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Comment by alistairSH | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I misread some of the article, but seems like younger people just "suck" at being alone? IE, older people are less likely to feel lonely when they're physically alone? I wonder if that's because older people are more likely to have a solo hobby - reading a book, knitting, whatever - and younger people are more likely to "doom scroll" online?

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It's a bit weird. They didn't find any loneliness among the gender divide, but it also did note that Gaming among males has drastically increased. But on top of that, Gaming seems to be average in terms of satisfaction but still highly rated as "the worst use of your time".

It may suggest some internal polarization. There's a lot of young people who can more or less get by being a pseudo hermit between gaming, remote work, and necessities. But the ones who can't suffer greatly on a mental level. I wonder if breaking down games by genre or format would reveal anything?

Regardless, it did also say the primary factors overall have to do with economic, social, and community strength. It's no real secret by now thst Gen Z has had all the structures of yester-decade pulled up from under them. Job market is stonewalled for graduates, third places are dead or near-dead for community building, and social media further ruined a lot of incentive to meet locals in a physical setting.

Being someone from gen z, it feels like there's no opportunity for anything. Not just jobs or economic opportunity, but social ones as well. I graduated high school and started college in the wake of covid so I feel extremely developmentally behind. I do some volunteer stuff in my area but I don't actually "know" or enjoy time with them outside of our volunteer work because they aren't my age or in my stage of life. I don't even play games anymore because the pressure of "making it" makes me feel worse than before playing a game.

Your comment caught my attention as I’ve noticed GenZ comments on social media making a major point about stage of life and age. Curious to know why your friends need to be your age and in the same stage of life? I’ve always had friends that are older by 15 years, and now also younger by 15 years. So Millennials to Boomers and we connect on interests, hobbies, sports teams, hikes, walks, climbing, games, favourite beverages (beer, cocktails). My 2 cents: Over the years, friends of different ages have been essential for connections, opportunities, referrals for services, housing, advice and learning from other people’s experiences (aka the easy way).

Education was a major casualty of the pandemic that gets ignored, of course students have routinely been screwed throughout history because they don't have a voice. That said every generation gets screwed by the real world at some point. For millenials it was the 2008 financial crisis. My sister graduated college that year and the labor market was just brutal. As unceremonious an initiation as it gets. As for opportunities, the world is changing. The America that boomers built is dying, meanwhile tech and social media corrupts everything else. I wish I had advice for young people, but I'm at a loss as well and can only rant. My only hopeful prediction is that in the future we'll see a cultural rejection of the abundance and noise we have created and return to sincerity, intimacy, and a rediscovery of the great things of our past.

Gaming is frequently social activity. People play games with their real life friends, schoolmates, colleagues and friends. And they chat while playing in a similar way they would chat over a beer. You can not just assume that "playing video game" equals being alone.

Young people who still go to school, including college, are in a company of peers massive amount of their time.

Depends on the game and habits. An MMO is very different from a singe player platformer. Which are both different from a casual mobile game with some async competitive modes (words with friends).

As for school, keep in mind the rage of Gen Z these days goes from high school to nearly 30 years old (many people cutoff at 1997-2010). The midpoint of this generation is just starting to get out of school these days and "enter" the workforce. To a rude awakening that nothing is in fact working.

I do not nit understand what any of that has to do with transition to work. Simply, in real life, I have observed a lot of socializing mixed with gaming. Both boys and girls, altrought boys somewhat more and both adults and kids altrought kids a lot more.

The way boys used to go out and play soccer or basketball where they mixed socialization and sports they do the same with games.

So consequently on can not just see them play games more and assume they are lonely more.

The article mentions young people being disproportionately more lonely it's merely an observation of what the age group we consider tebcurrent "young people" are.

>So consequently on can not just see them play games more and assume they are lonely more.

Well that was an interesting part. Boys are spending more time playing games . Bit boys didn't report feeling more lonely than girls.

Did we all agree to completely forget that the Great Recession happened and that the job market is right right now?

USA had low unemployment rates.

If by "we", you mean a few dozen billionaires, then yes. Yes we did.

But also, no government really wants to admit it's a recession until they can no longer deny that even their fake numbers (GDP, "unemployment") are falling.

I game and I consider it a waste of time. But it is a decent way to not think, or distract your brain by thinking about what's happening in the game. It's an escape from the misery of life, even if it's only temporary.

Whether or not it’s a waste of time depends on other factors IMHO. For example if it’s the evening and I’m too mentally exhausted for anything that takes brain power, it doesn’t feel like as much of a waste because I wasn’t going to be doing anything “worthy” of the time anyway.

Well my Job is in games so I can't really answer here unbiased. I definitely game less as I job seek but I consider most of my gaming to still be passive research in a way. Like any other craft you simply approach, critique, and sympathize with games in a different way if you spent years professionally developing them.

Younger people who feel alone are missing out on life experiences. Older people who are alone now may have already had those and no longer need them.

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