We are heading towards more loneliness

[BurnedOut]

Social disconnection, which is rising across age groups, appears to have worsened after 2012, when smartphones and social media became virtually ubiquitous. An international study of high school students found that between 2012 and 2018, school loneliness increased in 36 of 37 countries (Twenge, J. M., et al., Journal of Adolescence, Vol. 93, No. 1, 2021).

I miss those old times when I'd expect a ring on the telephone and not have my friends piercing through the phones into Instagram and then all of us would sit silently

 

[ZenRaiden]

Yeah of only we could get out doors and not be glued to the screen.

Gonna be honest I agree with the sentiment, but people absolutely need to take accountability, its the same shit as COVID.

COVID is terrible, but no one went outside and enjoyed a walk in the park even if their life depended on it.

Its like people forgot there are options.

 

[Old Things]

I spend less than 10 hours of in-person social engagement every week, not including corporate church, and I don't feel lonely in the slightest.

 

[Cognisant]

What I love about this forum is that it's small.

The modern world is too crowded, too interconnected, we're simultaneously over-socialized and lonely, people are afraid to bother each other.

This is, for me, part of the appeal of moving out to a rural town, when there's only a couple hundred people around and a single bar in town it really doesn't take much effort to meet people and become part of the community.

I spend less than 10 hours of in-person social engagement every week, not including corporate church, and I don't feel lonely in the slightest.

As much as my values have changed I still don't think I could sit through a sermon without either the church or I catching fire.

 

[Old Things]

As much as my values have changed I still don't think I could sit through a sermon without either the church or I catching fire.

Don't knock it till you try it. That's my advice. There are different church services. Some more formal. Some are less formal. I can almost guarantee there is a church out there you would feel at home. There are even heavy metal churches.

 

[Puffy]

My perception of engaging with younger generations is that they seem to have less social skills than where my generation (millenial) were at the same age so this does seem likely to me.

 

[Old Things]

My perception of engaging with younger generations is that they seem to have less social skills than where my generation (millenial) were at the same age so this does seem likely to me.

I have zero doubt that Gen Z is far more lonely, depressed, and anxious.

 

[Puffy]

My perception of engaging with younger generations is that they seem to have less social skills than where my generation (millenial) were at the same age so this does seem likely to me.

I have zero doubt that Gen Z is far more lonely, depressed, and anxious.

Yeah, I mean, can you imagine what society will be like in 40 years when we're depending on this generation for leadership lol.

 

[Old Things]

My perception of engaging with younger generations is that they seem to have less social skills than where my generation (millenial) were at the same age so this does seem likely to me.

I have zero doubt that Gen Z is far more lonely, depressed, and anxious.

Yeah, I mean, can you imagine what society will be like in 40 years when we're depending on this generation for leadership lol.

It gets worse. Everything will be AI so people will have no idea how to think. Things like TikTok will totally take off, and everything will be about stimulus. People will become exceptionally nihilistic and depressed. Unless, of course, God steps in and does something with the culture.

 

[sushi]

probably a news technology will be invented to reverse this trend like telepathy.

the current loneliness is due to social media influence.

 

[melin376]

I miss when hanging out meant real conversations, not just sitting together scrolling on our phones.

 

[fractalwalrus]

Social disconnection, which is rising across age groups, appears to have worsened after 2012, when smartphones and social media became virtually ubiquitous. An international study of high school students found that between 2012 and 2018, school loneliness increased in 36 of 37 countries (Twenge, J. M., et al., Journal of Adolescence, Vol. 93, No. 1, 2021).

I miss those old times when I'd expect a ring on the telephone and not have my friends piercing through the phones into Instagram and then all of us would sit silently

From being able to ring doorbells, to being caught while walking down the street on everyone's fucking Ring doorbell.

 

[Kuu]

Nah, we're not.

I predict a massive backlash against the current social media and content addiction trends within 10 years, perhaps as soon as five. It's already starting but it will take a while to go into full swing. You can see that everyone is talking about it now, and its like in investing... its already on its way out when everyone is talking about it.

The dark times have peaked.

