What happened in the 1970s? Klinenberg, the sociologist, notes a shift in political priorities: The government dramatically slowed its construction of public spaces. “Places that used to anchor community life, like libraries and school gyms and union halls, have become less accessible or shuttered altogether,” he told me. Putnam points, among other things, to new moral values, such as the embrace of unbridled individualism. But he found that two of the most important factors were by then ubiquitous technologies: the automobile and the television set.
The crux of the issue.
There used to be places for people to congregate.
Now if you’re not spending money, there’s very few places to go and just coexist with people. Every place you can go is going to squeeze every cent possible out of you.
It’s been like this for a while, even in my partying days I’d always pick a house party over a night at the bars.
The other issue though is that now people are so entrenched with using their devices that if you do go to such places, everyone is looking at their devices and possibly wearing headphones the whole time.
It used to be you could go out to a cafe and buy a coffee and spend three hours in deep conversation with a stranger. These days, the strangers are all on their phones and tablets and notebooks.
You’d go to the school gym to see friends? I don’t even know if I’m being sarcastic. On the one hand, I don’t think I’d do that no matter how many friends I had and how nice the gym was because it’s such a bizarre thing to do. On the other hand, the past is often bizarre.
Yes, you go to the gym to see people you know and excerise with them. School gyms used to be more publicly available than they are today. Just because you’ve never had an excercise buddy doesn’t mean that the experience is bizzare, it’s still a common thing to do today (but gatekept by private gyms)
Compare it to some other public space and see how ludicrous it sounds:
You’d go to the bar to see friends? I don’t even know if I’m being sarcastic.
You’d go to the coffee shop to see friends? I don’t even know if I’m being sarcastic.
See? You’re used to people doing those things so it sounds normal, but exercising with your friends is just as normal as drinking with your friends.
People do all sorts of things with their friends, but the reasons they do them invariably include “I like spending time with my friends.” Hell, I help my friends do home improvement projects because it’s just nice to do something productive with my friends. I’m certainly not going to install a new door on a friend’s house if they’re going to be away at work, so clearly the real reason is that I like spending time with my friends.
The crux of the issue.
There used to be places for people to congregate.
Now if you’re not spending money, there’s very few places to go and just coexist with people. Every place you can go is going to squeeze every cent possible out of you.
It’s been like this for a while, even in my partying days I’d always pick a house party over a night at the bars.
The other issue though is that now people are so entrenched with using their devices that if you do go to such places, everyone is looking at their devices and possibly wearing headphones the whole time.
It used to be you could go out to a cafe and buy a coffee and spend three hours in deep conversation with a stranger. These days, the strangers are all on their phones and tablets and notebooks.
https://youtu.be/yS_c2qqA-6Y
Who would want to go to
to have fun? “Hey guys, let’s all go hang out at the, uh, school gym! No? How about the union hall?”
Maybe people had lower standards back before technology made having fun alone at home easy.
This highlights the modern lack of community. You’d go there to see friends.
You’d go to the school gym to see friends? I don’t even know if I’m being sarcastic. On the one hand, I don’t think I’d do that no matter how many friends I had and how nice the gym was because it’s such a bizarre thing to do. On the other hand, the past is often bizarre.
Yes, you go to the gym to see people you know and excerise with them. School gyms used to be more publicly available than they are today. Just because you’ve never had an excercise buddy doesn’t mean that the experience is bizzare, it’s still a common thing to do today (but gatekept by private gyms)
Compare it to some other public space and see how ludicrous it sounds:
See? You’re used to people doing those things so it sounds normal, but exercising with your friends is just as normal as drinking with your friends.
People do all sorts of things with their friends, but the reasons they do them invariably include “I like spending time with my friends.” Hell, I help my friends do home improvement projects because it’s just nice to do something productive with my friends. I’m certainly not going to install a new door on a friend’s house if they’re going to be away at work, so clearly the real reason is that I like spending time with my friends.