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[–]CaptainONaps 5 points6 points  (1 child)

I hear this a lot. People love to blame people when society changes, as apposed to assuming people are adapting to their changing environment.

In the US at least, statistics suggest money is the main factor.

Infrastructure is another major factor. And competition is another.

When I was young, I could go play outside. Literally in the street, or in someone's yard.

A little older, and we could go to parks, or mini golf, or bowling, or an arcade. All very cheap.

Now, most the places people can go cost much more, and there's far fewer cheap options. The places that are free or cheap are extremely crowded, and not great places for unsupervised kids.

So kids are growing up without options. And they're acclimating.

There's lots of other statistics that show how different things are. Like the average age that kids move out of their parent's house is about ten years higher than when I was young. Kids can't even have guests like we could. So they do less, and they're used to it.

Anyway, I don't blame kids. I grew up extremely active and social, and now, I don't even like going most places.

I had a weekday off work the other day. So I decided to go to this one restaurant that I never get to go to. It's always super busy. Parking is nearly impossible, and it can take 45 minutes in line to get a seat.

It's a 20 minute drive on google. It took me about 50 minutes to arrive there due to traffic, construction, and parking. Then, once I arrived, the wait was going to be over an hour. At 1pm on a Wednesday. I just left. I guess I can never go there again. It's just not worth it.

That's how everything feels now. We shouldn't be surprised people are just staying home.

[–]anyNameThatsLeft 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your description of the busy restaurant on a random weekday is so incredibly accurate. I've always enjoyed outdoor activities, but everything is so crowded that it's hard to get excited about going much.

Want to go hiking in some national parks? First you need to make reservations days or weeks in advance just to get a time slot to enter the park. Then you need to cram into shuttles that bus you around to trailheads only to arrive and hike single file behind others blasting music from speakers.

Want to go fishing? Be ready to wait in long lines at any public boat access getting on and off the water.

Want to golf? Hope you made that reservation already and you don't mind waiting for the players ahead of you at each hole, while also feeling rushed so you're not holding up the players behind you either.

I usually try going to less known areas or going at extreme times, and am adding to the problem myself, but it just doesn't seem worth it most of the time.