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There's a theory out there, "to see what the West will look like in 10-20 years, look at Japan today". It's most commonly applied to economics (permanent low gr

There's a theory out there, "to see what the West will look like in 10-20 years, look at Japan today". It's most commonly applied to economics (permanent low growth, low inflation and ZIRP) and demographics (falling birth rate), but I think it's true of the NEET and hikikomori phenomena as well. The "unemployed young male who just plays video games" demographic that recently got a writeup in the WSJ certainly seems to parallel Japan's NEETs. With hikikomori, it's more anecdotal, but when I flick through my Tumblr feed I feel like I see a lot of people who state outright that they just can't function outside. I think in a few more years it will be noticeable enough that we can say it's happening here "for real"

TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
Consider, though, that people who can't function outside would be more likely to use the web (because they have little else to do). So it's not necessarily representative.
sotojuan 10y ago
> when I flick through my Tumblr feed I feel like I see a lot of people who state outright that they just can't function outside. I'm going to sound rude and this is out of anecdotal experience (and I know some people actually can't function outside) but you should be careful when people on Tumblr say that. I've found most are just bored or lonely teenagers who self-diagnose themselves random things like Aspergers, ADHD, depression, etc. for whatever reason (sometimes for a valid reason related to family/household dysfunction, other times just to appear more interesting and to fit in online). When I used Tumblr five or so years ago I remember following these people and the ones I kept in touch with well, to sound rude again, grew out of it.