This is fascinating (and disturbing). I was a bicycle messenger for a very long time. We worked with open air radios and had dispatchers, much like taxi drivers. We had a local bar. We had true camaraderie. Not sure about the US, but here in Canada we were classified as owner-operators (akin to contractors). No benefits, no hourly wage. Yet we could work hard and ingratiate ourselves to our overlord (dispatcher) and make money. Most of us loved the independence a free-floating workplace offered, but we had humans to connect with.
Over the years, companies switched to pagers and then radios that eliminated open air (ending chatting with the crew throughout the day). Then social media came along, ending word of mouth connection to events. Then the economy tanked and companies undercut each other on rates to clients, and we all made less money. Local bars with indoor places to keep bikes while we chatting over a beer after work disappeared as rents rose dramatically, though no one could afford to go to them anymore, anyway.
Messenger culture is still present, but barely. It’s a shadow of what it once was. I know someone who left the industry last year, after decades. The alienation you speak of was a massive part of it. He could go all day and not talk to anybody at all. Everyone glued to a device all day, every day. (It was interesting in the late 90s and early 00s when cellphone use exploded - increasing hazards like nothing anyone had ever seen). He no longer knew most of the people on the street, and was constantly navigating gig cyclists who operated in their own world, using devices and e-bikes getting paid absolutely terribly.
This isn’t to shit on gig workers, to be very clear. Just an observation of the absolute dehumanization the giant tech companies depend on to make money they absolutely do not deserve. The human beings performing the labour do.
Great article - makes me wonder how users of platforms can push back and take control of the vary algorithms controlling our everyday. We are always seeing people on Threads or other platforms say they are "gaming" the algorithm, but why is it so hard? I mean, we know why it is difficult - it is designed to be this way to control the masses, push for extremes, and prevent honest discourse.
Great question! I wish there was one simple answer. I think I has to involve more ownership and control. Users and workers controlling these platforms is a must, ultimately. I think intermediate steps like non-profit platforms intrigue me as well. If you know of other approaches would love to hear about them!
We need to completely abandon big tech and stop participating in corrupt financial systems. There are ways to exchange value and build software that completely works around these broken symptoms. I don’t think we should spend much time figuring out how to exploit existing corrupt systems. We need to burn down the old ones while building our own.
Concrete solutions are to focus on building open source software that runs on decentralized compute platforms (we own the software and it runs on our hardware in a way that protects our data from being exploited by other businesses).
For example, we can build software through a non-profit platform like Open Source Collective and the Open Source Initiative. Then leverage decentralized storage and compute infrastructure like Storj or Valdi. We can also follow design patterns enforcing privacy and user-owned data.
Pretty much all software we depend on can be rebuilt in this way, copied infinitely for free, with no money or data flowing through incumbent corporations like big tech.
This comment is coming from an ex-Amazon and Microsoft AI software architect turned gig worker. I know how to knee-cap big tech and I’m doing my damned-est to burn it all down as I build better software for the people. You can too!
Love it. From personal experience, I notice this. Kicked some bad habits on my phone by finding other healthier opportunities in life to connect to. Unfortunately one of them is Substack which does glue me to my phone. But I find it more meaningful than my prior habits.
Loving this post. I am wondering if you have checked out the work of Othering & Belonging Institute? They focus on structural belonging.
I would also add aside from the points you mentioned, there are other factors I see mainstream discourses on loneliness don’t address: built environment, gentrification, work hours that only get longer even though tech promised to make things more “efficient,” the rise of global cities that prioritize market over the social aspects, cultures that emphasize hierarchal relationships over egalitarian ones (regardless of if they are individualistic or collectivistic), among so many others.
Oh wow no I haven’t checked them out, but I will now. And completely agreed this whole matrix of factors combines to isolate us. I think capitalism United many of them, but other elements and systems are certainly part of the picture as well.
There’s also the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness and every year they do a paid summer fellowship for people who don’t have academic background that partners with different global organizations on projects to do with belonging and social connectedness. They focus both on systemic and individual aspects. Partners include Human Rights Watch among others.
