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Comment by IgorPartola | Hacker News Reader

I am not saying you are wrong but from what I understood that alcoholism and depression were quite prevalent in those times. Do you have sources for what you are saying?

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I was just using coal miners in Appalachia as a widely known example of poor people. I’m not familiar with those specific folks, but from personal experience, fisherman in Oregon, immigrant service workers in Queens, and farmers in Bangladesh have active social lives. My aunt and uncle live in Canadian high-rise housing projects and they have multiple large gatherings every week.

Well, considering both depression and alcoholism are quite prevalent today, I think we can just ignore that aspect.

An undiagnosed alcoholic (IMHO) I used to know,

would happily spend 6 hours any evening, drinking with anyone, gossiping about completely useless things.

They could be doing this with complete strangers whom they would never meet again,

they could even be doing this with someone visiting to let them know that they were going to sue them (actually happened at least once).

They thought they were very "social".

Yeah, if this is what "sociality" means, please spare me its gifts.

Aside from the drinking, what is wrong with the social activity you just mentioned? Or was your point that they only used it as an excuse to drink? Cause it would have surely been easier & cheaper to just drink at home on their own.

It's hollow and doesn't lead to any kind of friendship or bond. You might as well walk around blazed out of your mind and saying hello to everyone you pass on the street. It feels friendly but no connections are made.

I don't think leading to long term connections (although a big bonus) is a requirement for socialization to be positive. The alternative we discuss in this context is to being home alone.

But then, what is really the difference between chatting with a person on the street without a connection, vs an LLM without a connection? I guess I've had enough of the former to value it not much differently.

Whenever I visit a “chatty” country like the US or UK I enjoy the small talk and casual chit-chat and really miss it in grumpy and silent Central Europe :)

People are seriously fucking delusional.

The wonderful life of a coal miner in 1890 lol. It is just a completely insane idea.

OP knows their lives were miserable. Their point is that despite being more miserable their lives were worse in every way.

Take some take to think before casually dismissing others.

My dad grew up in a village in Bangladesh with no electricity, no telephones, little modern medicine. He remembers his childhood as a happy one, even though one in every four kids died before age 5. He’s materially better off in every way here in the U.S. But as to the specific point being discussed here, he had a richer social life with more and more frequent contact with friends and family than most americans I know.

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