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It's easy to think, as long as there are an even number of lonely people in an area you can just pair them up and everybody can have companionship. And yet, th
by tlb 8y ago
It's easy to think, as long as there are an even number of lonely people in an area you can just pair them up and everybody can have companionship.
And yet, the world is full of buildings full of people, most of them lonely. Or all watching TV instead of talking to each other.
Walking into a room full of lonely people and trying to make them all feel less lonely is incredibly hard! There seems to be a shortage of people who are good at it. It therefore seems like a reasonable thing to try automating.
- magic_beans 8y agoWouldn't it be easier and cheaper to simply teach people how to have conversations with other people? Social skills are just expected to develop naturally. But social grace and the ability to have a good conversation with someone are SKILLS -- they need to be learned and honed. Before we start automating companionship, why don't we start teaching people how to communicate with other people?
- tlb 8y agoParents, schools, churches, and society have been trying for 1000s of years. So "why don't we start?" isn't the most useful question. Ask "why has this perpetually failed?" I think in this case, skills aren't the limiting factor. Most people have them, but not sufficient motivation to overcome shyness and fear of rejection. Education can teach skills, but not give people motivation.
- rubidium 8y agoAnd have succeeded until relatively recently... technology isn’t the solution to this.
- jayd16 8y agoYou act like these people were alone their entire lives. If we're talking about a retirement home, I'm sure it has more to do with all your friends passing in front of you.
- nopinsight 8y agoPeople need to share some commonalities or worldview to communicate well especially at some depth, which is a prerequisite for long-lasting friendships. Career specialization, accelerating changes in lifestyles across generations and groups, social stratification, and having more individual choices in media consumption likely contribute to increasing social isolation in general.
- nopinsight 8y agoPeople love to have communities they connect with at a deeper level. This and the above help explain why top hi-tech centers like Silicon Valley and NYC tend to propagate themselves and even mid-tiered hubs find hard to compete with. Decisions by Google and Amazon to expand in NYC despite high cost-of-living are examples of their effects.
- watwut 8y ago> It's easy to think, as long as there are an even number of lonely people in an area you can just pair them up and everybody can have companionship. That is not how human relationships and psychology works.