videos

I was just talking to my therapist about this. Also ties into this excerpt I saved from a Hexbear discussion years ago

"As external conditions change, it becomes tougher to meet the three conditions that sociologists since the 1950s have considered crucial to making close friends: proximity; repeated, unplanned interactions ; and a setting that encourages people to let their guard down and confide in each other said Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology and gerontology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This is why so many people meet their lifelong friends in college, she added."

Comes from this article, will edit with a proper archive link if I can later https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/fashion/the-challenge-of-making-friends-as-an-adult.html

Lots of other countries have communal spaces and people are actually there. People are outside more often doing things together. Little public squares, parks within walking distance. It's pretty common in South America for there to be a covered, open-air space for sports and festivals and so on.

In the US these things, when they exist, require planning and transport to get there. They're not within walking distance. Maybe parks, but they're mostly unused and tend to be socially focused on children and parents.

After-school programs are the American bandaid option for this. You immediately lose all of it once you graduate though.

This is a very real problem that I am reminded of whenever I get the "touch grass" reply from someone on the internet.

Where?

Until I move out in a few days, the situation around me for quite a few years has been no meaningful public commons areas, businesses that expect you to buy something to so much as stand anywhere near them, and police roaming around harassing and tormenting homeless people.

I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

• yewtu.be
• inv.zzls.xyz
• yt.artemislena.eu
• piped.video