Has Everyone On God's Green Earth Become An A-Hole In The Last 10 Years? Here Are 26 Reasons Why (Or Why Not)

TIMES. ARE. TOUGH. It feels like stress levels are at an all-time high, everybody is broke AF, and nobody has even a shred of patience left to deal with anything or anybody. Or is it just me?

In answer, many people pointed to the rise of social media as the culprit for things getting so bad and people acting so nasty.

1. "Social media is keeping people angry, and disinformation adds a feeling of loss to the anger."

—u/LouieSanFrancisco

2. "There’s a flood of information hitting everyone, and you often don’t have 30 seconds or the brain power for every piece of information you’re presented with. Worst case, you accept the 'narrative' without fact-checking and obviously reap all the negatives of that. But even in the best case, you become exhausted and feel even more disconnected because you don’t trust anyone. Pointless media topics become wedges in real relationships because of how differently you and your loved ones may see the same thing."

—u/Defiant_Jazz_262

3. "Social media has been completely weaponized, and it’s worked. There’s a reason billionaire CEOs don’t let their kids on social media platforms. They know what’s behind the curtain because they built it."

—u/BerryLanky

4. "My hot take is, about five or six years ago, social media platforms figured out that they get better engagement by showing you things that piss you off rather than things you actually enjoy. I don't think people are actually any less nice at all; you just think they are. Cool video of a guy building a dining table out of an oak tree that fell in his backyard? You watch and maybe hit the like button. Rage-bait video of some Karen yelling at a barista for making her latte with whole milk instead of soy? Straight to the comments to voice your opinion about that monster. It's like how people say no one answers a question if you ask people online, but if you post the wrong answer, everyone jumps in to correct you."

—u/Mortimer452

5. "Social media has convinced most everyone that everyone else is out to get them. Everyone is a narcissist, or toxic, or manipulative, etc., etc., etc. People aren’t willing to really sit with others anymore and learn about their complexities, what makes them tick, and why they act the way they do."

—u/somastars

6. "People lacking decency were always around, but it was kept private and only went public when internet anonymity came along. Things really ratcheted up when people with a spotlight made it look cool or powerful to be ignorant. It is a trend that will eventually hit bottom. But my genuine concern is what will even be left to salvage, given how destructive everything has become."

—u/suzemagooey

7. "Most everyone is addicted to their phones, which means less eye contact, less warm phone conversations, just short texts, and that’s it. Selfies are me-me-me. There's more and more violence in TV shows, which get darker and darker — we become what we consume. Big corporations are winning. The population is now distracted, dumbed down, with shorter attention spans. I’m a positive person by nature, but only remain that way by staying off my phone for large chunks of time and not watching too much of the news."

—u/bemybasket

8. "I think the shift from IRL social networks, which were built on real relationships, to social media, which is built on rallying as many people as you can around a certain thing, has changed how we show up in real life. In actual society, there's a downside to being rude and disruptive; in media, this is the very thing that garners attention and amasses 'community.' In some small towns, I still see people go out of their way to be nice, but in more sub/urban spaces, people seem content to live in their own bubble and disregard others."

—u/heymoon

Others pointed to the current state of politics, which has become incredibly divisive in the US and beyond.

9. "The behavior from people in the highest offices is shameful. It's horrifying to me that we've gotten so out of touch with ourselves and reality that you-know-who can say literally anything, no matter how outrageous, and people will just believe him. They encourage each other to believe complete falsehoods, and then the news gets involved, too. It's such a nightmare."

—u/SueBeee

10. "2016 was like the tipping point where everything went off the rails. Even outside of the internet, people just got meaner and more polarized. Maybe we're all just tired, but damn, it's even exhausting trying to have a normal conversation without someone turning it into a war."

—u/Main-Arm6657

11. "10 years ago, bigots were afraid to voice their opinions in public. Trump made it 'okay' to be an a-hole, and social media amplified it. Look around now, there are people openly declaring they are Nazis, and we've got Jan 6'ers dressed as SWAT agents going around harassing people while the Nacho keeps telling everyone we're going to invade Greenland. People are getting divorced at a record rate because Fox News is turning all the boomers into narcissists. 10 years ago, we started a freaking country-wide hate-cult, and the ripples from that decision have reached every corner of the globe."

—u/SuspiciousTheory2633

12. "I think a lot of it has bled over from politics. Instead of being frustrated but dealing, we went from frustrated to I' HATE YOU I HOPE YOU #$%.' If you feed yourself news all the time, no matter which side you are on, you are going to absorb the hate you feel every time you see something you don't like. It doesn't take long for that hate to bleed over into your personality. I've watched it happen to my sister, and it's heartbreaking. Try, for your own mental health, to take a step back and take a break from it. Our brains are like computers, processing everything we see and read. It's very 'garbage in/garbage out.'"

