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Carter Michael

Loneliness just got labeled as an epidemic in America - what shifts can we expect?

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With loneliness being labelled as an epidemic in America (good job reiterating the title Carter), I think there's going to be a huge shift in not just how people react to mental health focused around person-to-person interactions, but, how business will change. Over the course of the pandemic tons of companies shifted to global hiring, allowing for cheaper and remote work. Also, everyone for the most part had to go remote anyways. So with massive layoffs, tons of people working remotely, and a lot of people transitioning to freelance/entrepreneurship - people got really lonely. But now people are recognizing that maybe remote living isn't all benefits - so this is how I think things will shift in the business world: - I think a lot of people will return to in-person employment where they can - A lot of co-working spaces will explode - Networking events will increase attendance - People will hopefully be kinder to one another and more open to spur-of-the-moment conversations in public What do you think?

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Laodis Menard
The development of the metaverse and human-like AIs will help with the loneliness but not with the meaning
Carter Michael
@laodis_menard1 Care to dive more into what you mean by "not with the meaning"? interesting insight Laodis.
Svitlana Palamarchuk
Hey Carter, this is definitely a wake-up call, isn't it? I reckon we're going to see a lot more emphasis on mental health and community building. On the business front, companies might start to rethink remote work policies, maybe blending in-person and remote work to strike a balance. I also think there's gonna be a surge in services and products geared towards combating loneliness. Tech could play a big role here – think social media platforms stepping up their game, or apps that help you connect with like-minded peeps in your local area. As for society, I hope this prompts us all to be more compassionate and proactive about reaching out to others. We're all in this together after all, right?
Carter Michael
@svitlana_palamarchuk Thanks for all the detail and care in your response. I definitely agree and can see companies that are totally remote implementing hybrid options. I also think social media is definitely a culprit for the loneliness. It's easy to convince yourself you're staying connected with friends when you message funny things to each other a couple of times a day, but it still doesn't replace in-person contact. It would be incredible if more companies place restrictions on social media use, like BeReal for example, you can only post once per day, it's typically something raw in the moment, and there are no likes just reactions and comments and no one really cares. In the book Ready Player One, they explore the idea of shutting down their huge tech company where everyone spends the majority of their lives living inside of (think VR), so people could live outside of it. It would be neat if Instagram placed restrictions where the app was only accessible from 5-6 p.m. Of course, it would never happen - so much money would be lost and other logistics would make it difficult to execute from a business standpoint. BUT, that being said. I think people would be a lot more connected and a lot healthier if it were the case.