Showing posts with label social disengagement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social disengagement. Show all posts

Monday, October 13, 2025

'Partying is down. That's worrisome' (BBC)



People are partying less. Here’s why that’s worrying. | BBC Global

(BBC Global) Oct. 6, 2025: Over the last 20 years, there has been a decline in the amount time Americans spend at parties, especially among young people. Derek Thompson and Katty Kay dive into what the effects of decreased socializing are among young people and what can be done about it.

The BBC is a British public broadcast service. Subscribe to BBC Global. For the latest news, analyses, and features visit: bbc.com #BBC #entertainment #GenZ #Zoomers

Friday, September 5, 2025

Hunchback of Instagram, A.I. insanity


I'm a hot influencer for $$$!
(NY Post) No amount of Instagram [AI] filters will fix this. Influencers might seem glamorous on social media, but their smoldering good looks apparently won’t last.

Experts at the gambling site casino.org have devised a grotesque model of what these content creators will look like by the Year 2050, complete with
  • pale, patchy skin
  • a hunchback and
  • chronic neck pain.
AI kills for the first time

Future social media influencers
“While the career [of social media influencer] can be glamorous, it can also bring significant changes to our lifestyle,” the gambling experts wrote.

They reportedly wanted to see how the “trendy profession” — which boasts 30-50 million adherents worldwide and is growing by 10-20% each year — can impact appearances over time.”

They deduced that “algorithm-chasing, [unrealistic] beauty standard pressures, and non-stop content creation can take a visible toll on both body and mind.” More
ChatGPT tricked me and made me delusional

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Trump's Christian nationalists: Ziklag exposed

Jesus is Republican, right? And a paid member of the NRA?

Ziklag exposed: Secretive Christian nationalist network tries to purge voters in battleground states
(Democracy Now!) July 30, 2024: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made headlines this week after suggesting the 2024 election could be the last U.S. election if he wins in November.
This is our country. We will not be replaced!
DN! looks at a secret organization of wealthy Christians called "Ziklag" that is backing Trump's efforts by working to purge more than a million voters from the rolls in battleground states and mobilize Republican voters to back Trump.

The news outlets ProPublica and Documented obtained thousands of Ziklag's internal files and found the group has divided its 2024 activities into three different operations:
  1. Steeplechase, which uses churches to get out the vote;
  2. Watchtower, which aims to rally voters around opposition to transgender rights; and
  3. Checkmate, which is focused on funding so-called election integrity groups,
explains ProPublica investigative reporter Andy Kroll. MoreZiklag exposed

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Happiness Poison — and the Antidote (video)

Dr. Waldinger, Big Think, March 15, 2024; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Happiness Poison — and the Antidote | Dr. Robert Waldinger
(Big Think) Harvard University has conducted an 85-year-long study on what makes humans happy.

Zen, is it Zen? It's Zen Buddhism, isn't it? - No.
[Was it money, tripping on acid, alcohol, fighting, heroin addiction, lots of sex, smoking weed, drinking lots of water, money, oh I bet it's money, shiploads of money, a job that pays a lot, cars, houses, oh I bet it's lots of real estate, tenants that pay a lot, political office, hot yoga, cold plunges, talk therapy, it's not talk therapy is it, ayahuasca retreats,  getting into the Olympics, Math Olympics, winning chess tournaments, achievements of all kinds, overcoming adversity, martial arts, is it breathing, just being alive, having a disease then not having it, eating vegan, watching videos on YouTube, no TikTok, being addicted to a cellphone, meditating alone in a jungle under a fruit tree until the dawn of wisdom?]

Harvard professor's six-step guide to Zen

Psychiatrist [Zen Master Roshi] Robert Waldinger, MD, explains what Harvard found by asking, ► What is the one thing that, according to science, will make our lives richer and vastly more fulfilling? [Meditation, is it meditation?]

This 85-year continuing longitudinal study from Harvard says the answer is relationships. Dr. Waldinger is the current director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest-running research on adult life.

Tracking over 2,000 lives since 1938, Waldinger and his team have dissected the fabric of well-being, finding that wealth and achievements fall short compared to the power of our connections with other people.

Over the eight decades since the study began, scientists have determined that loneliness and isolation can have negative effects on our mental, emotional, and even physical well-being.

Key findings of this study suggest that nurturing relationships may serve as our best source of fulfillment, emphasizing the need for "social fitness" alongside mental and physical health.

