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I wonder the mental health aspects of this trend. I’m just an observer not a scientist but it seems to me that more and more people including myself feel lonely

by swman 5y ago

I wonder the mental health aspects of this trend. I’m just an observer not a scientist but it seems to me that more and more people including myself feel lonely. It leads to depression and anxiety. I really think we are steering ourselves into some weird evolution by deciding to go go so reclusive. People need to gather and understand each other not go into remote silos surrounded only by family and super close friends. I really liked the office environment because at least I got to be around people working on the same mission. Still a bit too uneasy to go back into the office though because of other reasons.

laurocaetano 5y ago
> I really think we are steering ourselves into some weird evolution by deciding to go go so reclusive. People need to gather and understand each other not go into remote silos surrounded only by family and super close friends. It's important to remember that relationships at work are artificial, meaning that they just exist because that's how our society is organized at the moment. In other ages, we would have mostly interacted with our family and friends, taking care of our kids and kids from other families/friends from our village or community. I think that the way we live at the moment (working at the office) is not natural at all. We spend the whole day with people we barely know, and that the relationship is built on top of a working agreement. It can easily happen that you are surrounded by lots of people, and still be/feel lonely.
octokatt 5y ago
It’s important to note that we’ve been working-from-pandemic, not quite working-from-home. In a normal WFH, you could go to a coffee shop, or a co-working space, and get more of the casual social encounters humans need. I agree with the idea that we’ve removed a lot of casual social encounters (in much of the US), and as a result a lot of folk don’t get to meet new people outside of work. I’m hoping we get back to more third-places, ideally without needing to spend large amounts of money to be out with new people. Co-housing, integrated walkable city planning, and reinvestment in public programs would all help with this. I hope we get back there.

by swman 5y ago

laurocaetano 5y ago

> I really think we are steering ourselves into some weird evolution by deciding to go go so reclusive. People need to gather and understand each other not go into remote silos surrounded only by family and super close friends. It's important to remember that relationships at work are artificial, meaning that they just exist because that's how our society is organized at the moment. In other ages, we would have mostly interacted with our family and friends, taking care of our kids and kids from other families/friends from our village or community. I think that the way we live at the moment (working at the office) is not natural at all. We spend the whole day with people we barely know, and that the relationship is built on top of a working agreement. It can easily happen that you are surrounded by lots of people, and still be/feel lonely.

octokatt 5y ago

It’s important to note that we’ve been working-from-pandemic, not quite working-from-home. In a normal WFH, you could go to a coffee shop, or a co-working space, and get more of the casual social encounters humans need. I agree with the idea that we’ve removed a lot of casual social encounters (in much of the US), and as a result a lot of folk don’t get to meet new people outside of work. I’m hoping we get back to more third-places, ideally without needing to spend large amounts of money to be out with new people. Co-housing, integrated walkable city planning, and reinvestment in public programs would all help with this. I hope we get back there.