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Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

pewresearch.org

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Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#61

Post by RobertDeNiro »

appleiigs wrote: post #53
ryanmercer wrote: post #13

I'm 34 and once you add in the weekends I am and talking is extremely discouraged at work, in an open office, so even at work you're basically alone just siting there listening to music or podcasts all day. At Gym1 I talk to my lifting coach but most of the time I'm in my head focused on training, after that at Gym2 I'm just trying to do my accessory work and conditioning and don't talk to anyone other than "hey" bac…

I don't do Crossfit, but with all that time in the gym, I can see why their community spirit is very appealing. Edit. I also live with my retired mother. For her simply having the option to socialize with me is enough. She knows she can watch a movie with me at home or ask me to go grocery shopping with her.

I totally see crossfit as filling that gap that churches and religion left behind.

Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#62

Post by RobertDeNiro »

analognoise wrote: post #46
willyg123 wrote: post #10

A YC company, Papa, is trying to solve this problem joinpapa.com

Tech ruined privacy, the internet, and large parts of democracy. I think maybe it's time we put tech where it belongs: in the damn trunk. Going to a YC company to fulfill a basic human need is exactly why tech belongs in aforementioned trunk.

Tech is a tool, not a one size fits all solution.

Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#63

Post by ixtli »

notus wrote: post #31

This resonates a lot with my experience and reminds me of a short book I read by Sebastian Junger called Tribe. His focus is more on the tribal aspect of military life and that the disassociation with a close knit group or a tribe is part of what leads to PTSD as there are quite a few people who have been in the military who have PTSD despite not ever being in combat. He claims that in smaller tribal communities ment…

It's shockingly difficult to convert work people from "work friends" into real friends. The only success I had was when one of my startups got bought in a way where we all left on the same date because we fully vested. Then everyone was nostalgic and wanted to stay together. Even then only 1/2 of the group still meets :/

Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#64

Post by dymk »

willyg123 wrote: post #10

A YC company, Papa, is trying to solve this problem joinpapa.com

I'm skeptical of this because the elderly are one of the most vulnerable populations out there, and it's hard enough to prevent elder abuse even on vetted, professional platforms.

Outsourcing elderly care to the gig economy (intentionally to college students) sounds like a step in the wrong direction for providing reliable, safe elderly care. I hope they're able to overcome that challenge.

Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#65

Post by rev12 »

stirfrykitty wrote: post #37

I may be in the minority, but the older I get the more I want to be alone. I love my wife and kids, but there is almost too much pressure anymore to do this, do that. There are too many hands on my time. I recharge only when alone. I cannot do it with the TV on, kids in the background, etc. It's one of the reasons I like hunting. Just me and the great outdoors. I really like getting up at 0430 and being in the deer b…

> I may be in the minority, but the older I get the more I want to be alone. I love my wife and kids, but there is almost too much pressure anymore to do this, do that. There are too many hands on my time.

Do you think that could at all be attributed that you are actually more alone now?

What I mean is, most families aren't interacting much with people outside their immediate family, whereas in the past the extended family was around and built a support system for those immediate families. If you had your parents, siblings, cousins, etc... around, you might actually have more time to recharge because child rearing wouldn't exclusively be put on the shoulders of the parents.

The way that our kids are raised now is incredibly different than the way I was raised. Although predominately raised by my parents, my grandparents, aunts, great aunts, etc... all had an influence and played a part in that upbringing due to the geographics of where everyone lived.

Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#66

Post by hrktb »

jacobmoe wrote: post #47
ixtli wrote: post #17

As an anecdote, I've lived the majority of my life in America (born and raised middle class on the east coast in a wealthy area) and if I was tasked with writing an account of my time here it would be focused around one thing: alienation. American life is atomized and consistently getting more so. For anyone who sits around and thinks about why people are the way they are here I highly encourage you to consider that…

This seems right to me. I would point out that you don't have to live a 20 minute drive from anything to be alone. Loneliness is as much a problem in cities as anywhere else. Also, isn't loneliness also a major issue in other cultures, like Scandinavian or Japanese cultures?

I think Japan has issues of isolation more than loneliness (basically the inverse issue: people shutting down social interactions as flight mechanism)

Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#67

Post by ixtli »

jacobmoe wrote: post #47
ixtli wrote: post #17

As an anecdote, I've lived the majority of my life in America (born and raised middle class on the east coast in a wealthy area) and if I was tasked with writing an account of my time here it would be focused around one thing: alienation. American life is atomized and consistently getting more so. For anyone who sits around and thinks about why people are the way they are here I highly encourage you to consider that…

This seems right to me. I would point out that you don't have to live a 20 minute drive from anything to be alone. Loneliness is as much a problem in cities as anywhere else. Also, isn't loneliness also a major issue in other cultures, like Scandinavian or Japanese cultures?

This is a very good point and im gonna update my comment. The distance between people physically is just something that really sticks out to me having lived in tokyo and manhattan. My party trick degree is in japanese lit and oh the giant book i could write on this topic. It's complex and yea they have a big loneliness problem.

Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#68

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

analognoise wrote: post #46
willyg123 wrote: post #10

A YC company, Papa, is trying to solve this problem joinpapa.com

Tech ruined privacy, the internet, and large parts of democracy. I think maybe it's time we put tech where it belongs: in the damn trunk. Going to a YC company to fulfill a basic human need is exactly why tech belongs in aforementioned trunk.

I'd pretty much agree. Technology should be a tool to make our lives better, and when it is obvious it is not doing that we should get rid of it.

Re: Older Americans are alone half their waking hours, on average

#70

Post by MiroF »

ixtli wrote: post #17

As an anecdote, I've lived the majority of my life in America (born and raised middle class on the east coast in a wealthy area) and if I was tasked with writing an account of my time here it would be focused around one thing: alienation. American life is atomized and consistently getting more so. For anyone who sits around and thinks about why people are the way they are here I highly encourage you to consider that…

Guys, you need to move the frick out of the suburbs. They're soul-killing.

Cities are also atomized, but not to this extent. They're vibrant, booming, the schools are fine/good, and in my opinion, far worth the cut to house size.

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