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    How to leave the house

    (buttondown.com)
    54 points zdw | 11 comments | 27 Jun 25 00:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.653s | source | bottom
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    ajkjk ◴[29 Jun 25 13:57 UTC] No.44413205[source]▶
    I hate that I live in a world where people get a dog because socialization is so broken and a nameless interaction at a park is among the barrel-scraping interactions people are doing to cope with it. Like if it's gotten that bad we should be having a revolution, not getting dogs.
    replies(4): >>44413241 #>>44413457 #>>44413476 #>>44413567 #
    1. bluGill ◴[29 Jun 25 14:01 UTC] No.44413241[source]▶
    People have always been shy and unsure about meeting others. It is expressed different in different societies but the issue is there.
    replies(4): >>44413341 #>>44413357 #>>44413475 #>>44414410 #
    2. barbazoo ◴[29 Jun 25 14:14 UTC] No.44413341[source]▶
    Are you sure that people have always been shy as unsure about meeting others? I honestly can’t imagine that. That seems to be a modern thing to me but happy to be proven wrong.
    3. ajkjk ◴[29 Jun 25 14:15 UTC] No.44413357[source]▶
    No way. I mean, yes, but the magnitude changes. People are way less social today than they were even ten to twenty years ago.
    4. rightbyte ◴[29 Jun 25 14:32 UTC] No.44413475[source]▶
    There used to be this plethora of study groups, non-profit associations doing whatever, book circles etc to meet people in a somewhat formalised manner that wasn't a date.

    Big tech has displaced those and replaced them with nothing.

    replies(1): >>44414266 #
    5. paulryanrogers ◴[29 Jun 25 16:23 UTC] No.44414266[source]▶
    Book clubs are alive and well, my SO is part of two right now. I'm reading a book with coworkers and we'll be discussing in a few weeks.

    Some old traditions are now competing with a larger variety of physical and virtual activities. IMO you could blame the car as much as the smart phone.

    replies(2): >>44415385 #>>44422377 #
    6. Tade0 ◴[29 Jun 25 16:41 UTC] No.44414410[source]▶
    Not always, just in living memory.

    My grandparents are in their late 90s and they never had such issues. I was always amazed how they knew all their neighbours and visited each other without announcement. I guess it's something we lost with WW2.

    replies(1): >>44415306 #
    7. bluGill ◴[29 Jun 25 18:40 UTC] No.44415306[source]▶
    Some people were always like that.
    replies(2): >>44420379 #>>44423745 #
    8. queenkjuul ◴[29 Jun 25 18:51 UTC] No.44415385{3}[source]▶
    I blame the car more personally. My parents lived very isolated lives in the suburbs long before they got phones.
    9. Tade0 ◴[30 Jun 25 07:14 UTC] No.44420379{3}[source]▶
    Some people, yes, but a whole community?
    10. rightbyte ◴[30 Jun 25 12:21 UTC] No.44422377{3}[source]▶
    Blaming cars is an interesting theory. They spread out the practical community from like some mile or two to quite far. But can't fuzzy date 'the decline' with automobilism? Maybe the effects were delayed two generations?
    11. IAmBroom ◴[30 Jun 25 14:27 UTC] No.44423745{3}[source]▶
    Almost everyone was like that.

    I knew every neighbor on my block, growing up. If someone wasn't outgoing enough to join the neighborhood group events, they stood out.