Poll: "First World Problems"

[freaper]

Complaints are inherent to our nature. Complaining is what helps us advance socially, technologically, economically, politically, etc. Isolating problems and trying to work around them, solve them, adapt ourselves to specific situations is why we're on top of the food chain.

So yes, I do agree that everyone has a right to complain about pretty much anything.

Having said that, you don't make a trip to Uganda, visit a local village, and complain that they don't have X or Y. As long as you recognize that most people in the world have it worse than you, and you're sensible to their cause, then yea, first world problems can be legitimately complained about too.

 

[Strazdas]

The term itself cameto existence though people complaining about nothing. as everything it was blow out of proportion in the internetza legimate example of first world problems would be that a 16 year old faield at her first puppy love and it resulted in deaths oh hundreds of people "Because she was pissed off". and yes this really happened. The new age movies show a lot of this, stupid peopel complain for stupidest reason. worst thing is, these movies try to claim those are legiamte problems....

 

[SoulSalmon]

I can't really answer that poll...

On the one hand, a problem is a problem. Is the fact that I need to refresh Youtube every 20 minutes or so threatening my survival? No, but it's still annoying.

On the other hand, yes, people complain too much.

 

[Scars Unseen]

"First world problems" is internet slang for "I have nothing meaningful to contribute to this thread but would still like to see my post count go up."

 

[DugMachine]

It's a tad annoying but I see where it's coming from. Going "OH MY GOD I HAVE NOTHING TO EAT!" with a fridge full of food just not what you're hungry for at that very moment is a first world problem.

Do you have the right to ***** about it? Sure, even I do all the time. Doesn't make it any less of a minor problem in the grand scheme of things when people are starving and would eat practically anything to stay alive.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

It's a pretty ignorant statement. It perpetuates the sterotype that every country that is not in Europe or North America is a warzone where everyone everywhere is starving and dying and living in huts. Most people on Earth do the same routines we do every day. Go to work, hang with friends, etc. They have the same problems our societies do, they just have them worse.

The idea that complaining about CoD is a pretty small problem isn't stupid. The idea that this doesn't happen in Pakistan or Nigeria is.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

In my opinion this problem isn't worth talking about, and the comment "lol, that's such a first world problem" is stupid. You already know it is a problem and the response is "lol, that's a problem!" thank you captain obvious. Did you ask them if a parrot is playing their character for them?

 

[Bullfrog1983]

Iunno seems like the new popular phrase to say . It's annoyig a fuck, but just wait for the fad to kick in . What i hate though is people that take stuff from the internet and say them in real life . I first person to say that to me in real life gets slapped and i will say " did that hurt? At least you didn't lose a limb , first world problems".

I agree with this 100%. I know people who say "lol" instead of actually laughing, doesn't do anything but make them sound like a robot. I'll have to remember to do something obnoxious the first time someone says that to me.

 

[Zyst]

Just saying the poll is confusing as fuck, I read the options, then read the thread and click "Legitimate" as in I think your opinion is legitimate and lo and behold, it's like someone has a normal axis in a flying game, just doesn't feel right.

Anyway, because someone has bigger problems than you it doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to complain, otherwise imagine this scenario: "Girl is born, she is blind, deaf and deformed. Her mother dies in birth, her dad left long ago and her step dad is left to care for her. However, the stepdad is a psychopath, he tortures her from birth and keeps her locked up in a basement, she doesn't know the outside world, she doesn't know anything. The only thing she knows is pain, to the point where it starts to feel like the closest she has to love. She keeps getting tortured for many years, barely fed, regularly raped and abused, but she doesn't know anything else. One day the Step Father dies, after 4 days without eating and drinking she stumbles outside, turns out the door was never locked. She is found covered in blood and scars by local children who start being children and poking her with sticks, she doesn't understand what is going on. She is being assailed by a lot of sensations she didn't know existed, the sun is shining on her for the first time, she can't hear the noise but she can feel a frightening level of vibrations. She tries to run as well as her skinny legs can carry her only to stumble upon a road and being ran over by a car, dying instantly."

After listening to a scenario like that (And I'm a big time internet lurker, I know of a lot of messed up shit going on around the world) no one ever could complain, not the starving kids in Africa "At least you have your 'freedom' stop bitching" Nor anyone else, unless there's someone more unfortunate than her, then even she can't complain.

What I'm getting at is that Emotions and feelings are Subjective, they exist inside you and if you don't LIVE Yourself a way waaay worse experience you won't really feel it as attached and real, as human beings we aren't objective and not complaining about our problems considering some people are way off would be a perfect Objective observation, but would have nothing to do with our humanity.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

First World Problems involve the culture of dependency, poverty of the mind, the lack of fulfillment and other issues which are at the heart of the Underclass and effect everyone else.

What it really comes down to is that fact that people can afford most, if not all of the perks of modern life , but still consider themselves poor and in need of help. The reasons behind why some can have an iphone, a wireless connection and other amenities, but be labels poor by society and they themselves wanting to be labelled such for "free" government handouts is the pressing matter.

The work of Theodore Dalrymple goes into detail about this.

