The reddit comment can be found here.
I think the way the commenter describes this 21 century syndrome represents a lot of how I used to feel. Lately things started to turn around. It was fortunate that I've read this because it gave me a roadmap of things to look out and change. This is how I reacted after reading the piece:
You flick randomly through internet pages for hours after dark. The TV chatters in the background. Every world development is known to you a few minutes after it happens. You are the master of an external world that appears and presents itself through text and pics and vids.
I started to walk outside more. I even bought a camera to document my life. There are a lot of seemingly unimportant moments that need to be remembered. These moments make you what you are. I started to meet new people, be nicer and more conversational. We are social beings. We crave for human contact.
You go about the business of living as it has been described to you and you can check all the boxes for relative success. And yet it doesn't feel like success. Not the way it does in the movies or on TV. No orchestral music chimes in when you do something good, no ominous montage depicts things negatively when your performance is not up to par. Life itself is removed from you because consciousness itself does not match up to the way 'we' are used to receiving information; that of third person observer through a cam.
Having a some pronounced nihilistic views about life and the surrounding environment, I forced myself to look at life from a different perspective. Life is an opportunity, and so, I will live it to the fullest. This is the only way I know how to give it meaning. No time for regrets.
And yet you long for the hunt. The risk. The hunter gatherer life, buried deep somewhere in your hypothalamus, longs for that time when your own ingenuity resulted in food for your group. When you could exploit your human genius for real and direct gain...feeding yourself and your tribe. Going to the office/cubicle today gains you money to obtain these things. But it does not offer the thrill of the hunt. The risk. The adrenaline rush of the successful raid on the enemy camp, the high of the perfect kill.
Well, the current solution is to cook my own food. I always enjoyed cooking. Sometimes I even dream of becoming a chef. I even started a blog with 3 friends with the things we cook. It feels like I am actively doing something to live.
And yet, on a quiet walk outside the city, you stare at the moon through leafy glade and can almost touch the truth of a different life. A life you were designed for but no longer is.
This is still how I feel, so I plan on moving to the countryside. Also, I am trying to live a more minimalist and frugal lifestyle. I've given up a lot of my stuff that I didn't use very often.
I am so happy that I love the work I am doing. A lot of people that I know hate their jobs — I can't imagine how that feels, and how doomed I would be If that were the case. If you realize you're suffering from the 21st century syndrome as I did, do something about it now!