First-World Problems
There's a common phrase, which gained widespread use on the Internet, that people use when they're complaining about a problem: first-world problems. It's used by the speaker to concede that what they're complaining about is only a problem when considered in a given context, and where the context itself indicates that the problem itself is trivial. Having to wait in line for a long time at the grocery store is a first-world problem, since it's not really an inconvenience if you consider that many people are unable to afford food for themselves, or that many people lack access to food altogether.
So what does this mean? We've come to an age in history where there's a general awareness among the privileged that the problems among the privileged are readily known, acknowledged, and accepted as being trivial problems on a global scale. We verbally state it to one another in conversation. You'll frequently see this phrase as a hashtag in social media. From a cultural standpoint, this is pretty amazing. The term "first-world" didn't exist 100 years ago, but I'm willing to bet that the wealthy at that time would never have acknowledged that their gripes were petty by tagging them with #oldmoneyissues.
But does the existence and prevalence of this Internet meme in casual, everyday conversation among the privileged actually spawn social change? Does our increased awareness of our privilege and the plight of the less fortunate lead us to change our actions? That's difficult to say; perhaps people do catch themselves punctuating a complaint about something insignificant by saying, "But that's a first-world problem", then go home and do something to address the more significant problem, say, by donating to a food bank.
More likely, I'd guess this is just a psychological trick people use to give themselves license to "white whine". Complaining feels good, and it's very easy to do. This phrase has instilled itself into our culture because it assuages privileged guilt. We all want to complain, but none of us want to be seen as complainers. Tacking on this phrase gives us a trapdoor.
A few years ago, I made some effort to put this into practice in a different way. If a complaint arose in my head, and I had the urge to vocalize it, I'd first consider whether or not it was something that might be deemed a first-world problem. If it was, I wouldn't vocalize it, and I tried to trace the source of the complaint in my head to get rid of it. I wanted it use this awareness to trigger real change within me.
This was very difficult at first. I discovered that, more often than not, a complaint about something that doesn't matter would escape from my lips before I even realized that what I was saying was a complaint. Even now, this will sometimes still happen if I get nervous talking to someone. But over time, I started to recognize the trains of thought that led to these complaints, and to cut them off before they became fully formed ideas in my head.
I learned that you can turn just about every petty complaint upside down and make it an expression of gratitude. I'm grateful that I have enough to eat. I'm grateful that I'm literate. I'm grateful that I have a job. While I typically keep these thoughts to myself, I also quickly learned that many people perceive you as boring or as a pollyanna if you vocalize these things instead of complaints. So it goes; I'm grateful that I can choose to be the kind of person I want to be, even if it isn't always acceptable to others.
And yes, the irony is not lost on me...the #firstworldproblems hashtag problem is, in and of itself, a first-world problem.
So what does this mean? We've come to an age in history where there's a general awareness among the privileged that the problems among the privileged are readily known, acknowledged, and accepted as being trivial problems on a global scale. We verbally state it to one another in conversation. You'll frequently see this phrase as a hashtag in social media. From a cultural standpoint, this is pretty amazing. The term "first-world" didn't exist 100 years ago, but I'm willing to bet that the wealthy at that time would never have acknowledged that their gripes were petty by tagging them with #oldmoneyissues.
But does the existence and prevalence of this Internet meme in casual, everyday conversation among the privileged actually spawn social change? Does our increased awareness of our privilege and the plight of the less fortunate lead us to change our actions? That's difficult to say; perhaps people do catch themselves punctuating a complaint about something insignificant by saying, "But that's a first-world problem", then go home and do something to address the more significant problem, say, by donating to a food bank.
More likely, I'd guess this is just a psychological trick people use to give themselves license to "white whine". Complaining feels good, and it's very easy to do. This phrase has instilled itself into our culture because it assuages privileged guilt. We all want to complain, but none of us want to be seen as complainers. Tacking on this phrase gives us a trapdoor.
A few years ago, I made some effort to put this into practice in a different way. If a complaint arose in my head, and I had the urge to vocalize it, I'd first consider whether or not it was something that might be deemed a first-world problem. If it was, I wouldn't vocalize it, and I tried to trace the source of the complaint in my head to get rid of it. I wanted it use this awareness to trigger real change within me.
This was very difficult at first. I discovered that, more often than not, a complaint about something that doesn't matter would escape from my lips before I even realized that what I was saying was a complaint. Even now, this will sometimes still happen if I get nervous talking to someone. But over time, I started to recognize the trains of thought that led to these complaints, and to cut them off before they became fully formed ideas in my head.
I learned that you can turn just about every petty complaint upside down and make it an expression of gratitude. I'm grateful that I have enough to eat. I'm grateful that I'm literate. I'm grateful that I have a job. While I typically keep these thoughts to myself, I also quickly learned that many people perceive you as boring or as a pollyanna if you vocalize these things instead of complaints. So it goes; I'm grateful that I can choose to be the kind of person I want to be, even if it isn't always acceptable to others.
And yes, the irony is not lost on me...the #firstworldproblems hashtag problem is, in and of itself, a first-world problem.