Othering & Belonging Institute they have a free journal where anyone can contribute art or writing (even if non-academic) and also a certification program on building communities of belonging and a free podcast
Forgot to mention Healthy Places by Design and Happy Cities which address the built environment aspect of things. The former collaborated with The Foundation for Social Connection to do a free downloadable toolkit for leaders and community members
It's also about the tolerance we have for other people. I've seen it referred to even as a sort of "stamina"; the ability to keep returning, trusting, and loving, even through interpersonal conflict, failures, and stress. We need to develop our grit of feeling in order to keep showing up with and for each other.
And while much of that is 100% dependent on other stability in your life, as you write, it's also FASCINATING how wealth and stability don't correlate with greater community engagement or developing the skills needed to be in community. Wealth – even moderate wealth – leads to more isolation, privacy, and a tighter curation on who and what you let through into your life. Even at the simplest unit of being able to drive a car you own or lease (an isolated environment) vs. taking the bus (sharing space with others). As everything drives us to hoard our own resources and rewards our isolation, it becomes a more painful choice to learn how to be with other people.
I love your writing!! This piece especially feels super relevant to me, as I have recently begun working as a labor organizer; and since I started, I've noticed a dramatic change in how I feel myself relating to my city, and the people who live in it. Before, I of course knew that capitalism separates and diminishes us...but it's only now that I have begun committing a lot of my time to directly challenging capital itself––to building connections between the people who are most harmed by it––that I have felt myself truly embodying that belief, and finding the 'connectedness' that we all crave so much.
Sorry to sound pretentious lol, but I really believe in this work as our best path to rebuilding community and forging a better world––not only because everyone is forced to constantly be at work (and therefore it is the most practical site to organize from), but also because historically, organized labor has been the one force which has been able to reliably (and peacefully) reform a system as broken as ours.
I have been frustrated with how little the labor movement has been centered in public discourse––especially among young people who are becoming increasingly radicalized around palestine. I decided to make a video to promote labor organizing to other zoomers, but as I have no established audience, basically no one has seen it yet. I've posted it on twitter (@clothe_emperor) if you wanna check it out!
Again, thank you for the work you do here with New Means, I have really relied on it these past few months to make sense of the world.
Bravo! Owning/controlling the means of communication is as important as owning the means of production - otherwise we have no power and are at the mercy of a small group of greedy and creepy people. Firefox started off like that and now there is Duck Duck Go as an alternative browser that supposedly does not track/sell your data. I know that Substack gets paid by Google for our writings for their AI division - it is set to free access by default in Substack settings unless you turn on the blocker which I recently did. Don't like that AI is stealing all our writing and art without any compensation. There are court cases happening right now but unless some big artist or cool rich people pay for some big time lawyers - have a feeling any class action suits will result in maybe getting a check for 20 dollars someday for art stolen that took a lifetime to do well - 10,000+ hours. They call data the new oil $$$ yet no one gets paid except those .01% who control the means of communication aka the big social media corporations - Amazon, facebook, google, tik tok etc. 70% of Americans have an Alexa in their house listening and recording everything they say and do 24/7! SMART houses are Corporate Big Brother-1984! God help us!
Here in Aotearoa New Zealand contracted delivery drivers successfully claimed that they were in fact employees- because they were tied to the company like employees. That is good news. Also, I heard an interview about content moderators for Meta: if a fellow worker was struggling, those around them would slow down too, so they would not be singled out
Yes, we as a society are more alienated, isolated and lonely than we were a generation ago, about 20 years. This is how capitalism always worked and now tech enhances this isolation and atomization of the human.
For capitalists, humans are mere consumers, without whom our economic society will crash (70% consumer-driven in America; 64% in Canada). The surge pricing is part of that exploitation strategy. We have few ways of dissent; the best and most effective is consume less. So, about a year ago; I stopped frequenting all fast-food places, stopped using delivery or ride-sharing apps and lowered my consumption foorprint.
You’ll forgive me for making assumptions but the brevity of your comment leaves room for misunderstanding where more clarity on your part could have avoided such…
But to suggest that the only problem is that people are overspending is to blatantly ignore the obvious: that labor is getting a smaller share of the collective pie than we’ve ever had.
