sit back and watch and wonder why even your most extreme effort is not quite enough for you to go with the flow and reach something approaching "normal." Some of us have to take the emotional pain of never having had a girlfriend or sometimes not even a single date, accept loneliness as the default state... and then come onto forums like this and be told your life is simply fantastic anyway. In actuality, a life unlived and unfulfilled is not so great. And much of the problem is the Cult of Confidence. If you don't join the cult, apparently you are not allowed to live your life. All problems of a materialistic society, IMO anyway.

 

[Silatuyok]

Some of us have to take the emotional pain of never having had a girlfriend or sometimes not even a single date, accept loneliness as the default state... and then come onto forums like this and be told your life is simply fantastic anyway.

I don't know if you were referring to my post, but I certainly was not saying that everyone's life is fantastic because they live in this modern age. Quite the opposite. I'm saying that life has never been easy or happy for the majority of people and we have no reason to believe it should be now. If anything, we as a society are more miserable now because we feel entitled to free time and other such luxuries, whereas before average people didn't even think to expect these things out of life. I think we could all do with a great deal less expectation and entitlement in our lives.

 

[MikeyC]

If anything, we as a society are more miserable now because we feel entitled to free time and other such luxuries, whereas before average people didn't even think to expect these things out of life.

You could argue that those people centuries ago wanted time to themselves, too, but we're born into lives that couldn't allow it. They had problems of their own, but just different to what we have in 2014.

I do agree with you that free time and free choice is a new concept; some people around the world don't even get those luxuries that I as an Australian take for granted. Perhaps, in time, we will find a good balance between work and play, although that could be a little too optimistic.

 

[kihira]

I think I read that hunter/gatherers got all their hunting and gathering out of the way in about 4 hours and spent the rest of the day mucking around and having fun

 

[MikeyC]

I think I read that hunter/gatherers got all their hunting and gathering out of the way in about 4 hours and spent the rest of the day mucking around and having fun

Really? Where did you read that?

I was thinking more along the lines of Egyptian slaves and such, haha.

 

[Kiwong]

100% correct. It is all about the materials, the goals, the accomplishments, what you've got now and how much more you plan to get in the future. That is today's life and it comes with its own problems.

If you're unlucky enough to have an issue that prevents you from being confident (and this goes especially for men), then of course you are not always going to be content, not when you see how "the average guy" is going places and getting things done, and seemingly not even breaking a sweat doing it. And you get to sit back and watch and wonder why even your most extreme effort is not quite enough for you to go with the flow and reach something approaching "normal." Some of us have to take the emotional pain of never having had a girlfriend or sometimes not even a single date, accept loneliness as the default state... and then come onto forums like this and be told your life is simply fantastic anyway. In actuality, a life unlived and unfulfilled is not so great. And much of the problem is the Cult of Confidence. If you don't join the cult, apparently you are not allowed to live your life. All problems of a materialistic society, IMO anyway.

First world problems, worrying about not having a girl friend. The affluence of dating problems. Those being killed by the plague, or influenza didn't have that luxury. Will I be killed on my 16 hour day working down a coal mine? I might be sent to a convict colony for stealing a loaf of bread. I wonder if they have the internet on board? Maybe I will just jump on the computer and check out plenty of fish?

I said I often enjoy life, despite the anxiety I suffer, there's a lot to be thankful for.

 

[Kiwong]

I think I read that hunter/gatherers got all their hunting and gathering out of the way in about 4 hours and spent the rest of the day mucking around and having fun

They only lived for about 40 years max. It couldn't have been an easy life.

 

[Richey]

This has a lot to do with personality. Some people see through all the bulls*!% of everyday life whilst there are those who relish in everything and have lower sensitivity to events of the day. Are they more naïve? maybe, maybe not. Is their brain functioning differently, possibly.

There are people who have a great enjoyable life from the start, literally. Great family environment, lots of conversations, excitement about learning. Travelling, creating things. They may have learnt really healthy social skills and are very witty.

There are also people who are physically very confident, maybe that has an impact on how confident they are which then leads them to be mentally more confident, because their feedback from the people around them is positive.

whilst some people have more unlucky and more toxic environments growing up.

Is this fair?? Absolutely not. Is inequality fair. of course not.

But this is how things seem to go.

 

[ar1605]

because life is really worth living you should live life to the fullest and try to suceed

 

[theoutsider]

I like life because no matter how bad my circumstance may be, there is all of this incredible potential to do something great or have something great happen to me. Even if most days nothing out of the ordinary happens, I am usually excited at the prospect.

 

[jc972]

Well, personally, I like life so much because all the fun stuff stops at death.

 

[Still_Waters]

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

 

[MikeyC]

They only lived for about 40 years max. It couldn't have been an easy life.

That's true, too. I'd be an old man at my age. No thanks.

Well, personally, I like life so much because all the fun stuff stops at death.

I like to believe that at death I'm greeted with a feast and an orgy as a congratulations for completing life.