Gen Z the Loneliest Generation

I've watched this play out first hand with the family across the street from me.

Parents are outgoing, friendly people and a joy to talk too.

When I first moved here their kids were small. Their father put up a basketball hoop and playground equipment in the yard. Not once have I seen one of their children outside playing or using it.

A couple of years later he puts up a nice pen so they can have rabbits trying to get his kids outside. Once again only the father took care of the animals and not once did I see a kid outside.

Now the kids are grown and one has moved back in with his wife an kids. Now the grand kids are never outside doing anything.

I have never seen his kids growing up except them going to and from a car to go somewhere. Really odd since their dad is always outside working on things and always trying to lure them outside. He's restored two old Army Jeeps, alone as his teenage boys never come out or show interest. The dad does all the yard work and his boys never help him.

Gen Z

a reply to: JAGStorm

Yep we are social creatures and technology is messing up our youth.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Sounds like my brother and his children.

My brother has done everything, except what I told him to do, to get his boys interested in the outdoors, and he has five acres in the woods.

The thing I told him to do, that he won't do? Shut down the Wi-fi.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

We ration it for our kid. He spent a good hour outside tonight and went to practice.

We make sure he does stuff before he gets plugged in.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

I think that's an important part of parenting these days.

Nothing wrong with the electronic devices at all, but just like all other things in moderation.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Well, what is happening imo is that the kids are not culturally integrating with each other. They are culturally integrating with their phones, basically, in some sort of networked society. Culturally integrating would be like having shared experiences or values or cultural functions to help build trust and companionship and community.

So - a networked society allows someone to be an individual at the fullest, and find other people online who share their views, hobbies, or whatever. A society based on the physical plane means that people meet someone else based on location, not shared interests or values, and have to work together to compromise and integrate their views into a larger whole, or something like that, anyway.

Like... I used to hang out with my friends pre-social-networking and we would decide together what to watch or play. These days, you decide you wanna play anything you want, and meet up with people who also do that...

I find that scientific research does a better job of describing what is going on with the world than speculation and divination, but - I do have my ideas.

AT any rate. I think this is a temporary phenomenon. We should be returning to our regularly scheduled pre-internet cultural status at some point imo. Maybe both worlds will co-exist.

If it's an unhealthy situation for the human race, the human race will reject it or adapt to it in a manner to make it healthy. I would say within ten years, ten years is a LONG time these days.

Look at anything that gets taken to extremes, it hits a breaking point at some point where it simply can't progress in that direction anymore and most of the time things change then.

Assuming the statistic is correct; I don't think technology is the only contributing factory. I'm tail end Gen X and we've had our techno gadgets for most of my memorable life; they use to tell us that walking around with our walkmans would make us maladjusted.

I think the real contributing factor is the utter lack of community facilities and the fact that kids today aren't allowed to go out into the world and make friends on their own.

When I was my kids age I remember being out biking with my friends. No one was watching us, and on our advantures we bonded.

Now you get a police officer come to your door if they find your 9 year old kid wondering the neighborhood with out adult supervision.

Now parents work so much that they are way to tried to think about having theirs kids friends come over and play.

Its little wonder these kids feel lonely; our society has taken away all their childhood interaction.

"Nothing can harm you more than your own unguarded thoughts" -Buddha G.

originally posted by: EternalShadow
I honestly believe these gadgets facilitate subconscious, isolationist behavior.

Absolutely 100% agree with you. When I was a teenager you had to actually socialize with people. Nobody had smartphones yet back then, so everyone actually talked and interacted with one another. It was an entirely different social environment, and a much better one.
I'm not surprised at all that people nowadays feel lonely.

Gen Z the Loneliest Generation

Hmm, feeling lonely while surrounded by people is nothing new. I recall moving to a large city when I was young. Always plenty of crowds around, but knew nobody there other than superficial professional relationships. Plenty of times I felt lonely there, and this predated isolating electronic gadgetry like smart phones by decades.

Cheers