Because We Can

I really enjoyed this Newsweek article about girls being raised with influences such as Britney and Paris. I think so often we think that things are worse now. More divorce, more depression, more promiscuity, etc. And it is easy to jump to those conclusions. But I think people are pretty much the same. We (generally) have the same weaknesses and the same motivation as our parents and our parents parents and our parents parents parents. The bad only seems bigger because we have more opportunity, more access to information, and because--in true American fashion--we want things that are fast, easy, and good-feeling. When things don't feel good, we move on, I think that is why divorce rates and use of anti-depressants* are so high. It's not because people are less happy than before, it's because we have less patience for dealing with certain things and we give up faster. Because we can. It's not always necessarily the right thing to do, but I think it's normal human behavior.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.

*I am by no means saying that all people on anti-depressants are trying to implement a quick fix to unhappiness. Depression is often times a biological issue and can be corrected by the right use of medication. What I am referring to above is the quick habit to over-prescribe and/or want medication even when the issue in question is not biological.