American suburbs/cities are ugly and depressing

[Riven]

I am convinced that the American way of life is the cause of the rampant mental illness that we see in America today. The skyrocketing levels of depression, and feelings of being isolated from other people, despite not actually being "technically" isolated.

The obesity epidemic, which no one really talks about anymore in America, is driven by the way our suburbs and cities are designed. In most places, you can't just walk to a store and get what you need. They're almost always out of walking distance. So even if you just need some burger buns or something, you have to hop in the stupid car and drive to a place to get your stuff.

Everything seems to be designed to waste your time, make you fat, and keep you in debt to corporations. This apparently is the American dream. :/

 

[Uncle J]

I am convinced that the American way of life is the cause of the rampant mental illness that we see in America today. The skyrocketing levels of depression, and feelings of being isolated from other people, despite not actually being "technically" isolated.

The obesity epidemic, which no one really talks about anymore in America, is driven by the way our suburbs and cities are designed. In most places, you can't just walk to a store and get what you need. They're almost always out of walking distance. So even if you just need some burger buns or something, you have to hop in the stupid car and drive to a place to get your stuff.

Everything seems to be designed to waste your time, make you fat, and keep you in debt to corporations. This apparently is the American dream. :/

I dunno, American suburbs not being walkable, lacking public spaces, and requiring a car for everything has been around for as long as I've been alive.

IMO, the mental health issues we see now are related to several factors, including smart phones (constantly putting obligations on you), social media, the aftermath of the pandemic, the corpocracy, constant attempts to trick you/get your money (scammers), and society being more open about people having mental health issues.

One psychology paper I read a while ago hypothesized that living in what they called a "scam culture", where you have to be on guard 24/7 against scams, has created a society where we are far less trusting of each other. I think there's something to that.

I've also read that Gen Z's are starting to keep their phones on Do Not Disturb all the time, because it becomes overwhelming when they don't, with all the notifications, texts, etc. Keeping it on DND provides them some measure of control.

And just on a personal note, it's been sad to see so many of the things that were predicted in the 90's about how we were heading to a corpocracy come to be. Too many times we've gone to buy something and found that our choices are ridiculously limited, and effectively we are left with choosing which vendor to buy the same exact, mass-produced product from.

Finally (as long as we're just complaining here ), I had an interesting exchange with a customer service person from a bank the other day. I was trying to transfer money from one bank to another and the number of hoops I had to jump through were ridiculous. Verification codes, activations, confirmations, log-ins, and of course a call to customer service. Then when I finally got it all done, I got an email notification, a text asking "how did we do", and another email asking for me to rate them.

When I finally got it all done I told the customer service person, "You know, I think we've reached the point where it's a heck of a lot easier to just write a check". She laughed and said "I believe you're right".

Old man rant over....

 

[jasonc]

I am convinced that the American way of life is the cause of the rampant mental illness that we see in America today. The skyrocketing levels of depression, and feelings of being isolated from other people, despite not actually being "technically" isolated.

The obesity epidemic, which no one really talks about anymore in America, is driven by the way our suburbs and cities are designed. In most places, you can't just walk to a store and get what you need. They're almost always out of walking distance. So even if you just need some burger buns or something, you have to hop in the stupid car and drive to a place to get your stuff.

Everything seems to be designed to waste your time, make you fat, and keep you in debt to corporations. This apparently is the American dream. :/

You can walk most are too lazy .my wife's knows I will walk miles .I walked a few times to church when my truck was painted .20 minute walk.buying groceries at a large amount isn't practical.let me see handys corner is about two miles away and the old one across from the church that no longer stands .handys corner is a rocket gas station .

I would have to dig into my memory more on old grocers.

 

[Christ_empowered]

I dunno
Part of the so called mental health epidemic is our elites refusal to let us point out social and economic causes of our despair. Easy solution? Labels ! Depression adhd various personality disorders an ever expanding definition of bipolar…


And then it becomes a medical or at least mental health issue not social and economic issues.

I have a label of schizophrenia. Supposedly my variant…schizoaffective…is sort of where some aspects of schizophrenia meet with some aspects of bipolar. Anyway the outcomes for schizophrenia have gotten worse over 50 years not better. This is despite all the money going mostly towards pills newer and shinier pills and occasionally supposedly less damaging forms of electroshock therapy. So…


Some mental health professionals say we need more talking treatments. I think that’d be helpful in a different social situation and different economy. The uk and some eu nations are trying such and it seems to reduce costs while improving results and social integration.

Thing is…there’s not much in the way of community for people to integrate into in much of the USA . There’s individuals and families. That’s about it.

 

[jasonc]

You can walk most are too lazy .my wife's knows I will walk miles .I walked a few times to church when my truck was painted .20 minute walk.buying groceries at a large amount isn't practical.let me see handys corner is about two miles away and the old one across from the church that no longer stands .handys corner is a rocket gas station .

I would have to dig into my memory more on old grocers.

 

[jasonc]

A video I made while walking back to my work truck

 

[Corn Pop]

I think because were all hard consumers so many people dont look after themselves, they dont eat welll, lots of junk food is an example, and not eating well thats body and mind out of balence, and lots of processed food, most food is full of crap, people are also lazy and dont excercise, that can all cause depresion and anxieties.

So many people are overweight, lazy, sick, and depressed.

And i dont say this to cause offensive its just the truth.