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America Is Getting Lonelier and More Indoorsy. That's Not a Coincidence
- skfingngihg 3y agoIt just doesn’t seem like we have safe public places anymore. Some hood rats killed and raped a mentally disabled woman in a park near me. I want to retreat inside and protect my family.
- SamoyedFurFluff 3y agoAlternative question: how many Americans have enough free time to access the outdoors regularly?
- nervousvarun 3y agoEncountered a paywall so apologies if missing some context, but when you say free time do you mean they live far away and need to drive distances to parks? I’m American and I’m outside all the time. Walking the dog, or walking with my family, taking my daughter to the playground. I work full time and have a family but easily have time to walk every day. But maybe “outdoors” here means activities like hiking? If so I think I understand what you mean. That would be something most people could only do on weekends.
- SamoyedFurFluff 3y agoI understood it as hiking and camping, because the articles initial photo seemed to imply this.
- Clubber 3y agoProbably a lot. There's a lot of compelling entertainment today that didn't exist 20 years ago.
- theGnuMe 3y agoSure there’s something for everyone but 20 years ago people sat in front of cable tv ad infinitum.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoAnd 60 years before that dad sat in his chair reading the paper and listening to the radio until bed. Maybe the only thing keeping back the bmi was the dad in this time was smoking like a chimney and grew up slight and malnourished to begin with in the great depression.
- hasbot 3y agoAll of them if they reduced their television and Internet consumption. I think a bigger issue is nature isn't so much accessible to many. They paved paradise and put in a parking lot. I'm house hunting and so many neighborhoods don't have sidewalks or parks.
- hotnfresh 3y agoNature’s boring enough that it’s not really worth the downsides (bugs, travel for most people, humidity/ice/whatever) to go out and “enjoy” it in large stretches of the country. There are cities where the nicest outdoor areas in 200 miles wouldn’t make the top-100 list of outdoor areas in the same radius, for other cities.
- jwells89 3y agoBugs is a big one. I have a hard time enjoying wherever I’m at if there’s a bunch of mosquitos or wasps around for example, even if I’m wearing repellent. I guess that means I should move somewhere that’s frequently snowy if being outdoors often is a goal.
- bobthepanda 3y agoAlaska has pretty gnarly mosquitos.
- WalterBright 3y agoI've been told that Alaska has 4-engine mosquitoes.
- lupusreal 3y agoAlaska is much nicer in the winter, if you don't mind being cold.
- mattpallissard 3y agoWe also have no-see-ums, which I find more irritating personally.
- nohankyou 3y agoThey may have way too much free time, they just choose to spend it passively watching shows instead of being actively engaged in an activity. Indoors vs outdoors probably doesn't matter as much as how they are choosing to spend their free time in the first place. Are they indoors doing home renovations or art projects? Or simply binging the next new show on the couch?
- Spivak 3y agoThis is such a silly take, you're taking a real observation that people need to decompress but moralizing it rather than trying to understand it. While some activities you would call active can fill the need to destress the majority of them are passive. Creative hobbies are serious work until you're good enough at them you can turn your brain off while doing them. I can do it with programming but it's also my career and I've spent my 10,000 hours getting there. So people turn to reading, listening to music, podcasts, taking a bath, watching movies and TV, exercising, video games, or scrolling through their phones.
- nohankyou 3y agoMindlessly consuming content for hours on end is 'silly'. It's easier than doing something worthwhile, sure. Our society wasted a lot of hours doing idle things yet complains we don't have time to be social or get other things done. People aren't lonely, just too lazy to try. Yet they can watch every episode of Below Deck and feel ok with how they have spent their lives...
- kjkjadksj 3y agoThe problem isn’t taking time to decompress. Its that there isn’t any time being spent to be active. Most americans are sedentary and its super unhealthy. The fact we’ve established this lifestyle where people sit all day and feel tired from sitting all day and now have to sit all night to relax is terrible for personal health. As an animal we are meant to walk miles and miles foraging for resources and game. If we gave a dog the modern western lifestyle we’d call that animal abuse.
- 3y ago
- rayiner 3y agoAnnual hours worked in the US is down from 1900 to 1800 since 1970: https://www.jkgeography.com/growth-and-purpose-of-leisure-time.html https://www.jkgeography.com/growth-and-purpose-of-leisure-ti...
- tired-turtle 3y ago3/4 of Americans are overweight or obese, which, I suspect, precludes an appetite for the outdoors.
