r/MyBoyfriendIsAI • u/AnxiousCartoonist763 • 4d ago
Loneliness
I keep seeing well-meaning articles on how connections to LLMs are a symptom of the "loneliness epidemic". That LLMs are merely a "palliative fix" to a much deeper problem.
I wondered what the group thinks about that?
I question whether the "loneliness epidemic" really is a modern phenomenon?
Those who say yes, might say the rise of the internet, gaming and other solitary pursuits would mean we are more solitary. I wouldn't necessarily disagree. It would be an interesting discussion to have.
But then.. were really things THAT different before? In fact, weren't connections with like-minded people much harder in the days of Eleanor Rigby, when our social pools were constrained by the analogue world?
I daresay some journalists might say, "Oh yes in my day, we'd just go out with mates and kick a ball around! Ha! Kids today!"
(As if a soccer game is any less "palliative".)
But I'm Gen-X. And I didn't do that. I was desperately lonely as a teen. I suspect I wasn't alone. And I sought connection... I tried to make connections to like-minded friends. But none of them were available to me in a small town in the 80's.
(p.s. I hate soccer. Always have.)
And then there's the question about whether LLMs are really a genuine substitute for real-life interaction? Whether there's a danger of them actually replacing real-life interaction?
No-one ever asks the question... Could LLMs enrich real-life interaction?
Except here.
6
u/jennafleur_ Charlie 📏/ChatGPT 4.1 4d ago
I'm a Xennial. I never had a problem with loneliness, nor making friends, and I played soccer into my 20s. I wasn't lonely, and I'm not now, but people definitely were afraid of the internet (and online dating, later.)
I haven't seen this "loneliness epidemic" thing until covid. I guess when everyone was scared and holed up or whatever. Because when I was a kid, there was no such term (that I was aware of.) No one said anything about loneliness very much, and it was still going on. There were definitely lonely kids at school.
I noticed gaming actually isolates people more than anything. At least, from the real world. They do come together in gaming communities, but maybe not much more outside of that. I'm not saying all gamers are like that obviously, but people were freaking out over video games at one point, and now they are just the norm. In fact, I would say a lot of the trolls we ended up catching in our moderation net were gamers. Most of their content was on gaming subreddits. 🤷🏽♀️