
Most Americans Are Lonely, and Our Workplace Culture May Not Be Helping - happy-go-lucky
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/23/798676465/most-americans-are-lonely-and-our-workplace-culture-may-not-be-helping
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anonsivalley652
True. Orthogonal to religious views, churches served as community anchors and
people talked to their neighbors. Furthermore, most people under 40 don't own
their own homes, don't have any wealth, don't have roots to the place where
the work paycheck-to-paycheck. Unconcerned, uninformed white collar workers
buy the narrative by repeat factoids like "the economy is the best ever" while
denying real inequality such as the gutting of the middle-class, pervasive
lack of net worth and the many hundreds of thousands more homeless people
living on the streets than 30 years ago... this lack of solidarity and lack of
empathy with the people who are hurting but feel screwed is what let Trump
win.

And also the corporate inverted totalitarianism, mainstream media, social
media and political animosity/puritanism atomizes people with 300 Facebook
friends who they never talk to into real-life groups of 1.

Maybe America is slowly going the way of the Roman Republic/Empire but I sure
hope folks wake up and turn things around for We The People rather than just
the very rich soon.

I think I'll unplug for tonight.

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proxybop
_hug_ dunno why but I think you need it

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AnIdiotOnTheNet
It is because "workplace culture" is now just "American culture". We don't
view other Americans as people, but rather as competitors, tools we can
exploit for our own success, or parasites keeping us from success. 80s career
advice is now life advice.

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dropoutcoder
My experience growing up in America mirrors your description here. I’ve found
the average American to be ok with bullying, sabotage, dishonesty, and malice.

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horomeme
I am 32, I am great at making friends, have a wealth of friends all around the
country, and have never been so devastatingly lonely, but the problem is
economic, not cultural.

I worked in video production throughout my 20s. I am technically inclined and
gravitated to post production. I was good at it and had a great reputation.
The constant churn of new technology was fun for me. The problem was the
industry turning to hiring feeelancers for every position except management.
It is no longer a reliable way to make a living. I never had an interview
without getting the job, but the rates I needed were no longer available, and
it was increasingly rare that clients wanted quality work.

I tried changing careers before things got too bad, but my whole life and
reputation were build around my existing career. I couldn’t pull it off in
time. Rents in the west-coast city I lived in skyrocketed and the apartment
building I lived in for 8 years was bought by some foreign investors. I tried
to hang on but about 6 months was all I could do after that.

Still paying off my own student debt, and with so many other friends paying
off useless degrees, I opted against going back to school so I am now living
with my parents in a small midwest town studying web development while working
a part-time minimum wage job. It feels completely unreal. I have been writing
scripts for video post-production for years, so I had a head start at least.

Among my friends, I am hardly alone. Those who chose MBAs or a handful of
other careers (like web development) are doing great and the rest of us are
struggling with less and less control over our lives. This is still an
anecdote but my point is this is much less about loneliness and more about
precarity.

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2Xheadpalm
Many of the positive qualities that harbor close ties and meaningful
relationships with family and friends require "work" and time, most people
today either do not have the time (perhaps due to work commitments etc.) or
will not invest the effort required to create new or sustain and make existing
relationships grow with time.

I am reminded of the old saying, - 'You can't have your cake and eat it'. By
that, I mean, their is a trade-off when devoting many of your waking hours to
work, excessive entertainment and other pursuits related purely to material
gains and then in turn neglecting the just as important social connections in
your life. The result is typically loneliness or worse...

I can appreciate for many people it can seem out of their control to reach
some form of work/life balance but over time everyone has the power to both
start making changes in their life styles and also, the way they react to the
events in their life. With some sacrifices and motivation to do so, you
definitely increase your chances of lessening loneliness.

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davidjnelson
> Social media use was tied to loneliness as well, with 73% of very heavy
> social media users considered lonely, as compared with 52% of light users.

That’s ~20% more loneliness from heavy social media users!

