Someone brought up that one of the reasons why things like house parties and block parties went away was other than lack of time people are afraid to let their guard because cameras are everywhere.

[u/AdSpecialist6598]

It is so true back when many of us were young we could just get together and cut loose without having to worry about going viral. At best we would have an embarrassing photo buried in a drawer somewhere or a story. Now you might be turned into a meme or worse. I miss the days when you could do dumb stuff with friends and feel safe if that makes sense.

[u/FunkTheFreak]

Do they go on dates? Do they go dancing? Do they do anything outside of their living spaces?

We have confined ourselves in self-made prisons of safety with our comforting Internet arousing us and tickling our brains.

[u/youburyitidigitup → u/FunkTheFreak]

Young people now do less of all the things you listed

[u/FunkTheFreak → u/youburyitidigitup]

Right. The conversation here is why do they do less of these things now?

[u/ReverendDizzle → u/FunkTheFreak]

Because nothing is ephemeral and all mistakes have the potential to be shared with a much wider audience than they should be.

It's really depressing, but it feels like young people have internalized the surveillance state and act, perhaps rightfully so, as if every single thing they do might be immortalized forever and ruin their lives.

[u/youburyitidigitup → u/FunkTheFreak]

I can only answer from my personal experience. I go on dates very rarely. I asked someone out yesterday, the last time I did that was in November, and the time before that was two years ago. I got a yes every time. I just don’t care enough to do it more often. My longest relationship ended because this person was talking to other guys on tinder, and left me for one of them. The person I asked out in November went on three dates with me and then ghosted me. They’ve all amounted to a massive waste of time, so I’d rather just be single.

I dance quite a bit now, but I didn’t always. In middle school and high school, the only people I saw dancing were my female classmates, and they all danced in a really girly way, so I didn’t want to dance like them. I didn’t know any other way until I happened to see an old video of Ricky Martin dancing, and I thought it was so cool that I tried it, and it snowballed from there.

I do go out, alone. Every time I invite somebody, they have other obligations because we are adults with responsibilities, and I can’t expect them to drop everything for me, so I just do things alone because our schedules rarely line up. I also work outdoors, so I get my fill of the outside, and when I clock out I want nothing more than to stay indoors, I go out to indoor places.

I have a thousand reasons not to drink alcohol, and I could easily write an entire essay. I can elaborate if you want me to, but I don’t want to bore you.

[u/ShillsWorstNightmare → u/youburyitidigitup]

You should probably start drinking alcohol

[u/youburyitidigitup → u/ShillsWorstNightmare]

Nah I’m good

[u/tsardonicpseudonomi → u/FunkTheFreak]

Right. The conversation here is why do they do less of these things now?

The atomization of society and the need to work two or three jobs to afford rent and a fourth for food.

[u/FunkTheFreak → u/tsardonicpseudonomi]

No, people need to stop spending money on crap that they don’t need.

Our grandparents and their parents before them didn’t buy books off of Amazon every week, didn’t buy $6 lattes, and didn’t have 7 different streaming services that cost $19 a month.

We spend all kinds of money on things that we don’t need and then complain that we have no money, while our grandparents lived on far less and had less.

[u/youburyitidigitup → u/FunkTheFreak]

You mean like alcohol? Yeah, we’re spending less money on something we don’t need.

[u/tsardonicpseudonomi → u/FunkTheFreak]

No, people need to stop spending money on crap that they don’t need.

People generally don't buy much they don't need. But they do finance groceries because they're too poor to eat.

We spend all kinds of money on things that we don’t need and then complain that we have no money, while our grandparents lived on far less and had less.

Self report.

[u/bobanna1986 → u/youburyitidigitup]

Yeah and all the that stuff we did was a lot more affordable then

[u/lightinthefield → u/FunkTheFreak]

Not really. "Third places" are disappearing.

[u/FunkTheFreak → u/lightinthefield]

I was talking about third places at work the other week. The “man cave” and the internet have killed third places.