Oh, I think I can recognize it when I see it…
I don’t think it’s actually used much at all these days. It’s pretty much over as a meme.
“first world problem” is pretty much always patronizing. Along with “check your privilege”.
Yeah, I said the same. Burned out from overuse, I guess. That and, you know, it’s a meme. Shelf life on those usually isn’t long.
Yes, but intentionally so, to the people you are talking to. It’s not accidentally patronizing to people with real problems.
Not patronizing to those not of the first world. It’s basically admitting the problem as an absurd and trivial thing.
Of course not. It is expressing condescension toward people living comfortable lives in the first-world who find stupid, inane shit to bitch about because they don’t realize how lucky they are.
When I’ve used ‘first world problem’ in conjunction with a gripe I’m acknowledging that there are people out there that whose lives would be orders of magnitude better if this were the worst thing they had to complain about. Or even something they had the opportunity to complain about.
I don’t know whether it can be heard that way by 3rd worlders. I’d bet that there are many on both sides of that fence.
2 points!
I like that approach. About yourself, or someone who knows you well enough to recognize it as an opportunity for us to laugh about ourselves rather than put someone down. Ideally, it shows empathy for people with real problems.
But maybe I’m a bit of a Pollyana.
Geez… the second you think a phrase has an obvious meaning that doesn’t need explanation.
First world problems are just that - first world problems. If you find a problem (like getting enough food to eat, or trying to send your kid to college, or saving for retirement) which is shared by both first-world and third-world people, then - by definition! - it isn’t a first world problem.
As others have said, first world problems are “My phone isn’t big enough to hold all of my 400,000 songs” or “I had to build a bigger closet to fit all my shoes” or “After all those cheeseburgers, I couldn’t eat both the milkshake and the apple pie.”
And, actually, the meme isn’t even new. It’s just a re-branded version of “Let them eat cake.”
I think it’s the phrase “first world problems” is the new way for saying “think of all those starving kids in China” but we can’t say that any more because China is an economic powerhouse. We would say Africa but we now we should know individual names of countries in Africa but we don’t so we say “first world problems” to quilt people into eating Lima beans, which as we all know, are the devil’s dingle-berries.
It’s hard to eat after being stitched like that. Or are we making pictures from fabric depicting folks enjoying pasty legumes?
I’ve mostly thought of “first world problems” as either self-deprecating or mocking the 1%ers, so to speak. Griping because you can’t get your polo pony reshod because your farrier is touring Europe is a first world problem. Having to eat bologna sandwiches for lunch for a month so you can afford new shoes for your child isn’t a first world problem.
Which is… patronizing.
To whom?
And with what grocery stores are charging nowadays for cake!!
If someone sez your problems are “an absurd and trivial thing” that’s being patronizing.
I’ve always thought it was a lazy joke, and got way overused. And definitely tinged with awkward racial/cultural overtones.
I find the phrase “First World” to be ignorant. Just because a country or nation doesn’t have the “luxuries” that you do, does not mean that they haven’t been getting along fine. Man kind was fine millions of years ago. They survived. Get over it.
Excellent summary.
Well, SNL has “White People Problems”, so maybe that’s the new phrase. 