It's no secret that the world is going through some very difficult times right now. Many people look back and beg to return to simpler times when the world wasn't trying to kill each other, when people talked face-to-face and the music actually meant something. However, when you dig a little deeper, it turns out that despite all that's going on, many aspects of our society are actually improving.

To start off on a minor note, I get unreasonably annoyed when people talk about how "trash" today's music has become. I'm not going to bash on all of the great music or movies that came out in the past 50 years or so, but some people act as if all media from that era was total perfection and we just slowly devolved into the meaningless tunes we have today.

In reality, though, we only believe music from the past is better because only the best songs survived the test of time. At the same time, the internet has given us access to a ridiculous amount of new music, both good and bad, so it's easy to find a rotten egg and use it as proof that music is getting worse. Give it a couple decades and I'm sure the next generation will reflect on today's music with wonder whenever they get fed up with whatever is released during that time.

Those with the nostalgia goggles strapped on also argue about how back in the good old days people interacted with each other and weren't glued to their phones all day. They're technically correct since smartphones didn't exist back then, but I don't think teens today are any less social than their counterparts from the 20th century.

All across history, people have found ways to occupy their time without dealing with strangers; train passengers often buried their faces in books or newspapers before phones came along. Today, we also have the benefit of being able to contact our friends from literally anywhere in the world. If anything, the people of today are more than capable of creating and maintaining friendships.

As far as we've come, however, seeing events such as the rallies in Charlottesville and the numerous police killings can make it hard to believe we're actually making progress. However, to me, the fact that we're aware of these tragedies is all the evidence I need to be assured that we're moving forward.

How many of these cases would be covered in an era without the internet? Without smartphones? Yes, we know of all the hateful events going on in our time, but that doesn't mean there was any less violence back then. It's just that in today's society, ordinary people have the opportunity to voice their disgust to the rest of the world; it's better to face the evils in our society than to be happy while ignoring them.

With a generation that's smarter and more socially aware than ever, I'd say the "good old days" are closer to us than we think.