Great ideas!! Especially the concept of mutual aid communities, I bet they could be implemented right now. If only we could get a bunch of engineers to build a worldwide, decentralized, nonprofit platform to organize them...
GenZ here. 95% of my life so far has been spent alone lol. Prices for everything are crazy, a 1-BR apt cost 2-3K a month, and jobs barely pay enough to cover that while taking up half my waking hours. I've totally burned out
I'm 22, going through something similar. Been a tech nerd since I was a kid. I don't mind programming, but I can't do it outside my day job anymore. I basically spend all my free time writing, sketching, and going outside. Connecting with life in this way strengthens my mental battery for the challenge of coding.
I support your optimism and believe we can move in that direction. However I still believe you severely underestimate the scale of misery, solitude, and unmet desires amongst humanity. Also, you mention it won't be possible to make everyone perfectly content, implying some will be more content than others. How is that fair? Why must some have fewer friends, lovers, positive experiences, adventures, achievements etc? This is a fundamental psychological inequality in the world that could only be balanced by AI.
I agree with the sentiment, but tbh a lot of people suffer alone on this planet and designing societal structures to serve absolutely everyone's emotional needs would be impossible. An AI would be perfect for all the misfits, elderly, loners, disabled, "ugly," outcasts, etc, right?
Thanks for this. Your last paragraph was a good wake-up call. I was definitely exaggerating, and I fear exactly the scenario you laid out for my future. Aside from a minor Twitter obsession, I'm learning to use my phone far more like a tool than a companion. I've realized that even if content on the Internet is far better than whatever I make in real life, I'll only ever be satisfied by what I achieve.
That's a great way of living! I like how you make yourself very available to the ones you love. Honestly you've inspired me to reprioritize who I spend my social energy on over the phone.
Sorry to upset you, I was being overdramatic. My goal was to convey how powerless I feel when scrolling through infinite amounts of creative, funny, or intelligent content that I can't recreate at all in reality. However, I am slowly learning how to use the Internet as healthy inspiration rather than as a way to escape my own insecurities and shortcomings.
You are right, I was being sarcastic there. It comes from a place of hurt because for me the Internet was the only substitute I had for many of the formative, stimulating relationships and experiences in real life that I've badly wanted to find in my youth.
I'm part of the new generation and I think the opposite. I am obsessed with my phone and the Internet. And I don't think it's bad. It's extremely stimulating in a way real life is orders of magnitude worse at. Point of reference, born around 2000. There's no going back for me. I want my phone at all times to have access to billions of possible thoughts, pictures, memes. It's literally a god like power.
Thanks for the positive message. As I've grown older and matured, I've learned to be content and even amusedly appreciative of both the beauty and many flaws of the world. I've also developed a better relationship with myself through writing more and giving myself the time and space to think about and appreciate who I am and how far I've come.
Hope you have beautiful day and a beautiful life ahead.
You bring up some good points, I agree the vaccine was a miracle and I hope we can find many more cures to all the diseases out there. However, I personally am more gloomy about how countries are witholding information about the origins of the pandemic, nations without domestic vaccines have been left behind with who knows how many dead, lockdowns + economic pains + supply shortages + postponed elections have led to terrible crises like the war in Ethiopia or the overthrow of democratically elected leaders like in Myanmmar.
As for the "community," that has slowly been disintegrating in modern societies around the world. I can only personally attest to not feeling like I belong to one myself, whether it be a neighborhood, church, workplace, or anything else that people find community in. Not necessarily for lack of trying, but for not finding a group of people who deeply understand and accept me - aka loneliness.
Yes you're right. We do have many modern conveniences and information they didn't have. So why would we go backwards on this key metric of home prices and rent? Or housing as a percentage of household income? It is an economic, social, and moral failure (see the situation in Los Angeles)
Back in the 60s, people were buying homes in their early 20s or even late teens because it was that affordable. Obviously that is a bit of a historical anomaly, but it's almost a necessary complement to the idea you're supposed to become an adult and mature and grow up after age 18.
Certainly. I do have friends and family who show me love, and I try to do the same. We're all inconsistent and imperfect in showing this love, and that is okay, but I think part of the problem is that our current way of life almost sociopathically doesn't value exploring and expressing love between ourselves, especially between strangers. Not sure whether there should be any cause for optimism that this societal structure will change soon.
Saw that my above comment in which I opened up about my loneliness got down voted. This is why I withdraw from society and experience loneliness. Loneliness is the fundamental nature of my existence; it is a deep spiritual feeling that is both tragic yet freeing. Read about Buddhism they understand how to redirect loneliness in a positive direction.
Yup!! I've been lonely for a long time and for a year or two become obsessed with urban design as one of the many factors that can isolate us and make us feel inhuman. Hope it improves for the sake of future generations
Good point on agency. Throughout their lives GenZ has either had less agency or felt like we have less agency to do what we want. Certainly true for some financial goals like buying a house
Good distinction. I spend time with enough people. Loneliness as I feel it is despair at not being deeply understood and unconditionally loved. Which by the way is practically impossible and an inherent flaw of the human design.
I used to read the newspaper everyday and cared about societal issues. After this pandemic & the response to it, I've lost all faith and excitement about society. My loneliness will only get worse