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The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

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Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#291

I have been lucky enough to be able to work and live in several countries around the world. One thing in common I noticed in all these places is that guys and girls don't have time and don't want to commit to a stable long relation. They invest pretty much themselves and their time in their career, traveling , parties, dogs, cats and bitcoins :) ! The mantra is to get rich and retire at 40 years old! Travel the world…

You even have movies promoting this lifestyle... La La Land anyone?

Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#292

I have been lucky enough to be able to work and live in several countries around the world. One thing in common I noticed in all these places is that guys and girls don't have time and don't want to commit to a stable long relation. They invest pretty much themselves and their time in their career, traveling , parties, dogs, cats and bitcoins :) ! The mantra is to get rich and retire at 40 years old! Travel the world…

A lot of people have kids _for themselves_. There are a lot of other endeavours one can pursue that will bring happiness. I think where we fail as a society, is in teaching ourselves how to find those pursuits, surround ourselves with friends, and avoid loneliness. > The mantra is to get rich and retire at 40 Hrm, I question the circle of people you're surrounded by. Many millennials are struggling to afford the basi…

And whose tax money will be looking after you in your old age, when you have no family of your own to take care of you? The children of those ‘unethical’ people you tediously condescend so proudly up on your high horse.

Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#294

I look at so many of my single friends who are achingly lonely (late 30s to early 40s) and they all have a particular trait in common: they obsess about the possibilities the future may hold yet don’t acknowledge the hard work it would take to get there. There’s also a sort of collective delusion that if you wait around long enough, your dream partner will show up and that if a relationship takes any work at all that…

You mean, a totally self-centered outlook on life leaves you lonely? Who knew?

Sure, but I think peoples' definition or image of self-centeredness has been obscured by societal norms. At least here in the US, it feels like one of our cultural hallmarks is the ideal of the "self made individual". If it is normalized to see oneself as apart from others, it becomes very difficult indeed to sacrifice anything for another person (and news flash, that's a big part of familial relationships).

Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#295
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of wading into deeply controversal territory, I'll add some personal observations. One of the harsh realities I have seen is that it's very difficult for women to "have it all" meaning a fulfilling personal, family, and professional life, especially in the most competitive fields. Yet for many years this idea has persisted in a mythical sense as broadly achievable. I am now in my late 30s. I've watched my…

> It makes me sad because while they have awesome professional accomplishments, they would have been awesome mothers and parents as well. I just wanted to point out politely how strange this language reads to me. It's ultimately the decision of each person whether to have kids or not. This being "sad" for them is an overreach, morally, IMO--and part of the fight feminism led was to carve out a space for women in soci…

From knowing several in that case, they do feel having missed out on something.

Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#296
Strange, I always thought the epidemic of loneliness in post-industrial countries was attributable to alienation from culture and community, because we'd replaced self-sufficiently interesting forms of life with meaningless jobs in equally meaningless service stores built in meaningless communities by faceless multinational conglomerates, sold with lifestyle ads bundled with meaningless mass entertainment to people lacking a cultural immune response to the siren song of shallow mass culture.

The nuclear suburban household is a manifestation of the soulless, profit-driven mass culture that we've been actively fleeing from ever since we woke up to find ourselves isolated amongst our acquaintances. Every generation in the West since the 1950s has engaged in a desperate scramble to find meaning and connection, because, spoilers, there's something hauntingly awful about eating microwave dinners in front of the television with your family after working 10 hours doing supply chain managment for WhateverCo. with a spouse with whom you never learned to communicate with and children whose only job is to stay on the rails and not get any strange ideas about life.

I don't even think that loneliness is intrinsically a bad thing. Pain is a signal that forces you to adapt.

Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please get help.

Please point out the part of my comment that is wrong.

For one, you don't provide any evidence to back up your claims. Your comment just imparts the impression of bitterness and frustration because it's a commonly repeated theme in the incel community. If that's the place where it's coming from please get some help instead of letting those toxic feelings fester.

Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier to sell to lonely individuals than a satisfied family. Hence all the crazy pressure to work more and be less... human.

You sure? People with families tend to spend more money (out of necessity). It's easier for people without kids to save up more money.

People with families spend more money on commodities. People without spend more on luxury goods which have higher margins.

Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sure? People with families tend to spend more money (out of necessity). It's easier for people without kids to save up more money.

It's easier to meet your basic survival needs as an individual, and thus you have more disposable income for nonsense commodities. Everybody I know who is single and has a good job buys tons of junk they don't need (or often even want). It's the norm.

Yeah I was literally doing some research on an electric unicycle that I probably won't use too often.

Re: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness

#300

I felt loneliness acutely this week. I live alone, spend most evenings alone, and on top, work's coding and research has been slow for 2 weeks. Collaborators are at conferences and on vacation, so I had much less work and much less face-to-face contact than usual. Given that I code on my own, distribute analyses via email, and occasionally meet if people are around, I barely talked to people some days this week. Goin…

Try yoga at a small studio, communities are often great :>

That's not everyone's "fit in" group though.

It's like saying attend local evangelical church. The people you meet will be potential friends for some types of people. For other types, not so much.

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