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Comment by bboygravity | Hacker News Reader

Hypothesis: so many adults have mental issues such as depression because they grew up with parents going to the office a lot of the time (for no good real reason other than "manager wants me to").

Most kids grow up without their parents really being there for them all the time. I feel this must be especially harmful the younger the kids are.

I personally find it completely inhumane and the whole going to the office thing makes 0 sense to me. I mean it makes sense that managers want to physically feel in charge of their herd, but that's obviously not a good reason from my perspective.

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I think it's more likely to be the opposite: we're creating more mental issues by being more isolated from everyone outside our immediate family. "Stranger danger," watching screens or talking on the internet instead of hanging out in person with other kids/teens, etc. Generations that don't know how to meet people or talk to people outside of pre-arranged circumstance/activities or explicitly-circumscribed situations like "if you connect on Tinder, it's for dating or sex."

The mental issues you describe hit everyone, even that vast majority of people who go in to work every day. I would more readily ascribe them to the declining amount of healthy “third places” (i.e. neither work nor home) in modern US society, not remote jobs.

The comment I was replying to put the blame for mental health on "parents having jobs outside of the home during childhood." I think there are far more impactful socialization changes to the childhood experience in the last fifty years than just that; I'm not suggesting that a three year spike in remote work has caused immediate widespread harm.

The fact that I don't want to go to the office doesn't mean I don't want to go out :D

I would even argue that working from home would increase the likelihood of going out and socializing after work. As you might want to get out of the house after for a bit and you have been spending time with family throughout the day. Where working at the office means you only have evenings to spend with family.

I don't want to go to an office, but I still am very social & go out all the time. This is the case for most people I know. In fact, if I didn't have to commute for 2 hours a day I'd have more time for social activities.

I'd also love to have some extra time to be able to go to the gym, but right now I'm getting home, cooking, eating, and suddenly it's past 9pm and I'm having to think about getting stuff ready for work the next day.

I disagree, it's way easier to meet people now that I don't loose 1.5h every day. I also eat better and have more energy, so I can go to the climbing gym/the sea every day, which I couldn't when I was in a office.

I talk to my neighbors every day. Working from home let's me feel connected to the community I actually live in, it's awesome. I actually find I really like socializing with people outside of our industry. It's a breath of fresh air.

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