I live in the First World - I was born here, and I’ll probably die here. Does that mean I’m not allowed to consider anything that’s bothering me a valid problem?
Yeah, I’m sick of this “first world problems” meme too. Some problems are stupid, but they’re stupid because they’re easily solved if you did something instead of just complaining about them, or just because they’re intrinsically stupid. Not all problems First World citizens have are First World Problems, and it’s very dismissive to use that term for all of them.
It’s a very old meme, though it has mutated over the years. Some of you might remember it as “There are starving kids in Africa!”
I always found the comparison to be a bit annoying and irrelevant, even as a kid. My favorite variation is “You think you have problems? Our troops in Foreignlandia are being shot at, fighting for their country!” As if that instantly makes any other problem irrelevant. I guarantee no matter who you talk to, you can probably find someone else who has it worse than them.
The toilet paper at my current assignment is scratchy, and sometimes I have to wait in long lines to buy food too! Hey, maybe I’m in the Second World too!
Dammit, I read the whole thread in hopes of posting “In my country, TV watches you. Hey, I have second world problem.” But you guys beat me to the punch. I guess that makes me as upset as if I were a starving African child.
There is more to “first world problems” than “at least you aren’t starving in Africa!” To be funny, it should be about situations where wealth and abundance is actually causing your minor complaint. It’s a situations where the problem itself is stemmed by something that is actually, objectively, a pretty good thing.
My household has more iDevices than we have chargers. That’s a first world problem. My fridge is too full and I can’t put away my groceries. First world problem. My two favorite premium cable shows are on at the same time, and I’m going to have to miss one of them. First world problem.
If your plane is delayed or you phone is out of batteries, that’s not a first world problem. That just sucks.
Thanks for cluing me in on the timing … I hadn’t begun to use the term ‘first world problem’ yet, but was just about going to start. Now I know that it’s already passe.
Serious note: Between checking in here, and meeting some of the farmers and Amish people in Wisconsin, I sometimes feel like I’m in the middle of a time warp.
I agree with even sven. Not every problem that an affluent First World person has is a first world problem. True First World Problems are problems caused by affluence and over-consumption - and usually the person complaining is someone who is so spoiled and entitled that they have no insight into how good they actually have it.
If you prefer, we could call them White Whines, though I would argue that it is not solely the domain of white people.
Heh, my grandmother used to tell me that when she was a little girl, she was told to eat all her steamed vegitables because “remember the starving Armenians”!
She had no idea who the straving Armenians were (and knew better than to retort that, perhaps, rather than “remembering” them, her parents should ship them the steamed vegitables).
Point being - the notion is at least a century old and probably much older than that …
I think the argument isn’t that there aren’t “first world problems”, but that the term gets overused to the point where anything other than starvation, disease, lack of shelter or dealing with tyrants or armed gangs is a “first world problem”.
That’s obviously not the case, and it does steam me pretty highly when someone says it when I say it sucks because I didn’t get any sleep because my son had severe diaper rash and was up every hour or so. Yeah, he may not be dying of dysentery or starvation, but it’s not like being exhausted isn’t a valid complaint, no matter where you live.
Plus, 99% of the a-holes saying that something’s a first world problem aren’t exactly living a 3rd world lifestyle, and they probably bitch about things just like everyone else, which makes them a particularly annoying variety of hypocrite.
