{"id":5640,"date":"2024-02-07T16:04:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T16:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laser-tron.com\/?p=5640"},"modified":"2024-02-07T16:15:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T16:15:32","slug":"epidemic-of-loneliness-and-isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laser-tron.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/07\/epidemic-of-loneliness-and-isolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Can Out-of-Home Entertainment Venues be Designed to Significantly Reduce Loneliness and Isolation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation is a REAL problem<\/em><\/strong> and it\u2019s affecting people of all ages in the United States and in countries around the world. If you are looking for proof, the Surgeon General released an advisory report in 2023 that raised the alarm about the devastating impact of the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to note that Out-of-Home Entertainment Venues can be upgraded to better enable our guests to socialize, play, laugh, eat, drink, and most importantly bond with their friends, family, as well as the people who make up the communities they live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, out of home entertainment venues can be a part of the problem – especially when they plug their guests back into the out-of-home versions of in-home and mobile entertainment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utilizing individual displays and VR headsets<\/em><\/strong> is an effective way to block<\/span><\/em><\/strong> our guest\u2019s ability to have truly human interactions – ones that enable them to more fully socialize and bond with the people they know as well as those who they are meeting for the very first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In-home and mobile gaming, social media platforms, and streaming services are accelerating the epidemic of loneliness and isolation. These platforms are NOT<\/em><\/strong> designed to bring people together physically<\/em><\/strong> or in a way that enables them to have in person face to face conversations while playing, laughing, smiling, eating, drinking, socializing, and simply being with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humans evolved over tens of thousands of years to create tribes, communities, cities, and even countries. This need to gather together with other humans to sit around the campfire<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, share stories, contribute, play, meet our significant other, socialize, and bond is what benefits the group as well as the individuals within the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital gaming, social platforms, and streaming services have one goal and that is to maximize their<\/span> profit<\/em><\/strong> – unfortunately, this goal is in direct conflict <\/em><\/strong>with the human need<\/span> to gather in person, face to face<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their platforms are designed to lock everyone\u2019s eyeballs<\/span> onto their digital content for as long as possible every single day.<\/em><\/strong> By hijacking everyone\u2019s attention<\/em><\/strong>, they are drastically reducing<\/span><\/em><\/strong> the time<\/span> people have to gather together to connect and bond<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These anti-social platforms<\/em><\/strong> even use fake avatars to connect their users with other users’ avatars. Avatars effectively block the benefits of how humans are designed to connect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to point out that these distraction cartels benefit from the epidemic of loneliness and isolation<\/em><\/strong>, because the lonelier people feel<\/em><\/strong> the more they will use these platforms to distract themselves from thinking about being lonely. Even though these platforms don\u2019t satisfy a person’s need to connect, it\u2019s an easy way for people to forget they are alone. Far too many people accept these fake and simulated connections as good enough, which AGAIN – directly benefits the bottom line of ALL the distraction cartels<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avatars and even digital replicas of a person\u2019s image are going to become very realistic, but it\u2019s important to point out that they are not actually real<\/em><\/strong>. People who use these digital avatars and replicas will be using more and more advanced apps to enhance their looks, modify their voices, as well as alter and\/or hide their true expressions, reactions, and even their true identities<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As these digital platforms quickly improve, they are going to Super Size<\/em><\/strong> the problems that already exist. Such as, the fake curated lives<\/em><\/strong> that people often show on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. These platforms will be able to achieve a more extreme level of fakeness<\/em><\/strong> that can\u2019t be distinguished from reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The priority<\/em><\/strong> for all of these digital platforms is to get everyone addicted to their offerings<\/span> in order to maximize their profits<\/em><\/strong>. They are working relentlessly to lure as many people as possible into their spiderweb of isolation<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. Once new people log in or sign up<\/em><\/strong>, they do whatever it takes<\/span><\/em><\/strong> to keep them imprisoned\/trapped\/zombified<\/span><\/em><\/strong> in their fake digital worlds for as many minutes and hours as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reiterate, these platforms have NO DESIRE<\/em><\/strong> to encourage their users to leave their platforms to gather with their friends, family, coworkers, or the people in their community, because if people did go out to socialize more frequently their revenue will ultimately decline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These supposedly free<\/span><\/em><\/strong> platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, and others exist to capture each user’s attention<\/em><\/strong> by simply showing them a never ending stream of content with embedded ads that coerce their zombified users<\/span><\/em><\/strong> to buy x, y, or z, because, if they don\u2019t, they will never be happy<\/span><\/em><\/strong>!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subscription services like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney+, and all the others are also competing for our attention – their<\/em><\/strong> goal is to keep their subscribers paralyzed by their never ending stream of digital content (i.e. Movies, TV shows, Sports, Documentaries, etc).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The gaming industry has basically the same goals as the free anti-social platforms and the anti-social streaming subscription services, which is to keep their players locked into<\/span> their gaming experiences for hours and hours every single day<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gaming industry has both free and subscription services. Think Fortnite for the free version of gaming, where they make their money from selling skins and upgrades. The streaming gaming services use the subscription model to generate their revenue by giving their players 24\/7 access to hundreds of games for a low monthly price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality is that NONE<\/em><\/strong> of these services want their users to ever feel satisfied or happy with what they already have<\/em><\/strong> and they certainly don\u2019t want their users to turn off their digital platforms or mobile devices to go out and build REAL RELATIONSHIPS<\/em><\/strong> with their real friends, real family, and the real people who live in their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s critical to note that the only real way to build stronger relation<\/span>ships <\/em><\/strong>is by physically gathering together face to face<\/em><\/strong> with our real human friends, family, coworkers, and the people who make up our communities.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Socializing is NOT easy<\/span> for many people<\/em><\/strong> and that is why out-of-home<\/span><\/strong> entertainment operators have to make it as easy as possible<\/em><\/strong> for people to connect while they are in our venues.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to note that these digital companies are tracking everything we do<\/em><\/strong> on their platforms<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. They use what we say, link to, like, love, hate, or watch to identify all the stuff we are most likely to buy, watch, or play next. They also sell our data<\/em><\/strong> to other companies so they can use it to convince us to buy more stuff we don\u2019t need<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To make the most money possible, these digital platforms work relentlessly to convince us that we will NEVER<\/em><\/strong> have enough and will ALWAYS NEED TO BUY MORE<\/span> <\/em><\/strong>by downloading the newest video game, watching the latest episode, watching a new TV series, purchasing the newest and most amazing anti-aging cream, watching a hundred more cat videos, showing us another reason to be upset about x, y, or z, or that we NEED to buy<\/span><\/em><\/strong> the best tasting doomsday survival food with an expiration date of March 2079.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality is that HUMANS (that would be us)<\/em><\/strong> have to allocate more time NOT less<\/span> <\/em><\/strong>to building and maintaining our real relationships as well as expanding our tribe.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember that the amount of time<\/span> these digital distractions suck up<\/em><\/strong> is directly squeezing out the opportunities for our guests to have face to face bonding experiences<\/em><\/strong> that can strengthen their connections with their friends, family, and the members of their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, as entertainment venue operators must be a part of the solution<\/em><\/strong>. To do this, we need to provide our guests with experiences that make it easy for them to gather face to face<\/em><\/strong> with people they know as well as making it significantly easier<\/em><\/strong> for our guests to meet new people<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The problem is NOT that people have too many friends and family to hangout with – it\u2019s that they have far too few. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to LOOK at the Data<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 1960, single-person households accounted for only 13% of all U.S. households. In 2022, that number more than doubled to 29%<\/span><\/em><\/strong> of all households\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n