I grew up in the early 2000s.
We had internet and much better TV than we do now, but it was weird if you were inside all day.
We had multiplayer videogames but we’d play them together in person with friends.
Our parents used to chase us outside, so they could do whatever parents did back then. I think they just wanted us out of their hair.
We’d get lost in forests and piss people off and get in tons of trouble. We would get “grounded” for a day or two; then do it all over again.
We’d listen to music and lay on the grass and talk about nothing.
These days, things feel different. I had it hard growing up, but it was real. The internet blurred that line.
Now it’s pretty normal for guys in their 20s or 30s to live with their parents, with no plan of moving out.
They’re on Discord all day, playing the same games, cracking the same jokes.
Eyes burning; glued to the screen.
They don’t move from their computer, or want anything in particular. They don’t want relationships. Too inconvenient.
They haven’t really experienced life and they don’t care to anymore. They kinda just want to escape reality.
Escapism in the form of drugs, social media, videogames, the hub…
Less people graduating, having sex, going outside… it’s kind of depressing when you think about it.
The internet is your cure, but it’s also your disease.
Buying a house isn’t easy anymore. College monopolized community, and going to college is expensive.
All of your IRL friends left. They went to school, got married, pursued some program, or went somewhere far away.
Now community is a commodity.
A society on fire because people no longer talk to each other, and if they do, it’s through echo-chambered forums.
A society where cheating is normalized and relationships are monetized.
A society where all we do is what they tell us to do. Work. Drive home. Submit to our escapism. Sleep. Do it again.
A world eating itself alive because it craves a connection that is breaking; and the only other place to connect is online.
Cherish the connections you have.
You can live life on your own terms, but this is the world we live in now.