According to Doc Waldinger, it’s time to invest in the bonds that matter which, ultimately, is an investment in ourselves.

ABOUT: Dr. Robert Waldinger, MD, is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a practicing psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and a Zen Buddhist teacher and practitioner. For the last two decades, Waldinger has been the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. This study, conducted over more than 85 years, has analyzed the entire lives of 724 families to determine the activities, behaviors, and dynamics that enhance a person’s life-long well-being. Dr. Waldinger has dedicated his career to examining these elements and discovering what brings true fulfillment to human existence. He is the author of several books, including his most recent, The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.
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Saturday, September 16, 2023

Why men's testosterone is so low (video)

Joseph Everett, What I've Learned, 11/15/20; Sheldon S., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

(What I've Learned) [Mood is strange, and so much of it depends on our testosterone (male and masculinizing hormone called androgen) levels. Social factors can depress our testosterone, just as xenoestrogens (xenoestrogens) in the environment. The herbicide atrazine (a teratogen) really does turn frogs gay or into females, as Alex Jones used to scream about. These chemicals mimic estrogen. Compounds in plastics like the plasticizer BPA and dangerous and can turn us fat, anxious, depressed, weak, effeminate, possibly even sending over the social contagion that accounts for some transgender affectations and behaviors.]
  • 0:00 - Our brains love social dynamics
  • 1:17 - Status and Testosterone
  • 2:50 - Instagram and Mental Health
  • 3:03 - Why raise Testosterone and How?
  • 4:16 - Testosterone changes your behavior
  • 5:48 - Social Anxiety and Testosterone
  • 8:00 - Are you depressed or just low status?
  • 8:53 - Does Instagram teach you you are low status?
  • 9:37 - How many people should we be comparing ourselves to?
  • 11:52 - Testosterone is a positive feedback loop
For business inquiries: Joseph.Everett.Wil@gmail.com. First 200 people to use this link https://brilliant.org/WIL/ can get 20% off an annual premium subscription to Brilliant.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Racist Japan? Japanese against Japanese

Evan Hadfield (Rare Earth, Aug. 15, 2017); CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


How to destroy people: Make them "untouchable"
Hey, f*ck, this happened to me in the USA!
Japan's Burakumin ("village people") are a people within a people. For hundreds of years they experienced direct persecution that has kept them from being fully functional members of society.

Even though they were released from their low caste in the 1800's, the stigma attached to them remains to this day.

The one thing this look is missing that the maker wishes he'd added, is the historic discrimination against Koreans and how it is interwoven into the village folk (and modern-day Yakuza). It is worth looking into for anyone itching to learn and understand more.
The music for this video was graciously provided by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com. It is Creative Commons, and he is no doubt unaware it is being used and is great for letting it happen.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Why do introverts tend to be highly spiritual?

Amber Larson, Ven. Nyanaponika, Wisdom Quarterly; Editor Gregg Prescott, M.S. (in5D.com)

A Manifest for Introverts (in5d.com)
Why do introverts tend to be highly spiritual? Society dictates that we follow specific images projected by the mainstream media, so why do introverts tend to rebel from these stereotypes?

Introverts tend to look within for answers versus having the need for societal approval. Often, extroverts will view the introvert as being antisocial, stuck up, or as a loner. But even with these labels, the introvert will stand his or her ground disregarding how others perceive him or her.

If you are an introvert, then you will find comfort in solitude. You often find yourself immersed in deep thought and contemplation. Your need for approval from others is significantly less than the extrovert as you realize that answers come from within.

While you may partake of social occasions, you often enjoy simply watching the environment around you versus being the center of attention, which many introverts try to avoid. On a metaphysical level, the introvert realizes how we are all connected and does not need the external approval and attention that is often sought after by the extrovert.

Approximately 75% of the world are extroverts, which makes the introvert the minority, yet the introvert will not succumb to societal pressure in order to conform.

While some introverts may be shy, there is a big difference between shyness and being introverted. More 

Happily detached?
You know what's good about Buddhism? Viveka, mental and physical withdrawal to strive.
 
There is a kind of "happiness of detachment," aloofness. Whoever is addicted to society and worldly bustle will not partake of the happiness of renunciation (internal letting go), detachment, peace, and enlightenment" (AN. VII.86).

