America has a new epidemic. It can’t be treated using traditional therapies even though it has debilitating and even deadly consequences.
The problem seeping in at the corners of our communities is loneliness and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is hoping to generate awareness and offer remedies before it claims more lives.
“Most of us probably think of loneliness as just a bad feeling,” he told USA TODAY. “It turns out that loneliness has far greater implications for our health when we struggle with a sense of social disconnection, being lonely or isolated.”
Loneliness is detrimental to mental and physical health, experts say, leading to an increased risk of heart disease, dementia, stroke and premature death. As researchers track record levels of self-reported loneliness, public health leaders are banding together to develop a public health framework to address the epidemic.
American corporations: “how can we monetize this”.
Friend as a service (FaaS)
Subscription based friendships
I’d pay someone to get my ass out of the house.
1-900 numbers have existed for a long time.
Yeah, its called an AI girlfriend. Damn, some people actually pay for that.
*happily pay for that
Probably still cheaper than a house…
There’s OF if you don’t mind sharing
Doesn’t Japan already do this?
Selling bf
They already know how to monetize this. They market their product as a solution.
From coke to coke.
Ha, said Zuck at Facebook a long time ago.
It costs too much to be out and be social. There is no place for people to congregate that doesn’t require you to spend money. Even churches have $ expectations. In most places the local public library is the last free third space. I know everyone seems to love remote work, but for me remote work forced the place of my biggest stress to be in my house and I hate it. I’ve been mostly remote for the last 13 years and I’ve realized that I need an onsite work place so I can maintain my home as my place of relaxation and escape.
Not just the cost, but the fact that so many people are working 50+ hours a week just to survive and simply don’t have the time or energy. When you’ve gotta pick up a second job on the weekend to make rent, you’re probably not going to have any energy to go out.
There is no place for people to congregate that doesn’t require you to spend money.
I just go to friends’ homes, or they come to mine. I’m quite happy to entertain rather than go out, it’s more convenient and costs much less.
Not everyone is so lucky as to have friends to visit - there used to be places where one could socialize without spending money, and without having to entertain a vice like the bar or casino. There’s really no options for folks to go and just meet similar minded people, so new friends are just harder and harder to find as we get older.Idk how I made that font happen but I’m leaving it there.
Yes, this is certainly true and I’m fortunate it’s an option.
Can I ask what places used to exist that don’t anymore where people could congregate for free and socialize?
I …
I would say in chronological order, social media, violently divisive politics, and the forced isolation of COVID rendered me incapable of socializing anymore.
All of it has made me feel like I cannot function in the presence of others. I still have to go to the office to work, so that’s pretty much the extent of interaction I get. Otherwise, outside of work, I tend to not speak at all to anybody.
I won’t call it a happy life, but it’s safe. I guess I’ve got whatever a word for social agoraphobia would be now.
I should note that I’m fifty one years old. The first four decades of my life were very social. Then it all gradually faded away.
It’s like being bullied or grounded for some behavior crime over and over again. After a while a person stops caring about the things that got taken away and goes into suspension about liking anything because that too gets used as a weapon.
Everyone should be assigned a new middle name based on a random object and number. Then everyone with the same middle name should be considered cousins. I’ll be Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11, for example. All the Daffodil-11s will be an extended family – I’ll have family everywhere I go. Drop a pin on a map and you’ll find family members to meet or catch up with! Lonesome no more!
I don’t even want to keep up with my real cousins.
Ah, the loneliness of the apple fallen too far from the tree is perhaps the greatest loneliness of all. A family unmoored from the millstone of genetics might just be the solution you need! Don’t let your blood ties get you down, my friend. Recording and producing legend Quincy Jones? COUSIN (and you can call him “Q”!). Secretary of a society for the preservation of local birds, Maggie Mumphries (who I just made up)? PRIMOS. Renowned author and pediatrician Mark Vonnegut? Cut off your sleeves and crack open a Corona like Dom Turetto cuz you’re FAMILY.
#LonesomeNoMore2024
I feel this on such a deep level you don’t even know. Yamainwitch is always here for you my darlings! Cousins? Hell yeah! Siblings? Why not! For all my fellow unwanteds, I want you, I see you and I love you!!
If everybody is family like that, wouldn’t it just lose it’s entire meaning and family would stop being something to consider?
There are cultures around the world that work like this. I’m quite confident that I can knock on the door containing the symbol of my people anywhere in the world I can find it and with a few simple words be invited in for a meal and a visit.
You just gotta know the vampire code secret words.
That’s fine and dandy until cousin Joe Daffodil-11 stabs you at the Wendy’s parking lot.
Has the fed considered increasing federal wage to keep up with cost of living from the past 50 years? Maybe increasing taxes on ultra wealthy or even a wealth tax to pay for third places that use to exist?
I know what you’re thinking: but how will they afford their seventh yacht for their fourth vacation home?
Well, no, because the Fed can’t do any of those things.
Fed sounds fucking useless.
What exactly does this have to do with the article?
Without free or adorable third spaces, the population has no place to meet not interact with new people to make friends as adults. Unless you already know someone and general only meet at each other’s places, meeting others and having friends is fiscally out of reach.
The solution is simple, just buy more consumer goods!
Let’s have a holiday to celebrate buy more useless crap, maybe in December when people are the most cold and lonely.
It’s the Capitalism
Sad that I had to scroll to find the real answer. The problem is it’s too abstract for most to understand. Easier to blame technology.
I can recommend the read of The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy by Franco Berardi.
I prefer to be lonely.
Alone != Lonely.
I prefer being alone but being lonely and not having the choice is really bad.Being crowded and not having a choice is worse.
I personnaly disagree, getting out is easier than making connections for me.
But of course being stuck with people you don’t like, or a family you hate sucks too
The time of my life when I had the best mental and physical health was when I was often alone for 1-2 weeks at a time.
Alienation through the capitalization of the cognition. This coupled to the myth that the individual is responsible paved a way to isolation and loneliness.
You guys wanna start a fight club?
Not only in America, unfortunately.
ha ha it me fr fr
That’s why I’m glad I have friends I talk to every day, even if just online, and online communities I participate in, like through Lemmy or through Discord. It does help to stay connected to others.
You do get quality experiences from that? I feel most online communication platforms nowadays are basically “post and don’t look back” or “comment once and bye”. Before we had more dominantly forums where topics were discussed over a long period and even between the same people, and you’d easily recognize and connect with people. Lemmy (and reddit) also falls in the first category: you hardly make any connections and topics get abandoned after they disappeared from the front page.
that’s what discord is nice for. I’ve got a group that talks in voice almost every day. we just hang out after work, play a game or two, talk about life. the classic stuff.
I’ve had some in-depth conversations through Lemmy and Discord, and even group voice chat gaming with friends through Discord. I can get meaningful communication experiences through these platforms IMO, yeah.
I think the problem is literal mobility and social mobility. The friction between me and having a social experience ia huge. I have to drive, pay money to be in a private business space, and it all has to be easy enough to make happen that I can do it alone. We mostly have businesses and activities that suit multiple people going together.
So I imagine if there were more parks, more kinds of public activities, there was transit where Im surrounded by people going to the same place who I can ask for advice - that would be a huge improvement.
I prefer an early death to hanging out with you filthy animals.
