Online or offline. News keeps reporting about loneliness and disconnection, but in my experience it’s just that it’s harder to interact with people in a civil way because they are so hostile, angry, and arrogantly convinced their viewpoints and experiences are the only legitimate ones.
Not to mention the lack of civility towards servers and other service workers. I can’t recall if I was just indifferent 10 years ago, but on a almost daily basis it blows my mind how openly rude many people are to servers and such, which seemed like a much more rare thing when I was younger.
Yes, but I’d argue the biggest contributing factor was COVID
Isolation just kinda “does that” to people. Yes, the problem predates 2020 but anecdotally I think we’ve all met that abrasive, lonely trucker and statistically mental health hospitalizations sky rocketed in 2020 and still hasn’t returned to the previous baseline, especially for those under 18
https://www.cdc.gov/mental-health/about-data/emergency-department-visits.html
I realize this isn’t a perfect measure but I suspect there’s a correlation