There are three kinds of "detachment" (viveka) or seclusion according to the Niddesa:
  • (1) bodily detachment (kāya-viveka), that is, abiding in solitude free from alluring sensuous objects;
  • (2) mental detachment (citta-viveka), that is, the inner detachment from sensuous things;
  • (3) detachment from the Five Aggregates of Clinging (upadhi-viveka).
In the description of the first meditative absorption,
  • the words "detached from sensuous things" refer, according to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. IV), to "bodily detachment";
  • the words "detached from karmically unwholesome things" refer to "mental detachment";
  • the words "born of detachment," to the absence of the Five Hindrances to meditation.

Monday, December 29, 2014

"I'm tired of life," punk (video)

Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Blinko; Grisham
Long enough, long enough, it has been long enough! (shutterstock/rawstory.com)
 
Sutra: Tears
Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Assu Sutra (SN 15.3)
The Buddha knows (Saara Arkiharha/flickr).
[The Buddha was once residing in Savatthi.] There the Blessed One said: "From an unfathomable beginning comes this continued wandering on in samsara [rebirth].

"No beginning is evident when beings first became hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving wandering on [in search of sensual pleasures, supersensual pleasures, continued wandering, or annihilation].
 
"What do you think, meditators: Which is greater, the tears you have shed while being reborn and wandering this long, long time -- crying and weeping from having to be in contact with what is displeasing and being separated from what is pleasing -- or the water in the four great oceans?"

"As we understand the Dharma taught to us by the Blessed One, the tears we shed while being reborn wandering on this long, long time is greater -- crying and weeping from being in contact with what is displeasing and separated from what is pleasing -- rather than the water in the four great oceans."
 
"Excellent, meditators, excellent! It is excellent that you thus understand the Dharma as taught by me.
 
It's sad, so incredibly sad! (BodhiPunx)
"The tears you have shed while being reborn wandering on this long, long time is greater -- crying and weeping from being in contact with what is displeasing and being separated from what is pleasing -- rather than the water in the four great oceans.
  • "Long have you (repeatedly) experienced the death of a mother. The tears you have shed over the death of a mother while being reborn wandering on this long, long time -- crying and weeping from being in contact with what is displeasing and being separated from what is pleasing -- are greater than the water in the four great oceans.
  • Long have you (repeatedly) experienced the death of a father...
  • the death of a brother...
  • the death of a sister...
  • the death of a son...
  • the death of a daughter... 
  • the loss of relatives...
  • the loss of wealth...
  • loss due to disease. The tears you have shed due to loss by disease while being reborn wandering on this long, long time -- crying and weeping from being in contact with what is displeasing and being separated from what is pleasing -- are greater than the water in the four great oceans.
"And why is that? From an unfathomable beginning comes rebirth. A beginning [first point] is not evident when beings began to be hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving while being reborn in this continued wandering on (samsara).

"Long have you thus experienced suffering (dukkha, disappointment, dissatisfaction), experienced pain, experienced loss, swelled the cemeteries -- long enough to become disenchanted with all formations, long enough to become dispassionate, long enough to be released."
 
The Stick
John D. Ireland (trans.) edited by Wisdom Quarterly (SN 15:9), Wheel No. 107
“Just as a stick thrown up into the air sometimes falls on its base, sometimes on its side, sometimes on its tip, similarly, meditators, do beings obstructed by ignorance and fettered by craving continue to wander on through the round of rebirths.
 
“At one time beings go from this world to another world, at another time coming from another world to this world. Why, what is the reason?
 
“Unimaginable, meditators, is a beginning to the round of rebirths [and redeaths]. For beings obstructed by ignorance and fettered by craving continuing to wander on through the round of rebirths, no starting point is evident.
 
“Thus for a long time, meditators, have you experienced suffering (disappointment), pain, and destruction, and the cemeteries have swelled. It has been long enough for you to have become dispassionate toward all formations (conditioned things), long enough for you to have become detached and released from them.” More
"I'm tired of life"

Growing up in America is all about being in an indie rock or punk band. Pass it on.


Punk Barbie & Spiky
Two early punk songs never get old (as long as new garage bands keep doing covers of them), one from the British anarcho-punks Rudimentary Peni and another from the early Los Angeles scenesters T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty).