Meh. Isn't it all just relative deprivation? We're hard-wired to strive, it's part of our survival mechanism. Take away serious threats to an individual's welfare like death, famine, sickness, etc and their mind turns to more mundane injustices. Why can't I have a nice shirt? That guy has a nice shirt. My food is COLD! Why can't I find a cool case for my cellular phone? These things are always happening to me!

However, just as deprivation is relative, so is privilege.

 

[Syzygy23]

Err, I always thought that "first world problems" referred to people making an enormously big deal out of trivial shit.

Like someone spilling soda all over themselves and then declaring that their whole day is ruined and that they might as well just go and kill themselves.

Yup, exactly this. All discussion value has been negated, /thread.

No, that isn't sarcasm.

 

[surg3n]

I used that recently when my youngest brother complained about not having Ass Creed, like begging for someone to buy it for him because our dad made a mistake and bought him Halo4 instead.

He's 20, and I felt like slapping him, instead I told him it was a first world problem.

Thing is, these days there is no first, second, blah blah blah world problems, there are only problems. In the first world people shouldn't be going hungry, having to comit crime to survive, having to steal to make ends meet. I'm in the UK, which should be considered first world, yet kids are stealing food because they're so hungry, their Jeremy Kyle generation parents are too wasted to care. That's not a first world problem. Anyway, preach over - I just think that we need to wind back a bit, stop complaining so much about the little things - because there's every chance that someone nearby is going through hell, and if we ***** about this minor stuff then it belittles their problems.

There's always someone worse off than us, there's always someone ready to tell us that as well.

 

[babinro]

Err, I always thought that "first world problems" referred to people making an enormously big deal out of trivial shit.

Like someone spilling soda all over themselves and then declaring that their whole life is ruined and that they might as well just drop dead.

^
That was my impression as well.

Otherwise the expression is meaningless since anyone who can post online have first world problems.

 

[Phuctifyno]

I wonder if people in third world countries update their statuses all like:

"it's raining out and here am I am without an umbrella (to turn upside down and drink from for a month!!!) FML third world problems" or

"just got my cherry popped! the rapist thought my purity would cure his aids. third world problems lol", or

"just three more paychecks away from being able to afford death by gun instead of machete. third world problems LMAO (except L is for lob and A is for arm)".


Frankly, it's something I've been saying for years, because complaining about stupid shit is taking for granted the rights and freedoms that being lucky enough to be born in the first world affords you. Sure, everybody has the right to complain about anything, at any time, but doing so doesn't make you not a useless turd.

Now that everyone else is saying it though, it's become meaningless. Because now it's just a thing to say to fill space, and nobody even thinks about the words as they're saying or typing them. Maybe it's just an awkward baby step in the right direction to broader paradigm, like putting up with environmentalists' or vegetarians' smugness? First world problems I guess, lol.

 

[lord.jeff]

In most cases I've seen it is a phrase for people who don't have a real counter point to your argument, can't think of a counter point so I'll just pretend the argument is beneath me.

 

[Swyftstar]

When I first heard it the guy who said it was saying it about something he had just complained about and then laughed it off. So, I always thought it was just a joke and a way to feel better about life's little nagging occurences. I think people are taking the expression a little too seriously and using it as something else to complain about on top of what they were already just complaining about.

 

[JEBWrench]

I wonder if people in third world countries update their statuses all like:

"it's raining out and here am I am without an umbrella (to turn upside down and drink from for a month!!!) FML third world problems" or

"just got my cherry popped! the rapist thought my purity would cure his aids. third world problems lol", or

"just three more paychecks away from being able to afford death by gun instead of machete. third world problems LMAO (except L is for lob and A is for arm)".

>.> <.< I may be enough of a troll to make that twitter account.

Anyways! On-topic:

The poll is missing my answer, which is both. Referring to people's problems as first-world problems is most certainly legit. But people should also be able to complain about whatever they want.

Including first world problems. Complaining about first world problems is a first world problem.

 

[TheEndlessGrey]

Newsflash: Some people are dicks. They will say whatever they think is funny in order to put you down. Whether your problem is legitimate or not isn't even the question. It's why are you hanging out with this dick?

 

[Bazaalmon]

Err, I always thought that "first world problems" referred to people making an enormously big deal out of trivial shit.

Like someone spilling soda all over themselves and then declaring that their whole life is ruined and that they might as well just drop dead.

Pretty much this. I think the best example that I've encountered is this total ***** with rich parents who goes to my college. Verbatim: "My parents bought me the black iPad instead of the white one! I hate them! My life is ruined!"

Seriously, they just GAVE you an iPad, who gives a shit what the color is?

If you bought an iPad that broke after a week, that's not the triviality required to be a "first-world problem."
If someone gave you a free iPad and you don't like the color scheme, that is trivial enough to be qualified as a "first-world problem."
You can complain about it all you want, but it just makes you look like a jerk.

 

[Branovices]

I think you'll be a whole lot happier in life if you realize your problems are usually very small compared to what they could be. If you're warm, healthy,shod and under a sturdy roof... anything short of a personal tragedy really is trivial. That doesn't mean you can't try to fix a problem on a tech support forum, but it does mean getting really upset over truly trivial nonsense does not invite sympathy.