Every time I go shopping, if my favorite cheese shop doesn’t have my favorite gorgonzola in stock, I get upset. It does not really ruin my day, but it does make me a little grumpy for the next thirty minutes or so. And that, my friends, is a perfect example of a first world problem, meaning a minor inconvenience — especially if compared to bigger problems people have on a daily basis — that makes one act as if they are facing a huge challenge.
The name comes from the notion that only people whose lives are well-adjusted and generally comfortable (in many ways because they live in developed, “first world” countries) will find these issues problematic, especially compared to so-called third world problems like a lack of education, or bad living conditions.
Opinions about and attitudes towards this type of problems vary. Some say that even considering them as problems is disrespectful to those who struggle with even the most essential things. Others think that there is no such thing as a first world problem and that your everyday problems are as important as global ones.
If you are interested in my personal opinion, I would say that attitude is what matters the most here. Can you be upset about your Wi-Fi connection being not as fast as you’d like it to be? Yes, absolutely, as long as you don’t get obnoxious about it. Don’t forget that there are people who don’t have this privilege at all.
This brings us to the topic of world problems, such as hunger, pollution, and other similarly grave matters. These are the problems that need to be solved, and doing so is our joint responsibility as humankind.
Take a look at the top first world problems that we collected. Is there anything that irritates you a lot but is normally considered a first world problem?
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Being hungry but not for any of the food in your fridge.
You slept in too late on my day off now you have less time to do nothing.
"Ordered food... Now I have to wear pants."
I used to deliver. Guy answered the door in his whitey tighties. Please put something on if you answer the door..
"Can't hear the television over my crunchy snacks."
Crunchy snacks are mandatory in my house when watching television. Lol
"The fridge is full of food but I can’t have the same meal more than twice consecutively."
"Starbucks didn't have peppermint mocha today and suddenly it was the worst day ever."
"Amazon delivered my stuff a day earlier than scheduled and the box (which I can see remotely with my security camera) is just sitting there in the rain."
If rain damages the product - it's all world numbers' problem.
There’s not enough dressing on your salad. Now salad tastes like salad.
"The coke fizzed too much when I poured it into my glass, and I had to wait for the fizz to go down before I could continue pouring."
"My commute to work is so short it only gets my car warm when I get there."
Wants to lay on the side while texting. The Smartphone auto rotates the screen.
Don't have the problem with the smartphone, since I know where to find the settings. But I do have the problem with my 2 in 1 Laptop. It switches to tablet mode when putting it on the side. I found the setting to keep it from rotating the screen, but the keyboard and touchpad are still locked. Does anyone have any idea what I could do?
"My laptop is dying but my charger is all the way upstairs."
Hell with it, enough working for today. Let's have some breakfast now.
There’s nothing to drink at home except an unlimited supply of fresh drinking water.
"Waitrose changed their Bavette steak from smoked to Chimichurri marinated and made them about 1000 times worse. Bloody change, I hate it. Leave good things alone."
The tap water doesn't taste very good here. Now you have to drive to the convenience store and buy some bottled water.
Filtering might be a good alternative. In the end, you get the same product (or worse in quality you can't taste), just bottled in plastic.
A wardrobe full of clothes but nothing to wear.
Eating while driving, all green lights.
I've a friend who drives for Uber, and he'll order his meal while he's waiting on a customer's order. Usually he eats in the car. When he gets home, his beard is a mess!
"I often lose track of my mouse pointer on my two-screen setup."
Isn't there a setting that if you click something (on the keyboard??) then the courser blinks?
Being sleepy after eating too much food.
"My house is so big that the wifi signal isn't super great in some of the rooms."
Get a WiFi signal booster. It was great in my previous home which was a large house with thick walls.
"This software update requires that I restart my computer. Ugh!"
me: too lazy to spend literally ~1-2min to restart and open the apps again
"My smartphone changes 'lol' to 'LOL' making me sound overexcited."
Ads on Youtube.
You are so tired of eating at all of the restaurants near your place.
They’ll deliver my marijuana to my house but don’t take credit cards. Only time I use cash.
"I tried to spread cold butter on my toast and the bread ripped."
Leave the butter on the counter in a butter dish. No....it won't go bad (unless it's unsalted butter). I'm 54 and I'm not dead yet.
There is too much food in the fridge already, you have no space where to put leftover food.
"The smallest amount of parsley I can buy at the grocery store is 10x the amount I can use before it goes bad."
"My iPhone won't enable Face ID with headphones sunglasses and cap on."
"This giant burger is so hard to eat."
This is seriously a problem for me which is why I have homemade ones instead
"There are so many unpopped kernels in my microwave popcorn."
Your walk-in closet is not big enough.
The more clothes i have in my closet, the less space remains there to hide my lovers
Long queue in the coffee shop.
