The fact that both young men and young women are now spending so much time alone (that huge spike starting around 2010) is more worrisome to me. I'm concerned about the long-term effects on our society.
I mean, remote work gets pulled because old dudes in power say so. The four day work week gets laughed at because of America’s unhealthy focus on work ethic and worship. The Surgeon General prescribes community. We know what the problems are, but as a collective action problem, we’re going to fail the test. There is no incentive for those who can make change to make change. Social volatility will rise, fertility rates will fall faster, everyone will be less happy. Brighten the lives of those around you until your light goes out, that’s all you can do.
> remote work gets pulled because old dudes in power say so. The four day work week gets laughed at because of America’s unhealthy focus on work ethic and worship
I think these two are very similar.
Although yes, many people are hours and worry that salaries won't adjust for 32 hours. Which would ruin the point of a 4 day workweek without adjusting compensaation to be the same as 40 hours. that's there the dudes in power also say so.
I dunno about fortnite and Roblox - my knowledge of my family's teenagers says that all of them play fortnite, most of them used roblox in the past, but none of them get caught up in the equivalent of "doomscrolling" that the other platforms[1] in that list have.
I'm not convinced that they are as addictive as the rest of the items on that list.
[1] Excepting HN; you can't doomscroll on this site.
> I'm not convinced that they are as addictive as the rest of the items on that list
Even if AAA video games like Fortnite can be addictive, you are limited in when you can realistically engage in them (at a computer, focused). Whereas social media can be ever present. This is why I don't mind buying my kids an xBox that's in the living room whereas I'm very concerned about a phone in their pocket.
Social media as digital dopamine is certainly a component (and hard to argue against sometimes, “Hell is Other People” and all that), but not the only component.
If people are happy in this scenario, who am I to tell them they’re not. Are they happy? If not, what is the reality expectations gap?
You assume people are happy, you should not by default assume anything. Looking at the trend it is shifting age groups over time which is usually an economic indicator but might very well be a complex correlation of factors.
I know a couple people that are deeply unhappy with their lives, but they are happily using some of the mentioned games and media to distract themselves from that fact all day. Then they go to bed and can't sleep, because they are no longer distracted from it.
They're very happy to have those distractions, though. Is that good for long term happiness? Probably not.
