This is a submission for NYT’s Summer Reading Contest Week 3. The article I’ve chosen is: “Your Brain Has Tricked You Into Thinking Everything Is Worse”
Scrolling through the News app on my phone, I see the same headlines over and over— The climate’s getting worse, Florida’s new anti-LGBTQ bill, and yet again another school shooting. I bleakly sigh and scroll past.
We’ve witnessed countless mass shootings, acts of police brutality, and book bans. We’ve been through a life altering pandemic, an economic crisis, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
It’s only going to get worse, right?
As a teen, the world feels like it’s falling apart. This feeling can be encapsulated by the title of one of The Strokes’ albums, “The New Abnormal”
The new abnormal is the destruction of the comfort and stability that we once had… or so it seems.
This article caught my eye, reminding me that negativity trumps positivity, especially in the minds of teenagers who are now growing up and learning more about this world. Our brain makes us see a skewed, pessimistic, downbeat vision of our surroundings, but the world isn’t so bleak…
What about the good? To name a few positives: Scientists have figured out how to cheaply desalinate saltwater, we’re making rapid developments in medicine, and we’re on track to economically recovering from both the pandemic and war in Ukraine.
Despite what we may first think, the world’s not falling apart. It just requires a conscious effort to acknowledge the progress being made to a better, brighter future— a future that Gen Z can take charge of.