The country being so politically polarized isn't helping. It's to the point where most only want to socialize with people in the same "tribe". For better or worse.
Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
51–60 of 344 posts
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#52Long term effects of stranger danger writ large.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#53I think the increased efficiency brought by technology produced an ever faster pace in work, social life, and just about everything else. It takes time to talk and connect with another person which is getting harder to come by. Most of the time, you're getting swept away doing work, looking at a post that just showed up, reading the latest tweet by the president, etc.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#54"Decades of research substantiate the devastating effects of social isolation. Loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day and increases the risk of death by 26-45%, which is on par with risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, and lack of exercise."
It would be interesting to know if men are more lonely than women as everything I've seen has shown that it's easier for women to join social circles and find dates whereas most men struggle with this. As a result, I wonder if this connects to the much high suicide rate for men.
There is an episode of Hidden Brain which touches on this subject, though I don't remember if it mentions any sort of measured differences between men and women. Either way, it is a neat discussion on the topic.
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/19/594719471/guys-we-have-a-prob....
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#55Schizos Are Never Alone
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#56I'm surprised to learn that more than half of Americans rarely or never feel alone.
Agreed; it is a ridiculous and alarmist leap for this piece to go from 46 percent “sometimes feel alone” to 46 percent are lonely.
One can be alone by choice and actually like it. “Lonely” connotates depression resulting from being alone.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#57Earlier 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.
Consider that you’re depriving yourself of possible friendships because of other people’s unreasonable judgements about you without having any context.
As long as your partner is aware and okay with it, ignore what others think.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
But it does nothing. You load the link again and you are once again a member of the Pamstalt.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#59I 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 if you want the world to be this way you should just do what you want to do anyway. Life is too short to care what some random group of strangers at a concert thinks, anyway. You're not hurting anyone and I think you're normalizing good behavior. Nobody is going to call the cops on you for complementing their jacket.
I've stopped letting myself be bothered and it's actually done wonders for my social life. And most of them are staring because they wish they could be that open.
Re: Nearly Half of Americans Are Lonely
#60I'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.
Totally agree with this. When was the last time you were in line at a coffee shop? Everybody staring into their phones. Compare that with sometime from like the early 90s where conversations would start up between folks inline. All these people staring at their phones it looks like the eighties equivalent of a Twilight Zone episode