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Adding this incredible chart from

to the mix. There has been an enormous decline in in-person socialization that has corresponded with massive declines in mental wellbeing and dramatic increases in selfishness and political radicalism over the past decade.

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David Shor

@davidshor

Jun 4

Replying to @davidshor @curcuas and 3 others

We’ve seen: 1) a dramatic short term increase in diagnosed mental illness and N-linked psychometric items first among teenagers and then among young adults 2) highly cohort specific bipartisan support for cold blooded murder mediated by (1) 3) A sudden and dramatic shift in

6:01 AM · Jul 9, 2025

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David Shor

@davidshor

22h

Just to add another chart that drives home that the trend lines here are bad

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David Shor

@davidshor

Feb 8

Explicit antisemitic attitudes are now much more common among young voters - 18 year old registered voters are now ~5x more likely to say that they have an unfavorable view of the Jewish people than 65 year olds.

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People are more social now. Bars monopolized third spaces, which was great if you were an alcoholic but sucked for everybody else. Now there are plenty more— gyms, coffee shops, restaurants. They won’t show up in this metric but are just as social.

David Shor

@davidshor

22h

This just isn’t true. If you look at all of the charts in the quote tweet it’s clear that people are literally alone and spending way more time alone in their house. And again - mental well being is massively declining.

whose radicalization, David?

We’ve seen a proliferation of fringe ideas on the left and right (support for Luigi, Andrew Tate fandom, being pro-Russia , explicit antisemitism, etc) among Zoomers that literally did not exist a decade ago and empirically seem be associated with poor mental health

Matthew Gertz

@MattGertz

Jul 9

Huge unforced error not titling this "The Death of Partying in the USA"

Smartphone theory of everything! Takes away human contact while filling us with engagement slop

Correlates with decreased alcohol intake too. That said, how much had the partying rate declined between 2003 and, say, 2016?

Really want to see gen-z stats separated by class. Cause in my highly-educated, middle to upper middle class cohort, I see a lot of traveling/trip planning throughout the year. Curious if this is purely a function of wealth or not.

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Lukas (computer) (3/AC)

@SCHIZO_FREQ

Jul 9

Maybe when they graduate they will move somewhere with their internet friends and this will fix it all perfectly and instantly

prob saw but

According to the NYTimes, you alone can fix this by inviting me to your party

We are literally always at work, it never ends

MAPA

I thought I was just getting old. Haha

Bicycles, keg parties, underage dance halls... GenX is the last great generation.

The culprit is entertainment that doesn't require in-person socializing. For most of human history the only way to relieve boredom was socializing. The isolation trend started with electric light & novels, then radio, then TV, then the internet and now smartphones & social media.

Socialization after COVID just isn’t the same as socialization before COVID. My hunch is that it rapidly accelerated pre-existing trends. Giving everybody an at times necessary, at times just an easy out for social events really hurt.

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Wilterson Witzky da Silva

@ww_dasilva

17h

americans not interfacing with reality is not a good thing

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Wilterson Witzky da Silva

@ww_dasilva

Mar 29

all of the ills of social media are amplified in the us because most americans don't really interface with the world directly; they interface with simulacra (first tv & radio, now the internet & social media) cuz they don't go outside or talk to people cuz of suburbanization x.com/ww_dasilva/sta…

Do you agree with this vis a vis France? I don’t but I’ve only lived there a few years and an outsiders perspective is often distorted

Tomer Stern

@tomer_stern

Jul 9

NYC is another world I guess. Every weeknight I see karaoke and bar trivia packed to the gills, thousands of people running and bbqing in the park, etc. I would never know about any of this stuff if it wasn't for people talking about it online

This is also why public disorder is so much worse than it used to be, people who would otherwise engage in prosocial and normative behavior are no longer occupying the public realm.

Are we sure the selfishness or some more fundamental factor isn't what's triggering less socialization (my theory is that we're now rich enough to express revealed preference of not socializing)

Rare Dean Wormer win!

GIF

How about 2020-2024? How much of that is pandemic-driven?

By far the biggest question I ask myself on this - is it that all of Gen Z is spending 50% less time socializing, or that half of Gen Z isn't socializing at all, and the other half is living fairly normal lives? I think it's the latter - very bimodal on a lot of behaviors too

question I wana see that chart, lined up agenst, controled for inflation, cost of going to those "third spaces" also alternate comparasion a chart comparing to to the decline of "third spaces"

Cham

@Marxistcham

11h

partying is the stupidest form of socialization. As a Chinese I never understand the appeal.

Annia Ciezadlo @annia.bsky.social

@annia

19h

Translation: YOU GOTTA FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY

You have to fight. For your right. To party.

I would welcome the death of "Party" as a verb (yes, I know denominalization is a natural feature of the evolution of language, but to me, "to party" is every bit as tacky as the use of disrespect as a verb.)

Geary Yonker

@gearyonk

23h

Gen X, partying for everyone.

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Eric Simpson

@ProfectusHldgs

Generational dip buying opportunity on $TSLA here

Can you confirm these statistics at the American Time Use Survey? And point to where I can look at this data myself?

So....there's been large demographics of computer-using shut-ins prior to that whom didn't end up with such aggressively antisocial beliefs. I'm inclined to believe reduced in-person socialization isn't enough of an explanation on its own for the current state of things