Some things used to be rare enough to feel bizarre.
Now they’re just part of the background noise—and somehow, we all act like it’s fine. If you’ve found yourself staring into the distance wondering “how did we get here?” you’re not alone. Sometimes it feels like the world has gone absolutely mental, and no one’s doing anything about it.
1. People recording themselves crying instead of calling a friend
We’re living in a time when emotional breakdowns are often captured on front-facing cameras and uploaded within the hour. Whether it’s genuine vulnerability or just online oversharing, it’s a strange new normal. It’s not that people shouldn’t talk about their feelings—it’s the performative nature of it that feels off. When personal moments become content before they become conversations, something in the chain feels broken.
2. Self-checkouts that make you feel like you’re being interrogated
“Unexpected item in the bagging area” used to be an occasional glitch. Now it’s a given. You can’t buy so much as a bottle of milk without having to wait for an assistant, prove you’re not stealing, and go through five error messages. The weirdest part? We all just accept it. Doing unpaid checkout work while machines accuse us of theft has become a completely normal part of the weekly shop.
3. Customer service bots pretending they care
Chatbots that start every interaction with “Hi there! How can I help you today?” only to completely ignore your actual problem have somehow replaced real human support in most places. They loop, glitch, and redirect you back to the same FAQ page you already read. And when they finally offer to connect you with a person, it’s never during hours when a person actually exists. It’s surreal.
4. People filming strangers mid-meltdown for likes
Public outbursts used to be something you’d look away from out of decency. Now they’re filmed, edited, and uploaded before the person involved has even had time to breathe. The internet sees everything, and posts it faster than you can say “privacy.” It’s made public life feel oddly performative. Instead of offering help or showing compassion, we grab our phones and wait for the comments section to do the rest. It’s unsettling how quickly people become content.
5. Everyday prices that feel like jokes
Basic groceries costing double. Takeaway coffees that cost as much as a meal used to. Buying everyday essentials now often feels like a prank—with no punchline, just a painful total at checkout. What’s weirder is how quickly we’ve adapted. We complain, sure, but we also keep paying. Deep down, we’ve all stopped expecting prices to make sense again anytime soon.
6. Constantly being asked to rate your experience—for everything
You can’t order a sandwich, get a haircut, or pick up a prescription without being asked to rate it afterward. Not once. Usually multiple times. “How did we do?” has become the soundtrack to modern life. It makes every interaction feel oddly transactional and slightly exhausting. Sometimes you just want to buy toothpaste without being prompted to leave a detailed review about your emotional journey through the queue.
7. Loud FaceTime calls in public like it’s a private room
There’s something particularly jarring about overhearing someone’s loud FaceTime call at full volume on the train, in a shop, or at a café. Not just the talking—the other person’s voice blaring out too, as if none of us exist. The lack of awareness is bizarre. At some point, holding an entire video conversation in public stopped being rude and just became background noise. And no one really knows when that change happened.
8. People filming themselves doing “normal” things as if it’s revolutionary
“Watch me go to the post office and drink water” is now considered content. We’re all apparently meant to celebrate basic tasks as motivational wins—and while it can be helpful for some, the internet has taken it to strange new levels. It blurs the line between real life and performance. When everything is recorded and packaged as productivity, the pressure to turn your life into a curated highlight reel never really turns off.
9. Automated voices that now sound passive-aggressive
From “please hold” loops to delivery updates, the once-neutral voice of automation now feels weirdly smug. It’s not that the voice has changed—it’s that our patience has completely worn thin. Being told “we appreciate your call” for the tenth time when you’ve been on hold for 45 minutes feels less like politeness and more like a dare. It’s the emotional equivalent of being stuck in a glitchy simulation.
10. Every hobby now somehow being monetised
People used to bake, paint, or write just for the joy of it. Now there’s subtle pressure to turn everything into a side hustle. “You could totally sell that” is the modern way of saying, “you’re not allowed to just enjoy this.” It’s made rest feel productive only if it earns something. While there’s nothing wrong with making money from a skill, it’s strange how doing things just for pleasure now feels like a rebellious act.
11. Headlines that feel like satire, but aren’t
Scrolling the news often feels like reading a parody site. Real headlines now compete with joke posts, and the line between absurdity and truth gets thinner every week. We laugh because the alternative is probably crying. It’s made people more cynical, but also more numb. When genuinely serious news sounds like a bad sketch, staying emotionally connected to the world around you takes real effort.
12. Constant rebrands of things that didn’t need fixing
Whether it’s a new name for a train line, a logo redesign no one asked for, or a company proudly announcing they’re “disrupting” something that worked fine, everything now seems to be reinvented for the sake of buzz. The result? Confusion, more marketing than meaning, and the quiet frustration of watching something perfectly functional get turned into a “modern experience” that nobody wanted in the first place.