The ratio of cost of housing today, to average household income, is up 400% from what it was in the 60s. And other costs are up similarly.
Blaming that on worker class greed is at best dark comedy.
Regardless of your motive, your response is a non answer to the actual problems that we face. It’s like telling other slaves to not complain but be happy with what the master provides.
You don’t know shit about me so why are you alleging what I think about myself or that I have problems I’m trying to convince you about?
I’m simply pointing out that your comment is a pro capitalist apologia and you shouldn’t be actively encouraging people to just accept the situation by simply blaming themselves.
I’m attacking your argument, not you personally. Meanwhile, you’re attacking me personally; that suggests you have no actual position worth defending. If you do, you should stick to that and make your fucking point.
This definitely relates to the piece I wrote yesterday. It’s a modern discard philosophy, which comes from a culture where we have access to more people than ever before.
this is an important discussion to keep having. One of my soft conclusions in my forthcoming book is that we have gone into a mass social retreat as a country and consumer culture + media are the primary reasons. Increasingly we feel pitted against a thousand impersonal bureaucracies (mostly corporate) which only encourages a bunkering mentality.
Consider that approximately 2 million immigrants are crossing the border every year. Where are they finding housing or work? Families living in cars are likely not counted. Unemployment statistics only include those who are receiving unemployment benefits and those statistics are underreported as well. Facts are only opinions and disinformation when it comes to the government.
This is fascinating (and disturbing). I was a bicycle messenger for a very long time. We worked with open air radios and had dispatchers, much like taxi drivers. We had a local bar. We had true camaraderie. Not sure about the US, but here in Canada we were classified as owner-operators (akin to contractors). No benefits, no hourly wage. Yet we could work hard and ingratiate ourselves to our overlord (dispatcher) and make money. Most of us loved the independence a free-floating workplace offered, but we had humans to connect with.
Over the years, companies switched to pagers and then radios that eliminated open air (ending chatting with the crew throughout the day). Then social media came along, ending word of mouth connection to events. Then the economy tanked and companies undercut each other on rates to clients, and we all made less money. Local bars with indoor places to keep bikes while we chatting over a beer after work disappeared as rents rose dramatically, though no one could afford to go to them anymore, anyway.
Messenger culture is still present, but barely. It’s a shadow of what it once was. I know someone who left the industry last year, after decades. The alienation you speak of was a massive part of it. He could go all day and not talk to anybody at all. Everyone glued to a device all day, every day. (It was interesting in the late 90s and early 00s when cellphone use exploded - increasing hazards like nothing anyone had ever seen). He no longer knew most of the people on the street, and was constantly navigating gig cyclists who operated in their own world, using devices and e-bikes getting paid absolutely terribly.
This isn’t to shit on gig workers, to be very clear. Just an observation of the absolute dehumanization the giant tech companies depend on to make money they absolutely do not deserve. The human beings performing the labour do.
Great article - makes me wonder how users of platforms can push back and take control of the vary algorithms controlling our everyday. We are always seeing people on Threads or other platforms say they are "gaming" the algorithm, but why is it so hard? I mean, we know why it is difficult - it is designed to be this way to control the masses, push for extremes, and prevent honest discourse.
Great question! I wish there was one simple answer. I think I has to involve more ownership and control. Users and workers controlling these platforms is a must, ultimately. I think intermediate steps like non-profit platforms intrigue me as well. If you know of other approaches would love to hear about them!
We need to completely abandon big tech and stop participating in corrupt financial systems. There are ways to exchange value and build software that completely works around these broken symptoms. I don’t think we should spend much time figuring out how to exploit existing corrupt systems. We need to burn down the old ones while building our own.
Concrete solutions are to focus on building open source software that runs on decentralized compute platforms (we own the software and it runs on our hardware in a way that protects our data from being exploited by other businesses).
For example, we can build software through a non-profit platform like Open Source Collective and the Open Source Initiative. Then leverage decentralized storage and compute infrastructure like Storj or Valdi. We can also follow design patterns enforcing privacy and user-owned data.
