When you’re young, social interaction is just so engrained in your daily life.
School, hang outs, nightlife. The opportunity to be social is never ending.
But you don’t fully understand at the time that those opportunities get erased quickly, and all that’s left are the people you fully invested in when you were young.
As someone who has never really made friends, modern reality (and lack of community/prosperity) is a bit freeing even though it’s tragic. As in there really is no point in thinking about imaginary scenarios about meeting people as the more I go out for errands the more I know that a hello isn’t even guaranteed (and likely the only type of interaction).
That’s just how it is, thinking about it that way makes it a lot less stressful.
Honestly I’m going to sound like an old man but the internet ruined society in a lot of ways. I mean I’ve enjoyed its benefits my whole life and my profession is centered around it. No doubt it has benefits.
But we were not ready for it. Technology advanced faster than human beings matured. We weren’t prepared for this thing that could grant us all of our wishes instantly.
On top of that, talking with someone on the internet is absolutely not how you talk to people in real life. Yet, most of our conversations happen on the internet. It trains you to be able to turn off experiences that you don’t like. It trains you to be uncaring towards people with no repercussions.
So when you are in the real world, it’s like you forget how to cordially coexist with people.
The internet is part of it (a crutch or surrogate, a reason to not leave the house, a quick time-filler that doesn’t require extra space or money), but I think that outside factors are bigger. For instance I live in a semi-rural area and don’t have a car, so I don’t really have options anyway (particularly not wanting to spend money). If the internet went out today I’d just be really alone and with nothing to do.
Also the decline of social capital hasn’t been so bad everywhere, and wouldn’t you know it the countries that have the most social capital seem to also be the ones that also top other charts like for happiness or healthcare outcomes. The ones that some people in the US look to as an example for better policy and society structure.
I’ll be honest, have the complete opposite approach here. I moved around a lot, country to country even, back when I was a kid, and had no way of keeping up communication with anyone before. Now in highschool, I made friends though a club and met by now partner, and all of us have admitted we probably wouldn’t have stayed in contact if it wasn’t by us sharing a videogame server in which we stream on the weekends, which came in handy specially during the pandemic. We’ve all been friends for 5 years now.
When you’re young, social interaction is just so engrained in your daily life.
School, hang outs, nightlife. The opportunity to be social is never ending.
But you don’t fully understand at the time that those opportunities get erased quickly, and all that’s left are the people you fully invested in when you were young.
As someone who has never really made friends, modern reality (and lack of community/prosperity) is a bit freeing even though it’s tragic. As in there really is no point in thinking about imaginary scenarios about meeting people as the more I go out for errands the more I know that a hello isn’t even guaranteed (and likely the only type of interaction).
That’s just how it is, thinking about it that way makes it a lot less stressful.
Yeah I feel that.
Honestly I’m going to sound like an old man but the internet ruined society in a lot of ways. I mean I’ve enjoyed its benefits my whole life and my profession is centered around it. No doubt it has benefits.
But we were not ready for it. Technology advanced faster than human beings matured. We weren’t prepared for this thing that could grant us all of our wishes instantly.
On top of that, talking with someone on the internet is absolutely not how you talk to people in real life. Yet, most of our conversations happen on the internet. It trains you to be able to turn off experiences that you don’t like. It trains you to be uncaring towards people with no repercussions.
So when you are in the real world, it’s like you forget how to cordially coexist with people.
It is tragic. Like you said.
The internet is part of it (a crutch or surrogate, a reason to not leave the house, a quick time-filler that doesn’t require extra space or money), but I think that outside factors are bigger. For instance I live in a semi-rural area and don’t have a car, so I don’t really have options anyway (particularly not wanting to spend money). If the internet went out today I’d just be really alone and with nothing to do.
Also the decline of social capital hasn’t been so bad everywhere, and wouldn’t you know it the countries that have the most social capital seem to also be the ones that also top other charts like for happiness or healthcare outcomes. The ones that some people in the US look to as an example for better policy and society structure.
I’ll be honest, have the complete opposite approach here. I moved around a lot, country to country even, back when I was a kid, and had no way of keeping up communication with anyone before. Now in highschool, I made friends though a club and met by now partner, and all of us have admitted we probably wouldn’t have stayed in contact if it wasn’t by us sharing a videogame server in which we stream on the weekends, which came in handy specially during the pandemic. We’ve all been friends for 5 years now.
To kids who moved around a lot, especially before the internet: Fuck you, any investment you make is repeatedly wiped clean!
Even today, my high school shitpost server is… dead
People atleast used to coordinate minecraft sessions at most but even that is dead