Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

mcc.gse.harvard.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 254 posts

Re: The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

#21

Post by schnevets »

Transitioning from a college internship to my first job, I had an excellent boss/mentor who explained the importance of my first salary. Studies proved a clear correlation between first salary and overall earning potential; obviously, workers will gain experience, change roles, and may make dramatic changes over their working life, but that first step in the professional world made a clear impression.

Based on these stats, I wonder if loneliness and social connection has a similar "first step" between 18-25. This is the time people establish habits that they maintain for their entire lives. Does an early accumulation of "social currency" (for lack of a better term) mitigate loneliness-linked misfortune?

Re: The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

#23

Post by gjhh244 »

naravara wrote: post #11
JKCalhoun wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I can think: turn off the internet. Internet in the morning. Have your coffee, catch up on the news, your social. Then put the internet down for the rest of the day. Go out, ride a bike with a friend, go hike with a friend, go to a coffee shop, library....

Doesn’t this depend on having friends who are off the internet too? In the before times, I’d go to get drinks with friends and often found they were chronically distracted. If there’s a lull in conversation they pull out their phones. I go to the bathroom and come back and they’re swiping through Tinder. I got married before the dating apps got popular so I never went down that particular rabbit hole, but I feel like…

You can always find new friends once you start meeting people off internet. Tbh I find purely online friendships not to last long, especially now as an adult.

Re: The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

#24

Post by raverbashing »

naravara wrote: post #11
JKCalhoun wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I can think: turn off the internet. Internet in the morning. Have your coffee, catch up on the news, your social. Then put the internet down for the rest of the day. Go out, ride a bike with a friend, go hike with a friend, go to a coffee shop, library....

Doesn’t this depend on having friends who are off the internet too? In the before times, I’d go to get drinks with friends and often found they were chronically distracted. If there’s a lull in conversation they pull out their phones. I go to the bathroom and come back and they’re swiping through Tinder. I got married before the dating apps got popular so I never went down that particular rabbit hole, but I feel like…

Of course. That's the type of "boomer solution" that a) solves nothing b) only makes sense for those who don't have that problem in the first place

It goes the same way of telling "stop being sad" to depressed people or the most meaningless advice of "just be yourself".

Re: The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

#25

Post by dahak27 »

mp3k wrote: post #9

Just don't be poor and have sex.

Is there a correlation between wealth and loneliness? I could definitely imagine it being effect for the poorest in society but I wouldn't be surprised if, once you've reached a threshold of being able to keep your head above water, money and loneliness had very little relationship if at all

Re: The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

#26

Post by schnevets »

treeman79 wrote: post #19
kiwih wrote: post #8

The loneliness crisis is what I have been wondering about lately amongst the greater push (especially within tech circles) to 100% work-from-home arrangements. Personally, although I enjoy WFH once or twice a week, I know that for me I must go in the other three days or else I do start feeling chronically lonely - even though I live with my wife and another flatmate. One thing that I worry about is that one side effe…

Did work from home for many years. Decided to back to office after I had mostly convinced myself that the people in zoom calls were just figments of my imagination.

Ha, I can relate to this. As someone who has worked remote for 5 years, I have had dreams of interacting with co-workers that I have never met face-to-face.

Re: The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

#27

Post by jollybean »

jbrun wrote: post #4

It's a bit paradoxical. I have a tech company and most staff want to come to the office 1 day a week. Getting them to come is very tough. Many of my staff and friends don't want to have kids, make no effort to find a partner and find all sorts of excuses. Netflix, the internet and these things are part of the problem, but I have no clue what the solution is. There is only one way to not be lonely - be with people who…

I think the key insight in your comment is that adulthood takes a kind of social maturity and that we have crashed a lot of institutions that have developed over centuries and millennia, and that people (including everyone) don't quite yet fathom the degree to which they were a part of the social fabric.

I wish education and homes were a bit less expensive, I feel a bit for Gen Y/Z as they've been through 2 existential crisis and definitely have some legit beefs, but on this one, I think they should be coming into the office, joining social groups.

Political polarization, and not vaxx polarization is part of the problem, sadly every brand on the Internet that communications anything is a bit part of the problem, some more than others.

Re: The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

#28

Post by Bancakes »

jbrun wrote: post #4

It's a bit paradoxical. I have a tech company and most staff want to come to the office 1 day a week. Getting them to come is very tough. Many of my staff and friends don't want to have kids, make no effort to find a partner and find all sorts of excuses. Netflix, the internet and these things are part of the problem, but I have no clue what the solution is. There is only one way to not be lonely - be with people who…

Why do you project your stereotypes and expectations over your employees? They're adults and if they wanted partners/kids/office work, they would go and get them. Maybe you're the one who has to adapt to the new world instead of 'finding issues' and even assuming you're the one to 'fix' your employees.

Re: The pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness

#29

Post by phone8675309 »

> I have a tech company and most staff want to come to the office 1 day a week. Getting them to come is very tough.

I’ve never felt more lonely in my life than working in an office full of people, and I know that’s a sentiment shared by most of my friends. I don’t think working in an office is the major factor in this.

Post reply on HN