21–30 of 149 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you considered collecting everyone's phone when they arrive only giving them back when they leave?
Honestly, I wish that could become a cultural norm. As things are now it would be a kind of awkward request, but I bet it would really help if it were acceptable.
As far as I am concerned, I have not observed this. I see plenty of people hanging out at restaurants and elsewhere. Many places are packed. It seems like there has been this trend of journalists writing these finger in the wind op-eds opining about a society that never existed or about something which is not a problem for most people but is turned into 'a thing' for the sake of pageviews and virality.
The article presents actual data which you rebut with...your feelings? "From 2003 to 2022, American men reduced their average hours of face-to-face socializing by about 30 percent. For unmarried Americans, the decline was even bigger—more than 35 percent. For teenagers, it was more than 45 percent. Boys and girls ages 15 to 19 reduced their weekly social hangouts by more than three hours a week. In short, there is no…
Hanging out with people glued to phones is boring
You nailed it. I've kind of stopped having get-togethers at my house (either for friends or family) because people show up, do a brief normal-human greeting interaction, and inevitably eventually sit down and just kind of zombie out scrolling their phones. Despite efforts to strike up conversation, play a board game or whatever, people just can't put the fucking things down for even 5 minutes, let alone enough time t…
the restaurant prices got too high
As far as I am concerned, I have not observed this. I see plenty of people hanging out at restaurants and elsewhere. Many places are packed. It seems like there has been this trend of journalists writing these finger in the wind op-eds opining about a society that never existed or about something which is not a problem for most people but is turned into 'a thing' for the sake of pageviews and virality.
The article presents actual data which you rebut with...your feelings? "From 2003 to 2022, American men reduced their average hours of face-to-face socializing by about 30 percent. For unmarried Americans, the decline was even bigger—more than 35 percent. For teenagers, it was more than 45 percent. Boys and girls ages 15 to 19 reduced their weekly social hangouts by more than three hours a week. In short, there is no…
Is it clear that it's worse if I'm playing computer games with friends online vs. board games in person? How much is this just a panic about "but video chats are less social than sitting in a room"? In my mind, I'm more social with friends who live thousands of miles away than I would have ever been able to be before, which has allowed me to have much more lasting friendships with people now than people I was even friends with 10 years ago when video chat was far less effective.
Hanging out with people glued to phones is boring
You nailed it. I've kind of stopped having get-togethers at my house (either for friends or family) because people show up, do a brief normal-human greeting interaction, and inevitably eventually sit down and just kind of zombie out scrolling their phones. Despite efforts to strike up conversation, play a board game or whatever, people just can't put the fucking things down for even 5 minutes, let alone enough time t…
Hanging out with people glued to phones is boring
You nailed it. I've kind of stopped having get-togethers at my house (either for friends or family) because people show up, do a brief normal-human greeting interaction, and inevitably eventually sit down and just kind of zombie out scrolling their phones. Despite efforts to strike up conversation, play a board game or whatever, people just can't put the fucking things down for even 5 minutes, let alone enough time t…
As far as I am concerned, I have not observed this. I see plenty of people hanging out at restaurants and elsewhere. Many places are packed. It seems like there has been this trend of journalists writing these finger in the wind op-eds opining about a society that never existed or about something which is not a problem for most people but is turned into 'a thing' for the sake of pageviews and virality.
Also, before someone quips "But mah statisticz!": The interesting thing about statistics is you can twist them to mean anything you want.
For example, "reduced weekly social hangouts by more than three hours a week" sounds impressive until you remember a week is composed of 7 days, and 3 hours / 7 days = ~0.43 hours a day, or approximately 26 minutes less hanging out per day on average. That's a rounding error.
We also don't know if those 26 minutes are just spent on Discord instead of face comms, which if they are means the difference in socialization amount is practically nil.
Be wary of number peddlers with an agenda.
the restaurant prices got too high
Chain restaurants that used to be really tasty, started using cheaper ingredients (theory) and just don’t taste as good as they used to and it’s more expensive.