It didn’t used to be. At least for me and i don’t recall constantly seeing posts on social media about how lonely and sad everyone was or how to make friends. Now every other magazine article is about how lonely everyone is, nobody gets together, and gen Z doesn’t socialize, drink, or have sex.
Why is there such an epidemic of loneliness and why are people content to be lonely rather than socialize?
Why is so hard to connect? Because people having nothing in common anymore? I used to connect with people over books, movies, hobbies, etc. But now it feels increasingly hard to do that. Most folks I meet don’t care about any of that, they just mostly complain about their lives to you or go on political rants about how unfair the world is.
My friends and my dates no longer seem to watch films, or do much of anything other than spend time on social media? I dont’ use social media so I’m pretty ignorant of it all.
I think it’s a combination of many things from social media, to the lackluster economy.
In many ways technology has made us less human and less tolerable of other people. We are becoming like the humans from Wall-E where they are content to eat and watch slop all day, even losing the ability to walk and think because the machines can do it for them. We are becoming mean, self absorbed blobs!
All this technology has made our lives so frictionless and easy. Everything can be done with our phones that in many people’s minds humans are “obsolete”. Which I disagree with, but I’m not better too. I struggle with making friends and maintaining connections, it’s so hard but it’s something I would want to change as well. I guess it’s just a sign of the times, and zoomers, hell other generations too need to try our hardest to connect with our fellow humans.
I was on sub stack and some put it perfectly: " We must resist the pull of the machine." And that’s the struggle being human today and why making human connection is so hard. Our machines are so designed to be so alluring that we must fight against it to stay human.
I’m not going to say to go build something. The last 10 years has made anything hobby related incredibly expensive. Fabric. Wood. Paint. Even garden supply. They’ve priced out most people.
Day hiking though, that can be free or cheap. Hearing and smelling are underrated. Get away from the music reminiscent of old school TV commercial advertising that has infused most of social media and YouTube. Smell trees. I’m not saying lean in like it’s a flower. If you day hike, you will notice the nice smells. ASMR sounds are, I think, based on nice sounds you hear while walking: dirt and pine needles under your shoes, leaves rustling in the breeze, etc.
And it’s free. Like a library card. So go take advantage.
i love to hike and go to the library. it is very analog. i borrow DVDs and books. i enjoy how ‘random’ it is to stumble across something totally unexpected.
most people i am meeting nowadays think that is ‘weird’. they are turned off by both things, actively for some reason. the library is mostly very young kids, high school, parents, or old people. very few 20-40 something people.
Yeah honestly, that is the vibe I get. people just want to watch slop, and make zero effort to do anything. I also notice people just want to do the same slop things, there is less and less of a spirit of adventure or curiousity. people just want the familiar.
i feel like i used to connect with people over trying new things, going new places, and learning new things but that spirit is very outdated? also being open minded about other people’s lifestyles, politics, etc is now very ‘bad’. it used to be good?
“From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine.” is meant as dystopia, not something to aspire towards