In my opinion, life has become more stressful over the last years.
Although we have implemented new technology to facilitate our lives both at home and at work, development has come at a price. Cell phones and the Internet have allowed us to communicate more easily and more quickly with people around the globe. However, being accessible through the phone at any time causes too much stress for many people. Most adults complain that the boundary between personal and professional life has vanished. For example, most people in the United States report that they receive calls and e-mails from their offices even when they are on holiday! Furthermore, the information we share on the Internet has become a target for cybercriminals, who often steal personal IDs or bank accounts. In short, the easier means of communication have made it harder for us to relax.
In contrast, what made life stressful fifty years ago were the many wars that were fought around the globe and the widespread discrimination on various grounds. For the U.S. society, this was a time when women, African Americans, and Mexicans had to fight for equality. A woman had fewer job opportunities, and an African American had fewer chances of receiving education and even of being allowed in a movie theatre. Nowadays, there are laws that prohibit discrimination on any grounds, and people have the same rights, regardless of their sex, nationality, or religious beliefs.
A thousand years ago, insecurity and diseases were the main stressors. The eleventh century was a time of great migration that led to numerous armed conflicts. This made people live in constant fear of being attacked by a neighboring tribe or country. The second cause of medieval discomfort were diseases. In medieval times, plagues occurred every 100 years and killed half of the population of Europe. To compound this, infant and maternal mortality rates were extremely high.
In conclusion, although we live in a safer and more advanced world in the aspects of science, medicine, technology, and politics, we experience more stress than people did 50 and 1,000 years ago.
