Anyone else find people becoming more & more conservative?

[Liveman]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm new to LS. I usually hang around the personal well being topic. I just

wanted to start a thread in regards to this topic.

 

Inside (my mind/body) and in some settings I feel myself. When I went to Argentina to travel last year. (Solo, 26) I met some great friends and had

no problems showing my true, free personality. It was amazing! I find though, on my day to day life, I act shallow, a bit closed off or even (un-certain) around strangers/acquaintances or not too close friends. I feel like i'm truly not myself in my heart, yet I act this way.

 

I feel that my environments, (country, city, government, rules, laws, even interest/social media evolution) have in a way helped condition these behaviors. I mean i'm talking very technical right now but I can also really feel at home 'kicking it. Love snowboarding (obvious to my pic), social sports, fitness healthy eating, traveling and meeting new people and building new relationships!

 

Can anyone else here relate to this? Could the conditioning of the above mentioned relate to upbringing, our confidence, self-assurance, fears, telling someone truly what is on our mind be because of this?

 

-Liveman

 

I look forward to hearing from a lot of you!!

[preraph]

I think just in the last three or so years, the social media generation has literally lost the most important social skills. There's more recluses, more people who find it hard to talk in person or on the phone, find it more scary to see someone in person and do real things that aren't just computer things. It's not good. People should be using social media to expand their circle of people to go out into the world and do real activities with, not use it as a world unto itself. Because that's a very false world, a very incomplete world and a world without physical activity and new experiences.

[Woggle]

In America people are become more isolated plus a lot more paranoid and scared which leads to the environment that we have. I noticed how different things were when I went on a cruise earlier this year and people were much nicer on the islands.

[ascendotum]

I think you would need to spend time in a few more countries and for a greater length of time (like working) to get a better feel for this. Plus its hard to say North America is getting more conservative, because what are you comparing it too....other countries in the 1960/70/80/90s. I do think the US is quite conservative, and I also see it in the relationship posts on here. I did not think Canada was quite like the US though.

 

I also think being a traveler in another country you can get treated differently. While some might hate foreigners many will show greater interest in someone from overseas. You are more interesting to them plus you meet other travelers. I/we got invited into strangers houses for lunch or to crash for the night when I traveled. Met and conversed with people when out and about that I normally would not have when I'm at home.

Also I find lots of people when they go overseas have a much more outgoing / liberated and open to adventure attitude. Its a adventure and you are open to whatever comes your way and so you come across as more exciting and maybe a little exotic in some parts of the world, and so you get treated by others a little differently.

I do also agree with P & W's posts too.

[Liveman]

All very valid points. Maybe the main driver is in fact the social media..

Human beings, natural always look for the easiest way.. Losing weight,

making money etc. It seems social media can fill alot of people social voids when they are very active and have many others interacting with them often..

 

I wish I had a time machine to go back 25-50 years just to see if there really

was a major difference in peoples day to day interactions with eachother..

 

More personable at the grocery stores, coffee shops, restos, banks etc.

And not just in the moment but on a continuous basis..

 

I know I'm not the only one who recognizes someone I know yet "pretend"

I don't see them or they don't see me to avoid conversation..

 

It's just very interesting to think about where we are evolving to in this aspect of life. Which in my opinion should be above all else, money, materials. Relationships and socializing to me are much more meaningful to my 1 short life

[OwMyEyeball]

When you say "conservative" do you mean "withdrawn and emotionally vacant"?

 

Sounds like you live in Toronto

[Destined2B]

I noticed some kind of trend of lonely men, who don't keep up with social media and technological advances, to claim our society is socially disconnected. Lonely women, on the other hand, just take a selfie and carry on with their day

[Liveman]

It's not a social disconnection, it's a social evolution.

If anything more connected than ever before...

[OwMyEyeball]

Perhaps all the lonely people who never had a place to comfortably share their troubles have finally found somewhere they can connect thanks to this new digital era.

 

Other than therapy I don't know where else I would have felt safe voicing my deepest doubts and sincerest beliefs. Being able to do that here, and elsewhere on the web, has granted me some of the confidence I've gained to venture out into the wider world and mark my path.

 

Go to any city and you'll find the people are more withdrawn, or at least pre-occupied with their own thoughts and distractions. When you poke your head into longer established neighbourhoods with deep roots, which do exist in cities and to a greater extent in rural townships, you're more likely find a more open disposition. Familiarity is the life blood of community, and the more transient (people coming and going, moving this way and that) the area you live in, the more enclosed people may seem. This is very common in major urban areas and even more so in growing, active metropolises.

 

I believe this has been the order of things since well before the digital age and the meteoric rise of social media.