this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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It didn't used to be. At least for me and i don't recall constantly seeing posts on social media about how lonely and sad everyone was or how to make friends. Now every other magazine article is about how lonely everyone is, nobody gets together, and gen Z doesn't socialize, drink, or have sex.

Why is there such an epidemic of loneliness and why are people content to be lonely rather than socialize?

Why is so hard to connect? Because people having nothing in common anymore? I used to connect with people over books, movies, hobbies, etc. But now it feels increasingly hard to do that. Most folks I meet don't care about any of that, they just mostly complain about their lives to you or go on political rants about how unfair the world is.

My friends and my dates no longer seem to watch films, or do much of anything other than spend time on social media? I dont' use social media so I'm pretty ignorant of it all.

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Everyone else didn’t have these social media options. So, a lot more people were seeking interaction via community locations.

I think certain shared topics like religion have fallen aside too; even if you find Sky Man to be silly, it was quite often a good reason for people to gather and chat.

Increased media also means we have limited time and attention spans. We have such a ridiculous number of options for how we use our eyes, it feels wasteful to commit them to one thing, even just socializing, for a long period.

It’s not impossible to break the cycle if you recognize how everyone else also recognizes the issue. But being open with others, especially being the initiator everyone appreciates, takes practice.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

tbh I have given up on being initiator because it is so draining to be around people who actively choose to be unhappy despite their life being objectively great.

like i went on a date two weeks ago with a new woman I met... she spend 45m complaining about her stocks don't doing as well as she wanted, her tennis game not being as good as she wanted, etc. it was frustrating and annoying how selfish and self-important she was. i find this experience to be very common... people are super negative and refuse to be positive about their circumstances. this person was living a life better than like 99.5% of everyone else. but seemed to think their life was a failure because they were not a billionaire or something.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

This is the biggest reason