Agriculture was a mistake.
We should never have crawled out of the ocean!
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
41–50 of 344 posts
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#42For 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…
I know a number of atheists that go to church purely for the community. Also, adopt a social hobby (Magic the Gathering, Warhammer, etc.). It is much easier to make friends when there is common ground. I have made a lot of friends over the last year since moving. Sharing hobbies is rad.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#43I'm surprised to learn that more than half of Americans rarely or never feel alone.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#44Incredible how the subtext here is "loneliness requires healthcare" rather than, say, "loneliness requires coordinated social change". Almost as if the goal is "how can we frame loneliness as an illness and reap some sweet insurance money."
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#45I'm curious if this is a direct result of the internet and smartphones. The two make us feel more connected, more global, but I think it makes us more isolated. I miss talking to my friends on the phone, and hanging out in the 90s. Everything, especially how humans interact, is so digital today.
No need to be curious, there has been a ton of articles recently about this. By constantly being barraged by all of the best snippets of everyone's life, kids especially are more depressed, and socially inept.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try Bumble's BFF feature
IMO it would ideally be separate from any dating app. Not just because of profile overlap, but also because as a married man I really don't want Bumble to be on the home screen of my phone. No matter how innocent my use of it, I wouldn't want anyone to see it on my phone and get a bad impression of me as a result.
I am of the opinion that the choice between an app that signals "I want/need friends" and "I am interested in hookups" would not be an easy one, even if one's usage is innocent.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#47I 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.
Do you see internet social interaction as being a sufficient replacement for meatspace social interaction?
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#48I 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…
To be fair, social interaction with people whose faces have been buried in their phone all day since they were in kindergarten is unacceptable.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#49I 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…
I think a huge factor is the growing theme of social interaction being unacceptable
Does this actually exist? Could it be that it's become more acceptable for people to be dicks to each other, so why risk it?
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#50I 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…
I do think people tend to engage with strangers a lot less often than they had "back then," but I cannot agree modern society stigmatizes that kind of interaction at all. You can see people interacting with strangers on college campuses, at music events, and at grocery stores all the time.
Agreed. While I get the fear of interacting with strangers, I’ve never gotten more than mild annoyance from someone when I actually do it. I have never felt like I was overstepping bounds—people rarely mind being spoken to with respect, even if they don’t respond and engage.
Camaraderie is harder, and making jokes others don’t like can be stigmatizing. I wonder if one’s culture of informality is just less assumably universal than it has been in the recent past. I also wonder if living in a city can desensitize you to how exhausting it can be to invest in a social interaction with no clear payoff.