Walkable neighborhoods with affordable places to hang out.
Is it too harsh to say to outside and interact with people?
Just have a war. Nothing brings people together like necessity and shared trauma.
a government dating app that has no algorythm, no payment, punishes mass scrollers, and has a ton of admins who actually ban the idiots out. we have the technology, but its all enshitificated.
This would work approximately as well as all the current apps. The people you want to date are either already in relationships, date without using the apps, aren’t dating right now, or simply don’t want to date you because you aren’t their type or aren’t good enough for them. The idea that the evil corporations know exactly who your perfect match is and are keeping them from you is a fantasy. The fact is, dating apps don’t work for most people because most people don’t put the effort in to present themselves well and put themselves out there.
Be comfortable being alone.
Step 1
- Demolish all housing - everyone is homeless now
Step 2
- Mandate that everyone design their own silly costume - this is all you’re allowed to wear
Step 3
- Legalize and subsidize all the fun drugs - everyone gets a weekly allowance of shrooms, ecstasy, etc
Step 4
- Loneliness is officially replaced with several other problems
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My shitpost response is that I personally plan to be sluttier.
My serious response is that social media needs to be more social.
I hate Facebook because it’s just an advertising platform, but I don’t know what is going on if I avoid it. I wish there was a way to just share social calendars with all my friends. Like - I want a group tracker that one-click adds stuff that I find interesting. I want to only see stuff certain folks have added to their tracker, and have the ability to share with folks what stuff I’m sharing to share, vs what I’m sharing because I’m actually going to attend something. Make it easy to connect with folks, not advertisers.Then make it. Everyone fucking hates Facebook, the time is now!
Also, I’m totally on board with the slut strategy. From a utilitarian perspective, I’m making the world a better place one orgasm at a time
no more social media
One night a week of mandatory, free, tabletop RPGs hosted in libraries, council buildings, etc. D&D (or even a good roleplaying game) for everyone! Player groups are mixed up every two months to ensure multiple opportunities for bonding with new people.
For starters, Ubi, and then expansive and free public transit for all and accessible for all including disabled people, more free places to just go and exist, no facism and more community. That’s just for the beginning though
Healthcare too.
Need those antidepressants before I even have the energy to touch grass.
Double the minimum wage and standardize a four day work week. People need more free time and resources in order to socialize effectively.
Couple this with providing safe and comfortable community spaces and every things peachy.
No, the local Starbucks/any place of business does not count.
For a lot of people in suburbia, the entire concept of indoor “third spaces” is mostly “pay to play” at the end of a drive. A big exception to this is/were shopping malls, but those aren’t always close by. To get to more a functional social fabric, we have to provide more convenient ways of interfacing with our neighbors that don’t always require money to change hands.
Perhaps this is a predictably orange-pill response, but we need to change zoning in a big way. Each suburban development has the street plan and infrastructure to support small businesses and common spaces, walking-distance from everyone’s front door. All it takes is to allow small-scale commercial development in corners of these collections of tract-homes and, just like that, you can have something like a functional village. Beyond that, encouraging more development of community recreation space, both indoor and outdoor, would go a long way to provide a place for people to mingle.
Edit: strip-malls don’t count. They’re often at the very edge of residential areas, and are tied up with way more capital than what I’m talking about. That’s why they’re made up of franchises, require ridiculous amounts of parking, and contribute to “stroads” and all the knock-on effects and hostile architecture that requires.
More public transit and more public spaces. Transit that you don’t have to think about taking (because it’s safe, frequent, and cheap or free) takes you to new places or to familiar places more often, and lets you meet more people more often. And going outside and doing shit is just good for you, I’m sorry to report.
I agree. I think a big part of the issue is that going out to do things is just so expensive these days. There aren’t any “third places” for people anymore.
The neighboring village just built a smallish sk8erpark for the youth. Quite nice finally seeing kids outside again. When walking the dog I feel like I haven’t seen kids doing kids stuff since like forever
Doesn’t work. I live in Hong Kong, which has some of the world’s most efficient public transport systems. People don’t actually talk. They just look at their phones. A train cart can be full of people but no conversation.
Public transit isn’t for socializing, it’s for traveling. Public spaces like parks, libraries, squares, etc that don’t require payment to use are for socializing.
Oh I thought you meant socializing during transit, sorry. I forgot to consider in other places parks are not a maximum 15-minute walk away
This is the best answer !fuckcars
I began offering weekly board game gatherings and dinners for the public, and, aside from the rocky start (no one at the first 2 events), every gathering has always gotten a minimum of 3-8 people here in West Allis, WI!
I’ve been using this website in conjunction with a Facebook group: https://gamenight.host/@wa_bgn
Structured way of spending a lot of time in the same environment with other people with similar goals. “Go out on your own and make friends” doesn’t work for many of us, additional free time will not help.
There’s a good reason most people make long-term friendships in school and university, we need a similar space where we are surrounded by the same people every day (even though we may not like all of them). I have no idea what could it be since our society frowns upon such ideas.Before Covid the office kinda took this role, however it was a gamble and not voluntary.
It doesn’t have to be structured. It just has to give opportunities for repeat interactions, and maybe a promise of future interaction with the same person, in that low pressure environment.
Dog parks have a bunch of dogs mingling, so their owners will often have the opportunity to get to know each other.
Neighbors who see each other often have an opportunity to get to know each other. That goes for work neighbors, too, even if they work for another employer entirely (but in the same building or something.
Regulars at a coffee shop, restaurant, bar, or gym might learn to recognize each other and go from exchanging pleasantries to actually getting to know each other (and the staff).
Church isn’t as big a thing as it was a few generations ago, but any kind of social meetings, from support groups to volunteer associations, give the opportunity to work together for a common goal.
This is where hobbies and free time come in. And I’m not going to knock video games and other hobbies where you might interact with people online, but there is something fundamentally different about repeated in-person interactions. So it’s worth making sure that your routine includes regular interaction with people in low-stakes settings.
