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Who Americans spend their time with, by age

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Re: Who Americans spend their time with, by age

#281

Post by abetlen »

OJFord wrote: post #268
abetlen wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you're from outside North America, but I don't think nursing homes here are likely to have LAN parties unless we make some big medical breathroughs in the next few decades. According to this survey of Canadian nursing homes, around 87% of residents suffer from some kind of cognitive impairment such as dementia, alzheimer's, or stroke related trauma [1]. Even assuming that you still have any friends ar…

> According to this survey of Canadian nursing homes, around 87% of residents suffer from some kind of cognitive impairment such as dementia, alzhymer's, or stroke related trauma [1]. That sounded extraordinarily high to me, and I think because of the subtle difference in implication (not that what you said isn't correct) between your 'such as', and [1]'s 'including'. In the table below, by far the highest 'character…

I may be misreading that, but isn't the table saying that 82% of residents with dementia require assitance in their daily living activities?

From having spent time volunteering at a nursing home, that 87% number is not far off from my experience. I'd add that they tended to put volunteers with people who had less severe forms of cognitive impairment.

That being said, you would occasionally meet people who seemed mentally impervious to aging, I had the pleasure to speak with an 87 year old computer programmer who was still actively using all kinds of technology. He talked to me about punch card programming accounting systems on IBM 1401's and dealing with technology skeptical secretaries who would double check every computer calculation by hand.

Re: Who Americans spend their time with, by age

#282

Post by natchy »

Fnoord wrote: post #273
rootusrootus wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is both fascinating and sad to watch. My family has split along political lines, with half despising Trump and half worshipping him. Each side hates the other sufficiently that we just avoid talking anymore, so it's like having two distinct families. I don't know the solution other than everyone agreeing not to talk politics, ever. And even better, actually deciding that politics is pretty insignificant and only s…

Politics is the opposite of insignificant, and everything is related to politics, so you're sitting on a ticking time bomb if you're as a group trying to ignore it. Ignoring the pink elephant in the room doesn't make it go away.

politics is governing. most people don't govern. We have other jobs and roles.

My influence on politics is insignificant vs my influence on other things that will impact my quality of life and those around me. In fact, politics and political news are a huge time suck for lots of people. Might as well be playing video games or watching sports.

Re: Who Americans spend their time with, by age

#284

Post by natchy »

ABCLAW wrote: post #255
burlesona wrote: post #36

The thing that seems crazy to me is how much time alone increases with age. There are many many reasons for it, but one thing I think is especially sad is how much this is a consequence of our built environment. If you live in a village with multiple generations of a family around, it’s much easier for grandparents to be involved day too day in helping with little things in the village, especially keeping an eye on t…

>I don’t think there’s an easy fix for this, and that makes me sad. I mean, the fix is really straightforward. You prevent the burbs from siphoning tax dollars off the host city they surround so that the high cost of sprawl is placed on them, rather than poorer city-center districts. Then, you emulate the community and land-use strategies of areas in which the eldest are least displaced. One of the key features of gl…

would rather have mixed zoning, resulting in more distributed "city centers". I don't like big cities, but would love a more connected small town.

Re: Who Americans spend their time with, by age

#285

Post by Fnoord »

natchy wrote: post #282
Fnoord wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politics is the opposite of insignificant, and everything is related to politics, so you're sitting on a ticking time bomb if you're as a group trying to ignore it. Ignoring the pink elephant in the room doesn't make it go away.

politics is governing. most people don't govern. We have other jobs and roles. My influence on politics is insignificant vs my influence on other things that will impact my quality of life and those around me. In fact, politics and political news are a huge time suck for lots of people. Might as well be playing video games or watching sports.

> politics is governing. most people don't govern. We have other jobs and roles.

That depends on the definition being used [1]. IMO, using this definition of governing [2], governing is taking responsibility, we do it all the time, and it is tough at times.

An example of governing is deciding when to change your baby's diaper. You take responsibility to put in the time and effort (which boils down to money) to keep the baby healthy, proper, and happy.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics#Extensive_and_limited

[2] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/govern

Re: Who Americans spend their time with, by age

#286

Post by realityking »

bluntfang wrote: post #228
caeril wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40 is early for the average empty-nest boundary. That comes later. Rather, the decline at 40 marks marked independence of young children transitioning into pre-adolescence and then adolescence. You see your children much less 1. when they enter school, 2. when they start forming their own extra-familial friendships, and 3. when they enter adolescence and believe their parents don't know anything.

>40 is early for the average empty-nest boundary. maybe for your demographic (and the demographic for hackernews readers), but many American children are born to teenage and early 20s mothers.

I’d think that demographic overlaps significantly with families that have more than one child. Significant for this questions is, when do folks have their last kid?

Re: Who Americans spend their time with, by age

#287

Post by lotsofpulp »

rootusrootus wrote: post #241
polka_haunts_us wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then heaven forbid if you have different political views from them, especially in 2020. My mom treats me very weirdly, not because I actually voted for Trump, but because I don't spend my days ranting about how he's Satan incarnate like she does. My sister aligns politically with my mom and she moved to MONGOLIA to get away from her. I'm glad for people who truly like their families, but not all of us won that pa…

It is both fascinating and sad to watch. My family has split along political lines, with half despising Trump and half worshipping him. Each side hates the other sufficiently that we just avoid talking anymore, so it's like having two distinct families. I don't know the solution other than everyone agreeing not to talk politics, ever. And even better, actually deciding that politics is pretty insignificant and only s…

> And even better, actually deciding that politics is pretty insignificant

Unless you think civil liberties are at stake. The Supreme Court will be tilted to a way I believe is harmful for my children’s future, and personal health, and so I consider politics to be very significant.

Re: Who Americans spend their time with, by age

#288

Post by economusty »

burlesona wrote: post #36

The thing that seems crazy to me is how much time alone increases with age. There are many many reasons for it, but one thing I think is especially sad is how much this is a consequence of our built environment. If you live in a village with multiple generations of a family around, it’s much easier for grandparents to be involved day too day in helping with little things in the village, especially keeping an eye on t…

People don't just end up that way, they choose to live in these homes.

Re: Who Americans spend their time with, by age

#289

Post by selestify »

e40 wrote: post #225
dcolkitt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Western nuclear family is a very unnatural social arrangement. Anthropologists have found that in most hunter-gatherers, the average infant is held at one point or another by 30+ people in a typical day. The nuclear family has the twin downsides of putting tons of stress on parents of young kids, who shoulder the entire childcare burden, and deprives a lot of grandparents, aunts, cousins, and others of meaningful…

It's even worse than that. Every set of new parents gets no shared knowledge on how to best raise a child. I mean there are a literal ton of books on the subject, but they give wildly different advice. I have a single kid (turned 20 recently). I can tell you it's totally crazy figuring it out on your own. I approached it more methodically than most (IMO), and I don't think I made too many mistakes, but here's the thi…

How do we decide what shared body of knowledge to pass on when, as you say, all the books give wildly different advice?
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