Jack Greggors (Grisham) once did a duet, trading lines: "I'm tired of looking (It's not in my vision)/ I'm tired of seeing/ (I don't wanna see this)/ I'm tired of hearing (Don't tell me your sh-t)/ I'm tired of being (So why am I here?)/ I'm tired of life (And all of its jokes)/ Imaginary lines (To fool all you fools)/ Imaginary rules (To live your life by)/ And all the world's fools//

"Life is so easy when you're told what to do/ Where to work and how to be you/ But the jokes wears off and you're still laughing/ Caught in your own trap and you're all happy!//

Learn your history (School of Rock)
"Too stupid to know it (Just try use your head)/ Too stupid to care (You've all been fooled)/ Just one voice screaming (Is there really a point?)/ Just one in a million (A little speck of flesh)/ Who's gonna hear it (Scream till you die)/ Who's gonna know it? (Your conscience, your mind)/ Who even cares? (No one but yourself)/ It's hopeless (You're hopeless)//

"Because of the process, because of the system,/ Because you're still laughing, because you don't listen,/ Because of the process, because of the system,/ Because you're still laughing, because you don't listen."

(Rudimentary Peni) "Tower of Strength" from the second EP
  
Towers (Micky75017)
Nick Blinko asks, Are you tired of things coming in only to go out again? "Tower of Strength takes to the sea/ Scours ocean via quay/ Same old story, muscle bound and gory/ Brand new story, death without glory/ Infinite story, something so hoary/ Build a tower of strength and watch it weaken/ Construct high hopes as the brightest beacon/ Watch the seagulls eat the trash/ You contemptuously ditch/ Do you know a seagull?/ Do you know a wreck?// Are you tired of the tide?/ Are you tired of the tide?/ Roll in a rock pool, come let's hide// Do you know a raging wind?/ Do you know a seagull?/ Do you know a wreck?/ Do you know a raging wind?/ Are you tired of the tide?/ Are you tired of the tide?/ Roll in a rock pool, come let's hide/ Tower of strength takes to the sea, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!"

Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980's SoCal (We Got Power! magazine/bazillionpoints)
WGP!: "We survived the pit" with David Markey, Jordan Schwartz (TRACK16.com).

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Suu Kyi's Engaged Buddhism (audio)

NPR.org (Morning Edition), June 20, 2012
Burmese opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is getting an honorary doctorate from Oxford Wednesday. Last week, she formally accepted the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. As she tours Europe, Suu Kyi is being honored for her nonviolent political protest against a military junta that kept her under house arrest [and continues to operate as dictators of Burma] for most of the last 20 years. But her philosophy of civil disobedience might have to change to fit her new role as a politician back home.
  
  

Friday, May 25, 2012

OC87: Obsessive Compulsive Asperger's (film)

Fisherklingenstein.com; Wisdom Quarterly; "OC87" is in theaters starting May 25th, 2012

"OC87" The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie
Can you make a movie while experiencing mental illness? [Is there any other way?] Bud Clayman is doing it. Will making a documentary about one's mental illness change one's life?
 
Mental illness interrupted Bud’s dream of a filmmaking career. Thirty years later, he’s making the movie of his life. Bud Clayman is one of films’ most unlikely heroes. This is a personal story with universal relevance -- a wildly original documentary of pain and vulnerability, empowerment, and Bud’s quest for belonging.
 
Throughout his youth, Bud’s future was filmmaking. After college in Philadelphia, he headed to Hollywood in search of a break.
   
Instead, he had a breakdown. As mental illness struck, it stuck. When distress and isolation set in, the diagnoses followed. For eight years, Bud lived in a therapeutic community. Without waiting for his illness to vanish, Bud has reclaimed his quest as a filmmaker.
  
As his camera chronicles the ups and downs of recovery, we also see the experience of what he calls “the fight inside my head.” Behind the lens, a parallel journey unfolds as Bud the Director grapples with the challenges of making an incisive, highly personal documentary -- a movie he believes will transform his life. More

Friday, May 13, 2011

Escape? The seclusion illusion

Megan Johnston (smh.com.au, May 14, 2011)

(Illustration by Robert Duong. Photo: Robert Duong)

Sick of modern life? You're not Robinson Crusoe. But withdrawing from the world only makes things worse.

It has been almost 20 years since an idealistic drifter called Christopher McCandless trekked into the Alaskan wilderness and died. Seeking a period of contemplation and driven by a contempt for civilization, the young American gave away his savings and abandoned his possessions before embarking on what he saw as a noble odyssey.

