I agree with even sven’s definition. Other examples of first world problems are enough cereal for X bowls but not enough for X+1 bowls, unable to decide whether to take the phone or the tablet into the bathroom for extended pooping trips, and six pack abs that aren’t symmetrical just to throw a few more out there. A first world person who can’t pay their energy bill is not having a first world problem. They’re having a legit problem.
Overuse is annoying, but I do appreciate people injecting a little perspective into entitled peoples’ lives. Louis CK’s “everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy” really sums it up.
There are so many whiny people around who don’t appreciate how easy their lives are.
I thought of this thread when I saw that a charity to bring clean water to Haitians made an ad featuring Haitians reading tweets with First World Problems like “I hate it when my house is so big I need two wireless routers”. Pretty clever IMO…definitely makes you think about how good we who live in affluent countries have it.
I do agree that it’s a valid point if people are saying that EVERY complaint is a “first world problem”… but I think it’s definitely true that some people in rich countries are ridiculously spoiled and have no sense of perspective. When I really stop and think about it, I can’t help but admit that I am insanely lucky to have been born in America at a time of such unbelievable wealth and abundance. Even though America has seen better days, most people in the world will never have anywhere close to the amount of wonderful opportunities, wealth, and comfort that I enjoy every day. I really do need to try to remember to be grateful for that.
And you know this how?
At least the hipsters have moved on from saying “Been there done that” (including a dismissive wave of the hand)
It really has got to the point where anyone complaining about anything feels the need to add “hipster” to the list of accusations.
Seriously, it isn’t a “hipster” phrase.
Blame everything on hipsters? I don’t see a downside.
Blaming everything on hipsters is so hipster.
Sort of like how my hair gets all messed up when I’m taking the Wall Street ferry to work. Totally sucks!
Have they moved on from “screwed, blued and tattooed”? Or how about “daddy-o”?
I’m on board with this plan. Damned hipsters - causing the global economic meltdown.
Economic stability is SO mainstream.
The criticisms of what the first world problems meme is really supposed to mean are 100% spot on. The meme itself is great, when used properly. It has to do with being so wealthy and having so much crap that THAT itself is the problem, or leads to a problem. Not just dealing with “trivial” problems.
Some good examples of real First World Problems:
Forgot I was watching a recording; sat through commercials.
Got hired; will have to start waking up early again.
Someone didn’t refill the Brita; now I have to wait 30 seconds for water.
One pillow is too low; two pillows is too high.
Just used my last Pandora skip for the hour; next song is even worse.
These are funny because they all stem from living in the first world and having access to first world goods and consumables, and they are not legitimate problems whatsoever, and nothing that people would legitimately claim are real problems. But we can all relate to them because we feel minor annoyance when they happen to us, and that’s what makes them funny.
And I only call that on myself, not on others. Hope that makes it less annoying. 
You consider pillows something that’s only available in the first world, and the aches resulting from sleeping in an inadequate position as “not a legitimate problem”? 
Can I send you my next attack of stiff neck?
More or less this. Some internet memes are great, some are just okay, and some were never funny, but they can all be overdone. Some of them touch on something subtle and quickly get run over with imitations that lose the initial point they were getting at. The First World Problems meme isn’t just about minor annoyances, but about those annoyances that only come up in a society that has all the conveniences that we do. It’s not about comparing problems in wealthy countries against those in poor countries but specifically about how we lose perspective on life. That DVR example and sitting through commercials illustrates the point that no one would even really think about sitting through commercials accidentally, unless they’ve been exposed to the convenience of skipping them, and yet I’ve seen people complain about such minor loss of convenience before.
For a real world example, the fiscal year just ended. I work as a government contractor and that means that the last few weeks end up crunched with government people often trying to spend the money left in their budget. One of the guys I work closely with has a particularly large budget and was also being given money from other budgets and, in a time when everyone else is having a hard time making ends meet, he was stressing that he couldn’t spend it all. I pointed out it was a first world problem and despite that he hadn’t heard of the meme before, he understood it and it lightened his mood.
Oh, to have such problems!
I love the one about having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
“I’m too tired to get up and pee, but I’m not tired enough to fall back asleep without going pee.” 
A lot of Louis C.K.'s observational comedy hints at such “problems”. I don’t think that the first world classification has much to do with the meme at all, rather it’s more about seeing very petty things as being an issue worthy of complaining about. The comparison between nations and their prospective poverty levels isn’t the focus, it’s just easier to say that first world people might see these as bigger problems than they are, if they’re even problems at all.
“I went to a new restaurant and tried to check in on Foursquare, but their location hadn’t been added yet, so I couldn’t check in.”
That shit is petty as hell, no matter what. It’s not even a problem, just a lack of joy you get from a pointless app.
I think that such “problems” if they’re treated as such, are deserving of mockery, regardless of what term is used for it.
Per the OP: which ones have rubbed you the wrong way? I tend to find that most of the “problems” mentioned are ripe for mockery, regardless of which “world” is implied.
So you were saying “first world problems” before it was cool?