 

[BurnedOut]

I predict a massive backlash against the current social media and content addiction trends within 10 years, perhaps as soon as five. It's already starting but it will take a while to go into full swing. You can see that everyone is talking about it now, and its like in investing... its already on its way out when everyone is talking about it.

Too optimistic. The current gen's ontology of behavior also has AI playing a role. Have you seen today's kids watching Mr Beast or DIY YouTubers or other content farms that produces brainrot? Similarly, social media now uses AI to match people everywhere, emphasizes on proliferating trends to increase engagement. Nothing that social media suggests to you as ads and people is random anywhere. YOU are the new product in the assembly lines of trends. People derive so many things from social media especially instagram which is like a personal New York Times. Insofar the amazonization of social media is concerned, businesses also advertize themselves left, right and center on such platforms. The Trump fiasco regarding social media manipulation is a good reminder of how fucked up social media is getting. Mark suckerfuck even fucked whatsapp with the slutty status update pages and also provides something akin to Telegram channels. It's all fucked and of the apes are addicted to it. Perhaps you have not seen people scroll through 15-30 instagram reels at one go

 

[Kuu]

Yes I see all that. And you will be able to see the trend start to reverse in a few years. Ubiquitous AI will indeed accelerate its ultimate decline.

 

[Old Things]

Yes I see all that. And you will see be able to see the trend start to reverse in a few years. Ubiquitous AI will indeed accelerate its ultimate decline.

I do not see AI going away. There is way too much money invested in it. Trillions of dollars are invested into it, and those who invest in it are going to want to make a profit. The thing about AI is that it is useful. It simplifies things a lot. I've seen so much AI music in the last week. I think the people who invested in AI will do anything to make it profitable. That includes porn and other very questionable things to get their money back.

 

[Kuu]

I didn't say AI will go away. I said AI will accelerate the ultimate decline of social media and content addiction.

I can literally run a huge AI botnet out of my home PC. Run a local LLM model takes about a second to spit out a response. Would just need to cobble together some software to glue the social media site to the AI model in order to automate reading posts and generating responses. Then you can just log out and in another account, maybe through VPN, and do again. Suppose the whole thing takes about 5 seconds. If it ran 24/7 I could make 17,280 posts every day, fully automated, from my 2020-tier machine. Now imagine what corporations and state actors can do.

Unlimited AI bots destroy the value social media had for spying and manipulation if its all flooded with bots. It's like nuking the internet, turned into a radioactive wasteland. I would argue that's already a factor that was relevant in the massive political reversal in the US. They believed their own bots were actually people. They propagandized so much they blindsided themselves.

Unlimited content created on demand and rampant AI chatbots will destroy most people's interest in engaging social media because nothing will really be a shared experience, nothing will be real, and sorting through infinite heaps of shit is already incredibly tiresome. It will also suck out the pleasure of creating things, as the novelty value wears off fast and the profit making is a race to the bottom in a massively saturated space.

Not to mention the coming of androids and that agentic AI systems will completely redefine how people interact with computing devices, heralding the end of the smartphone app era, and its associated "hunched down staring at screen" posture.

Therefore real physical experiences will have a huge revaluation.

 

[Puffy]

I didn't say AI will go away. I said AI will accelerate the ultimate decline of social media and content addiction.

I can literally run a huge AI botnet out of my home PC. Run a local LLM model takes about a second to spit out a response. Would just need to cobble together some software to glue the social media site to the AI model in order to automate reading posts and generating responses. Then you can just log out and in another account, maybe through VPN, and do again. Suppose the whole thing takes about 5 seconds. If it ran 24/7 I could make 17,280 posts every day, fully automated, from my 2020-tier machine. Now imagine what corporations and state actors can do.

Unlimited AI bots destroy the value social media had for spying and manipulation if its all flooded with bots. It's like nuking the internet, turned into a radioactive wasteland. I would argue that's already a factor that was relevant in the massive political reversal in the US. They believed their own bots were actually people. They propagandized so much they blindsided themselves.

Unlimited content created on demand and rampant AI chatbots will destroy most people's interest in engaging social media because nothing will really be a shared experience, nothing will be real, and sorting through infinite heaps of shit is already incredibly tiresome. It will also suck out the pleasure of creating things, as the novelty value wears off fast and the profit making is a race to the bottom in a massively saturated space.

