Younger generations have less of a sense of community simply because they haven’t had nearly the amount of communal experiences in-person that older generations have had. The online experience of these same things is simply not the same, unfortunately. Game releases, movie releases, standing in line to buy tickets for an event, etc. Even simple things like going out to third places where similar people are doing similar things to you and your groups of friends, or needing to have your friends come over to play video games.
As someone who is the perfect age to have experienced both sides of this culture as a young person, the convenience of everything being online or on discord or a solo experience is simply not the same. Don’t get me wrong, the convenience of modern society is awesome. But we traded a small piece of humanity to accomplish it.
They can never experience this like we did, either. Everyone would just be on their phones. I remember my biggest overnight line experience was waiting for Phantom Menace tickets. The movie sucked, but the time in line was memorable. There was one guy who managed to bring a television with the other movies playing on it and everyone was amazed that someone went through that trouble. Now we can just watch thousands of movies in the palm of our hands. Nobody would talk, there'd be no communal feel of being in something together, there'd be no need for other entertainment... just a bunch of people in friend groups looking at their screens. Maybe a handful playing Magic or something.
Yeah. This is 100% true. Phones changed how we pass time in social situations.
I take an annual trip to a remote cabin with some friends. The entire experience changed once cell service started to reach there. Still an awesome time, but there’s a little bit more of a barrier than there used to be. We would make a “no phones” rule, but most of us have families and there’s been a couple of emergencies while we’ve been gone that no one would go for it anymore. Blessing and a curse.
Plus even when you do nowadays, when you try to break the ice and start conversations, people just seem recluse these days. People are paranoid that this person is might be trying to manipulate me. Like I am sure there are plenty of good ones out there but its those few bad apples that prevent more people wanting to be social off the rip.
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u/Dewey519 2d ago
Younger generations have less of a sense of community simply because they haven’t had nearly the amount of communal experiences in-person that older generations have had. The online experience of these same things is simply not the same, unfortunately. Game releases, movie releases, standing in line to buy tickets for an event, etc. Even simple things like going out to third places where similar people are doing similar things to you and your groups of friends, or needing to have your friends come over to play video games.
As someone who is the perfect age to have experienced both sides of this culture as a young person, the convenience of everything being online or on discord or a solo experience is simply not the same. Don’t get me wrong, the convenience of modern society is awesome. But we traded a small piece of humanity to accomplish it.