Ignition Points - These 10 Things Make Us Angry

Tue., Feb. 1, 2000

The (Colorado Springs) Gazette

Ten of the main things that make us angry:

Compressed time: Many of us are frazzled from our hectic daily marathons, plagued with guilt when we can’t do it all or filled with resentment when we do.

Communication overload: Wherever we go and whatever we do, we’re embedded in the “information glut.” The immediacy and urgency of the media’s constant suggestion to “stay tuned” leads us to think that we need more information, contributing to a condition called “input fatigue.”

Disconnectedness: Between the stepped-up pace of our culture and extended work hours, who has time to maintain close, thriving relationships? When relationships begin to fray, so do our nerves.

Cost: The ever-increasing cost of living, coupled with the commercial enticement to earn, spend and accumulate possessions, have many of us stretched beyond our means.

Competition: Every day, with unremitting regularity, we vie with others for recognition, secure employment, personal space on the road and elsewhere, food, goods, services, time and attention.

Customer contact: Everyone has tolerated more than one rude, indifferent or incompetent service person. We also know there are customers who use threat, manipulation and social blackmail to get their way.

Computers: We expect technology to work flawlessly, and we become intolerant and cranky when it doesn’t.

Change: Many of us get queasy about change because of its uncontrollable nature. We see things happening to people (illness, accidents, loss of a job) and fear that we’ll be blindsided by the same disasters. Viewing change as bad, we tend to focus on the parts we can’t control rather than the options that may exist.

Coming of age: Thanks to the messages we get from popular culture about what is desirable, attractive or trendy, many of us feel out of place much of the time: too young, too old, or too in-between.

Complexity: As a society we struggle with such issues as poverty, crime and personal safety. As individuals we earnestly try to balance family, health, work, social and community involvement, leisure time and self-fulfillment. As citizens of the world, we are confronted with war, human rights abuses, natural disasters and political unrest, among other problems.

Excerpted from: “Why is Everyone So Cranky?” by C. Leslie Charles.

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