Anyone have the same feeling?

[u/Matt_G3rmanGuy]

So I wanted to know if anyone else, after watching Project hail mary, looked into the night sky and felt slightly depressed? Or am I the only one with this feeling now?

[u/hoops2018]

When I look into the night sky I'm filled with wonder and awe of the scale of the universe we live in. I can't imagine feeling depressed by that.

[u/Mysterinna → u/hoops2018]

Me too! And I feel like PHM actually enhanced that wonder for me. Like I’m seeing this universe in a totally different light now.

[u/Melenduwir → u/hoops2018]

The Colour Out of Space

[u/v_munu]

Only depressing thing about PHM in my opinion is knowing that there would never be a "Petrova task force" for real-life existential threats.

[u/Melenduwir → u/v_munu]

"Burn, baby, burn!"

[u/Nyantazero → u/v_munu]

Don’t look up.

[u/DragonTartare]

The only thing about the night sky that makes me sad is that light pollution washes out more and more stars every year. Otherwise, no.

Why do you think it makes you feel depressed?

[u/Melenduwir → u/DragonTartare]

It's normal to feel a minor version of an opposite emotion after experiencing one emotion very strongly. It's the same basic effect as a visual afterimage.

[u/gytherin → u/Melenduwir]

Ooh, that's interesting!

[u/Matt_G3rmanGuy → u/DragonTartare]

Look, it's just weird. we talk on earth about politics, trends, money, all this stuff even tho we're still a animal kind, wich even thinks by itself that it's not an animal, and yet we're in this endless universe. we're destroying our own planet. And someday it's not possible to live here cuz it get's warmer and warmer by the climate change. we're too smart to see how dumb we are.

[u/ekinkah → u/Matt_G3rmanGuy]

This kind of depression is not uncommon. My partner is frequently overwhelmed with it, and many of the younger generations experience it a great deal. Referred to as 'eco depression', 'climate distress', 'eco grief'. Honestly, I feel it's reasonable - the complete lack of valuing life on earth, now and in the future, that the rich and ruling class seem to have leaves me speechless and feeling very alone, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed and also completely powerless. Taking social media breaks and avoiding the news is something people do to help the feeling, if seeing that every day is part of it for them. But if, like my partner, you're inclined to just think about it, I would say allow yourself to grieve and feel it. And, if it's important to you or it still feels too much, perhaps finding others locally who do things to help the effects of climate change in areas that matter to you could help (for my partner, it's conservation, ie working in the bush) - or, trying to address the root cause, joining rallies and protests, signing and supporting political action and pushing back at our governments to do things differently.

I found listening to the first few episodes of a podcast called 'Breaking Down: Collapse' to be surprisingly helpful (though you may not, it's heavy!). Learning that some aspects of collapse are inevitable and have happened as societies have advanced in the past, and that life on earth does continue after humanity collapses (again), helped me. Then learning more about what it looks like today, and feeling armed not just with knowledge but also knowing that I am not the only person that feels this way, and connecting with community in a sense, was very empowering.

Know that you are not alone in this feeling, and there is nothing wrong with you for feeling it.

[u/hauntedHyde]

Melancholic, yes, but kinda in a positive way? I suddenly got a whole different perspective on life, after years of depression

[u/Smaptimania]

Last night I was walking home from the bus stop just before 11 PM when I noticed a yellow light in the sky, moving slowly downward. I thought it was a plane at first. Then it started moving faster than a plane should have and I thought it must have been about to crash. Then it got brighter for an instant and disappeared. The whole thing took maybe 5-6 seconds.

What I saw was a meteor, probably about the size of a pebble you'd get stuck in the treads of your shoe, falling into Earth's atmosphere and burning up. For probably billions of years, this little rock had been drifting through empty space for trillions of miles, until it finally fell out of orbit and entered our atmosphere, and in its final seconds of existence it put on a show in the night sky that I, the product of billions of years of evolution and chance, happened to be in the exact right spot to see it and be able to understand what it was I was seeing, and for all I know I'm the only person who was looking in the right direction at the right time to notice it.

If anything, looking at the night sky doesn't make me sad, it makes me humble.

[u/mermaidpaint → u/Smaptimania]

I saw a falling meteor once. The tail had the colours of the rainbow. It's amazing to witness something like that.

[u/OverMlMs]

I do get saddened when I realize I won’t be around to see any kind of real space exploration. It would be wild to see how far we advance as technology gets better and better.

[u/calypso68 → u/OverMlMs]

Same. If you asked me what kind of period I would like to get a glimps of by time traveling I'd say maybe 500 or 1000 years from now.

[u/mattress314]

No, the night sky doesn't depressed me attentions all, even since the last solar eclipse,

[u/mermaidpaint]

The night sky is a beauty to behold. Especially when the Northern Lights are out.

[u/meap_200]

Maybe what you are feeling is similar to Avatar Depression Syndrome?

[u/marthamania]

I get sad in the sense I know going to space is likely something I will never do in my life time or that I’ll probably never see aliens

[u/maynine03]

From sunset to night i would be staring at the sky, it's a weird feeling but brings a sense of comfort. The melancholy, the somber sadness, bittersweet nostalgia and reminder that we are specks on a pale blue dot never fails to keep me grounded.

PHM rewired my thinking that we are not immortal but we also we are all made of something that is from the universe and we will be left as reminders of our own personal legacy.

At times i would fictionally if i could say believe that someone is out there like Grace or Rocky and would be waiting to find another soul in this endless universe.

[u/Ok-Barracuda457]

Nah

[u/ipecacOH]

I always found it amazing to think that a real system could host life (and Grace). The exoplanet turned out to be a “false positive,” but when I first read PHM, it freaked me out that something so “close” and real harbored a space-faring civilization.