Maybe I've just grown to be a cynical ass, but I don't think it's just kids, even me and my adult friends lament how it feels like there's really not that much

Maybe I've just grown to be a cynical ass, but I don't think it's just kids, even me and my adult friends lament how it feels like there's really not that much interesting to do outside of the home, and I am far from attached to a smartphone; often times I don't even bring a phone with me when I leave the house. The vast majority of the businesses in these parts are places where you either eat, or buy groceries. There used to be video rental stores everywhere, now they're rare. The malls are dead, the arcades are gone, the electronics stores are wiped out. When I was in California, I watched Fry's completely die over the course of a few years; I wonder how many nerds met lifelong friends just kind of hanging around places like Fry's. Political polarization has harmed social interaction in the meatspace, too. I really generally don't mind or think about political affiliation if it's not relevant, but if I walk into a building and it either feels like I've entered a Trump rally or it's plastered in performative wokeness crap, I'm just going to want to leave, because politics aside, at best it just feels cliché and begging for negative attention, and I'm probably going to find the kind of people who like this environment to be insufferable. Nowadays, I surprisingly often just see groups of kids aimlessly wandering grocery stores at night, seemingly not interested in actually buying anything, just kind of walking and talking. If it's because they don't know what else to do, I sincerely can't blame them, I don't even know what to do.