> Improvements in video-game technology help account for young men’s detachment from the labor force, according to a 2017 paper by economists from Princeton, th

> Improvements in video-game technology help account for young men’s detachment from the labor force, according to a 2017 paper by economists from Princeton, the University of Chicago, and the University of Rochester. It found that an increase in the playing of video games by men 21-30 accounted for somewhere between 38% and 79% of the differential in the decline in their time spent on paid work vs. the smaller decline of work by older men. Attributing economic trends to video games seems lazy and dumb, given all the other potential factors. The de-facto decriminalization of marijuana isn't mentioned, and as much fun as it might be, there is nothing harmless about it, and drug use appears in pretty much every other explanation of social decline for other groups, but we don't seem to talk about it. It isn't boomer ditch weed shake anymore, it's 25% THC. In Toronto, even illegal dispenseries were given essential service status during lockdowns. That's only in the last 5 years, but those are the critical career years difference between 25 and 30 for one of the biggest demographic boom generations in the last century, and this sets their trajectory. These men just weren't raised well or with adequate tools. It's that simple. Many have been actively sabotaged by parents who used their kids as a source of narcissistic supply. Their dads' heroes were rock stars, who in hindsight were mostly guys who dressed like women and made a spectacle of complaining. Boomer and Gen X men as a cohort weren't much to emmulate. Compared to defeating global totalitarianism or building the internet, those in-between generations of corporate rock and blockbuster movies were a pitiful enterprise. While I sympathize with the story of these young men, talking about mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse among young women is effectively taboo. Therapist friends tell me that young women are drinking themselves blind to hook up with randoms because they feel pressured to by their peers who encourage it to justify themselves. Sure, some really like it, but the ones who actually do don't challenge their friends to keep up with them. Peaches wrote a great song about how the rest of them feel. (Interestingly, Peaches ultimately became what she truly wanted to be: she is millenial womens' Joni Mitchell. When it lands what that means, you can begin to see.) The article isn't about young women, but they're suffering just as much and they are so much more harmed by the culture because their stakes are higher. That men need each other with privacy to develop and thrive is an ancient principle, and almost impossible in modern society. However, the solutions are still right here, but they require effort, persistence, and risk - the very things that society makes the most scarce of all. Put simply, men are not meant to look at pictures and representations, we are meant to live in the world and engage it directly. It's time to wake up.