What is wrong with people these days!?!?

Have you noticed how it feels like every single day somebody is having a public meltdown? One day it’s a passenger fighting on an airplane. The next it’s someone screaming at a fast-food employee because their fries weren’t hot enough. Then it’s another viral video of road rage, shoplifting, or somebody behaving in a way that makes you lose a little faith in humanity. I’ll admit it—I find myself thinking, “What is wrong with people?” But the more I thought about it, the more I realized maybe I’m asking the wrong question.

Maybe the better question is this: Are people actually becoming worse… or are we simply seeing what was always there?

I honestly think it’s a little bit of both. Let’s be real—human beings have always been flawed. Greed, anger, jealousy, selfishness, dishonesty, and cruelty aren’t new inventions. History is packed with examples of people making terrible decisions long before smartphones, social media, or YouTube existed. The difference is that back then (we’re talking contemporary history, like the 1940s to present), bad behavior often stayed local. Unless you lived in the neighborhood, read the newspaper, or heard the gossip firsthand, you probably never knew it happened.

Today? Everybody has a camera in their pocket. Every mistake can be recorded in seconds, uploaded in minutes, and viewed by millions before dinner. The internet has become the world’s largest spotlight, exposing moments that previously would have disappeared almost as quickly as they happened. The problem is that our brains weren’t designed to consume a nonstop stream of humanity’s worst moments.

Every day we’re bombarded with road rage, public meltdowns, scams, fights, corruption, and outrage from every corner of the world. It creates the illusion that these behaviors are happening everywhere, all the time, even if they really aren’t.

There’s another piece of this puzzle that I think we don’t talk about enough: visibility doesn’t just expose bad behavior—it can encourage it. When people realize outrageous actions earn attention, followers, likes, and even money, some begin performing for the camera. Shock has become entertainment. Outrage has become content. For some people, going viral is worth almost any price.

Social media also rewards our emotions more than our reason. Calm conversations rarely trend, and nuance doesn’t get shared nearly as often as conflict. The algorithms know that anger, fear, and outrage keep us engaged longer, so they naturally amplify the content that pushes those emotional buttons. Before long, it feels like the entire world is angry, even though most people quietly go about their lives every single day.

Here’s something worth remembering: for every video of someone acting terribly, there are millions of people holding doors open, helping neighbors, volunteering, comforting friends, raising good kids, and treating strangers with kindness. Those moments rarely go viral because goodness is often quiet. Decency doesn’t generate nearly as many clicks as disaster, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the real problems.

In some ways, we may actually be becoming less patient, more distracted, more isolated, and quicker to judge. Constant digital stimulation can chip away at empathy if we aren’t careful. Living behind screens sometimes makes it easier to forget there’s another human being on the other side of the conversation.

The challenge for all of us is resisting the temptation to let the loudest examples define humanity. Don’t allow a handful of viral videos to convince you that everyone is selfish or cruel. The internet shows us reality—but it rarely shows us reality in proportion. It magnifies the exceptions while overlooking the ordinary goodness that surrounds us every day.

Again, I pose the question: are we actually worse, or just more visible? My answer is this: human nature hasn’t changed nearly as much as our ability to witness it. Technology didn’t invent our flaws—it simply removed the curtain.

The responsibility now falls on each of us to choose what we contribute to the world. Because every interaction, every comment, every conversation, and every act of kindness becomes part of the story we’re all writing together. Make sure your chapter is one worth reading.