All this loneliness and population decline doesn’t bode well
This is my first link roundup post, I'll do these by topic rather than time.
Some days you get to the bottom of your RSS queue, and it has been some grim reading. This was one of those days.
There is an epidemic of loneliness. People spend far too much time at home.
I spent my youth in a mix of work, pubs, restaurants, cinemas, gyms, arcades, etc. Today, that has become Doordash, Netflix, Peloton, woring-from-home, and online gaming.
How is anyone gonna meet anyone?
Everyone has the apps, no one has the companions. Far fewer people are now in relationships, and as a result, far fewer children are being born. Grim.
A related problem is that our fiercely celebrated Tinder-fueled casual sex culture means that, more than ever, sex doesn't lead to anything. This is bad, but especially bad for women. To actually keep the population headed in the right direction, we need to get out of our houses and go make love—figuratively and literally.
Even if that was happening, the housing crisis is a compounding factor in the fertility crisis.
In the event we fix all this and start having kids, it's important that:
- They take more risks—kids are anti-fragile.
- We are ambitious with their education.
That's all for this round. If you've any interesting links or comments, send them to @destraynor.