r/complainaboutanything

Networking culture has devolved into a dystopian, transactional nightmare.

I am 27 yo in gen z and networking culture has made life a living nightmare. Everything in life basically now requires knowing someone or knowing someone who knows someone else. It's absolutely ridiculous. You basically need references to get anything or anywhere these days.

Back in the day, networking culture used to just be an advantage in life. Like a cheat code or a microtransaction in a video game. Something to give you a little boost. That is not at all how it is now in present day. Today, networking culture is no longer an advantage in life, it has now formed into a survival tactic.

This is of course all the fault of boomers and gen x who caused corporate downsizing. They killed corporate loyalty in the 80s and 90s which caused mass layoffs, corporate restructuring, and the decline of unions meant companies no longer guaranteed lifetime employment.

Job security vanished. Employees realized they couldn't just do a good job and wait for a promotion; they had to constantly keep their feelers out in the market. This of course promoted gig culture. As corporate downsizing stripped HR departments down to skeletal staffs, companies could no longer afford to have humans read thousands of resumes. To solve this, automated Applicant Tracking Systems were introduced and scaled into absolute industry standards.

This leads to present day where the downsizing legacy that boomers and gen x caused means that companies refuse to hire people who need baseline training.The ATS software ensures your resume is buried under thousands of generic online applications. Dont even get me started on ghost jobs.

Net working culture is now the only way to bypass that digital black hole normally through a personal referral. I myself have zero references of any kind at all. No family, friends, etc. Which means I am basically stuck in a limbo of misery in todays society due to how broken it all has become through no fault of my own of course.

This terrible job market of course domino effects itself into todays abysmal housing crisis. An obvious cause an effect. Though the housing crisis is also caused by boomers zoning laws similar to how the bad job market is also due to the older gens taking entree level jobs.

But networking culture goes far beyond getting job. It's also required to get a pet from animal shleters. I have applied for dog adoption many times at animal shleters and have yet to be able to adopt one simply because I have no referneces for their application sheets. It's ridiculous as I cant simply buy a pet dog from a pet store because some idiot state senator banned every single per store in my state.

Networking culture also affects modern dating. I have never had a gf before, so I've asked for dating advice before. The most popular advice I always receive, whether from people or ai, is to find a relationship through friends or friends of friends, aka networking culture. I of course have no friends at all, so a dating strategy such as that is pretty impossible, further contributing to todays male loneliness epidemic. It's basically impossible to get a girlfriend now. Dating apps suck also.

So basically, I am left trying to play a game where the older generations burned the instruction manual, automated the gatekeeping, and made the entry fee a social currency I was never given the tools to build.

In the end, networking culture is absolutely God awful. If you didn't inherit a country club roll of contacts, or if you don't possess the superficial charisma required to treat every human interaction like a business pitch, you are left behind. Absolutely dystopian.

Perhaps one day in the future networking culture will go back to just being a simple advantage instead of being a survival tactic. Or maybe it will become obsolete all together.

It's like a constant in the universe - the more educated a person, the dumber they are. Never have I met a group of self-important dumbasses than medical professionals who bother getting mad at IT staff for their own terrible PC acumen.

Awww you can't take an x-ray dummy? Maybe try restarting your PC more than once every 200 days. MAYBE spend more than your pocket change on your office's PCs! WHOA WHAT A REVELATION! YOU MEAN IF I INVEST IN MY BUSINESS AND DON'T PINCH PENNIES I WILL HAVE AN EASIER TIME OF IT?! WHOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

"Uhhh what do you mean I can't run my PMS, Teams, YouTube, and have 40 Chrome tabs open on my 8GB machine"

Get off your dumb high horses - all you did was go to school longer than everyone else not that it did you much good.

You post anything online & suddenly you're met with this massive tidal wave of trolls & super angry people just verbally degrading you for even posting anything on the internet. And to me, that's super pointless behavior that doesn't benefit either side.

You post that you need help with finances, you're called "lazy" "entitled" & told to "go get a job". You post yourself dancing & people reply with sexual stuff that's unnecessary or they make fun of your looks. You post art & people are so quick to accuse you of using AI; regardless of whether or not you show a timelapse process. You could post a take that everybody should agree on (like idk, water is a human right?) & a bunch of people will argue with you as to why it's not. Even here on reddit, I've been screamed at & mocked a bunch of times for asking a question & not knowing something. Like how dare I ask for help, I guess?

The internet has become such a hostile place where you get bullied relentlessly for simply existing. It shouldn't be like that. It's confusing to me that a person would be so angry at what a completely random stranger posts online that they feel justified in that emotion to belittle & attack that stranger. Again, it just seems like pointless behavior. If I don't like something that someone posts, I shrug & block them.

It's honestly not that hard to be nice to others online. I always give artists complements on their art or try to postitively contribute to a conversation. I feel it's a reflection on society as I've noticed empathy has been rapidly fleeting in the offline world.

I've been sleeping outside for the vast majority of the past 11 months due to homelessness and man it is just so tiring at this point. The city I live in was recently hit with some nasty weather due to a hurricane passing by, no severe damage or anything but last night it was very cold and very rainy. All my belongings are soaked and I have been shivering all day. Plus a lot of parks and libraries are closed due to this inclement weather so I can't even go anywhere right now or have a space to work on stuff like sending in dozens and dozens of more job applications and stuff.

I'm just exhausted. I don't know anymore, with the winter coming up I'm not even expecting to survive much longer but I have been working with my therapist and psychiatrist on coming up with a care plan for myself as well as getting myself medicated and evaluated for mental illnesses that I may or may not have.

You could say I could just go live in a shelter but it's a no-go. I've been in two different shelters and the environment is just so hectic and chaotic that I end up getting a panic attack and hospitalized to a crisis stabilization unit afterwards.

I'm just really tired of this lifestyle. I'm tired of sleeping outside, not working, not having a roof over my head. Life has just been so boring, so monotonous and unfun. But considering that winter is coming soon, is a high chance that I won't have to worry about sleeping outside anymore considering that last night was super cold and I kept shivering, I won't stand a chance during the winter.

Whoever takes over next after sweet potato hitler in the US makes it illegal for the commander n chief to post or comment on social media.

Can we pass a law? I'm tired of the daily stupid shit. Miss when the position had some decorum and we'd get a serious announcement every once in a while when it mattered.

There's too many stupid people out there and harm being done.

Like, lemme give you a quick summary of what’s going on. I’ve been in three relationships, and all of them were so random. I didn’t even like these guys; they didn’t have any qualities that would make me fall in love with them or even genuinely like them. Yet somehow, I chose these freaks as my partners, and they all ended up hurting and abusing me, while dismissing what they did.
The previous one was even worse than the rest. He made me do things I didn’t want to do, and he was abusive toward me both physically and emotionally.
I’m in a safe place now, and I’ve been to therapy. I’m also taking my meds to help me cope with distress and mood swings. So, idk, I still have regrets about the mistakes I made. I wish I had known the things I know now back then. Maybe then I would have stood up for myself and not let any of those things happen.
I’m not okay, tbh.

I get flirted with constantly but never by people I’m actually attracted to/like the personality of/both

I’m not a passive person, I do flirt with people I’m attracted to but it never goes anywhere.

I have been single for ages, and that’s all well and good, but you know those moments when you realise everyone else is in cutesy loving relationships and you’re just there