Maybe the point is not that we get anxious about things in terms of their actual severity, we just get anxious period. Saying people should "take a "chill pill" might make you even more anxious, in fact, as they feel they are not really "supposed" to feel that way now.

Our basic psychology hasn't changed despite our abundance. We have thousands of years of accumulated anxiety, you can't just snap your fingers and tell your brain to "be grateful". Our worries, our anxieties are what defines humanity thats part of all of us.

A poor uneducated man in a remote village is suffering from the same anxieties as a billionaire in manhattan. Its common to all of humanity.

If it's expected of university students that they find their own way among the zillion books they could pick up, I think it's totally reasonable for them to feel anxiety. You invoke farming as an activity that it's legitimate to worry about, but consider the collective aspect of farming communities versus the individualistic norm of the modern university. There's a problem here, and it's not clever or helpful to tell people to just toughen up.

Personally I have never liked working in libraries though I do enjoy browsing the shelves. University libraries are a distracting environment if you are even slightly aware of the hectic activity and volume of material that's going on around you/stored on the shelves.

My future job prospects depend on my degree, and my degree depends on my research, and my research depends on navigating this library. If I don't figure it out it's going to mess up my future. No pressure. And if you read the article, it's more about a combination of being organized in a confusing way and being physically imposing. Many libraries are literally designed after temples. It's no surprise when buildings that try to be intimidating end up intimidating people.

Tell that to somebody who fails at the library, fails at university, and fails to find a job adequate to keep custody of their children.

What do you know about crops, anyway? Is that just some sort of rhetorical device?

edit: also, the idea that it wasn't critical for people a few hundred years ago to complete their education, whether it was in a library or in an apprenticeship, is nonsense.

I have a garden with 8 tomato plants and 8 pepper plants. The tomatoes have been struggling to produce and the peppers failed. I distinctly remember thinking to myself, ' I'm so glad I can walk to the store and feed myself despite my failed crop.'

Its just so weird to me that people worry about the library. Its a building full of information and people whose job it is to help you find that information as quickly and painlessly as possible.

This feels like a general social anxiety issue (not being able to ask for help) than an issue of libraries themselves being particularly scary.

Aside: I don't know what the deal with your first paragraph is. Its clearly an emotional appeal and doesn't make any sense. No one 'fails' at the library. The library is not going to make you fail university, whether or not you use it. As for the custody issue, I have no comment other than there are many steps between being bad afraid of the library and losing your children.