Live data from Hacker News

Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

theguardian.com

11–20 of 182 posts

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#11
For the past year, I've been working on the social isolation problem. Here's the idea we're currently developing. Would love to hear folks' feedback. Would you be excited about using this?

"A social app, like Tinder but for hangouts with friends.

See what your friends want to do, and swipe right to show you’re interested. You can also join hangouts in the global feed to instantly expand your social circle. Hangouts are capped at 10 people so you can actually get to know each other. Post things you want to do, like "Hike in John Muir". When 10 people swipe right, a chat opens up so you can coordinate when to meet & who is down to go."

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#12

For the past year, I've been working on the social isolation problem. Here's the idea we're currently developing. Would love to hear folks' feedback. Would you be excited about using this? "A social app, like Tinder but for hangouts with friends. See what your friends want to do, and swipe right to show you’re interested. You can also join hangouts in the global feed to instantly expand your social circle. Hangouts a…

These ideas always ended up becoming dating apps in the past so the idea to restrict it to your existing social circle is a smart one. I would consider using it if it was well executed.

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#13

For the past year, I've been working on the social isolation problem. Here's the idea we're currently developing. Would love to hear folks' feedback. Would you be excited about using this? "A social app, like Tinder but for hangouts with friends. See what your friends want to do, and swipe right to show you’re interested. You can also join hangouts in the global feed to instantly expand your social circle. Hangouts a…

These ideas always ended up becoming dating apps in the past so the idea to restrict it to your existing social circle is a smart one. I would consider using it if it was well executed.

Thanks Rory - very helpful!

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#15
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any reason to believe that primitive people did not fought each other, did not bullied each other and did not enslaved each other? When primitive dude hits smaller one or rapes primitive girl, how is it not man made? How do we know they were stoic? How do we know they were not stressed or frustrated?

Humans tended to live in small groups of mostly related people. If you met another human outside of your group you usually tried to kill each other. It's thought that the global human diaspora resulted from these small bands of people trying to avoid each other as much as possible.

"Humans tended to live in small groups of mostly related people."

That is perfect situation for bullying. The victim cant leave. Close knit groups are great, until they are not.

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#16
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any reason to believe that primitive people did not fought each other, did not bullied each other and did not enslaved each other? When primitive dude hits smaller one or rapes primitive girl, how is it not man made? How do we know they were stoic? How do we know they were not stressed or frustrated?

Humans tended to live in small groups of mostly related people. If you met another human outside of your group you usually tried to kill each other. It's thought that the global human diaspora resulted from these small bands of people trying to avoid each other as much as possible.

I am guessing that it's both the ones who won the fights and those who avoided them survived. When these groups meet in (fairly) modern society it's not that hard to imagine what happens to the latter group.

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#17

For the past year, I've been working on the social isolation problem. Here's the idea we're currently developing. Would love to hear folks' feedback. Would you be excited about using this? "A social app, like Tinder but for hangouts with friends. See what your friends want to do, and swipe right to show you’re interested. You can also join hangouts in the global feed to instantly expand your social circle. Hangouts a…

These ideas always ended up becoming dating apps in the past so the idea to restrict it to your existing social circle is a smart one. I would consider using it if it was well executed.

But what if I want to build one up? I think something like a dating app (but not for dating) could work. You'd just have to do some a policing to avoid the trend towards people trying to find love, since both apparently don't work together.

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#18
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans tended to live in small groups of mostly related people. If you met another human outside of your group you usually tried to kill each other. It's thought that the global human diaspora resulted from these small bands of people trying to avoid each other as much as possible.

"Humans tended to live in small groups of mostly related people." That is perfect situation for bullying. The victim cant leave. Close knit groups are great, until they are not.

They were generally family groups that very much depended on each other constantly for survival. The social dynamics would be very different than what can readily be imagined today. Harassing someone whose existence is necessary for you all to eat tomorrow or to avoid getting eaten by wild animals is going to be quite a different situation.

Applying the fad buzzword for children being mean to each other in suburban middle schools to primitive human culture isn't exactly a valid comparison.

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#19
Best solution to loneliness is to gain massive debt, become dirt poor, and battle daily with attention deficit issues while you struggle to learn and become productive enough to get a job in the software industry with a pretty horrible work history, an incomplete bachelors, and a near worthless associates.

Living one rung lower on Maslow's hierarchy makes you forget about the desire to be around people, or even leave the house (father's) all that often (2% of the time).

Granted, I think maybe my concern for my health (irrational or not) has been exacerbated, so I've traded loneliness for frequent panic attacks concerning whether or not I might have cancer or a heart defect. On the plus side, I know for a fact that I've torn back muscles weight lifting, so all I really need is the medicaid office to get back to me after submitting my 4th application with no phone calls or emails as to my status.

Re: Modern life is lonely – We all need someone to help

#20
Modern society may have issues, but it as bad as it is usually portrayed.

10,000 years ago, you would live in a tribe. If you were not popular among your tribe, it is likely you would be either exiled and forced to live in solitude and die during winter or be constantly subject to violence.

2,000 years ago, you would live only to work in a farm or be in a state of perpetual war. To make things worse, literacy rate was something around 0.001%, if you were lucky.

1,000 years ago, you would be essentially doing the same while dying from a plague. There was no sanitation of any kind.

200 years ago, you would be working at a factory and going to war every 30 years.

100 years ago, there was no radio or TV, so you still had stuff like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

About 60 years ago women were predominantly housewives and were vulnerable to all sorts of abuse.

So no, right now things are better.

Post reply on HN