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.

Sure, I'ld rather be doomscrolling on tiktok than being stuck for 4 years in trenches in France during WW1, we are talking about larger trend across time though.

> I just don't trust any measure that's over 20 years old.

Then take psychological measures that are 20 years old or less, they all go in the same direction.

Or if you don't trust psychology, take suicide rate, pretty hard to miscount, and is not subject to much change in how people self-report whether or not they killed themselves.

You seem to be conflating how you think people ought to feel given their privileged conditions versus how they actually happen to feel.