One. Structural inequality continues to grow in areas of education, housing, healthcare leading to a shrinking middle class.
Two. A shrinking middle class leads to a kind of anxiety that makes populations elect nationalist demagogues in high political positions, which exacerbates class and political warfare.
Three. Young people have a gun to their head to go into college debt with fewer good job prospects and a high probability of having to live with their parents well into their thirties.
Four. Constant schooling and working overtime makes people too tired for friendship and romance so they capitulate to posting a few pics on Instagram.
Five. Constant schooling and working overtime just to stay afloat makes people sleep deprived.
Six. Because of the rising cost of housing, having a college degree may not be enough protection from homelessness and a dangerous lack of medical coverage.
Seven. Because of rising automation, more and more jobs are disappearing, which may usher UBI (Universal Basic Income) and render individuals meaningless and irrelevant to society.
Eight. Due to time constraints, more and more people rely on social media to build a sense of connection and self-esteem when studies show that social media activity can actually cause serious disconnection and fragmentation of self.
Nine. Society is becoming more polarized with fake news being embraced as real news and people becoming polarized and siloed in their social media groups, resulting in distrust and possible violence.
Ten. Yuval Noah Harari in his book Sapiens cites studies that show a link between money and happiness (381) and if fewer and fewer people have money, then there will be less happiness, not because money is intrinsically good, but because having money can create a buffer between people and fear and anxiety.
Eleven. Social media, TV, movies, and consumerism create inflated expectations for happiness and an unrealistic portrait of what defines the Perfect Self. When we fall short of this perfection, be it making money or achieving physical beauty, we may fall to self-loathing, self-hatred, self-rejection and feel like we are failures. Unrealistic expectations lead to unhappiness. This problem is explained in Will Storr’s book Selfie.
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