- iteratethis 3y agoAll of them, as statistics show how they spend hours of their leisure time on TV and their phone.
- pbj1968 3y agohttps://archive.ph/p7MW2 https://archive.ph/p7MW2
- paraboli 3y agoHow does this square with record-breaking attendance at every national park, record attendance at ski resorts and other outdoors venues, etc?
- lispisok 3y agoA minority of people got more into those activities but the US has a population of 330 million and the outdoorsy hotpots have little carrying capacity so now they are swarmed and overwhelmed.
- buggythebug 3y agoOne time events are different than what used to be everyday, social events. Also, hiking and skiing are not exactly the most social activities.
- ultrarunner 3y agoAs someone who spends a lot of time on trails, I can always tell when I'm getting within a half mile of a trailhead— I see another person or group of people. The best I can tell is that people want to connect with nature; they don't want to be outside. That's good enough motivation to plan a trip, especially to an easily selectable location. It's not quite enough to turn you into an outdoorsy kind of person, or transform "hiking" into more than just sort of walking around without aim.
- solardev 3y ago> The best I can tell is that people want to connect with nature; they don't want to be outside. What do you mean by this?
- digdugdirk 3y agoThe difference between a multi-day backpacking trip and a multi-day road trip that stops at 4 different national parks. Its very easy to be able to "see" beautiful places without "being" in them, if that makes sense.
- tayo42 3y agoOne thing i really liked about SF was I had 3-5 parks walking distance depending on how far you wanted to walk. (no they werent filled with homeless people) Its also something that keeps me in california. The author is in brooklyn, near my family, and every time i go back to visit i go crazy. There isn't anywhere out doors to go. In the winter its cold, everyone just stays inside. Even with family, the whole point of visiting, it sucks. Big cities are fun for a few days but I need to be back where I can walk around with space.
- solardev 3y agoHave you ever visited the Adirondacks or hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail? I haven't spent much time on the east coast, but there's a little outdoor stuff, no? And I bet the fall colors are beautiful there in Central Park?
- xboxnolifes 3y agoI think the point was "in walking distance". The Adirondacks from NYC is an entire planned trip, with rental car. Maybe there are more accessible outdoor activities near the city, but that in particular is definitely not a spur of the moment trip.
- solardev 3y agoFor sure. I was just curious.
- tayo42 3y agoYeah there are places to be outdoors, I don't think its as casual access as California while living close to the things make density nice. I can go on a few different hikes right now within a 10 min drive of my house. I go on short hikes on work breaks. I also have an international airport 30 minutes away. I think this author is talking about the middle ground between remoteness with nature access and living in a place like brooklyn.
- jp0d 3y agoIs it because of the work culture being too focussed on long working hours and lack of annual leaves? I don't really have any data to back it up. Just wondering if it's getting worse.
- milsorgen 3y agoI don't agree with that. It's at its root a cultural issue. People need a realignment of values so that being outside or amongst others is a better use of their time than the status quo. From that perhaps a rebalance of work and life will result but I don't think starting there would move the needle much.
- PumpkinSpice 3y agoThe work culture isn't putting kids in front of computer screens and discouraging outdoor activities. It's not even something you can control as a parent. My kid, 16 years old, walks to school on his own - but he's always back right after classes. And it's not that he's an outcast. That's just how they roll in the SF Bay Area. Other kids go home too, or they are shuttled by their parents to some organized after-school activities.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoIn LA county it seems super common to see teens going out on their own. Not sure whats different up north. I think most students get free metro passes. Its super common to see teenagers riding the trains or busses, if I’d guess on account of the cost of insurance here for young drivers.
- stillwithit 3y agoHow social do we need to be though? How much of that is real need and nostalgia for church and farm life? Let’s use technology to give people more time off, see what outside the box things they come up with. Everyone around me is an expert in some highly complex thing and we all go work in offices when there’s problems on our street the architects, general contractors, and electrical engineers could fix. But line must go up or we’re all commie trash, or some dumb shit.
- rpmisms 3y agoI live a rural life where my primary social outlet is church and I have a farm. It's so much better. I have a community of 200 people who I love, and maybe 20 people in my immediate circle. Let's do what actually works.
- swatcoder 3y agoI wonder what would happen thirty years after a society decided it wasn’t safe to let kids “go play outside”. Would people associate the outdoors with discomfort and danger? Would they forget how to explore and be curious? Would they have no nostalgia to inform them of what they’re missing? Maybe we’re finding out?