Pretty much all software we depend on can be rebuilt in this way, copied infinitely for free, with no money or data flowing through incumbent corporations like big tech.
This comment is coming from an ex-Amazon and Microsoft AI software architect turned gig worker. I know how to knee-cap big tech and I’m doing my damned-est to burn it all down as I build better software for the people. You can too!
This is an excellent and informed piece of writing! Very enjoyable to read, and very well thought out. Thank you!
Love it. From personal experience, I notice this. Kicked some bad habits on my phone by finding other healthier opportunities in life to connect to. Unfortunately one of them is Substack which does glue me to my phone. But I find it more meaningful than my prior habits.
Loving this post. I am wondering if you have checked out the work of Othering & Belonging Institute? They focus on structural belonging.
I would also add aside from the points you mentioned, there are other factors I see mainstream discourses on loneliness don’t address: built environment, gentrification, work hours that only get longer even though tech promised to make things more “efficient,” the rise of global cities that prioritize market over the social aspects, cultures that emphasize hierarchal relationships over egalitarian ones (regardless of if they are individualistic or collectivistic), among so many others.
Oh wow no I haven’t checked them out, but I will now. And completely agreed this whole matrix of factors combines to isolate us. I think capitalism United many of them, but other elements and systems are certainly part of the picture as well.
There’s also the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness and every year they do a paid summer fellowship for people who don’t have academic background that partners with different global organizations on projects to do with belonging and social connectedness. They focus both on systemic and individual aspects. Partners include Human Rights Watch among others.
Othering & Belonging Institute they have a free journal where anyone can contribute art or writing (even if non-academic) and also a certification program on building communities of belonging and a free podcast
Forgot to mention Healthy Places by Design and Happy Cities which address the built environment aspect of things. The former collaborated with The Foundation for Social Connection to do a free downloadable toolkit for leaders and community members
Josh, this article is much needed.
I will have it especially bookmarked.
Thank you!
BIG time yes to all of this. Thank you.
It's also about the tolerance we have for other people. I've seen it referred to even as a sort of "stamina"; the ability to keep returning, trusting, and loving, even through interpersonal conflict, failures, and stress. We need to develop our grit of feeling in order to keep showing up with and for each other.
And while much of that is 100% dependent on other stability in your life, as you write, it's also FASCINATING how wealth and stability don't correlate with greater community engagement or developing the skills needed to be in community. Wealth – even moderate wealth – leads to more isolation, privacy, and a tighter curation on who and what you let through into your life. Even at the simplest unit of being able to drive a car you own or lease (an isolated environment) vs. taking the bus (sharing space with others). As everything drives us to hoard our own resources and rewards our isolation, it becomes a more painful choice to learn how to be with other people.
I love your writing!! This piece especially feels super relevant to me, as I have recently begun working as a labor organizer; and since I started, I've noticed a dramatic change in how I feel myself relating to my city, and the people who live in it. Before, I of course knew that capitalism separates and diminishes us...but it's only now that I have begun committing a lot of my time to directly challenging capital itself––to building connections between the people who are most harmed by it––that I have felt myself truly embodying that belief, and finding the 'connectedness' that we all crave so much.
Sorry to sound pretentious lol, but I really believe in this work as our best path to rebuilding community and forging a better world––not only because everyone is forced to constantly be at work (and therefore it is the most practical site to organize from), but also because historically, organized labor has been the one force which has been able to reliably (and peacefully) reform a system as broken as ours.
I have been frustrated with how little the labor movement has been centered in public discourse––especially among young people who are becoming increasingly radicalized around palestine. I decided to make a video to promote labor organizing to other zoomers, but as I have no established audience, basically no one has seen it yet. I've posted it on twitter (@clothe_emperor) if you wanna check it out!
Again, thank you for the work you do here with New Means, I have really relied on it these past few months to make sense of the world.
