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.
Yes, I have noticed this as well. People’s expectations are sky high an people are generally less grounded than they used to be. I have noticed this especially in the dating context. 10 year ago my dates were pretty chill, even if things didn’t work out we could still have a good time. Now I frequently encounter people who are outright hostile to me because I I am not ‘x enough’ in some arbitrary category in their head, therefore i am a subhuman scum who is ‘wasting’ their time. I’ve been actively insulted and harassed on first dates by such people. It’s truly bizarre.
I agree that most people have commodified other people and it’s gross and alienating. I’m not a wish-fulfillment machine.