Notes on a Nervous Planet summary

If you had a book club in sixteenth-century England, chances are you would eventually run out of things to read. The British Library estimates that during that time, only 40 books were published per year. In contrast, in 2016 the number of books in existence was estimated at 134,021,533. It can be depressing to realize that no matter how much of a bookworm you are, you will only ever read a fraction of all the titles in circulation.

Such an excess of choice is present in almost every aspect of modern life. From books to face creams to cereal brands, there is simply too much to choose from. There’s also way too much information. Through the internet, we can access a huge amount of data on everything, from recipes to personal opinions to historical events. This combination of excess and access leaves us with cluttered lives and cluttered brains. We are totally overstimulated, but constantly feel like we’re missing out. No wonder we often feel overwhelmed, anxious and depressed. 

Ever since we started carrying the internet in our pocket, it has taken over our lives. Over half the people on the planet are now connected. Not only are there more people logged on, we’re also spending more and more time online. 

In some ways, the spread of the internet is a great thing. We can access tons of information, connect with like-minded people and livestream what is happening on the other side of the globe. But this hyper-connectedness has downsides, too. How many people convince themselves they have a fatal illness by Googling their symptoms? Or ruined their mood by scrolling through an ex-partner’s Instagram profile? How many times have we been haunted by the nonstop coverage of a mass shooting? 

Time – especially the feeling of not having enough of it – is one of the major stressors of modern life. With life-expectancy doubling over the past century, and time-saving technology at our disposal, we should have more of it than ever. The problem is that we also have more of everything else. Specifically, we have more work.

Work is great when it gives us purpose. But when it’s characterized by the constant pressure to do more and be better, it corrodes our mental and physical health. The modern work culture of constant assessment and ever-higher aspirations, combined with widespread work-place bullying and sexism, is toxic. In the form of stroke, heart attack and higher suicide risk, work stress can be fatal. 

If the number of beauty products, health food items and personal trainers are any indication of how good-looking a society is, we’ve never looked better. There are tons of products and services meant to make us younger, prettier and skinnier. And yet, we feel worse about our looks than ever. In Japan, 38 percent of people report being seriously unhappy with their appearance. In the United Kingdom, hospitalizations from eating disorders have almost doubled in the past decade.

Why are we so concerned with our looks? A big part of the problem is overexposure to unrealistic beauty standards on social media. We are bombarded with more images of beautiful people than ever before. Apps and filters make the divide between what we think we should look like and what we actually look like even greater. 

Do you know how much time you spend on social media in a day? If you don’t, that time is unlikely to decrease. Being mindful of what you do and how it makes you feel is the first step toward shifting your behavior for the better.

Imagine, for example, that we could weigh stress. Let’s call this unit of measurement a psychogram. All the stressful occurrences in your day weigh different amounts of psychograms. A call from your bank is 70 psychograms. A full email inbox is 250 psychograms. The psychograms for each activity differ depending on your personality, and so does the total number of psychograms you can handle in a day. In contrast, minus psychograms measure the things that soothe and lighten the stress, such as doing yoga or walking the dog. 

Here’s a big secret of consumerism – happiness is bad for business. A customer who is content with what she already has isn’t a customer at all. That’s why advertising is all about making us feel that we lack something that can be gained with the purchase of a product.

Modern marketing experts even have an acronym for the mental state of the ideal consumer. That is, FUD – “fear, uncertainty, doubt.” 

We’ve considered what you can do as an individual to protect yourself from the stresses of modern life. Let’s look at what we can do together, as a society, to make the world a less stressful place for everyone. How can we improve the connection between our culture and our mental health?

As on the individual level, the first step toward change is to become aware of the problem. Today, more and more people are openly talking about their mental-health struggles. But mental illness is still stigmatized. When we talk about a celebrity “confessing” to anxiety, or call someone “brave” for speaking about their depression, we perpetuate the idea that mental illness is something that should be hidden. This atmosphere of fear and shame can prevent people from getting the care they need.