—u/SpeedyPrius

13. "I’m not even that old, and I remember when it was considered rude to talk about or ask someone who they voted for. Nowadays, people make it their whole personality. They wear hats and put bumper stickers on their cars, and they make it your problem. It’s ridiculous."

—u/gbchaosmaster

It's hard to ignore how stressful life has become in the last 10 years, due to increasing expenses, the lack of jobs, and the monopoly on our time and attention — something these users pointed out.

14. "People definitely seemed nicer 10 years ago. Maybe it's because we weren't as stressed out just trying to survive as we are now. "

—u/Resident_Maximum3127

15. "The economy has everyone stressed out and on edge. People are working their asses off and barely able to buy the necessities. Meanwhile, the administration literally said consumer prices are the last of their concerns. People are more stressed than I have ever seen them."

—u/GadreelsSword

16. "Sometimes when I see 'Karen' videos, I think that could be any one of us, with how much stress we are all under in today’s world."

—u/Still_Bug_1000

17. "I think a lot of things contribute to where we are today as a society. Life is objectively harder and less affordable than it was 10 years ago. The consequences of selfish decisions corporations made 30 years ago are coming to fruition, like the rising rates of colon cancer in younger populations from all of the chemicals that have been put into every stage of the supply chain in the last 30 years. Social media told everyone they needed to do more and be better, so now no one is satisfied, and people are scamming each other under the guise of offering 'life hacks.'"

—u/Sad_sad_saddy_sad

18. "There are too many people. There are not enough good jobs, not enough housing, and the roads are too crowded. Everything is too expensive. People are competing fiercely for even the most basic things."

—u/FormerUsenetUser

19. "I believe people feel powerless at all levels of society, where our dire present does not seem to be progressing to a better future. It is as if the old rules do not apply, and no one knows what the new rules are, except for one thing: the rich keep getting richer, and the rest keep getting poorer. We seem to be regressing as laws are reversed and human rights are being taken away. If you are old enough, the second half of the 1960s, segueing into the early 1970s, were full of similar rage (sans social media), and we somehow made it out of that, but then right into Watergate and other crises. It feels like right now we are stretched to the limit, and something is going to burst."

—u/Brackens_World

There's also the fact that we're all still dealing with the collective trauma of a global pandemic, which some people are more willing to acknowledge than others.

20. "The pandemic certainly took its toll on all of us, and we don't talk about it much. Pretty much everyone experienced some sort of long-lasting psychological damage from it."

—u/munificent

21. "I think what COVID did was demonstrate that a lot of grown adults aren't willing to even slightly inconvenience themselves to mitigate risk for vulnerable populations in our society."

—u/coolcoolcool485

22. "COVID certainly made being openly ageist more acceptable. It gave voice to the type of person who says all old people should 'hand over' their jobs, houses, and assets, and just die already."

—u/FormerUsenetUser

23. "I mostly just want to be left alone when I go out to public places, so I masked up, which worked for a while. Then people started harassing others who were wearing masks. I eventually just stopped going out unless it was a necessity. When I did go out, it was like I was on a tactical mission, in and out, no casual wandering."

—u/Noodles1312

Some people argued that this is not a new problem. To them, people have always been this way.

24. "Are people nicer? No. There were A LOT of racist, anti-gay, anti-trans, misogynistic, anti-fat, and ableist jokes, and hardly anyone dared to question them. People were fucking jerks to each other. But people were less angry, and normal people drew the line at violence and actual harm. 10-15 years ago, if you looked different, you’d get more slurs thrown at you; people would laugh at you, take your photo without your consent, and turn you into a meme, but if someone said you deserved to die or have your basic rights taken away, people would stop laughing and call you out for that BS. I think most sane people were against that regardless of the terrible 'jokes' they made, but that isn’t true anymore. The 'jokes' aren’t jokes anymore. They’re very real threats now."

—u/Oddly-Ordinary

But maybe the problem isn't really human at all.

25. "Remember that around 60% of online users are estimated to be bots now. So you have bots arguing with bots in many cases, trying to create conflict. It’s an easy way to divide folks and make them feel powerless to do anything about it. When I’m out in the actual world, I mostly encounter good people who still want to do the right thing. If I believed everything I saw online, I’d think we were doomed. So my advice is to stay offline and look for more ways to be involved in your local community."

—u/lynxmouth

And maybe we're all too caught up in the noise to realize we're actually going to be okay.

26. "This is not reality. The Internet is not reality. The Internet is rapidly becoming a telephone that someone left off the hook, and everyone is yelling into it at the same time. I have found over the course of my life that if you treat people as you want to be treated, it comes back to you. I know it sounds corny and silly, but it's true. And if someone insults me, gets in my face, or simply doesn't like me, I still kill 'em with kindness."

—u/joe_attaboy

What do you think? Were people nicer 10 years ago? Why or why not? Tell me in the comments or use the anonymous form below. Your response may be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed article!

Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.