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Post by dianarmartinez on Jul 1, 2024 4:59:50 GMT
What really struck me as unusual is how little we know of anxiety. We were not able to really define the word anxiety until 1900s. It is only 100 years ago that we have accepted and labeled the term anxiety. The only thing I could see relatively close to the anxiety of choice is a book that was written in 2004. It was hard to do research on this topic.
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Post by gillianlaird on Jul 1, 2024 19:38:38 GMT
Hey, Diana. I remember when I first learned about anxiety and realized that's why I felt sick to my stomach walking the hallways at school without a friend by my side or why I always felt like I had to cling to my mom when we would go out in public together. I was in sixth grade. It's interesting that you say that we know so little about anxiety and that researching for this cheat sheet was hard, because I have never viewed it that way. But I think you're right. Despite the word being so popular in today's society (it's kind of a buzz word at this point), we really don't know much. From what I've seen online and with friends, everything from slight nerves to bubbling excitement is being labeled as anxiety, and doctors are so quick to prescribe medication (because they get paid for it) that it's hard to know what is anxiety and what isn't. Along a similar vein, it's even more interesting when you factor in the idea of "choice." Perhaps anxiety levels really are booming, and, in my opinion, the why can be pointed at social media. This is the culprit (I think) for why the term anxiety has become such a popular phrase, however I also think it's the reason for why anxiety levels are rising among young people. There are so many choices: what app to use, who to follow, what aesthetic to choose for yourself, what trends to follow, what artists to listen to. It's all very loud. It will be interesting to see in the decades to come how research on anxiety develops with all these factors at play.
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Post by Dr. Nemmers on Jul 2, 2024 20:31:12 GMT
Right, and one thing we discussed during our conversation was just the proliferation of options and information for everyone in the modern era. In previous years you'd have a very limited supply of people to date or marry; your entertainment options would be very few (maybe one movie showing at your local theater, or three television channels, or whatever). And your life therefore would mostly proceed with respect to whatever was on or available or whatever. You really didn't have a ton of choice about most of what you did.
Is it better to have so many choices? Well, it's certainly better than having no choices and being completely bound to your life. But yes, we see the paralyzing effect of anxiety and of social media a lot throughout our own lives, much less those of our literature from 50-80 years ago!
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Post by garrison on Jul 3, 2024 16:09:31 GMT
I've always found the idea of "too much of a good thing" interesting. That kinda comes into play here with the modern anxiety of choice. When I'm stuck in the middle of a long day at school, I want nothing more than to get home so I can watch a movie, watch TV, or play a game. Then I have a full day to myself and I end up doing next to nothing because I can't decide what I actually want to do. It's a really interesting concept.
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Post by Rylee Wenzel on Jul 4, 2024 1:52:25 GMT
This idea is so interesting to me and also scary. Because every day we are faced with so many different choices and so of course we are going to have anxiety over it. This idea that one decision can change/affect the rest of your life is probably part of why there is so much anxiety around choosing. As Garrison said, even with our free time we have a hard time deciding. To the point where we may even end up doing nothing because we just can't choose.
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