Most people in the world are profoundly lonely. They'll take whatever parasocial relationships they can get - reaction videos, podcasts of people chatting, Eliza simulating concern.
Google wants to relentlessly monetise your sadness.
The only way out is to try and make connections with real people.
Case in point, why didn't you text your friends to ask them if they remembered those old memes? Why was your first thought to ask a computer rather than a person?
It's like when you're in the pub and and someone asks "who was that guy who was in the movie where…?" you can either chat with your friends and have a good time or be a buzzkill who opens up IMDB and says "Humphrey Bogart".
Irrelevant nitpick, but it's definitely not "most". I'd argue it's only this common in some English speaking countries and maybe a few other Western ones.
The looks I get from American friends when I tell them that yes I do see my (local) friends nearly every day, are quite funny.
it's nearly impossible to make friends once you're an adult and everyone's walls had gone up. people just call their superficial acquaintances "friends".
> a real friend is essentially a platonic partner
There are certainly different degrees of friendship. I might only have one such platonic partner and unfortunately we hardly see each other anymore because we live in different cities and have families. Once in a while we talk on the phone, but when we do it's a minimum 2 hour call.
However, I have several people I would still consider close friends. My personal threshold for true friendship is whether I can comfortably talk about private things.
Back to the study. I don't think it uses such a high threshold as 'platonic partnership'. I found the following paragraph really striking:
"What these numbers also reveal is the hidden depth of the crisis. The 17% with zero friends in 2024 — compared to just 1% in 1990"
Do everybody suddenly get higher standards of friendship? Or did people really get lonelier? I find the second more likely.
edent · · focus · HN ↗
Google wants to relentlessly monetise your sadness.
The only way out is to try and make connections with real people.
Case in point, why didn't you text your friends to ask them if they remembered those old memes? Why was your first thought to ask a computer rather than a person?
It's like when you're in the pub and and someone asks "who was that guy who was in the movie where…?" you can either chat with your friends and have a good time or be a buzzkill who opens up IMDB and says "Humphrey Bogart".
belowavgiq · · focus · HN ↗
JumpCrisscross · · focus · HN ↗
EDIT: Correct.
About a fifth of Americans report having zero friends; another fifth report feeling lonely sometimes [1].
[1] <a href="https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/us-loneliness-statistics/#:~:text=The%202024%20U.S.,loneliness%2C%20with%2014.0%25" rel="nofollow">https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/us-loneliness-statistics...
spacechild1 · · focus · HN ↗
Wow, that's depressing...
vlyan · · focus · HN ↗
spacechild1 · · focus · HN ↗
There are certainly different degrees of friendship. I might only have one such platonic partner and unfortunately we hardly see each other anymore because we live in different cities and have families. Once in a while we talk on the phone, but when we do it's a minimum 2 hour call.
However, I have several people I would still consider close friends. My personal threshold for true friendship is whether I can comfortably talk about private things.
Back to the study. I don't think it uses such a high threshold as 'platonic partnership'. I found the following paragraph really striking:
"What these numbers also reveal is the hidden depth of the crisis. The 17% with zero friends in 2024 — compared to just 1% in 1990"
Do everybody suddenly get higher standards of friendship? Or did people really get lonelier? I find the second more likely.