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The Loneliness Epidemic

melmagazine.com

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Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#71

Post by JackFr »

bilbo0s wrote: post #57
dexwiz wrote: post #34

The Screen and the Job have displaced almost everything else is our lives. Loneliness is just a primary symptom. The Screen, whether it’s TV, computer, or phone, has supplanted almost all social interactions. This manifests itself in things like SitComs on TV (just a bunch of friends or family hanging out) or Social Media on phones. It’s very easy to fill the social needs of right now with a Screen. But under even a…

It's also interesting that nowadays when people lose their jobs, it triggers an almost existential crisis in them. It's kind of sad to watch. I wish people could understand that they are more than their job. It's so ingrained in us though. One of the first things people asks each other is, "What do you do?" It encourages a definition of self that is centered on one's job. If it weren't real life, I'd think I was watc…

Modern culture has stripped life of intrinsic meaning. The values promoted by the culture are that we are hedonic production/consumption machines, and that our value comes from either what we are able to produce, or what we are able to consume.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#72

Post by whatshisface »

bilbo0s wrote: post #57
dexwiz wrote: post #34

The Screen and the Job have displaced almost everything else is our lives. Loneliness is just a primary symptom. The Screen, whether it’s TV, computer, or phone, has supplanted almost all social interactions. This manifests itself in things like SitComs on TV (just a bunch of friends or family hanging out) or Social Media on phones. It’s very easy to fill the social needs of right now with a Screen. But under even a…

It's also interesting that nowadays when people lose their jobs, it triggers an almost existential crisis in them. It's kind of sad to watch. I wish people could understand that they are more than their job. It's so ingrained in us though. One of the first things people asks each other is, "What do you do?" It encourages a definition of self that is centered on one's job. If it weren't real life, I'd think I was watc…

High debt loads are a lot more common than most people think. Even those who live in expensive neighborhoods can be one or two missed paychecks away from foreclosure or eviction. Defining yourself as more than your job is a lot easier when you could go six months without it. Not to get too high on my soapbox, but the other side of the fact that low interest rates encourage economic growth is that high debt loads make people desperate to work.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#73

Post by major505 »

Really. I think the big problem here is social networks. Nobody interact face to face.I used to go to bars , look for a pretty girl and pay her a drink to start a conversation. Nowdays this is considered creep. They expect that I download an app, wait for a match ans just goeet for a quick chat and maybe some action. Just turn of your computers and go to a bar. Interact to people. Start conversations with stranger people. You may meet weird people. But also will meet amazing people.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#74

Post by [deleted] »

dexwiz wrote: post #34

The Screen and the Job have displaced almost everything else is our lives. Loneliness is just a primary symptom. The Screen, whether it’s TV, computer, or phone, has supplanted almost all social interactions. This manifests itself in things like SitComs on TV (just a bunch of friends or family hanging out) or Social Media on phones. It’s very easy to fill the social needs of right now with a Screen. But under even a…

[deleted]

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#75

Post by testvox »

arvinsim wrote: post #47
dexwiz wrote: post #34

The Screen and the Job have displaced almost everything else is our lives. Loneliness is just a primary symptom. The Screen, whether it’s TV, computer, or phone, has supplanted almost all social interactions. This manifests itself in things like SitComs on TV (just a bunch of friends or family hanging out) or Social Media on phones. It’s very easy to fill the social needs of right now with a Screen. But under even a…

> The Job has completely taken over as a driving force in evaluating choices. Not to mention most of our time. People nowadays spend far more time at work than ever.

Don't we spend less time at work than ever? Makes more sense to me that loneliness would be caused by too much free time rather than not enough.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#76

Post by dexwiz »

mox1 wrote: post #54
arvinsim wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Job has completely taken over as a driving force in evaluating choices. Not to mention most of our time. People nowadays spend far more time at work than ever.

You think that today in 2019, we spend more time at "work" than at any other time in history? That's just false. Over the 20th century here, work hours have slashed in half. Henry Ford introduced the 5 day work week in 1926, prior to that it was 6. You think the average farmer in the late 1800's worked 40-50 hours? What about the average coal miner, or factory worker?

Physically you are right. Mentally, maybe not. If you are in an information based job like writing or programming, then it’s very easy to carry your job around in your head. I may only program for a few hours a day, but the problems definitely come home with me. It takes a considerable amount of self awareness to both realize this and stop it.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#77

Post by jamiegreen »

qwsxyh wrote: post #62
koboll wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe something that's just a little more like a college dorm than an apartment building or a suburb -- neighbors in close proximity that you're forced to attend social events with and get to know. I feel like we consistently choose the short-term risk aversion of walling ourselves off from neighbors, blind to the long-term damage it does to our society.

I would legitimately rather kill myself than ever live in a dorm.

That would be a slight over-reaction don't you think?

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#78

Post by ikeyany »

dexwiz wrote: post #34

The Screen and the Job have displaced almost everything else is our lives. Loneliness is just a primary symptom. The Screen, whether it’s TV, computer, or phone, has supplanted almost all social interactions. This manifests itself in things like SitComs on TV (just a bunch of friends or family hanging out) or Social Media on phones. It’s very easy to fill the social needs of right now with a Screen. But under even a…

> The Job has completely taken over as a driving force in evaluating choices. The average person has to consider all options in the light of both the current employer and the specter of tomorrow’s.

How is this different than what the majority of civilization had to do throughout history? People have always clung to their profession as their identity. Hell, people used to name themselves after their profession.

If that is the problem, then push for fewer hours worked per week.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#79

Post by WalterSear »

squish78 wrote: post #30
yters wrote: post #4

The good thing is we can walk next door and meet our neighbor. It is strange this is an epidemic when it is a problem that seems so easy to solve. UPDATE: based on responses to my comment it seems the core problem may be closer to home than we like to admit. CS Lewis' book The Great Divorce details this misanthropy, where hell is a product of the residents' own making because they choose to live on their own because…

I'm amazed at the responses and downvotes to this comment. Is everyone terrified of small talk with their neighbors?

No, they feel it's so simplistic it borders on insensitive. This isn't about small talk.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#80

Post by ionised »

kodz4 wrote: post #16

Ants don't meet at the bar at the end of the day to chill with each other. It isn't necessary. And their society isn't unraveling. The more connected the human ant hill gets the more we will behave like ants. Disconnected because we don't need to be as connected. Connected because that is the only way to survive. Those that can't handle the change...wont. This is a process of societal metamorphosis whose tracks have…

Ants are not social in the same way ants are. The two species could not be further apart.

Humans will never be a 'hive' in that way. It's not in our biological makeup.

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