> Oh god people actually go on a hinge date to axe throwing and think it’s the real world.

My experience with dating apps was mostly awful, but then I met my wife on one. Now we’re happily married with 3 kids.

Axe throwing is just a business fad like so many before it. This started long before the internet.

Pinball arcades, video game arcades, tanning salons, self storage, frozen yogurt. The list goes on and on.

Not sure what my point is, I guess it’s mostly this has nothing to do with the internet or with now. If the author were writing this in the 80s he’d be complaining about people hanging out in malls.

If it were written in the 50s he’d be complaining about drive-in movies and restaurants, and tract houses. Go back earlier and he’d probably be complaining about electrification.

To be fair I think we should be more intentional about our adoption of technology, but nostalgia is a hell of a drug that is best avoided.

Every trend has a period where it’s new, and you can either enjoy it or ignore it. And a peak where it’s hard to ignore it, but you can opt out and it’s not too annoying. And then there’s the post-peak when it’s no longer new and shiny, the limitations are obvious, and it’s kind of annoying/cringe to be asked to participate in it (as if it’s something new and exciting) because it’s clearly passé.

This goes for dances, food trends, activities, apps, etc.

Some of these cycles are generational, some of them last only weeks or months. It’s just how we are.

These days there’s the added factor that the world has been culturally “flattened” and it’s hard to escape sameness with distance. It’s tough times for the easily bored, you really have to branch out into unusual niches to find anything of interest.

He's got "tech brain" where he thinks everything either serves tech or is tech. But you are correct in pointing out that he's just complaining about inconsequential cultural trends, probably because he's somewhat self isolating or something.