Brett Cooper

That is like almost a 70% drop, 70% fewer social gatherings.

to face socialization of any kind, not even an organized party, has dropped 35% for that same age group.

Again, we have discussed this at length before, so I want to reiterate that there are some forces at play before I go into blaming all of us for this issue, but I will obviously talk about the context here.

Obviously, the first is COVID-19.

During our most crucial developmental social time, we were forced to isolate for almost two years.

My entire college experience was cut short.

I was in my sorority for all of like six months before all of our events turned online.

And obviously that had an impact on high schoolers and prom and parties and starting their college experience, all of that.

So obviously we all turned to the internet, which was already a problem for our generation.

We had been raised online.

I mean, every study that is done on the internet that is done on social media says that it is a bad thing, especially for developing mothers.

And yet that is where we landed.

And hand in hand with COVID, that helped drive a digital replacement for socializing.

But something else that we do not often touch on is how our culture has become obsessed with isolation.

Glamorizing isolation.

You know, focusing on self-care and ourselves versus building community.

We meme daily about canceling plans and not wanting to hang out with people.

Staying in, doom scrolling, sending your friends 1,600 Instagram reels before 9 p.m.

at night, watching Netflix, whatever it is.

In a great Reason Magazine article, author Emma Camp touched on all of this.