Coffee pot right next to the kitchen light switch. Never even been to a coffee shop. I don't think I could justify paying as much for one cup as I do for an entire can.
"That’s the third time I’ve burned my tongue on Caramel Macchiato this week!"
"The windows in my bedroom are too big, so the room stays too bright at night."
Uhm, I wonder if anyone will ever invent some material to cover the windows at night. We could call them curtains, perhaps? The name might actually catch on.
"Have four flavors of ice cream in the freezer but none of them are appealing to my mood."
Why is the gym always so crowded after work?
"I've looked at everything interesting on the internet today and I still have 3 hours at work left."
Coffee going cold.
Ugh! I hate when that happens. I like my coffee to burn out my palate.
Office coffee is literal trash.
Wouldn't that be cool if there was this invention that made single cups of coffee that brew right into the cup?
"Finally ordered new dining room chairs. Delivery in 14-18 weeks!"
The only thing I've ever ordered that had a huge delivery wait was a refrigerator. Mine had broken. You can't just go in and buy one in the store like in the olden days, lol.
"Staying at a resort in the Caribbean and I'm tipping my maid very well. So well, that in appreciation, every single towel in my room is folded into a swan. I'm standing here soaking wet, kinda feeling bad about choosing which swan to ruin."
"Drove my new Mercedes to my 10-year reunion, but parking was off-site so nobody saw it."
"The cleaning lady didn't do a good job last time, should we call another service?"
"My deli meat is round, but my bread is square."
"Even though I love my boots, this fashion's getting old."
If you love your boots, wear them. Why let people you don't know dictate your footwear?
Your neighbor parking outside your house when they already have more parking space than you.
My lovely neighbors recently blocked both sides of my driveway when there was about 8 feet in front of one car and about 6 feet behind the other car. They were both about 2 feet over. My husband drives a huge Suburban and could barely get it out.
Shampoo and conditioner never run out at the same time.
Trying to find something you want to watch on Netflix.
Or too many choices and not being able to decide, so I give up and make an afternoon of just watching all the trailers instead. Opposite of FOMO, it’s called Decision Paralysis or Choice Overload.
"The HDMI cable didn't reach my 50 LCD screen."
"Mom said dinner was ready. It wasn't."
"The airline ran out of 1st class seats, I hope there are no babies in coach."
Someone actually told me flying hurts babies' ears, making them more likely to cry even though they were probably gonna cry anyways because, well, babies. Flying with babies isn't a very pleasant experience.
"Someone took my parking spot at work, can you believe that?"
If it's my assigned space that I had to literally beg for, you bet I'll get salty if someone is parked in it!!! lol
"Trying to eat a healthy lunch and peeling this orange has made my fingers sticky."
"Starbucks ran out of soy milk for my latte. I'll have to walk to the one on the next block.”
"Why does getting the trash bag out of the trash can have to be so hard?"
If you wash the trash can between changes, make sure it's fully dry before you put the new bag in.
When none of your 3 wiper speeds are proportional to the amount of rain you’re in.
When the headlights of the SUV behind you hurts your eyes when you’re in your Ferrari.
When you have to get out of your car to read business hours because it is too small to read when you are in the car.
When you forget that your car has heated seats and you drive around with chilly legs for no reason.
You want food from the back of the fridge, but it's blocked by all the food in the front of the fridge.
"I need to go to the bathroom, but the toilet seat is too cold."
"This bag is so full of fries I can't reach my burger."
Misplacing AirPods.
never got these, and probably never will bc of all the stories of dropping those cordless things too easily
One pillow is too low, but two pillows are too high.
The smartphone is too big for the pockets on your favorite pants.
There are too many raisins in raisin bread.
When your electric toothbrush stops working 30 seconds into the job and you have to use it like a manual one.
"I can’t believe I bought a toaster with no bagel setting."
Super shocking, but you can toast a bagel in the broiler of your oven and just flip it over.
"My personal trainer works me way too hard."
"My treadmill is broken so I have to run outside."
"My diamond earrings keep scratching my iPhone."
"Someone didn't refill the Brita pitcher and now I have to wait 30 seconds for water."
The dishwasher at home isn’t cleaning the dishes very well.
Rinse off the dishes in the sink before putting it in the washer. Maybe then they will come out cleaner
"Spam e-mail takes up 5 minutes of my life every day!"
Complaining that you can’t get a haircut during a pandemic.
"I got $50 worth of iTunes gift cards for Christmas but I pirate all my music."
That's the universe telling you that stealing music is bad. Throw some love to the artists!
"I'm at a party and my phone is dying but no one has an iPhone 14 Pro charger."
When you have to turn down the volume of a show because the music in the scene is louder than the rest of the show.
When your wife is a trained chef from a family of trained chefs and cooks amazingly; but you sometimes miss the poor people food you grew up eating.
