An uncomfortable way to look at it, but the more freedom and convenience we acquire, the less social we end up being.
Starting with religion. I'm not religious myself, but that doesn't mean I can't acknowledge it as a powerful community builder. You'll get to know everyone in the community. Neighbors, business owners, friends, possible spouses. And their families and all their life events. There's no real replacement for this "forced" social bonding at scale.
Meeting friends used to require physical co-location. You'd ring their doorbell and asks if they're available to play. It would all be in-person. Now this happens occasionally but far less, a lot of this is digitized.
Early teenager years: boys live in their bedroom, gaming with a headset. Girls spent their time chatting or posting on social networks.
Later teenager years (party years). Far less in person. Some gatherings of friends at home, much less in public settings where you can meet new people.
Work: from home but even when in the office: increasingly virtualized due to outsourcing, complicated vendor models, etc.
Leisure: at home. Not just spending time on passive entertainment, also shipping shit to your door so that you don't have to go out and actually interact with people.
In the case that people do go out in the physical world, they see disengaged people. In a rush, unapproachable (always on phone).
We've become self-centered, anti-social. The old way which forced you to interact with the physical world and its people produced far healthier human beings.
Starting with religion. I'm not religious myself, but that doesn't mean I can't acknowledge it as a powerful community builder. You'll get to know everyone in the community. Neighbors, business owners, friends, possible spouses. And their families and all their life events. There's no real replacement for this "forced" social bonding at scale.
Meeting friends used to require physical co-location. You'd ring their doorbell and asks if they're available to play. It would all be in-person. Now this happens occasionally but far less, a lot of this is digitized.
Early teenager years: boys live in their bedroom, gaming with a headset. Girls spent their time chatting or posting on social networks.
Later teenager years (party years). Far less in person. Some gatherings of friends at home, much less in public settings where you can meet new people.
Work: from home but even when in the office: increasingly virtualized due to outsourcing, complicated vendor models, etc.
Leisure: at home. Not just spending time on passive entertainment, also shipping shit to your door so that you don't have to go out and actually interact with people.
In the case that people do go out in the physical world, they see disengaged people. In a rush, unapproachable (always on phone).
We've become self-centered, anti-social. The old way which forced you to interact with the physical world and its people produced far healthier human beings.