> I guarantee our hunter-gatherer ancestors felt all the same emotions—burnout, comparison, envy, anxiety, stress, overwhelm, hopelessness.

Yes they felt all the same emotions. You absolutely cannot guarantee they felt them in the same proportions thought.

> our brains have not changed that much.

That is the point: our brains have not changed and is still evolving at the speed of gene mutations. Our environment though is changing magnitudes faster than before.

> how is this line of reasoning constructive?

This is not trying to be constructive, just trying to understand the human condition. We probably have no choice but to learn to deal with it, that doesn’t mean technology has no adverse impact.

Friend, hunter-gatherers felt more existential dread than you do, because 50% of their kids died, and they themselves would be lucky to live to the ripe old age of 40.

Every generation in history has felt that things used to be better and they got the short end of the stick. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression and World War II. My parents lived through the cold war, Watergate and Vietnam. Millennials have phones that they like too much, and it's slightly harder to buy a house, and they feel like no one has ever endured this much hardship.

We need to grow up. "Too much Instagram" is not remotely on the same level as "we need to hide in the basement during air raids."

PS, I don't buy any argument that there's more depression now than there was at an earlier point in history, because psychology does not have the most stellar track record when it comes to scientific rigor. I just don't trust any measure that's over 20 years old.