Waiting for a delivery, forgetting passwords and having no Wi-Fi are among the top ten “first-world problems” of modern Britain, a survey has found.
The study, conducted by Goldsmiths, University of London, saw 2,000 people quizzed on their niggling anxieties about everyday life.
Many of the concerns seem trivial compared to those expressed by the previous generation. The three biggest pet peeves of 2017’s respondents were having to stay at home due to non-specific delivery times, forgetting login details and leaving their phones at home.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The worries also varied by region. One in three Londoners said they worried about the prospect of a Prosecco shortage, twice as many as people elsewhere in the country, the London Evening Standard reports.
By contrast, over-50s said their biggest preoccupations in 1997 were having a happy relationship, earning enough to pay their bills and saving up for a holiday.
Goldsmith’s psychologist Patrick Fagan, who led the study, said that the two sets of answers revealed that working-age adults today are more preoccupied with “fickle problems” than their parents’ generation, The Times reports.
“In our comfortable lives, we might have enough money for bills or a holiday, but it’s in our nature to never be satisfied and we will worry about wi-fi and delivery times instead,” Fagan said.
However, it must be remembered that the 1997 answers are not drawn from contemporary data but by asking those now aged 50 or over to recall their concerns from 20 years ago, so are reliant on memories and perception rather than current mental state.
And, besides, the youth of 1997 weren’t entirely taken up with grown-up problems. Others surveyed identified having to get up to change the TV channel as one of the top ten annoyances of 1990s Britain.
Other minor inconveniences have simply disappeared in the intervening 20 years, swept away by a tidal wave of technology.
In an age before a mobile phone was guaranteed to be in every pocket, the young of yesteryear fretted about running late for an arranged meeting.
Even more alien to modern ears, the fifth most-common first world problem in 1997 was picking up developed photos to find many were overexposed, while rewinding cassettes and videos was another top ten grievance.
Here are the top ten “first-world problems” of 2017 and 1997:
Top ten first-world problems, 2017
1. Having to wait in the house all day for a delivery because there isn’t a specific time slot
2. Forgetting passwords
3. Leaving your phone at home
4. No free Wi-Fi at a hotel
5. The buffering sign when you are streaming something online
6. Having to stand on public transport
7. Running for the bus/train and getting there as the doors shut
8. When you forget your umbrella and it’s raining
9. Having to get out of a warm bed to turn off the lights
10. When someone puts an empty bottle back in the fridge
Top ten first-world problems, 1997
1. Having a happy relationship
2. Earning enough to pay rent and bills
3. Whether you could afford a holiday
4. Saving for first home
5. When you have photos developed and most were overexposed
6 Having to wind back cassettes/videos to record on them
7. Worrying about what the future holds
8. Job security
9. Having to get up to change the channel on the TV
10. Arranging to meet someone at a certain time and running late
Europe's all-inclusive holiday trend
Why is recasting so difficult?
Diamonds could be a brilliant climate solution
