All of us have problems. Every single one.

But the questions of who has a greater problem, who’s better equipped to deal with certain kinds of problems and who isn’t, whether some problems even have a solution, and so on - those remain unanswered, and by the very definition of a problem, will remain unanswered.

Take for instance - Is the absence of any problem a problem itself?

The world is quite diverse. People living in, say, New York City, may have a horrible experience with the subway system and that may be considered a huge problem. But at the same time, a person from a tribe living in the Amazon may have to run from wild animals for their life - a bizarre problem to consider if you’re on your mundane ride to work in the subway train and don’t really think of wild animals being a general problem.

Such is the nature of us humans - we don’t get each other so well.

Of late, though, the world has become increasingly connected via telecommunications (all right, the Amazonian tribe still isn’t) and a majority of people have become connected digitally - quite a feat to achieve in such a short span of time (cell phones are perhaps 30 years old at best).

This has led to a host of new problems previously only dreamed of (in no particular order):

  • Reduced attention spans because of addictive apps
  • Car accidents due to phone distraction
  • Self-esteem issues due to social media-related phenomena
  • Digital theft
  • Bizarre stuff like Phantom vibration syndrome
  • Filter bubbles
  • Online abuse and cyberbullying
  • Cancel culture
  • Manipulation of elections!

I find it really fascinating that these problems, quite rightly acknowledged as problems, even exist - a couple decades ago no one would have even thought these could be part of our daily real lives - and I am not sure if these problems are better or worse problems to have than something like, say, who lets out the nukes first.

Inspired to think of these things thanks to this article by “meta-nomad”.