I sometimes think myself of how the simpler times were probably better. In general, way less government over reach. People were less controlled and were more free to do what they wanted. Now we have so many rules and bylaws and legislation it's just ridiculous. The system is designed to keep everybody in a single file line, if you want to do anything a tad different than convention, it's probably illegal. You're a kid who wants to sell lemonade and try to earn money? Illegal, now shut up and go play with your ipad like everybody else.
As far as all the violence and conflict is bad today, it was pretty bad back in older days too if you go back thousands of years, like in the Bible times.
So putting every factor together I think I rather just stay in this time line. Our lives are also generally much easier thanks to technology.