If you could choose to have been born in a different time, would you, and if so, when and why?

[Norion]

DekutheEvilClown said:

Norion said:

I feel like my birth year of 1998 is quite good since I got to experience the internet from the get go when it was better, wasn't a kid when social media fully took off and became ubiquitous and didn't get my first smartphone till I was 15. Just a decade or so later and I could've been an iPad baby with me broadcasting my vulnerable moments for the world to see.

This depends on the country really. For the developing world things are absolutely better compared to 20 years ago but for the developed world it's a lot more nuanced. Like for the UK there's a strong argument that life was better for the average person back in 2000-2006 compared to this decade so far.

People might have been more happy with their lot back then, because we measure things relative to others. In absolute terms they were worse off. 

In the UK since 2000 wage growth exceeded inflation for the majority of those years. Minimum wage for an adult increased from £3.50 to £12.21. People are less happy because they judge their situation relative to others and income gaps have increased. More people buy luxury items like £1000 phones and it makes the people who can’t afford them feel like they’re miserable and their happiness depends upon owning them too. Going back to a time where such items didn’t even exist and depriving everyone of those items might make the individual more content but in real terms their situation is not better. It’s just psychology. 

The cost of living has still gone up a lot though. A lot of people in the UK have been having a lot of trouble getting by the past few years and there's much more to this than wealth and material possessions. Stuff like culture and the quality of the environment you live in matters massively. A young person in a middle class household today in places like the UK and US will likely be seeing a lot of negative political messaging through social media and thanks to stuff like that could easily end up with worse mental health than if they were born 20 years earlier.

Last edited by Norion - on 07 May 2026