There is another post going on about the social media leading to decreased posts here, but it got me thinking about a conversation I had last year about American society with a peer.

In short, the more technology allows for connection and entertainment, the less connection and fulfillment. Or more specifically shallower connection.

Our observations were
1. We rarely see anyone outside in our neighborhoods. i.e. children playing, gardening, fixing stuff, washing cars, etc
2. My peer is the only one I know who routinely has a rotating get together at neighbors.
3. Joint activities and hobbies are down. Golf league, bowling, ski clubs, movies, concerts, online gaming, church etc
4. Face to face meetings with friends become more infrequent because everyone is "busy".
5. Everyone is becoming soft and paranoid because they don't want to be bothered with anything complex, involved, or potential drama (people interaction).


It was an interesting conversation since he sees similar trends despite being 20 years younger and a very active social organizer.

Has anyone noticed similar or different trends? Do our non American members see similar anti socialization?

Erosion of buying power is a factor, especially for the young IMO, a lot of people can't afford to do go to concerts, events and hangouts etc like they did in the past, so social media and electronic entertainment becomes their go-to option.

Also, I've noticed that a LOT of cities in North America at least have become gentrified and boring in the last 15 or 20 years, so that even if money isn't a factor, there just isn't nearly as much for the average person to do socially as there once was.

I do see a similar trend in my neck of the woods. Seems the younger folk have replaced trolling the malls with trolling Facebook. I'm not sure if it's a technology or a people problem. My gut feeling is that the trend begins with people and is only facilitated by technology. I don't think technology leads us anywhere we don't want to go.

The street I grew up on, everybody knew everybody and their kids. There were so many kids running around my Dad used to joke we looked like locust. Nobody had privacy fences and the street felt alive with friendly caring neighbors. Now on my Dad's street I never see anybody out, even in good weather. He doesn't even know the names of any of the new neighbors. Just in the last few months I have seen a road rage fight right in front of his house (some guy break checked another guy for tailgating, so the two idiots come close to killing each other). Just lately, a guy was walking his dog when another guy's pit bull jumped a fence and attacked his dog. Then the two guys got into an argument, both saying they were armed and were going to shoot each other. This used to be a working class suburb with very modest brick ranch homes. Now there seems to be nothing but jerks and d-bags. I definitely think people today are losing the ability to just live peacefully among each other. Maybe it is Facebook and Twitter. Who knows. So I think a lot of people just stay home so they don't have to deal with people. It's sad.

I think technology is just a coincidence. I see people getting together thanks to technology as much as I see the opposite. People organize events via FB or Whatsapp, whatsup or whatyacallit all the time, while at the same time those are the only interactions many have: you either hear from them from FB, or you never hear from them in any other form.

But I still see neighborhood kids playing together all the time. I never lived in a more residential area, so not much of sidewalk space to play or just middle of the street football for me back then or now, so I don't know if that has changed or not, but they seem to be quite active (and annoying) with their skate boards and modern rap music and ridiculous hats and all that, so I guess it's just the same seeing as I can complain just like my parents did.

I saw some kids playing in the cul-de-sac .... one of them was controlling a large drone that was about 50 ft up

Did you call the cops?

That was a flippant response, but the more I think about it that is part of the problem. When was the last time you saw a kid with a bb-gun or even a sling-shot?

My kids can't believe me that I took a pocket knife to school every day. Hell, I even took a gun to school on the bus for speech class on gun collecting. A Springfield 45-70 trapdoor. Kept it in my locker, and took it back home on the bus.

Half the pickup trucks in the parking lot had shotguns and rifles hanging in the rear window.

I think part of it is people are sticking with more carefully chosen friends who might not live nearby, instead of becoming friends with whomever lives nearby. Technology has helped facilitate this - they use it to be sociable not in person, and to organise in person meetings.

I'm surprised that now days someone can call social media,,cell,,phones etc as being social,,I have had family come over for meals and the younger set retired to the garage or deck and stared into their phones I got a hello and goodbye from them...I see kids who go only go outside if they are going some wheres.and then usually pasted to a cell phone .I'm an old fart who as a kid was told get outside,,,I hated to be stuck in the house,,All the other kids and I always were outside doing something,,,Helped to give us creative skills ,,In the woods building huts,,or just enjoying our friends,,,In the winter there was always a small army with snow shovles making some change clearing side walks and if a really old person we knew was a bit cash poor we did it for free,,summer lawn mowing with a non powered push mower and we hung out at a creek for swimming and fishing and some times spent the night there if allowed....I see kids now walking with their faces glued to a cell phone not even talking just texting,,,And social media on the PC gives people a good wall to hide behind to insult,,degrade or bully someone,,,,I value friendships by being a friend not by number of likes.

....and then they get old enough to drive and the habits they learned early on continues as they are driving

Yep even with the "don't text and drive" campaign and some states have logs again it,,When I leave my garage I come to a stop sign and a street form Muskingum college crosses in front of me and people come sailing down that street dialing or texting..luckily I drive safe and watch out,,,Along with that I get the kids crossing the road in front of me not looking but texting,,,Man lift your head up and see the world.

We are past the point where we could say technology is affecting socialization. Socialization is now being born in the way technology develops. Whatever tech people grow up with in childhood and take for granted as they grow up is what defines their way of socializing. The previous generation will always find these changes alien and puzzling.

