2017's top 'first-world problems': Avocado anxiety and no free WiFi

Forgetting log-in passwords, the buffering sign and people not replying to your messages have been revealed as 2017's biggest 'first-world problems'. Photo / 123RF

If discovering your avocado isn't ripe is among your greatest fears, you aren't alone.

Indeed, these are now among millennials' first-world problems, according to a fascinating new study, according to Daily Mail.

Researchers worked with a behavioural psychologist from Goldsmiths University and quizzed thousands of 20-somethings about their "first-world problems". They then asked people in their 50s what their biggest worries were twenty years ago and compared the two sets of results.

While having a happy relationship, being able to afford to pay rent and fear of over-exposed photos were the biggest fears in 1997, people in 2017 dread forgetting their log-in password, leaving their phone at home and having to buffer online shows.

The researchers found that one in three millennials have experienced "avocado anxiety", where they get fearful about their avocado being under or over ripe.

Social media likes are also a key concern, with youth in the UK admitting they spend five minutes on average editing photos before posting them and expect to get a minimum of 44 likes.

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Discussing the research, Patrick Fagan, consumer behavioural psychologist from Goldsmiths University, said: "Although we're earning more as a country, life satisfaction has barely moved since people started recording it.

"We are instinctively hardwired to look for problems. While we used to fret over rent and job security, our concerns have now transmuted into more fickle problems. In our comfortable lives, we might have enough money for bills or a holiday, but it's in our nature to never be satisfied and we will worry about wi-fi and delivery times instead."

The survey results found that two thirds of the nation describe their work and social lives as either extremely, very or fairly busy and over half of Brits feel this is due to there being more to worry about today than twenty years ago.

Patrick suggests this is another reason why our concerns have amplified in recent times.

This view is also reflected by three in five over-50s, who think people in their twenties have a busier life than when they were of that age, due to working harder and spending lots of time on social media.