Positivity is an incredibly powerful tool. If you always look on the bright side and see the glass as half full, you’ll have less stress, a stronger immune system and better mental resilience. But it’s important to know when it’s beneficial to force a smile and when it’s time to face uncomfortable truths head on. 

Redditors have recently been discussing issues that we’re expected not to worry about, despite the fact that they’re actively harming society. From being obsessed with screens to the prevalence of microplastics in our food and water supply, this list is full of some bleak realities. So it might not be the most uplifting read, but these are topics that we can’t ignore forever.

#1

A chronic lack of sleep. 99% of adults need 7-8 hours of good sleep to remain healthy. A chronic lack of sleep increases your stress levels, inhibits the functionality of your immune system, increases your risk of cancers, causes all sorts of cardiovascular issues and all sorts of serious neurological complications.

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#2

The hoops people have to jump through now just to have a job. Ghost jobs, AI screening out resumes, remote work that isn’t really remote (especially remote jobs not telling people where they can and can’t hire), easy baiting and switching, the job platforms allowing scams, and all the aforementioned.

All this stuff is just to be able to participate in society. Yet people are always giving useless advice that is often conflicting. People’s mental health is ruined by layoffs and I wouldn’t be surprised if people took their own lives over this.

Image credits: AWPerative

#3

The instant gratification. With the increase in technology, we’ve become impatient and entitled. We want immediate results for everything. We go to a restaurant, immediate results. We go to a hospital, immediate results. We’ve lost our ability to wait for anything. Patience is a virtue that sadly not many have nowadays.

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#4

Lack of empathy for fellow human beings.

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#5

Sedentary lifestyle.

Most people I know sit for 8 hours a day. Maybe 1/10 actually exercise.

Spinal problems, posture problems, breathing problems, blood flow problems. We weren’t born to sit down this much for these long periods of time.

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#6

Lack of care for people who suffer from mental health problems and wars.

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#7

Religious Zealots and them trying to force control on people’s lives by intruding the Goverment.

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#8

Isolation from our immediate communities.

The ability to go online and avoid interacting with your immediate surroundings has crippled the social ability of predominately social animals.

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#9

Microplastics.

Get this. Plastic was created in 1907 which makes it roughly 118 years old. It’s been around a little more than a century and it’s everywhere. Antarctica? Microplastics! Deepest oceans? Microplastics! All your foods? Microplastics! The worst of it is Nylon, Polyester, Acrylic, Polypropylene and lots of others.

Scientists are trying to study long term affect but with no control group it’s very difficult. Everything has microplastics in them.

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#10

Global warming and pollution.

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#11

Coming from someone who is chronically ill and into public health: BPAs, microplastics, pesticides, mold and mycotoxins, chronic viral infections, dyes in our food, SUGAR, alcohol, general inflammation, preservatives, heavy metals, EMFs, PFAS, bad air quality, bad water quality, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, sedentary lifestyles, lack of sleep, a*******n, and number one: STRESS… yeah, I’d say that’s the tip of the tip of the iceburg.

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#12

Smart phones / the problem socially and mentally caused by kids getting addicted to screens to early is scary. So many study shows social media and mental health problems links are crazy. I work with kids seen it first hand.

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#13

Louis CK referred to it as “the inability to just be a person.” We used to have a lot of gaps in our days where you just had to sit quietly and let your mind wander. It’s meditation and it’s often when you make real realizations about yourself and when you empathize with others. With the constant availability of distractions, we don’t do that enough anymore. .

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#14

Over consumption – of everything, food, clothes, toys. There’s just too much stuff available. I feel like Pixar’s wall-e was prophetic.

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#15

Doomscrolling. Kinda like I’m doing right now.

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#16

The age of information has turned into the age of disinformation. F*****g echo chambers.

I miss the Dewey decimal system where you had to look up actual published information now it’s a s**t hole of disinformation and even educated people eat it up and we are in a free fall into fascism. Social media will be the downfall of society.

I’m a father of 4 and I just want my kids to grow up in the America I grew up in. Disagreements on both sides but meet in the middle on most things. Not the America where Russia is the victim.

Image credits: idontgetit____

#17

Obesity. We tend to tamp down the seriousness of it in America for the sake of body positivity. Where I work, the VAST majority of young patients coming into nursing homes for rehab, sometimes turning into long term stays, are only there because one small issue (the flu, a knee surgery, an infection) left them unable to function anymore due to their obesity and related illnesses sapping their strength. I spend so much time trying to get people who weigh 300+ lbs to sit up and get out of a supine position just once or twice a day. I see how hard they struggle just to move. They can’t clean themselves, their legs are too heavy to even roll themselves in bed. It’s a problem.

