Man I'm lonely. No idea where to meet people at my age, college classes do not seem the place where people are looking to make new friends. Grade school was pretty much my only way to make friends as a kid.
People in general seem less interested in meeting people. If they aren't in a group of friends already and unapproachable, then they're looking at their phone and probably hostile to anyone who disturbs them.
I feel you. Even though I'm almost part of the problen myself with the whole 'on my phone all the time'.
A month or so ago, I actually wrote up this big thing, and then decided to not post it, but the gist of it was: that advances in healthcare and entertainment technology were leading us into an "Indifference Apocalypse" where people will be nigh-immortal, but also infinitely placated, so nobody will care about anything or do anything with their vastly long lives. That humanity has mistaken technological achievement for humanitarian achievement, and that's leading us down a road to ruin.
I'd...like to inquire one thing--do you approach others out of your own initiative?
Because the exact opposite is occurring where I am; everyone is generally approcheable, and not connected to devices moreso than the people around them. The connection between thoughts and the environment and all. Maybe it's a socio-economic thing, but the note of everything being holistic in nature (as in everything is networked together, affecting each other--aspects of culture, technology, society, etc) occurs here too. If you don't see the desired humanitarian culture being propagated, that doesn't mean you can't start putting emphasis on it yourselves despite the social climate around you.
However I do see familiarity--there are
very widely spread videos which show this connection to technology (which is partly why I denote 'socio-economic' because of the connection between availability, price, and general access or use--like how I made a sad post earlier about how some people who have AWESOME internet speeds spending time online and...at times, being jerks to others in online games rather than investing that opportunity in other things, ending in me not being sad at that (because its a reflection of development) but being sad at the current lack or incompleteness of support towards these advances in technology), and given that many folks here are from America the idea seems like its prevalent when its more localized in differing varieties of a big scale. o_O
Maybe it's just me--but me seeing people describe college like that seems...estranged from all I've been seeing here, along with many others in the area (ie spending time with friends; valuing friends; seeing the connection with others, and one's own thoughts, as just as or MORE important than any social media [as that wasn't made to replace connecting to people], etc). To the quotes above, either it's the initial impression backed up, or supported because of 'common' idea, or it's something to take note of but not get defeated by.