Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

If anyone is looking for adventure and connection, I run a group called Founders Hike, which is what it sounds like.

Founders get together to mastermind, hike and support each other about once a month.

We have some really successful and amazing Founders.

Nature is it’s own medicine, the community is great, and the wisdom runs deep.

NYC / SF and chapters forming in other cities.

Email me if you’d like to join, and I’ll gift you a ticket.

A@175g.com

Another thing I wondered about is the impact of automation and volatility on, for lack of a better word 'involuntary' micro social interactions.

Until fairly recently people had 'forced' social interactions when doing their finances, shopping etc. Even if involuntary they 'trained' people's social skills and withered away at their acquired/innate social anxiety.

Furthermore, even in these situations the persons you interacted with, the cashier at the supermarket, the bank teller, the shop assistant, were often there for a fairly long time, so that all those social-micro-transactions added up over the years. Yes, they were 'strangers', but stangers you to some extend 'knew' or where familiar with. Being around those made you less lonely.

Now you do your banking through an app and a teller machine, you shop online, and if we are to believe the proponents soon your pizza and beer will be delivered by a drone and your online groceries and other purchases by a self driving van. The few contacts in those situations you might still have are not with the same person, but with randos fulfilling a 0 knowledge scripted for efficiency procedure. These interactions can't compound into a latent unspoken social bond and thus contribute nothing to alleviating the feeling of loneliness.

I've watched Friends last year for the first time in my life and it was shocking to me, among other 90s things, how everyone is dating left and right, one after another as if they were in a race or something. I don't know your social circle but in mine, currently it's quite the opposite. I observe that less and less people go out/date/interact with each other socially, which is sad.

>Founders get together to mastermind, hike and support each other about once a month.

Maybe the world "mastermind" is throwing me off, but how do you prevent something like this from devolving into "yet another networking activity"?

There's value in stepping out of the always-on, startup culture and interacting with the other half.

I guess I'm involuntary lonely.