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Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

economist.com

121–130 of 234 posts

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#121
The real culprit, IMO, is the automobile. By allowing people travel further, the frequency your life overlaps with other individuals' decreases exponentially. Relationships with strangers are much easier to start with familiarity. I'd like cities to be planned foremost with walkability in mind.

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#122
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind out of scope, but ever since Deus Ex (the game), I have wondered what the big deal about Aquinas is. Never found his work all that interesting.

Could you explain, for people who don't know that game?

Aristotle's writings were making their way into the European world and were causing a controversy over whether the truths of the scripture were consistent with truths of philosophy. Aquinas provided a comprehensive treatment of the question, demonstrating to the best of his ability the two sources of truth were consistent.

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#123

My opinion is that likely mostly impacts men. I see men struggling to find women to date (and the opposite for women, too many men to pick from). The internet and apps have made the dating market very difficult for men in general. Women literally have 100's or 1000's of choices at any given time while men will struggle to have a single option. There are just more men now than ever it seems, and it's really exaggerate…

For people between 25 and 54, in America, there are almost exactly as many men as women, to within less than one percent. [0] So if you see more men than women around you, that's a filter bubble that you've artificially put yourself in. Therefore the converse must be that there are many other places in America where there are more women than men. So go out, socialize, get away from your bubble, and meet other people.…

Looking at this, singles between 18 and 44, there's just a massive amount of men compared to women: http://jonathansoma.com/singles/#1/6/2/0

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#124

Smartphone use is the symptom, not the cause of loneliness. Young people today are forbidden the tools used by past generations to counter loneliness. Ask an urban highschooler how often they just hung out at a friend's house, or in a public place, for more than an hour or two. Teenagers today are busy. They have homework and courses to do after school. They are supervised, chaperoned, by adults far more than previou…

This is an interesting hypothesis. I can definitely see this being true outside of major urban centers. Public transit seems to be the remedy for teenagers doesn't it? When I was a kid, my parents had to drive me everywhere, and I'm thankful they did! I would have had zero friends otherwise.

Are kids allowed to take public transit anymore? The parents I know, admittedly all in the suburbs, drive them to school. Allowing kids on public transport seems to have disappeared along with allowing them to walk to school.

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#125
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’d be surprised how many of the billion dollar company founders I coach come in the door with deep loneliness.

You're right, we would be. Well, I don't doubt that some rich people are very lonely....I doubt you actually come into contact with them. Feel like you're just a wannabe Bill Campbell. I went to your site - you sell Ultimate T-shirts.

Lol. This was the first domain I bought back in 2001 when I was running an ultimate frisbee clothing brand in college. Those were the original designs and are there for friends / fans from college and as a nod to my first online business.

I was also the founding cohost of Summit.co

I created The Love Game (PlayTheLoveGame.com)

AnthonyDavidAdams.com has a video of me coaching the founder of Ben & Jerries, but most of my work is of course confidential.

What I find interesting is that a free offering to help someone that is feeling lonely is met with such vitriol and projection.

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#126
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the whole screening test attractiveness? I tried OKCupid a while ago, and came away with the impression that most people have their profile filled with political shibboleths. Maybe that's just because I live in a major coastal city, but...

Tinder for looks. OKC for ideology. POF if you like your partner skewed to the wrong aspect ratio.

I think it's all looks. Even OKC has changed their system recently to be more like Tinder. The first impression is never the profile, but the photo. Pretty much everything else is weighted against that in most peoples' minds (either consciously or unconsciously).

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#127

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 i…

I have similar worries about AI. Example: I never let computer programs reply for me by clicking pre-written responses to emails or messages. The designers of those products are making the mistake that the less you have to think about things the better, but I think that you have to use your brain or you will lose it. Even those simple routine tasks (like talking to a bank teller for three minutes) provide essential c…

What's funny about this statement is I'm similar... but just recently I told the "pre script" to fuck off, then I realized I wrote exactly what was already pre-written.

So, maybe it isn't making you dumber if you think about what you want to say and then pick the one that is closest or exact.

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#128
post #25

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.

Friends is quaint. Thanks to dating applications in major cities (NYC, Paris, London, Bangkok, Shanghai) it's possible for a reasonably attractive man to go on multiple dates a night for weeks on end. There's also literally endless functions, meetups and places to hang out... if you can afford it. Outside of the cities, particularly in the US, it's shocking how mechanical and isolated people become. The combination o…

> reasonably attractive man to go on multiple dates a night for weeks on end.

Well, fucking and finding friends is not the same.

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#129

Smartphone use is the symptom, not the cause of loneliness. Young people today are forbidden the tools used by past generations to counter loneliness. Ask an urban highschooler how often they just hung out at a friend's house, or in a public place, for more than an hour or two. Teenagers today are busy. They have homework and courses to do after school. They are supervised, chaperoned, by adults far more than previou…

It's the interesting effect of social networks: instead of connecting people they do something else.

Re: Loneliness is pervasive and rising, particularly among the young

#130
post #121

The real culprit, IMO, is the automobile. By allowing people travel further, the frequency your life overlaps with other individuals' decreases exponentially. Relationships with strangers are much easier to start with familiarity. I'd like cities to be planned foremost with walkability in mind.

thats the premise for the book "the big disconnect the story of technology and loneliness"
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