- Registrado
- 4 de Jul, 2022
ChatGPT defines the "third place" as the following:
Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z have been on the receiving end of its death. Looking back I remember my childhood being curiously absent of other children. When not at school I rarely ever saw anyone my age playing in the street. Playdates had to be arranged weeks in advance, none of my friends ever just "stopped in" at my house nor did I stop in at theirs, nor did I hear about any such behaviors going on with my peers.
Children were in the house when not in school, the natural instinct of spontaneity and exploration was forced out of them from their first steps.
I visit my old neighborhood sometimes. I never see children playing, even on the weekends in summertime. In fact I never see anyone doing anything but errands, work, or lounging in their home. This seems like a minor issue, but remember the loneliness crisis young people are going through today.
This problem has wide reaching implications. Basically every western country is below replacement fertility. Why? No third places. I'm past the "WTF" stage, here's my point: the third place is dead in America, and for a lot of other Western countries too. Like it or not, you're going to see end times situations if we don't change this fast. Fertility isn't going up and it's everyone's problem sooner or later.
I often ask myself where to go to hang out or meet new friends. I find most places to be infested with the elderly. Drinking, golfing, shooting, basically anything public where old people could go, they are the supermajority. That's great for listening to Uncle Joe's war stories, but it's a recipe for national suicide. They are old, they are bitter, and they do not want to be spoken to. This creates a feedback loop where 2-3 childhood friends and your immediate family are the only people you can talk to.
What steps have you taken to minimize this in your life? If this were written 10-15 years ago I'd come across as some NEET incel, but the more I look into the loneliness epidemic the more I realize it's basically everyone from every walk of life affected by this.
Sometimes I feel like I'm in that movie the Infinity Chamber. You think you can leave, but there's no real escape. The only difference is instead of robots you're dealing with old people. You can go to the bar and "talk with people" but eventually you'll blink and realize it's another boomer. And then you black out from the alcohol and wake up in your bed again, having spent the night exclusively talking with people at minimum 10-15 years older than you.
Though not its whole purpose, I encourage viewers to use this thread as a way to fight this fresh hell in the only way we can: tell us, what do you do after work?
This is the most important issue facing America, and it is not in political discourse at all.
If we do not solve this problem, we will be the last generation.
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