Not finding anything you like when clothes shopping.
Running out of hot water.
Tankless water heater is the best thing I've bought myself. Family of 4, 2 teenage girls...we'd never have hot water.
You were stuck in traffic for 30 minutes.
That would be a gift here in Los Angeles. It's taken me 2 hours to go 25 miles many, many times.
"My new monitor, speakers, mouse and keyboard all came in the mail yesterday, but my computer isn't coming until today."
When your housekeepers are cleaning up a room you're in and you have to walk all the way to another room.
"I want to try a new cereal but I have to finish already-open cereal first."
I hate finishing the old thing, because I want the new thing, even if they're the same!
"I dropped my Macbook On my other Macbook."
"My view of the ocean is blocked by my yacht."
"I'm hungry but I'm afraid to leave my room while the cleaning lady is here."
"The car my parents bought me to replace the one I totaled is used."
Dunno why but instead of “car” I read it as “cat” and got so confused
"I never had time to play with my gifts on Christmas day because I had to go visit my family and get more gifts."
"I'm too full to get drunk."
When your bedroom is so far from the front door that Siri keeps giving you estimates on how many minutes it will take to get "home."
Not being able to fast forward live TV.
When there are some akward scenes on the TV while your parents are there then that’s just the worst
Leaving the phone charger at home.
I have many janky gas station chargers because of this very situation, lol
When your banana has a brown bruise.
"If I can’t lay down on the plane, it’s just not even worth it!"
When you’re late for your 2:30 pm tee off because your Tesla is in the middle of a software update.
Having a runny nose.
"I eat sushi too much."
"Instagram is down. Don't know how to make my meal."
"A homeless person looked at me."
"Why does my auto-text keep correcting my I to i?"
When you get really invested in your in-flight movie and the plane lands fine minutes before it finishes.
never happened to me but here's a sympathetic scream anyway: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"I opened a bag of chips and all the seasonings were at the bottom."
"Forgot my wallet at home, so they gave me my coffee for free but they made it wrong and now I can't complain."
"Wanted to play an old computer game but my computer is so advanced it didn't run it properly."
"I can't get any work done with all these random nerf gun wars that break out in the office."
When no one is in the elevator with you so you have no one to impress when you press the button to your suite.
You often accidentally keep leaving your "Mercedes" unlocked because your "Tesla" auto-locks when you walk away.
Earphones become tangled in your pocket.
Forgetting where you parked.
When they spell and write your name wrong in Starbucks.
Not getting as many likes/retweets as you expected.
people on ka with good programs that get buried under memes and random low-quality stuff (i may have contributed to that effect xD):
Cracking your phone's screen.
Pouring your cereal before realizing that you're out of milk.
Or pouring the milk on the cereal then realising it has gone sour and lumpy.
Polishing the marble in your bathroom is such a thankless job.
You just bought a new pair of shoes but don’t want to use them because they might get dirty.
Your hand is too fat to fit all the way to the bottom of the "Pringles" can.
"My bluetooth mouse just died and now I have to use the touchpad on my laptop."
Eating store-bought fruits and vegetables.
"Everyone in the picture is tagged except for the attractive person I wanted to stalk."
You don't have enough dip for my chips but if you open another container, you won't have enough chips for my dip.
"I burnt the roof of my mouth."
"When I make a turn but it wasn't a full enough turn to make my blinker turn off, so I have to manually turn off it."
"Genuinely frustrated by not being able to buy Orzo pasta in a little Waitrose. I need a holiday."
When your dentist’s ceiling TV is set to the wrong aspect ratio.
When your backup camera is fogged up in the morning so you have to actually turn your head to see what is behind you like some kind of 19th-century stage coach driver.
When your parcel is waiting on the first floor but new neighbors are right now moving in and if you go to get your parcel you must greet them.
When you just remodeled a bathroom and now it’s too nice for the rest of the house so you have to do more remodeling to match.
When you forget to bring snacks for watching Netflix in your Tesla while at the charger station.
When you lost some weight but didn’t take a “before” photo so you can’t brag about it on social media.
When the daycare your dog goes to doesn’t feature him as frequently as you would like on their Instagram page.
Your roommate ate a hot dog without a bun. Now you have an uneven ratio of hot dogs to buns.
"The chopsticks that came with my sushi didn't break apart correctly, so now you have to eat with uneven chopsticks."
"There's a lady who plays the harp in the lobby of my office building every morning. I'm changing jobs soon and my new building doesn't feature a harpist."
"I bought the CD because I liked the single. The rest of the album is crap."
You guys know this is satire right? No one's actually looking for fixes.
My wallet is too small for my fifty's and my diamond shoes are too tight
You guys know this is satire right? No one's actually looking for fixes.
My wallet is too small for my fifty's and my diamond shoes are too tight