Just the other day I was chatting with an older woman about this exact thing. She’s retired so she enjoys going on almost-daily walks around her neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods. Well she told me that it was really weird that in the newer constructions where the younger families live, EVERYONE has their blinds closed all the time. In fact she can tell a younger family lives in a house based on the simple fact of whether or not their blinds are closed in the middle of a sunny day. It’s to the point where she can’t even tell if they’re even HOME and available for a visit to welcome them to the neighborhood!
When she said that, I realized that I do that too when I live in a more publicly visible apartment. I told her that I think it’s because of the internet. Younger people feel like we’re constantly being watched, observed, and JUDGED for merely existing. So when we’re home, we just want to be alone, unbothered, and unobserved because it’s the one place we can control that. She was very surprised to hear that I felt like that and she was VERY concerned for us young folk (and to be honest after talking with her I became pretty concerned too…)
People from her generation will have their blinds open all day, hang out on their front porch, and randomly visit/enjoy random visits from neighbors and strangers. If a stranger knocks on my door it’s scary and if they want to stay and chat? It’s a huge inconvenience and it feels super awkward and weird and I’m stuck wondering why exactly they’re talking to me, when just a few decades ago welcoming someone new to the neighborhood was just what you did! In fact to not do so was rude!
It made me really worried that as the Panopticon sinks its teeth deeper into our psyches, we are losing the very essence of what makes us human and got us this far as a species: community. I find that being on the internet for hours a day tends to almost trick my brain into thinking “I’ve been social all day, my social need is full” when in reality I’ve only talked to one, maybe two people I know from my real life all day, and only for short bursts, not REAL conversation.
I find it hard to have the energy to invite friends to hang out, and when I want to I feel like I’m a big inconvenience for asking them to take a break from their busy lives for me (not that they would ever say that’s the case, but it’s this nagging feeling internally). I feel like while we used to be a series of large islands of local community, our islands splintered apart and started drifting away from each other. Now your island is just you, your immediate family, and maybe a couple close friends. Those living physically closest to you feel like they’re miles away and unreachable, to the point where you might as well not even bother.
I guess I just have one question for you: Do you know the names of your next door neighbors?
That makes me think about how the rate of paranoia of being watched must be so much higher now than it used to be and must only be increasing, which is very concerning,,
I hate the trope of “I refuse to hit women!! [Gets decked]” cause it’s boring but I do like the trope of someone in an RPG going “hey I don’t wanna hit a kid that’s kinda fucked up” and the kid just obliterates them
“i refuse to hit a woman!” = Sexist, overdone, does nothing to actually empower the woman or make the guy seem nice
“I refuse to hit a kid” = valid, even funnier when the kid whips absolutely ass in one go
The ONLY exception to this is Mob Psycho where it’s a kid vs woman fight, in which the kid doesn’t want to hit a woman because he has been told that only scumbags hit women. And then the lady pauses the fight to explain this is a different situation and he’s not bad for defending himself.
every video game released as part of a larger series/franchise should have a mandatory waiting period of 5 years between a game release and any sequels or dlc planned afterwards. not to give enough time to make sure the sequel’s good and finished, but to drive speedrunners to the state of content-deprived near-insanity where they start doing ridiculous runs like randomizing npc dialogue or cutting every blade of grass
batshit video concepts like this are vital to the youtube gaming ecosystem and they will stop existing entirely if every game franchise puts out something new every 6 months
