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Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

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Re: Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

#11

Ventilen, or “friend to one” in Danish, That's an unusual translation. A more obvious would be "valve" or just "vent". - Edit after coffee: "Ven til en" actually means "friend of one". Amazing how faulty pattern recognition can lead you astray.

Ventilen would still make sense in this setting :)

Re: Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

#12

Ventilen, or “friend to one” in Danish, That's an unusual translation. A more obvious would be "valve" or just "vent". - Edit after coffee: "Ven til en" actually means "friend of one". Amazing how faulty pattern recognition can lead you astray.

I think a more appropriate translation would be 'friend for one', as it can be read as an offer. »Ven til en« is obviously an unusual way of phrasing it, but replace »ven« with any commodity you can purchase, then it sounds more like an offer (a free one, that is).

That being said, 'friend of one' is definitely an accurate translation as well. And 'friend to one' is just the literal translation. I wonder how they pronounce it, »ven til en« or »ventilen«.

Re: Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

#13
post #6

It is better than nothing, but is not scalable. We at nothing_here building a tool which will help fight loneliness online. (I have removed the link, not really trying to sell anything to anyone)

Good on you, but i think chat apps are not the solution.

For physical and mental health, we need real face to face connections, in person and not online. Young people use many chat apps and even topic based groups and sites, set depression and health problems keep increasing.

The more we are in front of a screen, the harder it is to actually be with others. And this is what we need as humans.

Re: Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

#14
This is a big problem in modern society especially for young adults. We're not meant for this. I know it's a bit "Hararish" to look it this way but really: "Yesterday" we were just living in small tribes together and being lonely was hard to imagine. Now you can end up having everyone you call a 'friend' on the other side of some screen and end up totally friendless in your 20's.

Re: Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

#17

This is a big problem in modern society especially for young adults. We're not meant for this. I know it's a bit "Hararish" to look it this way but really: "Yesterday" we were just living in small tribes together and being lonely was hard to imagine. Now you can end up having everyone you call a 'friend' on the other side of some screen and end up totally friendless in your 20's.

What exacerbates it is that modern venues for finding someone to connect with, are all heavily controlled and/or monetized.

Services like OKCupid actually actively hinder relevant matches unless you pay them and keep paying them. Places like Reddit are hit and miss, heavily dependent on the time you post, and you not only have to risk your privacy to find good matches, you have to gain the approval of everyone else who could remove your post from visibility.

I miss IRC, but of course even that was far from perfect, and had its own risks.

This isn't just about dating, but finding friends with similar interests at all.

With 8 billion people on the planet and all the connectivity, you'd think this would be easier for everyone by now.

Re: Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

#18
post #8
post #6

It is better than nothing, but is not scalable. We at nothing_here building a tool which will help fight loneliness online. (I have removed the link, not really trying to sell anything to anyone)

Humans talking to other humans in the local area and doing things together exists all over the world and has done since the dawn of time, what part of it isn't scalable?

Thanks furi, good point. Humans indeed talked to each other and have done things together since the dawn of time. But the problem is that our way of living has changed significantly during recent years.

Most of the people simply don't have the possibility to gather around and talk about their life/problems. It is becoming a luxury to have a live talk with a real person.

I am sure that the above mentioned organization is doing great job helping people, but the answer to your question why it is not scalable is that such approach can help only to a very limited amount of people. Why ?

Because: - meeting in person is not always possible - meeting in persion is not always desirable - it is limited only to local areas

Re: Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

#19

Ventilen, or “friend to one” in Danish, That's an unusual translation. A more obvious would be "valve" or just "vent". - Edit after coffee: "Ven til en" actually means "friend of one". Amazing how faulty pattern recognition can lead you astray.

It's a nice play on words.

Re: Ventilen, a Danish organization to address loneliness in young people

#20

This is a big problem in modern society especially for young adults. We're not meant for this. I know it's a bit "Hararish" to look it this way but really: "Yesterday" we were just living in small tribes together and being lonely was hard to imagine. Now you can end up having everyone you call a 'friend' on the other side of some screen and end up totally friendless in your 20's.

What exacerbates it is that modern venues for finding someone to connect with, are all heavily controlled and/or monetized. Services like OKCupid actually actively hinder relevant matches unless you pay them and keep paying them. Places like Reddit are hit and miss, heavily dependent on the time you post, and you not only have to risk your privacy to find good matches, you have to gain the approval of everyone else w…

For some of us IRC never went away. It’s my primary social outlet, and I’m closing in on 30.

Maybe I’m a bit special as I moved countries a fair bit in my 20s, and making friends in adulthood is difficult.

Shameless plug; if you want to join us (we are roughly 400 people) then the network is ircs://irc.drk.sc:6697/#darkscience

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