Desperately ill-prepared, his quest lasted barely a few months before he perished from starvation.

His journey may have been doomed, but our fascination with it and the abundance of websites, books, and films that have immortalized his memory all speak to our longing for solitude.

The impulse is familiar to anyone who has felt overwhelmed by modern life. When disaster, over-information, or financial stress become too much, we retreat to soothing distractions and bunker down in personal affairs.

Instead of escaping to the wilderness, however, we usually seek solace in the cinema, in the meditation hall, or at a bolthole by the beach.

In many cases it's no more than a healthy diversion. No one could sensibly argue that an occasional break is anything other than good for our well-being.

But for some, seclusion can morph into long-term withdrawal. Solitude can tip into loneliness. Cocooning, it's often called. Or its close relation -- escapism. As inviting as both may seem, they rarely bring contentment. More

Monday, September 1, 2008

Americans who lose Jobs become Hermits


Jeanna Bryner (LiveScience.com, 9/1/08)

[It's the opposite in Asia; see below.] Layoffs can turn social butterflies into near hermits who shun such outlets as book clubs and even church groups, finds a new study.

Workers who experienced just one layoff or involuntary loss of a job were 35% less likely to be involved in their communities than their always-employed counterparts, according to the survey that will be published in the September issue of the journal Social Forces.

Reciprocity
The researchers suggest the reason could come down to tit for tat, or an attitude of "you don't scratch my back, why should I scratch yours?" "Social engagement often involves an element of social trust and a sense that things are reciprocal -- that you give some support if you get some support, and you benefit from society if society benefits from you," said lead researcher Jennie Brand, a sociologist at UCLA. "When workers are displaced, the tendency is to feel as though the social contract has been violated, and we found that they are less likely to reciprocate."

Dirt on downsizing
The results were based on data on nearly 4,400 participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has tracked a group of 1957 Wisconsin high school graduates for more than 45 years. Born between 1939 and 1940, the participants are of an American age group that is inclined to participate in community and social groups, the researchers say.

Of the six forms of involvement, youth and community groups experienced the strongest exodus by displaced workers followed by church and church groups, charitable organizations, and leisurely activities. Professional and political groups remained just as popular on average in displaced and non-displaced workers. "Displaced workers may be more likely to keep up with professional groups than other groups because they're trying to make up for lost ground with respect to their careers," Brand said.

Workers who got flung out of their jobs during their peak earning years, between the ages of 35 and 53, were the most likely to withdraw from the social buzz throughout their lives. Employees who got the boot between 53 and 64 years of age, at the tail end of their careers, were just as likely to participate in social and community groups as their non-displaced counterparts.

"Being laid off doesn't appear to be as socially damaging for older workers as younger ones," Brand said. "The shame factor of downsizing your lifestyle just isn't there, because your peers may be downsizing as well and you can play off your displacement as an early retirement even though it may be forced retirement."

Double whammy
The latest findings have considerable ramifications, Brand said. "Whether citizens participate is important for the effective functioning of neighborhoods, schools, communities, and democracies," Brand said. In addition, such withdrawals from society can cause a vicious cycle of unemployment. "If workers withdraw socially after being laid off, then they're experiencing double-jeopardy," Brand said. "They're losing their jobs, and then they're not participating in society, so they're not keeping up with social contacts that might help them find a new job."

Asians with good Jobs were Hermits

Richard Barrow (thaibuddhist.com)

Over a one-month period, Barrow documented the life of a newly ordained hermit. The time for Nattawud's ordination as a bhikkhu ("hermit") has come. Most Thai men do this once they come of age. Nattawud isn't actually 20 yet. However, they are, apparently, allowed to also count the time spent in their mother's womb! [This is customary in Asia, so that one is nine months old pospartum.]

Thai men are not considered mature adults until they have become monastics for a period of time. Thai people call them "unripe." Once they have ordained and disrobed, they are called thit. Thai men in government jobs are legally allowed to take a three month leave of absence to ordain as a hermit.

Most do this during [the Rains Retreat (Vas) the monsoon season in Asia used for intensive practice since the bad weather doesn't allow for much else, sometimes called] "Buddhist lent," which starts in July. During Vas or lent people do not wander but stay in their hermitage. As Nattawud's birthday is in July, his family decided to bring the ceremony forward. More >>