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.
Is it? It gets harder as time passes for each person. Friends become fewer, more busy, and farther apart. It may be that it is objectively harder now. What do I know as an old man? But it feels hard for everybody as they age individually. I have no close homies that I talk to regularly. 30 years ago, I had many.
i don’t agree. my life is way easier as time goes on. the hardest part of my life was my teens and 20s.
Well, yeah me too. But my life being easier (food and money easier to come by) and comforts rarely in question - for me at least - does not equate to easier to make friends.
Yeah, I can’t tell if this is all legit or if Gen Z is sooooooooo vocal and online that they are just expressing what it’s like to get older and see how the world/relationships really work and so many are just bombarded with negativity that they then feel negative.
I’m in my 40s (Millennial) and have social media, but I still manage to meet up with the few friends I have and muster up energy to cook, walk the dog, and clean house. I can unplug and not feel guilty and maybe that is what my difference is?
This is my big disconnect with people my own age, and younger people. They seem to have anxiety about these things. I don’t care. They get very upset when I don’t text back immediately, as if I am socially rejecting them. When I text back a few hours later, it’s ‘too late’. but if you ask them to meet up face to face they ‘are too busy and have no time’. And yet they will tell you how much time they waste doing nothing. I also talk to people on the phone, and apparently this is ‘rude’ now to call someone up and talk to them for an hour to catch up?
I don’t get any of it. I find all of it very alienating. Like, whatever happened to just going to a movie, getting a bite to eat, and chilling out? That was what I did like 90% of the time. Maybe 10% going to a party or dinner with someone.
Sounds a little… anxious. What’s up with that?
i don’t understand the constant anxiety. but it seems most folks are anxious all the time, probably from the endless social comparison on social media they are doing and the constant need for immediate and positive feedback.
which seems to be why people like AI so much? because it tells you how wonderful you are.
according to a lot of data, it is objectively harder for young people and everyone to be as social as we were in the 2000s, and going back further, like the 1980s, we were even more social.