Boomers and early X generation grew up with FM radio, color TV in stereo, and cinema...TV recording in BetaMax and VHS, and yes, trolling the mall. They got stern looks from their parents if they spent more than an hour on a call with a friend on the phone. Their parents grew up investing their time in outside activities and developing manual and mechanical skills. If you wanted to meet someone, you went somewhere to meet them. There was technology present too, but it was not regarded as a way of socializing, but as a tool. Boomers developed their social interactions and pop culture based on a combination of those, depending on how much their parents or their own ideas and beliefs affected their childhood.

Similarly, the X generation was influenced by their parents, but they grew up with video game consoles and the general early development of the electronics age. Cable TV, Portable devices, the CD and DVD, the early Apple gadgets, the birth of the Internet- but really slow and unappealing, and the early cellular phones (texting). It would be rare for a young person to be able to afford or be given a mobile phone. Again, their social interactions were a combination of what the previous generation valued and what they grew up valuing themselves. They valued going to a friends house to play video games...watching movies at home on a home cinema speaker system... you get it. Outside activities were there, again, as a function of how much their parents and social circle practiced them.

The Millenials and the younger Z generations are influencing socialization now. And are a combination of much less of the previous generations influences and their own early experiences with technology. The Internet, social media (texting, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter..all the apps), Blu-Rays, touch screens and tablets...everything mobile, Wi-Fi...bust most of all - the smartphone. At this point, socializing through outside activities has dwindled heavily from when the time earlier generations saw it as their main activity. People rather use their time technology saves them in developing themselves...but not outside, more like, the inner self. Marketing is able to see this and has adapted to appeal to the trend. We even have a "tweeting" President.

Young people are not "losing it", but we could perceive they are because we can still value face to face socialization from the time our parents told us how important it was. They way young people communicate may seem "cold" to you, but those zombies staring at a screen in a Starbucks will tell you they DO care for their social contacts, even if they have never met them.

Yes, it looks VERY different and is a divergence from what we considered good values...but, you know...every generation is mostly the same. Changes just come faster and harder these days...and all are generated by the same basic wants and needs to belong and communicate.

So no, tech is not killing society... it responds to how society changes, and at the same time, re-shapes it.

Neighborhoods tend to have age groups. Ours is packed with kids. Some have almost none and no action on Halloween since they're either older or even younger new families.
Just depends on where you live.
Tech is definitely a part of kids' lives, but they take it with them. Game consoles are certainly still big, but even bigger is mobile gaming and social media. They get out in groups partially to have something to share. It's different for sure, but still social and still mostly in person. Sports are also bigger than ever. Many kids stay so busy with various sports they don't have time to do much else on weekends.
The same complaints were heard when tv's came out. There's always something new changing the culture.

I wouldn't say technology is killing society but it is most definitely changing it. IMHO humans by nature are either resistant to change or they are at least apprehensive about it.

I have one guy at work that isn't without his face glued to his phone. I walk away from him now if he doesn't respond to a question, if he is looking at his phone then he either doesn't care what people are saying around him or he has the most vicious case of tunnel vision i have ever seen in my life. Kids are definitely not as rampant on the streets as they used to be, i wonder if crime (teenage) has gone down because of it?

Both. People are accustomed to what they're accustomed to and will lash out if people do things differently or try to change how they do it or imply that their way isn't as good as this other way...

Every older generation claims the younger one has no morals, is destroying the fabric of society, blah blah blah. It's all a bunch of rose-colored glasses BS. The only true stat is juvenile crime and I believe that has actually decreased over the decades.
When kids had nothing better to do than go out, sneak drinks, and get into trouble...that's what they did. TV started to keep some home. Home video and games started keeping more home. Internet and social media keep even more home, or at least keep the diverted while they're out.
Teens are too busy texting and snapchatting to get into big fights at the local diner now.

So while on the one hand they are different, are they really worse? Keep in mind with the population being double what it was just a few decades ago, there are a lot more teens than there were, so the reduction in crime is all the more amazing.



The Jedi Master

Tech and "social media" are definetly influencing societal behavior.

However... neighborhoods going anonymous and no visible life... that IMO predates even the internet, never mind "MySpace" (MySpace was facebook before facebook, for those who don't remember).

In my hometown of Vancouver Canada, it seemed to change quite dramatically between about 1989-1991. The first big change was a sudden change from kids walking to/from school... to "all" parents DRIVING their kids to school and then picking them up too.

Many believe this happened over some sudden fears of child-rapist and abductions. But its not especially clear, as there didn't seem to be any sudden epidemic of such threats in Vancouver those particular years. By then the pedo-monster Clifford Olson, had been in jail for nearly a decade. But whatever.

Maybe the decrease in participation with religion and churches might have been a factor, as I remember a fairly dramatic shift from "the Book", to widespread atheism in my town.

Regardless, by 1991 doors were never open, a rarity to see people outside in the suburbs.

Its interesting to note that today, it seems as if the people with the least tech toys available, seem to have among the highest levels of social interaction... for instance I would suspect that typical African nations may see their villages have more social interactions than nearly anywhere in North America. But this is speculation, not a scientific or statistical answer.

I do think this needs to be investigated further, as this may be a symptom of a larger problem affecting our societies.

Edit:
Of course its not all bad, social media and tech do make it possible for like-minded people to meet and colaborate in ways that were simply impossible before the internet going mainstream.