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.
It seems to me that dinner and cocktail parties have really fallen out of favor. It makes since to me though. Both my spouse and I work, so neither of us can do the prep work to get our home ready and a meal ready in time to have guests. Hosting norms would also have me pay for the food or drinks which fine once in a blue moon, but not something I could do frequently. I’m one of my few friends with a space that would even make sense to host in, so I’d pretty much be the only one hosting, so the only one spending money. It quickly becomes something I don’t want to do.
There’s also a reduction in affordable third spaces. I get third spaces needing to make money, but it’s so expensive to go out with friends and just hang out.
Everybody, and every corporations jumped on the landlord bandwagon, rents went crazy. Now there is nowhere to go, most small cool places, with live music, or a kitschy theme, have either closed or have become too expensive.
This is bad. At least in the 1990s when the economy was hard, someone could afford to rent out a small place and make a fun bar.