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Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#91

Post by beaeglebeached »

toldyouso2022 wrote: post #68

Americans are scared of saying the wrong thing. Meanwhile I say things that would get me arrested in the uk and fired in the US, daily, and I have lots of friends and an active social life, in person, no phones, no problems. If you can't tell your friends what you think, social places become a second workplace, of course you don't wanna go

The counterpoint is people like McAffee who despite admitting and bragging of the lewdist shit continued to garner investment. Honestly you can get away with a lot in the US as long as you don't make personal insults to a coworker or customer, especially if you work in trades or non woke tech. Might even be required to be a bit loony from what I've seen in construction sites.

Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#92

Post by keiferski »

Is anyone else bothered that the cutting edge of consumer tech seems to be focused entirely on escaping the real world, not making it better?

As an example, consider how we treat it as totally normal that the big companies are focused on VR, gaming, and other individual activities that require you to shut off the world and focus on their devices. This is just…to be expected. And the idea of an Apple device that brings you together with other people in real life is somehow entirely inconceivable. I mean that literally - I’m not sure what it would even begin to look like, because the concept goes against our model of consumer tech so much.

Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#93

Post by smcin »

jjjjj55555 wrote: post #82
smcin wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's another version: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/the-decline-of-hanging-... showing the graphs: "% of teens who say they go out with friends 2+ a week" which are essentially static throughout 1976-2010, then dive 20% over 2010-2020 after social media and front-facing cameras became common (and all before Covid). To the commenter below, the article is not "some Atlantic journalist's opinions", it's citing…

The phrase "...in the US" needs to be added any time someone talks about this. From what I can tell, Europeans have managed to maintain their social bonds even post-Covid and post-cell phones.

Yes sorry, the article and paper make it clear it's referring to the US.

I usually add "in the US" myself to such HN titles, but I think HN doesn't want us to editorialize like that, even when it removes ambiguity. So next time I'll try putting it in the title and the first post body.

Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#94

Post by DavidPastrnak »

tennisflyi wrote: post #5

No third space (and phones)

This is big for me and I didn’t realize it until recently. Right now I’ve added a local ice rink for pickup hockey and a golf course as a third space for each season.

I’d be curious to hear what others are doing.

Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#95

Post by BoiledCabbage »

samtho wrote: post #50

Even though the direct effects of the pandemic have mostly disappeared, it still does not undo the years of staying at home that we have become accustomed and habituated to. Rapid inflation didn’t help, either. For those lucky enough to survive layoffs, they doubled down on work either dedicating more of their time or attempted to insulate their risk by becoming overemployed. Those who have time for friend outings ma…

People are going to look back on cellphones and the swapping from generally in person interaction to screen based interaction as one of the single most disruptive and harmful changes to society.

Everything from lost conversational ability, to decline in healthy dating, to the the proportion of consumption that is unhealthy social media, to loneliness, to internet addiction, to educational skill and reading comprehension, attention span, mental health.

Look at almost any graph of negative effect on society (10x if you look just at teenagers) and just about everything fell off a cliff beginning around 2012 or so with the rise of the smart phone. It's crazy how widespread it's effects have been.

Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#96

Post by smcin »

jjjjj55555 wrote: post #82
smcin wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's another version: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/the-decline-of-hanging-... showing the graphs: "% of teens who say they go out with friends 2+ a week" which are essentially static throughout 1976-2010, then dive 20% over 2010-2020 after social media and front-facing cameras became common (and all before Covid). To the commenter below, the article is not "some Atlantic journalist's opinions", it's citing…

The phrase "...in the US" needs to be added any time someone talks about this. From what I can tell, Europeans have managed to maintain their social bonds even post-Covid and post-cell phones.

Turns out Haidt & Twenge [0] [see pdf] in 2022 said this:

"PART 1: THE SPECIFIC, GIGANTIC, SUDDEN, AND INTERNATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS: 1.6 The crisis has hit many countries, not just the USA. The patterns are nearly identical in the UK and Canada, and the trends are similar though not identical in Australia and New Zealand. We do not yet see signs of similar epidemics in continental Europe or in East Asia, although I have not yet found good data from those regions."

and Figure 3. Loneliness at school increased in all regions of the world [sharply] after 2012 [through 2018].

[0]: "Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31268222

Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#97

Post by [deleted] »

jackcosgrove wrote: post #47

It's not just phones because the trends observed by Putnam preceded all of that. The changes that occured between the 1970s and before and the 1980s and after add up to be major watershed in American and more broadly western culture. You can blame neoliberalism but I think the real change is deeper than that. It's the shift from modernity to post-modernity. And post-modernity is an apt term because the name itself is…

[deleted]

Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#98

Post by the_only_law »

jbm wrote: post #39
freddie_mercury wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You raise an interesting point. I used to be convinced by purely data-based and "science"-based points, but due to overly-confident sounding statistics over the past 5 years, I've stopped paying attention to it - particularly with regards to social sciences. Unless we have cameras monitoring American men at all times, we do not know that they have reduced face-to-face socializing by 30%. What we do have is very intel…

[dead]

Re: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

#99

Post by teaearlgraycold »

oortoo wrote: post #65
houseatrielah wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what sober people say about hanging out with those imbibing. You're not wrong tho.

Some substances at least make people more social or more engaged and empathetic. Any drug that makes someone stare at their lap and not respond to outside stimulus is probably bad for social settings. I don't do drugs (anymore) but I enjoy hanging out with people who can use drugs and be social.

Ketamine?
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