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my point is, the end goal of writing this kind of article isn't increasing the net amount of happiness in the world. the happiness argument is just a bunch of a

my point is, the end goal of writing this kind of article isn't increasing the net amount of happiness in the world. the happiness argument is just a bunch of anecdotal evidence that always conveniently supports the premise put differently, if enough people were getting married, having kids, etc, you wouldn't see this kind of article. it's not about making people happier, it's about pressuring people to do shit that's not in their self interest

lapcat 2y ago
> if enough people were getting married, having kids, etc, you wouldn't see this kind of article. it's not about making people happier, it's about pressuring people to do shit that's not in their self interest This is both exceedingly cynical and completely unsupported by the text of the article, which talks about things like public spaces, TV, smartphones, and dinner parties. Where exactly does the article prescribe marriage and kids as the solution?
- matrix87 2y ago
  > Men and women alike have been delaying family formation; the median age at first marriage for men recently surpassed 30 for the first time in history. Taggart wrote that the men he knew seemed to be forgoing marriage and fatherhood with gusto. Instead of focusing their 30s and 40s on wedding bands and diapers, they were committed to working on their body, their bank account, and their meditation-sharpened minds. Taggart called these men “secular monks” for their combination of old-fashioned austerity and modern solipsism. “Practitioners submit themselves to ever more rigorous, monitored forms of ascetic self-control,” he wrote, “among them, cold showers, intermittent fasting, data-driven health optimization, and meditation boot camps.”
  - lapcat 2y ago
    That wasn't a solution. It was just one of many statistics listed by the article. Also, the comment about secular monks mentions friends before spouses and children. It's about the total lack of other people: > What is most striking about these videos, however, is the element they typically lack: other people. In these little movies of a life well spent, the protagonists generally wake up alone and stay that way. We usually see no friends, no spouse, no children. The article talks about sixth graders, who are kids themselves and obviously can't get married and have kids: > In 1970, just 6 percent of sixth graders had a TV set in their bedroom; in 1999, that proportion had grown to 77 percent. And marriage in itself is obviously not the solution: > Time diaries in the 1990s showed that husbands and wives spent almost four times as many hours watching TV together as they spent talking to each other in a given week. Again, kids and teenagers can't get married and have kids: > American kids and teenagers spend, on average, about 270 minutes on weekdays and 380 minutes on weekends gazing into their screens The article talks about young people meeting friends. Again, this is not about marriage and having kids: > Young people are less likely than in previous decades to get their driver’s license, or to go on a date, or to have more than one close friend, or even to hang out with their friends at all. The share of boys and girls who say they meet up with friends almost daily outside school hours has declined by nearly 50 percent since the early 1990s, with the sharpest downturn occurring in the 2010s. I could go on and on: > The best kind of play is physical, outdoors, with other kids, and unsupervised, allowing children to press the limits of their abilities while figuring out how to manage conflict and tolerate pain. But now young people’s attention is funneled into devices that take them out of their body, denying them the physical-world education they need. It's only in your mind that this article is somehow a "marry and reproduce" message like in the movie "They Live".
dinkumthinkum 2y ago
Having kids is very beneficial. Money is not an end in itself. I think the fact that the child-free subreddit exists and that there so many “sinks and dinks” on social media highlight their “fantastic” lives with no kids says a lot more about them then they think it does.
watwut 2y ago
> if enough people were getting married, having kids, etc, you wouldn't see this kind of article. Having kids is pretty isolating and lonely experience in current society. Especially if one parents stays home for some time, that parents usually ends up super lonely. And when kids grow up, they are expected to leave and move for work or family. So you need to create yet another social network for old age.

lapcat 2y ago

> if enough people were getting married, having kids, etc, you wouldn't see this kind of article. it's not about making people happier, it's about pressuring people to do shit that's not in their self interest This is both exceedingly cynical and completely unsupported by the text of the article, which talks about things like public spaces, TV, smartphones, and dinner parties. Where exactly does the article prescribe marriage and kids as the solution?

matrix87 2y ago
> Men and women alike have been delaying family formation; the median age at first marriage for men recently surpassed 30 for the first time in history. Taggart wrote that the men he knew seemed to be forgoing marriage and fatherhood with gusto. Instead of focusing their 30s and 40s on wedding bands and diapers, they were committed to working on their body, their bank account, and their meditation-sharpened minds. Taggart called these men “secular monks” for their combination of old-fashioned austerity and modern solipsism. “Practitioners submit themselves to ever more rigorous, monitored forms of ascetic self-control,” he wrote, “among them, cold showers, intermittent fasting, data-driven health optimization, and meditation boot camps.”
- lapcat 2y ago
  That wasn't a solution. It was just one of many statistics listed by the article. Also, the comment about secular monks mentions friends before spouses and children. It's about the total lack of other people: > What is most striking about these videos, however, is the element they typically lack: other people. In these little movies of a life well spent, the protagonists generally wake up alone and stay that way. We usually see no friends, no spouse, no children. The article talks about sixth graders, who are kids themselves and obviously can't get married and have kids: > In 1970, just 6 percent of sixth graders had a TV set in their bedroom; in 1999, that proportion had grown to 77 percent. And marriage in itself is obviously not the solution: > Time diaries in the 1990s showed that husbands and wives spent almost four times as many hours watching TV together as they spent talking to each other in a given week. Again, kids and teenagers can't get married and have kids: > American kids and teenagers spend, on average, about 270 minutes on weekdays and 380 minutes on weekends gazing into their screens The article talks about young people meeting friends. Again, this is not about marriage and having kids: > Young people are less likely than in previous decades to get their driver’s license, or to go on a date, or to have more than one close friend, or even to hang out with their friends at all. The share of boys and girls who say they meet up with friends almost daily outside school hours has declined by nearly 50 percent since the early 1990s, with the sharpest downturn occurring in the 2010s. I could go on and on: > The best kind of play is physical, outdoors, with other kids, and unsupervised, allowing children to press the limits of their abilities while figuring out how to manage conflict and tolerate pain. But now young people’s attention is funneled into devices that take them out of their body, denying them the physical-world education they need. It's only in your mind that this article is somehow a "marry and reproduce" message like in the movie "They Live".

dinkumthinkum 2y ago

Having kids is very beneficial. Money is not an end in itself. I think the fact that the child-free subreddit exists and that there so many “sinks and dinks” on social media highlight their “fantastic” lives with no kids says a lot more about them then they think it does.

watwut 2y ago

> if enough people were getting married, having kids, etc, you wouldn't see this kind of article. Having kids is pretty isolating and lonely experience in current society. Especially if one parents stays home for some time, that parents usually ends up super lonely. And when kids grow up, they are expected to leave and move for work or family. So you need to create yet another social network for old age.