Bravo! Owning/controlling the means of communication is as important as owning the means of production - otherwise we have no power and are at the mercy of a small group of greedy and creepy people. Firefox started off like that and now there is Duck Duck Go as an alternative browser that supposedly does not track/sell your data. I know that Substack gets paid by Google for our writings for their AI division - it is set to free access by default in Substack settings unless you turn on the blocker which I recently did. Don't like that AI is stealing all our writing and art without any compensation. There are court cases happening right now but unless some big artist or cool rich people pay for some big time lawyers - have a feeling any class action suits will result in maybe getting a check for 20 dollars someday for art stolen that took a lifetime to do well - 10,000+ hours. They call data the new oil $$$ yet no one gets paid except those .01% who control the means of communication aka the big social media corporations - Amazon, facebook, google, tik tok etc. 70% of Americans have an Alexa in their house listening and recording everything they say and do 24/7! SMART houses are Corporate Big Brother-1984! God help us!
Here in Aotearoa New Zealand contracted delivery drivers successfully claimed that they were in fact employees- because they were tied to the company like employees. That is good news. Also, I heard an interview about content moderators for Meta: if a fellow worker was struggling, those around them would slow down too, so they would not be singled out
Add to the technical side of this the COVID lockdown and we’ve not come back from it. Your article makes me wonder if we ever will.
Yes, we as a society are more alienated, isolated and lonely than we were a generation ago, about 20 years. This is how capitalism always worked and now tech enhances this isolation and atomization of the human.
For capitalists, humans are mere consumers, without whom our economic society will crash (70% consumer-driven in America; 64% in Canada). The surge pricing is part of that exploitation strategy. We have few ways of dissent; the best and most effective is consume less. So, about a year ago; I stopped frequenting all fast-food places, stopped using delivery or ride-sharing apps and lowered my consumption foorprint.
The only way to have control over our lives is to live well below our means.
You’ll forgive me for making assumptions but the brevity of your comment leaves room for misunderstanding where more clarity on your part could have avoided such…
But to suggest that the only problem is that people are overspending is to blatantly ignore the obvious: that labor is getting a smaller share of the collective pie than we’ve ever had.
The ratio of cost of housing today, to average household income, is up 400% from what it was in the 60s. And other costs are up similarly.
Blaming that on worker class greed is at best dark comedy.
Good heavens! You did read a lot into that. It's just worked for me. I always had less than everyone around me. In time it paid off. No blame.
Regardless of your motive, your response is a non answer to the actual problems that we face. It’s like telling other slaves to not complain but be happy with what the master provides.
Your view is actively harmful to society.
You sure have a way of making people give a shit about your problems. 🤣
You don’t know shit about me so why are you alleging what I think about myself or that I have problems I’m trying to convince you about?
I’m simply pointing out that your comment is a pro capitalist apologia and you shouldn’t be actively encouraging people to just accept the situation by simply blaming themselves.
I’m attacking your argument, not you personally. Meanwhile, you’re attacking me personally; that suggests you have no actual position worth defending. If you do, you should stick to that and make your fucking point.
Said the perfect person. Got it. How nice to find yourself so high and mighty.
Many of us have no choice
This definitely relates to the piece I wrote yesterday. It’s a modern discard philosophy, which comes from a culture where we have access to more people than ever before.
https://open.substack.com/pub/austinmuhs/p/single-serving-friends-why-modern
this is an important discussion to keep having. One of my soft conclusions in my forthcoming book is that we have gone into a mass social retreat as a country and consumer culture + media are the primary reasons. Increasingly we feel pitted against a thousand impersonal bureaucracies (mostly corporate) which only encourages a bunkering mentality.
Yeah, being Homeless must be very isolating.
Here's a list of supposedly "sophisticated" countries with HIGHER % HOMELESS POPULATIONS than the United States.
Facts.
You're welcome.
Canada
United Kingdom
France
Australia
Luxembourg
Greece
Sweden
Germany
Austria
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_homeless_population
The US numbers are vastly underreported.
Consider that approximately 2 million immigrants are crossing the border every year. Where are they finding housing or work? Families living in cars are likely not counted. Unemployment statistics only include those who are receiving unemployment benefits and those statistics are underreported as well. Facts are only opinions and disinformation when it comes to the government.
Are there any organizations which are dedicated to a revolution of this type?