My local newspaper, the releigh news and observer, is one of me primary sources on the culture I live near. From it, i'm learning that angst is a popular modern hobby.
For example, one article discussed the problem of people whose earbud-type headphones on ipods were making noise audible to others.
An article today describes a pile of broken concrete blocks near a road that's considered ugly. The debris is not in the road.
These articles follow others i've heard (on npr) or read of the same theme. The idea seems to be: i'm annoyed by something, I have the right to be annoyed, you shouldn't contribute to that thing, and somebody ought to do something about it.
Mark Lindsey > 
This annoyance factor, I think, stems from the “informalization” of our society. There are no rules, no guidelines on how we are supposed to interact with each other anymore; it’s every man for himself which leads to boorish behavior. Smacked in the face day after day with accepted societal rudeness that they cannot control, it is understandable how somebody might become fixated on one annoyance, like iPods or untidy blocks, and pour all the frustration of living in a unapologetically rude world into a crusade against that single thing.The iPod earbuds become a symbol of every person who has cut in line ahead of you, of all the smokers standing right at the entrance to a building, of all the coworkers who think open door policies are mandatory and all the store clerks who talk on their cell phones while ringing up your purchase.