Not to mention the coming of androids and that agentic AI systems will completely redefine how people interact with computing devices, heralding the end of the smartphone app era, and its associated "hunched down staring at screen" posture.

Therefore real physical experiences will have a huge revaluation.

That's an interesting take. What do you feel will likely take the place of social media and content creation websites like youtube?

I feel like a lot of people engage with social media, youtube or indeed this forum as a form of distraction and procrastination. Similar to the stereotype of the person whose glued to the TV to unwind after work. For as long as people have inertia there are going to be things they want to suck their time into. What do you feel that will be in an AI saturated world?

 

[Kuu]

I don't think they'll go away, they'll just fade away like this and all other forums did. An AI saturated world is not a problem if you stop consuming AI slop in social media, tv shows, etc, and focus on real action.

You asked in another thread why people care about Elon Musk. One of his major things is that he pushed for actual, physical, objective progress, address hard engineering problems with real world consequences like electric cars, cheap space access, etc, rather than endless software slop like all the other silicon valley corporates sucking the entire society dry with IT for 30 years. Another fucking smartphone same as the one last year. Apps being updated for no reason, just redesigned UI to pretend there's any actual change. Subscription shit to literally enslave you and make you own nothing. Enshittification of everything. Massive amounts of labor and resources sunk into fucking trash.

In fact the age of software is itself probably near its end because of AI. Because its not just images or movies you can make on demand. AI that can code can now create software-on-demand. That means that its not just artists and writers or even coders that will be jobless. It means the entire business model of software apps is going extinct. There is no value in 99% of software if you can just have an AI make it on demand in 2030. The future of investing is data, energy/raw resources and hardware, and the wealthy people with sense are already moving towards that.

I feel like a lot of people engage with social media, youtube or indeed this forum as a form of distraction and procrastination.

It's a proxy for real world engagement, in a world where real action has been made nearly impossible. The present state of the world is unsustainable. And technology both erodes the social fabric as well as creates the tools to erode the political system.

Historically, large technological changes have always preceded large revolutions. That's why you're about to witness radical political changes. If radical political changes aren't made soon and fast, then you'll witness change by politics through other means, i.e. mass violence. The next 5 years will determine whether there will be a global renaissance or world war 3. In either case there won't be any more loneliness... you'll be alright, or you'll be dead.

 

[Old Things]

I didn't say AI will go away. I said AI will accelerate the ultimate decline of social media and content addiction.

I can literally run a huge AI botnet out of my home PC. Run a local LLM model takes about a second to spit out a response. Would just need to cobble together some software to glue the social media site to the AI model in order to automate reading posts and generating responses. Then you can just log out and in another account, maybe through VPN, and do again. Suppose the whole thing takes about 5 seconds. If it ran 24/7 I could make 17,280 posts every day, fully automated, from my 2020-tier machine. Now imagine what corporations and state actors can do.

Unlimited AI bots destroy the value social media had for spying and manipulation if its all flooded with bots. It's like nuking the internet, turned into a radioactive wasteland. I would argue that's already a factor that was relevant in the massive political reversal in the US. They believed their own bots were actually people. They propagandized so much they blindsided themselves.

Unlimited content created on demand and rampant AI chatbots will destroy most people's interest in engaging social media because nothing will really be a shared experience, nothing will be real, and sorting through infinite heaps of shit is already incredibly tiresome. It will also suck out the pleasure of creating things, as the novelty value wears off fast and the profit making is a race to the bottom in a massively saturated space.

Not to mention the coming of androids and that agentic AI systems will completely redefine how people interact with computing devices, heralding the end of the smartphone app era, and its associated "hunched down staring at screen" posture.

Therefore real physical experiences will have a huge revaluation.

That's interesting. Sorry for getting your view wrong, BTW.

I think one of two things is going to have to happen for people to continue to us social media if what you say is true:

1) ID checks to make sure you are a real person.
2) Some sort of pay-to-use mechanism to keep bots to a minimum. Even if it is a dollar, that will prevent a lot of misuse.

Musk is implementing both of these right now, actually.

 

[fractalwalrus]

I didn't say AI will go away. I said AI will accelerate the ultimate decline of social media and content addiction.

