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Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

1843magazine.com

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Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#141

Post by xiaoma »

mintplant wrote: post #18
chrisan wrote: post #2

How long do you think before we are in a Ready Player One world where we spend both our free and job time in an alternate reality?

I sort of did this with Second Life when I was in my teens, logging on daily to have fun and hang out and also to script/build/sell things for real money, answer support requests in-world and so on. I don't go on nearly as much as I used to, but I still draw some passive income from my store there.

I was always curious about 2nd life but never tried it and I'm not sure why. What year was your store's peak revenue? Where do you think most 2nd lifers went? Is there a viable successor these days, maybe in its early stages?

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#142

Post by Declanomous »

alphonsegaston wrote: post #66

Every job I've worked in my adult life has involved being judged by standards the boomers doing the judging could never live up to, and then covering for their incompetence with technical skills(because I'm young, so I can just do that stuff). It would be such a sad joke if it weren't for the fact that they squat in every opportunity young people have for their futures (real estate, higher positions, etc) while the y…

It's even better when they don't like the fact that you are doing the job in a way they can't understand. I swear some people think they are paying you to suffer, and if you do something in a way that doesn't require enough suffering they feel ripped off.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#143

Post by flukus »

astrodust wrote: post #110
pbkhrv wrote: post #95

On a cynical note, "young men immersed in alternate reality" is also an opportunity: - It's a rapidly growing market - those people will eventually need financial support systems beyond family - new forms of annuities? - more demand for "gig economy" type jobs - demand for jobs that can be done inside virtual realities that are better suited for humans instead of robots - this one is a stretch - more demand for on-de…

This is what happened in Japan in the mid 1990s when it firmly entered the post-industrial age. There's an entire sector of society that's given up on getting ahead because the old model of employment is broken, and there's no point in fighting to get ahead since there's no winning. Console games and ramen noodles until you die.

It seems like there's a limit to growth and Japan were just the first ones to hit the limit. Everyone else has just cheated the limit with "artificial growth" via immigration.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#144

Post by [deleted] »

deelowe wrote: post #118
ehnto wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also have the useful stuff, like property that was reasonably priced at the time of purchase.

I have more real estate than all of them combined actually, but that's not really what I meant. The stuff they have purchased and still own is baffling. It's all cheap, throw away, walmart crap. Compare this to the things I've saved from my grandparents and great grandparents which are mostly heirloom quality and the difference is striking. The wastefulness is simply depressing.

[deleted]

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#145

Post by jimmywanger »

ocschwar wrote: post #77
autokad wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when i go to comic con, you see many women who look like they fit what the comic book would look like. most are not hard, just dont be over weight. men however, even men you clearly see they spend most of their time in the gym could never even remotely fill out many male fantasy characters.

What scares me about both settings is 1. the way comic fans freaked out about things like Marvel casting Nick Fury as a black man for the movies, and 2. Gamergate. Both cases had thousands of people freaking out about the details of their fantasy world being changed. And I'm freaking out about having to share a planet with these people.

> And I'm freaking out about having to share a planet with these people.

Then don't. Isolate yourself in a place where everybody shares your views and there's no disagreement. Sounds like a boring way to live, but if you're that scared of the opinions of others, reality has harsh surprises in store for you.

Gamergate (which is a vague term) also has connotations of a social backlash against progressivism and political correctness, which I wholeheartedly endorse.

Sometime you just want to blow things up, and not every game without a female or minority or gay role model is sending a bad message.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#146

Post by proudofyou »

researcher11 wrote: post #128

I dropped out and retired at 31 to a third world country. I'm going to study whatever I'm interested in while the economy sorts itself out. I may never re-enter the job maket. I'm ok with that. I'm not rich but it's really cheap here. I don't want to be forced into a rental market or stock market. The jobs don't pay enough and the margins are too thin. The risk is too high and all of my statistical modeling is tellin…

How much did you save before you retired?

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#147

Post by ethbro »

aaron695 wrote: post #130
65827 wrote: post #19

I really like this read, something just smells off about blaming young people for "wasting years" on video games. We've got a horribly stacked real life "game" where the boomers and elites have horded everything and fucked future generations, blaming an individual for dropping out and not wanting to really participate in that trainwreck is being dishonest at best.

> where the boomers and elites have horded everything and fucked future generations Sorry, but this is just bullshit. But if it makes you feel better, it's normal to think this, every generation blames the previous. (And the older generation thinks the latest is lazy)

I feel like the Boomers were pretty happy with the Greatest. You know, defeating genocide, sowing the seeds for a decades long wave of economic expansion, technological advancement, and peace (albeit by not managing to swap nukes with the Soviets).

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#148

Post by projektir »

saryant wrote: post #112

I'm a 26 year old male and never got any deeper into video games than some intense rounds of Mario Kart in college. I've played others but generally lose interest and move on quickly. Doubt I've played a video game in a few years at this point. What follows is likely senseless babbling and bullshit armchair pop psychology. The prevalence of video games among young men frightens me, in two ways: First, in the developm…

> They are also coming of age in an economy which increasingly doesn't need them. Their job—and therefore romantic—prospects are poor.

> Narcissists, of course, do not blame themselves for their problems. Those are the fault of others.

I find this juxtaposition rather funny.

What I find really odd is that you seem much more concerned about the results of this rather than what caused this trend in the first place.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#149

Post by empath75 »

throwaway420 wrote: post #126
findateamfirst wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're horribly mistaken, likely because you haven't spent time in communities that aren't hostile to women. It's really hard to know whether your community is hostile to women unless you're a woman. A lot of guys just don't understand how much harassment a typical woman experiences, and when they hear it criticized basically fall back on "well I don't see it" and conclude it must not be happening rather than trying…

a) Where did I say that women aren't experiencing harassment on some gaming communities? In fact, I explicitly acknowledged it. Your post is kind of pointless virtue signaling or something. b) I just pointed out that it's just generally not about your gender. It doesn't matter if you're a man or woman: every newcomer gets harassed in really rough ways using the most biting insults available. A fat guy will get the ob…

Do you know what a sad cliche this nonsense is? You're just repeating the same tired, red-pill gamergate nonsense.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#150

Post by laughfactory »

It's not just video games either. Add Netflix and social media, and soon, VR, to the equation, and it's pretty clear that the game of life offers insufficient rewards relative to one's efforts. I don't believe we ended up here due to some grand conspiracy, but I do think that the top 1% have gotten so skilled at trapping wealth and therefore opportunity that it's really screwing over everyone else. Even as a relatively successful adult who doesn't game (no time for it, and I avoid things I know are addictive) I felt the game is rigged. Most of us have gotten to the point that we literally never expect to retire (though we will literally run into some physical constraints at some point when our bodies and minds begin to fail us). So we grind through work, pay our bills, and hope to God we don't get cancer or Alzheimer's. When life seems so unrewarding, it's unsurprising that many seek refuge in games and other entertainment (Netflix, social media, news feeds, etc)...

Any way you slice it this is not going to end well. Essentially we're in a Great Depression of an entirely new sort.

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