It was brought up on my previous post that I had touched on a very critical subject. The destruction of western social life and isolation of modern westerners, especially men. How does this play out overall, what can be done, and to help this fit into this general site's theme, how has this affected gaming?
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Social media has made people very anti-social, particularly in real life.
People are still meeting their partners in closed social groups, at least in their mid-20s and higher, recent data bears that out. But the spaces where individuals and groups mingled has been declining in recent times. COVID-19 lockdowns have been the fatal blow for many places. Whatever is left are slowly being strangled by inflation. Gyms have survived but people don't tend to socialise in those establishments in the same way people don't at their workplace. If you're in your thirties and don't have a social circle, either because you're socially anxious and introverted or your existing social circle has gone because everyone else found partners and started families so everyone has drifted apart, you're in trouble.
In terms of gaming, multi-player gaming and the community aspect of gaming has become a money-maker for the gaming companies. If that dries up as people retreat to single player gaming, I expect access paywalls to expand and maybe even infect PC gaming. Companies have already dipped their toe into this realm with retro and streaming games.
As for solutions, I'm not sure what could be done that isn't authoritarian (ie. socialise or we dock you social credit points/close your bank account) because you can't force people to socialise. But whatever social outlets in real life there are also need to make money and at a cost of living crisis, that's a tough sell because socialising is one of the first things people cut back on when their mortgage payments go up.
People socialize in nice gyms.