IRR = Interesting Reads on Reddit

[original post date = 13 august 2017]

We're only on #2, but this last week (and this'll probably be a weekly thing, now) most of the news has been pretty damn depressing. So strap in for the link list I know nobody cares about but me, and here we go!

70% of Americans are effectively financially illiterate. • r/Frugal
Honestly, I know this stuff is true but it still surprises me every time something like this comes up.

"A massacre": At least 30 children die in Indian hospital after oxygen cut off over unpaid bill • r/worldnews
Just... Wow.

Only 0.1% of US minimum-wage workers can afford a 1-bedroom apartment, report finds • r/Political_Revolution
Headline says it all but comments definitely explain it further.

Housing is too expensive for low-skilled workers to move to cities with the highest-paid jobs • r/lostgeneration
Nice partner for the above comments. Here I'm mostly interested in the reasons commenters state for why it's like this, plus some outgoing links for similar issues are also pretty interesting.

Baby boomers are refusing to sell and will age like a fine wine in their homes. The dominant force in the housing market. • r/lostgeneration
Despite the title, comments go on about how life sucks for everyone right now, and boomers cannot afford to leave.

Trump gets a folder full of positive news about himself twice a day • r/nottheonion
Because of course he does. But, comments are worth some laughs, at least.

You're not imagining it: the rich really are hoarding economic growth • r/TrueReddit
I link this one because the comments are overall more interesting here, but my favorite comment is actually on this same article in a different subreddit: basicincome
In which, one commenter asks "I'm not trying be negative but did anyone think otherwise?

The number of rich people that aren't are in the extreme minority."

And the answer, my favorite comment, is:
"I think this does a great job of teasing out some of the details that were largely unknown.

The fact that even those in the top 20% minus the top 1% saw about as much growth as those in the bottom 80% clearly indicates that even the upper middle class is getting fucked by the upper upper upper class.

And I think that point remains largely unknown."
Context here. Basicincome is, obviously, a highly biased subreddit, however. So TrueReddit is better for slightly more neutral reading.

Feeling bad about feeling bad can make you feel really, really bad • r/psychology
No need to read the comments, the headline's good enough. Now you have validation...

What's a bad thing everyone should experience once? - NSFW
Not truly depressing. In fact, very insightful. A good read. I might've linked it in the last IRR but I'm too lazy to check for sure.

Humor break: Sexual dimorphism in anglerfish is extreme. How they mate is even more extreme • r/videos
A thing I kinda already knew but damn I'm glad I watched this video and read the comments anyway

Humor break: How do I communicate with blind people? • r/NoStupidQuestions
A brain fart of the highest magnitude

The final links & biggest discussion. The thing that marked the theme of this week's IRR:
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? • r/TrueReddit
A topic of huge debate. But don't judge this article by it's atrocious title: Actually read it. It is long. It is pretty good. If you can't be arsed to read it, scroll down to the graphs. They get the picture across well enough. The article has its fair share of bias but it's truly interesting regardless. Done viewing the article? OK, now look at the comments.

The first thing I thought of when I read this article (and I did legit read the whole, insanely long thing in one sitting, because I'm interested in this topic), is that this is NOT new. In fact, it brings me back to very very old cracked.com article... You know, back when cracked was still good:
7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable
This article was written in... 2007.

And while perusing my bookmarks for that cracked article (which I've unfortunately linked several times in the past 10 years), I found I had bookmarked something else. Surprise! Excessive internet use linked to depression
From 2010. (The actual link I had bookmarked is dead now, unfortunately, so I quickly googled this one).
The studies continue, but ultimately the final report is: Go the fuck outside.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