I can literally run a huge AI botnet out of my home PC. Run a local LLM model takes about a second to spit out a response. Would just need to cobble together some software to glue the social media site to the AI model in order to automate reading posts and generating responses. Then you can just log out and in another account, maybe through VPN, and do again. Suppose the whole thing takes about 5 seconds. If it ran 24/7 I could make 17,280 posts every day, fully automated, from my 2020-tier machine. Now imagine what corporations and state actors can do.

Unlimited AI bots destroy the value social media had for spying and manipulation if its all flooded with bots. It's like nuking the internet, turned into a radioactive wasteland. I would argue that's already a factor that was relevant in the massive political reversal in the US. They believed their own bots were actually people. They propagandized so much they blindsided themselves.

Unlimited content created on demand and rampant AI chatbots will destroy most people's interest in engaging social media because nothing will really be a shared experience, nothing will be real, and sorting through infinite heaps of shit is already incredibly tiresome. It will also suck out the pleasure of creating things, as the novelty value wears off fast and the profit making is a race to the bottom in a massively saturated space.

Not to mention the coming of androids and that agentic AI systems will completely redefine how people interact with computing devices, heralding the end of the smartphone app era, and its associated "hunched down staring at screen" posture.

Therefore real physical experiences will have a huge revaluation.

I've been wondering if they will have to compartmentalize the internet as hacking is also increasingly carried out by AI.

 

[fractalwalrus]

Historically, large technological changes have always preceded large revolutions. That's why you're about to witness radical political changes. If radical political changes aren't made soon and fast, then you'll witness change by politics through other means, i.e. mass violence. The next 5 years will determine whether there will be a global renaissance or world war 3. In either case there won't be any more loneliness... you'll be alright, or you'll be dead.

I'm currently writing a sci-fi piece on another platform about this very scenario.

 

[Drvladivostok]

Social disconnection, which is rising across age groups, appears to have worsened after 2012, when smartphones and social media became virtually ubiquitous. An international study of high school students found that between 2012 and 2018, school loneliness increased in 36 of 37 countries (Twenge, J. M., et al., Journal of Adolescence, Vol. 93, No. 1, 2021).

I miss those old times when I'd expect a ring on the telephone and not have my friends piercing through the phones into Instagram and then all of us would sit silently​

There's this interesting book called Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam, whereby he describe how there is a growing disintegration of the social cohesion found in America (and probably the western world), ha traced this decline since the 1940s and 1930s and only increasing in scale ever since.

What he calls errosion in social capital can be physically percieved by the decreasing numbers of social participation is nearly all fields of all demographics and the number of all recorded social events has decreased dramatically. We can easily draw a parallel towards the decrease of trust in western society and all it's charming implications.

The great Arab Philosopher Ibn-Khaldun, re-coined the term Assabiyah to describe this very social capitals owned by the individuals, just like all men dynasties and political entitied have a shelf life before collapsing due to inability and unwillingness to defend themselves, both physically and culturally.

In the next two or three decades we will see the major drop in birth rate, mass immigration, increase in crime rate, entropy of law and order, and political crisis. Just as the great fuedal lords will be replaced with their concept of divine rights, the powers that be in the western world will also be removed, but by whom?​

 

[Drvladivostok]

I think what people aren't talking enough about AI is the dangers of automation.

There will come a time - and I sincirely believe it will come in our lifetime - whereby the false modern perception of work being a net liability, to be mightily challenged by the simple observation of reality.

After the hundredth fail time of implementing policies defying natural law of IQ, the people from the left end of the bell curve will suffer first, they'll flock towards their government mandated benefits like moths to a lamp.

When people are left in idleness and is subsidized to quickly access short term pleasure, they become lazy, and degenerate, one only need to observe the decay of the british lower class, and skid row to realize that there is a distinction between objective well-being and desire for pleasure.​

Just because cocaine and being a couch potato feels good, doesn't mean it's actually good for you.

Modern life create a dangerous pincer whereby it manifacture the idleness of the labor class, but also provide the means to supply them through a possibility of lifelong idleness, whereby it facilitates their destruction.​

We ought to change this falacy, in the next decade or we'll perish.