This post is for seeking some advice on what’s the best route to try to help some friends get some of their offline lives back.
This year, a large percent of my friend group from my hometown have stopped interacting much with anyone outside of immediate family such as parents and work. Very noticeable for those that are under 30 (I’m 30) compared to those a few years older than me. For 3 of them that were pretty close, they still send memes and Instagram reels all day almost daily but never respond to any messages nor send any anymore. The only way to get them to do anything is to show up semi unannounced with tickets to go somewhere or with food to get them out of the endless scroll, and even then 2 of them will still scroll no matter what’s going on around them, even while driving.
Seeing the reels that get shared since the summer, nearly all of them are AI or extreme (not political, moreso like extreme overeating, extreme overpriced buying/unboxing videos or people fighting past what mma/ufc would allow type content). This seems to have led a few to being scared of the outside while a few others consider outside to be too boring now. When we do hang out I notice my algorithm is completely different than theirs with every reel scroll. We were all very tech focused coming our of school but I’m 1 of 2 that didn’t make it into a long term career, a couple of them have been on the AI hype train for a few years now.
Does this seem to be an ongoing trend for you? I know some people here have made mention over the time I’ve been on Lemmy but it’s gotten so apparent in my life these last 2 holidays trying to make plans and soon New Years of the change and the the first time in more than a decade we’re all within an hour of each other but majority of them are just socially MIA to do anything outside of scrolling on the couch laughing at nonexistent people and animals in reels. What’s worked for you to help combat this within your friends without giving up on them? The best thing I’ve been able to find has been the bar style arcades and laser tag that’s helped make that similar enjoyment while out of the house.
Perhaps this is the root of the change you are seeing. They have entered the career stage of their lives and you have not.
This was 12 years ago I was with the company with that opportunity… a computer tech there for 7 years, which gave me that opportunity to help them start off as paid interns while doing their various college things over those years. I don’t consider that long term when there’s people that were in that company and obviously many others places that are there 25+ years. Started there officially at 17 as a tech but was there on and off as an intern in some form since age 13 so no way I could refurb computers everyday til retirement, cooking was a bigger passion for me. None of us have worked there since 2019 but the friendships lasted before and after working there. I was moreso asking on activities/things that might help that are out of box of my regular thinking to help motivate them to come out more from the social media trap of Instagram scrolling and back to reality which is more “boring”. I’m an online person but realized over time I really don’t know the deep addiction some people have gotten onto the apps, kinda the same I didn’t realize how deeply radical thinking some people are on both sides until being smacked by seeing it during the 2024 election, as well as the strange culture within dating apps like bumble (knew about tinder 1 night stand issue) as Ive been putting myself out there more the last few months.