> No matter how much time you think young men devote to video games, you’re probably underestimating it. Two decades ago, high-school- and college-age males (ages 15 to 24) spent about a quarter of an hour a day alone playing games. Now, that figure has more than quintupled to 1.4 hours a day.<p>Wat? I'd have expected it to be a lot more.<p>I'm sure there are quite a few who spend over eight hours a day playing games...
One thing jumped out: many of the states with high rates of "always" lonely, also have high rates of "never" lonely. Many of these states are in the Sun Belt. The article ties those always rates to poverty, these are also states that have had a high in-migration in recent years.<p>Could this contradiction instead be that many of those who report being always lonely are those who have moved recently to the states, and who don't have the connection (often familial) that those who have been around longer, or who have stayed back in the "less lonely" states, have?
Maybe I misread some of the article, but seems like younger people just "suck" at being alone? IE, older people are less likely to feel lonely when they're physically alone? I wonder if that's because older people are more likely to have a solo hobby - reading a book, knitting, whatever - and younger people are more likely to "doom scroll" online?
It's a bit puzzling to me that they acknowledge statements like<p>> Looking at people who identify as LGBTQ, the data at first suggested that they tend to be lonelier. But it’s largely because self-identified LGBTQ folks tend to be younger.<p>But then do not follow up with an analysis adjusted for this - wouldn't that be fairly straightforward?
> Across the data, nothing we tested relates more strongly to loneliness than a lack of social support. When you ask who’s “always” lonely, more than half of the people who say they never get social support raise their hands.<p>A lack of a sense of community makes people feel lonely. Wish this had been the first sentence instead of the last.
The headline reminded me of this piece from Alvin Chang that I really enjoyed:<p><a href="https://pudding.cool/2023/09/invisible-epidemic/" rel="nofollow">https://pudding.cool/2023/09/invisible-epidemic/</a>
These are survey questions. It seems to reveal most about cultural differences between what different groups feel like they are allowed to feel.<p>It would be difficult to control for this but it’s just naive to think these numbers should be interpreted in the straight forward manner presented.<p>It’s obvious that men and older people would likely report less loneliness as a cultural instinct, on average, for example. This is distinct from actual loneliness, though, which would be higher in both groups. At least if you think suicide rates are correlated.<p>It’s an important topic but this is unfortunately just going to muddy the waters.
You can be alone in a sea of people.<p>It's not about quantity, it's about quality and depth.<p>However it would be ideal to feel content with superficial interactions but it's almost always not sufficient.