> Now, everyone is an internet addict, and I was just ahead of the curve. No one hangs around and chats anymore.

A lot of the events and spaces I go to have people who hang around and chat.

I agree that internet use has had an impact, but I think it's easy to underestimate how much situations change as you grow up. Now that I have kids, it seems like we're always ending up in spaces where people are hanging out and chatting. As far as my kids know, that's just the way the world works.

I thought the same up through college, then I graduated and suddenly spontaneous socialization ended. I had to change my habits to go find other people.

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pixl97 4 hours ago | parent [-]

>how much situations change as you grow up

And yet this looks very different from what 40+ years back looked like for adults so it's not just about growing up, there was other massive changes in our society.

For example the number of kids we had in the past dramatically affected 'forced' socialization.

The post war suburbanization that forced us to spend huge amounts of time on the road.

Things like TV that took entertainment from a group activity to a single person event.

All these things added up.

	▲	7speter 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>Things like TV that took entertainment from a group activity to a single person event. TV was the visual replacement of radios, and both used to bring families together for tv events… I remember lots of instances of that as a child. It also brought people together at work. Everyone used to watch nearly the same things, and even up to 15 years ago, there’d at least be groups you could find in your office who was watching the same things you did, and could engage in water cooler talk. Now theres so many shows on streaming networks, and you can watch whenever, so its all fractured.