Edit: to clarify, I’m aware that obesity can start in childhood, and can be outside of your control (trauma, genetics, financial situation)… not trying to shame anyone’s weight.

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#18

Capitalism.

Having scrolled through the comments, capitalism is the actual cause cause of 95% of what people are commenting.

MWH1980:

The idea that if you don’t possess wealth than you aren’t even human seems to really be filtering through.

Image credits: blueCthulhuMask

#19

Social media. Destroying our attention, ability to focus, our sense of community and empathy, and now becoming a way for lies to dominate our sense of reality.

Image credits: trafalmadorianistic

#20

Stress.

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#21

Disinformation 100%

#22

Mental health struggles—anxiety, depression, burnout—and how they’re often ignored or stigmatized in favor of “toughing it out” or just pushing through. The societal pressure to constantly perform and be productive can lead to mental exhaustion, but addressing it feels like an afterthought in a lot of ways.

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#23

Anti-Intellectualism.

#24

Over working. Poor nutrition value in available foods(food desert). Stress.

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#25

The failure of American education systems.

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#26

I think the biggest thing that is slowly k*****g us right now is the inability to see the good in others or even look for the good and others. It’s like everyone is so jumpy about what other people say to them, and many people take offense so easily. I was at a location where someone was working that was very similar to several places I had worked, and I simply asked whether or not she enjoyed her job. She literally told me she felt like she was being attacked. She did not say so meanly, and in fact, she actually looked scared. She couldn’t figure out why I would ask such a question.

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#27

Subscriptions for EVERYTHING.

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#28

Trump and Elon.

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#29

Cheering on “self-made” Billionaires, while they take government grants & tax breaks, meanwhile we wait out illnesses cuz it’s too expensive to go to the doctor.

Image credits: Fair_Transition4865

#30

The belittling of normal people. Man the more people that can’t go to work and work 8 hours and have enough to afford a small apartment food and transportation internet. The worse life gets for EVERYONE including billionaires. There’s not enough billionaires to create the best parts of life that do not cost money. Things like beautiful beaches with people there. A beach with nobody there is only so cool for so long. Things like resort destinations etc. But man everyone acts like EVERYONE is just not working hard enough it’s like what if the person to your left in real life and the person to the right of you at your 60 hour a week job and you still can’t even afford enough to to clear an apartment rental without a co signer. Like what.

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#31

CHEMICALS: synthetic fragrance in everything, additives and pesticides in our food, fluoride in our water. People’s hormones are out of wack and we’re all fat and sick and mentally ill because we douse ourselves in chemicals all day everyday.

Image credits: AlienAP

#32

Convenience. I feel like the defining factor of the western world that I grew up in is Convenience.

Everything needs to be cheap and disposable and constantly accessible. I feel like it’s at the root of so many of our issues. All the plastic and over consumption. The quality of our food. Our anxious reliance on and relationship with the internet. Our dwindling attention spans. It shapes our labour conditions and the loss of craft and trade skills. It fuels the gig economy. It’s embodied by personal vehicles and commuter traffic. It goes on and on. I feel like Convenience is the defining a*******n of our age.

Image credits: PatchWork_GF

#33

Everyone’s s****y understanding of nutrition.

#34

Greed.

#35

Cars. It shouldn’t be a Mad Max death race to go to work in the morning.

#36

Capitalism.

#37

Loneliness.

#38

Corruption.

#39

Lack of universal healthcare.

#40

Religious idiots.

#41

MBAs. Their drive for a yearly increase of profits above inflation is destroying everything; families, the environment, people’s mental health, and the sustainability of the economy. A collapse is coming, and those whose lives aren’t already destroyed are watch a slow motion car crash.

#42

No work and life balance.

#43

Self diagnosing based on social media videos. Based on the ones I’ve seen I have OCD, ADHD, PTSD, and I fall somewhere on the spectrum. There is also a chance that I may possibly be neurodivergent and dealing with anxiety.

I wish people who truly need help find someone who can help them, but social media is not the way.

#44

Ignorance.

We pretend as if reading a WhatsApp forward is all the information we need, don’t even double check the facts and choose to believe what we want to. 100% wilfull ignorance.

#45

I hear there is a looming loneliness epidemic. Or it’s happening now. I also hear loneliness is shortening people’s lives, mainly men.

#46

Tik Tok and IG Reels. Have you seen how people can spend HOURS just stupidly scrolling through those apps? And the kind of STUPID content they watch?

#47

The cost of living.

#48

Our country’s debt. People think things are bad now. Just wait.

#49

Cars, and car-related support industries. Think of how many superfund sites and cancerous chemicals are generated to support cars. Beyond that, Florida is going to make radioactive asphalt roads. 8 million people die annually from fossil-fuel-related diseases.

THEN we get to the 1.2M annual deaths globally from the things.

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