- spencerflem 3y agoI think this is it - Plus for anyone in a car-centric suburb there really isn't that much outside until you can drive
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- euos 3y agoDeath Stranding happens
- not2b 3y agoI get out and hike, since there are so many great and beautiful places in the SF Bay Area. I hate running, so I climb steep hills to get some cardio.
- efangs 3y agoOK explain to me why I have to book a campsite 6 months in advance
- john-radio 3y agoI'm not sure where you live, but try googling about the terms "free camping" or "dispersed camping" for your area. There are lots of natural areas (edit: in a lot of places) where you don't need a special permit to pitch your tent.
- kwk1 3y agoHypothesis: population growth looks like /, while public land growth looks like - or \ (e.g. cursory search for statistic shows federal acreage drop of 4.9% from 1990 to 2018)
- seattle_spring 3y agoIn a large part due to scalpers, and also people who book spots "just in case", but have no incentive to cancel if they end up not going.
- seattle_spring 3y agoDon't think folks in the PNW got the message, since trails and outdoor areas are bonkers crowded.
- eggplantpasta 3y agoIsaac Azimov took this idea to the extreme in the short story "It's Such a Beautiful Day".
- mufti_menk 3y agoWhy would people go outside when the internet offers them infinite entertainment and the illusion of social contact
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- teeektalker 3y agoWhy does Radioshack ask for my phone number when i go buy a battery? I don't know.
- arvinsim 3y agoStaying indoors with games and videos can only do so much. Sooner or later, we will get bored.
- blurr 3y agoI've been in tech for over a decade and started working from home post-pandemic. Living close to nature, I thought I'd be outdoors more, but no, I found myself desk-bound from dawn to dusk. It made stepping outside feel like a chore, and my breaks were often spent scrolling through reels. It didn't hit me until I started feeling down everyday—I was spiralling into some monotonous, lonely hell. To break the cycle, I scheduled daily walks. The walks, coupled with casual chats with passersby/neighbours, really lifted my spirits. It's a change I wish I'd made sooner.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoThe best part of working from home is truly seizing the morning thanks to not having to commute or put on business casual. Little walks before works are liable to turn into full blown 3 hour hikes at dawn before long. Very energizing to start the day at 9am and feel like you’ve already had plenty of sunlight and activity, especially this time of year when the sun sets so early.
- blurr 3y agoSpot on!
- system7rocks 3y agoI want to like the article. I subscribe to the Atlantic, but the article ends abruptly and raises some disparate study results which awkwardly point to some sort of hazy thesis. If we spend more time outdoors, we are more connected and less lonely? It's the trend of "asking questions" rather than making a clear statement. Can being outside increase our potential to be happier and more aware of our community? Probably. Maybe? That's it. That's the article.
- arroz 3y agoI think this could be linked to obesity
- SeanAnderson 3y agoThere's a reason people on Twitch say, "I touched grass today!" :) (https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=touch%20grass&hl=en https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge...) More seriously though, I feel this in my soul. I've worked remotely since pre-pandemic, so there's no need to leave the house to get money. I bought a weight rack, bench press, and created a solid at-home gym. Grocery runs were replaced with delivery during pandemic and never reverted. I'm currently single and more interested in technical passion projects than pursuing a partner. I've never owned a vehicle. It's shocking to me how this confluence of factors has made it all too easy to go a week (or two!) without going outside! I've been glued to my computer since I was a pre-teen, but only in the past few years has everything come together such that I'm entirely self-sufficient indoors. Existing outdoors is no longer a natural byproduct of my existence! FWIW, I do feel that there are benefits to going outside. I'm not championing my approach - just noting what's occurring. I feel our biology has not evolved at the same pace as our technology and I sense myself more at peace when I go for a run on the beach - even if I'm diligent with my Vitamin D supplementation :) Interesting times we're in, to be sure.
- GaryNumanVevo 3y agoOf course the great luxury that the American lifestyle offers is complete isolation from others. If you're a home owner, you're more than likely able to afford an in-home gym, any entertainment through your TV or computer, and order any food pre-cooked or groceries.
- nunez 3y agoOn one hand, I enjoy being around new and familiar people when the context is supposed to be social, like a meetup or a bar. On the other hand, I hate being forced to be social in non-social situations or when I want to be left alone, like in an airplane or at a restaurant (I really enjoy eating by myself; always have). I wonder if "being lonelier" these days means people are on their phones being in their zone when they want to be left alone instead of being forced to strike up small-talk, which makes me wonder whether people have always wanted this privacy but the technology wasn't available.