People today sure do have it rough. The digital age is full of social unrest and economic instability. No one is satisfied, and can we really blame them? Between that and managing friend requests on Facebook, dealing with AT&T’s spotty 3G coverage, and paying to fuel up our hybrid cars, it’s no small wonder people are stressed. Wouldn’t it be so much better if we could all just go back in time, and live in the 1800s?

No, actually, it wouldn’t — in fact, it would suck really hard. The truth is, now is the greatest time in all of human history to be alive. Seriously.

Why? It’s simple: everything is awesome. Stop and think about it for a moment: we have computers that you can keep in your backpack, phones that can surf the internet, cars that connect to satellites so that we don’t get lost while we drive, and social networking tools that allow us to keep in touch with people we would otherwise never see again. Despite all the hardships and turmoil abound in the world, being alive today is actually pretty good.

Let’s start with an obvious case study: the iPhone. Apple truly did change the mobile phone landscape when they launched the original iPhone back in 2007, but they did so much more than that. The iPhone, and devices like it, have led to a shift in the service expectations of consumers everywhere. Suddenly, internet on the go became a need and a right, not just a privilege. We were so quick to embrace the innovation, yet the conversation that surrounds this technology is often overwhelmingly negative. It’s not only the technology geeks; we’ve all done our fair-share of complaining regarding 3G signals and Wi-Fi availability.  Mobile internet has lost its wow-factor, like the aftermath of falling in love: the honeymoon is over, and all the glamour has worn off.

Yeah, except you’ve totally married the most amazing person on Earth, and now you’re just being selfish.

But seriously, we’ve got more functionality than we will ever need. Things we never knew we wanted are now right in our pockets, at our fingertips. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an iPhone, Android, or Blackberry phone; consumers today are buying into a market of devices that can surf the internet, play games, take pictures, and call people all over the globe. What else is it supposed to do, fry bacon? These devices are so much more than super-powered Swiss Army Knives. They’re our portal to a globe’s worth of content, everywhere we go. How often do we stop to think about how truly amazing that is? How did we ever live without them?

Think about it. The iPhone alone is an entire personal computing and media device. You can sit in the park, outside, while listening to music, talking to your friends across the country, and surfing the internet. The spectacular feat that is telephone technology aside, how are we not continuously impressed by mobile internet alone? Instead of marveling at how incredible that technology is, we simply sit and fuss over drops in signal quality. Let me remind you that you are surfing the internet, outside in the sun, on a device the size of your hand, and that device is talking to towers that are communicating with global internet servers via orbital satellites. Please be patient, your phone is sending a signal to outer space.

And how is it we have so easily forgotten how monumental such an invention as the Internet actually is? Not to sound like a bitter old man, but I still remember what life was like before we had the World Wide Web. When my father first brought home a dial-up modem, we had to hang up the phones in order to get online. Even then, it was an immensely empowering and exciting tool to be using. In just a few short years, incoming college freshmen will be from a generation that never knew a world without internet. This great innovation, which happened such a short time ago, will be as unremarkable to them as the grass on their front lawn. Many will not even be able to fathom writing research papers without the World Wide Web. Even today, an internet blackout is often considered an acceptable excuse for not finishing a college-level assignment on time. What about the time before personal computers? Imagine requesting articles by mail, and having to write them on a typewriter!

Now, the entire global culture is built around the internet and personal computers. We take it for granted how far we’ve come in such a short time. In less than two decades we have gone from an over-glorified phone line to a fully integrated virtual society, connected in ways our ancestors could hardly even imagine. Through the internet, we have taken culture and information and liberated it. Any person, fact, or piece of media you could possibly want to find is being beamed directly to you at the speed of light. Services like email, Facebook, and Twitter enable us to communicate with people, both foreign and familiar, regardless of time or distance. Google and Wikipedia allow us to answer our own questions, and take personal education into our own hands. No one would deny that it’s been a revolution, but we often forget just how big of a revolution it really was.

Less than 250 years ago, you were considered lucky if you even had electricity. Concepts such as the internet, or even telephones, were hardly even a far off dream. The concept just didn’t exist. Sure, we can look back on those times with a certain sense of rustic charm, but would we really want to live in a world where moving 500 miles away from someone means you’ll likely never see them again? Would we want to rely on couriers on horseback to deliver our hand-written letters? Would we even be able to cope with the isolation? Trust me, it’s better this way.

Take a moment and go through your home. Have you ever stopped to think about how progressive the modern living space is? I’ll use my apartment as an example. At any given moment, I can turn on a myriad of electronic devices and stream news, entertainment, and information into my home live from all over the world. I have climate controls built into my wall that allow me to change the temperature at will. In my kitchen, I have a microwave oven that cooks food by heating individual water particles. I have a bathroom with full running water that pumps from an underground facility at least 5 stories below my feet. And perhaps the most obvious, yet easily overlooked innovation is the fact that I have light and electricity on demand. If you could bring someone from the year 1900 into the modern world, you would effectively blow their mind.

Does this mean we should stop iterating on these products and services? Of course not. Just because something is good, that doesn’t prevent it from becoming better. We should absolutely highlight the flaws in each new innovation. With every new solution, a new set of needs arise to be fulfilled. In no way should we advocate complacency. That being said, being critical does not have to be synonymous with being unsatisfied. Could there be better wireless internet service on my iPhone? Sure there can, and the best part is that there probably will be. Human society and technology are advancing at a breakneck pace, and there’s no reason that we would slow down now. If anything, that’s exciting!

There’s so much to enjoy and look forward to in the 21st century, I could go on for thousands of words more. You can buy cars that generate their own electricity, cook a complete international meal in the comfort of your home, travel the globe in an airplane (or as Louis C. K. puts it, a “chair in the sky”), and entertain yourself with more music and video in a day than most people used to experience in their entire lifetime. The modern world is a grand spectacle of progress. No matter how bad the times may seem, there’s always something truly marvelous to enjoy. If you have electricity, a phone, and access to the internet, you’re already better off than the overwhelming majority of human beings who have ever lived. Everything really is amazing. Today really is the best time to have ever been alive, and it’s only going to get better from here. Let’s all shut up and enjoy it for once.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go sit in the park and play online games on my phone.