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Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

advisory.com

11–20 of 344 posts

Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

#11
post #10

Has anyone else noticed that clicking on this link causes them to be logged in as "Pam" on the site? That doesn't seem great...

It persists when you move to other pages, too, although it's not obvious from the site what opportunities, if any, this newfound Pamhood presents. EDIT: going to "manage your subscriptions" presents you with a login page, so no danger.

It looks like all the pages with personal info or settings are behind a login screen. Rest easy, Pam.

Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

#12
post #10

Has anyone else noticed that clicking on this link causes them to be logged in as "Pam" on the site? That doesn't seem great...

It persists when you move to other pages, too, although it's not obvious from the site what opportunities, if any, this newfound Pamhood presents. EDIT: going to "manage your subscriptions" presents you with a login page, so no danger.

It allows you to logout of Pam. That seems to be it from a quick glance

Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

#15
For a long time I've been wanting a "Tinder For Platonic Adults" app. I'm not looking for romance or sex, but I want to find nearby matches with similar interests; do you drink, play board games, are you married, how many kids and what age?

There are likely tens of matches for me within a 5 minute drive, I just don't know how to find them.

I'm a friendly guy and would love to have that friend that feels comfortable stopping by unannounced or that I can share my latest batch of cheesecake with. I'd love to have regular friendly gatherings nearly every weekend. Literally the only thing stopping me is the first step of connecting. Once I'm there I can easily deal with step 2: "dating" the field to find a decent practical match with mutual interest in the relationship.

Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

#16
What is the opposite of lonely though? Popular? Not to get all high school angsty, but I bet popular people, of the Instagram famous people variety, are much more popular than they would have been in previous eras given their expanded reach. Perhaps this is the dark side of Internet fame: Increasing real world obscurity for everyone else.

In previous eras, simple proximity counted for something. Now, it doesn't matter and is even a negative with all the drama around workplace dating for example.

Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

#17

I think a huge factor is the growing theme of social interaction being unacceptable. Back in the day you could walk up to and make friends with almost anyone, it wasn't weird to interact with strangers, thus making new acquaintances. Modern society stigmatizes that kind of interaction, don't talk to people you don't know if you don't want to be ostracized. You could want to befriend someone in a crowd, but come up wi…

Part of that is social interaction being less necessary. My dad made many friends asking random people on the street for directions to a gas station or for a restaurant recommendation. Now we get that all from our phones.

Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

#18

Has anyone else noticed that clicking on this link causes them to be logged in as "Pam" on the site? That doesn't seem great...

URL should probably be changed to: https://www.advisory.com/research/care-transformation-center...

Looks like the original URL came from a daily briefing email.

Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

#19

Theory: human relationships can be hard, very hard, and any technology that confuses one into thinking he can enjoy his time without the 'burden' of human interactions is pushing this issue deeper.

I think of this theory like how lead poisoning works, where the lead can pass through the blood–brain barrier and substitute in (poorly) for calcium, causing all sorts of toxicity effects. Or how drinking sea water can fool your throat for a second into thinking you've taken care of your thirst.

Online social interactions are plentiful and easy and often don't as quickly or sharply trigger social anxiety. But they are a toxic replacement if you don't get any real interaction with your fellow humans.

Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely

#20

For a long time I've been wanting a "Tinder For Platonic Adults" app. I'm not looking for romance or sex, but I want to find nearby matches with similar interests; do you drink, play board games, are you married, how many kids and what age? There are likely tens of matches for me within a 5 minute drive, I just don't know how to find them . I'm a friendly guy and would love to have that friend that feels comfortable…

Try Bumble's BFF feature
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