It’s a whole new year and people online are miserable as ever. Mean-spirited, hearts brimming with malice, fingers itching for cruelty like it’s a competitive sport. The calendar changed, but the energy stayed raggedy. Same chaos, different date. But what is actually wrong with them? My thoughts are below.

People aren’t broken so much as overstimulated, under-nourished, and badly taught how to think.

Modern life is a loud casino with no windows. Everyone’s being blasted with outrage, fear, hot takes, beauty standards, fake wealth, fake wisdom, and algorithmic nonsense designed to keep them clicking, not thinking. The nervous system never gets to sit down. It’s always on duty. Always braced for impact. A tired brain starts making sloppy decisions. That’s not a moral failure; it’s biology waving a white flag.

Add to that a collapse in critical thinking. Reading went out of fashion, nuance followed shortly after, and now everything has to fit in a meme or a scream. Complexity makes people itchy. So they simplify. They pick teams. They shout slogans. They mistake volume for truth and confidence for competence. Loud feels safe when you don’t actually know what’s going on.

Then there’s the quiet grief nobody wants to name. Wages stagnant. Bodies aging. Dreams deferred. Systems clearly rigged but still demanding participation. That kind of pressure turns inward or sideways. Some people get cruel. Some get ridiculous. Some get lost in fantasy lives online because reality keeps short-changing them.

Social media didn’t create the mess—it weaponized it. It rewards attention, not wisdom. Rage spreads faster than insight. Performative morality gets more likes than actual integrity. People start living for reaction instead of reflection. The self becomes a product. Empathy becomes optional.

So what’s “wrong” with people today?

They’re tired. Confused. Poorly guided. Drowning in noise. Starving for meaning. And many were never taught how to sit alone with their thoughts without panicking.

The strange part is that beneath all that static, most people still want the same old human things: safety, dignity, love, and a little peace without having to earn it through suffering.

The tragedy isn’t that people are awful.

It’s that the world keeps training them to be.