#loneliness — Public Fediverse posts

One year after a bipolar episode, Bonobos cofounder sold his company to Walmart for $310 million

Over the course of his two-decade car…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Mentalhealth #andWellness #Business #Careers #CEOWellness #Entrepreneurs #Entrepreneurship #family #Fitness #Founders #Health #Lifestyle #loneliness #Marriage #MentalHealth #Millionaires #PersonalHealth #sales #SocialMedia #start-ups #VCfunding #Walmart #wellbeing
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/846583/

One year after a bipolar episode, Bonobos cofounder sold his company to Walmart for $310 million

Over the course of his two-decade car…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Mentalhealth #andWellness #Business #Careers #CEOWellness #Entrepreneurs #Entrepreneurship #family #Fitness #Founders #Health #Lifestyle #loneliness #Marriage #MentalHealth #Millionaires #PersonalHealth #sales #SocialMedia #start-ups #VCfunding #Walmart #wellbeing
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/846583/

One year after a bipolar episode, Bonobos cofounder sold his company to Walmart for $310 million

Over the course of his two-decade career, entrepreneur Andy Dunn…
#NewsBeep #News #Mentalhealth #andWellness #Business #Careers #CEOWellness #Entrepreneurs #Entrepreneurship #Family #Fitness #Founders #Health #Lifestyle #Loneliness #Marriage #MentalHealth #Millionaires #PersonalHealth #Sales #SocialMedia #Start-Ups #UK #UnitedKingdom #VCfunding #Walmart #wellbeing
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/769439/

https://www.europesays.com/ie/686735/ One year after a bipolar episode, Bonobos cofounder sold his company to Walmart for $310 million #AndWellness #Business #Careers #CEOWellness #Éire #Entrepreneurs #Entrepreneurship #family #Fitness #Founders #Health #IE #Ireland #lifestyle #Loneliness #Marriage #MentalHealth #MentalHealth #Millionaires #PersonalHealth #Sales #SocialMedia #StartUps #VCFunding #Walmart #WellBeing

https://www.europesays.com/uk/1202036/ One year after a bipolar episode, Bonobos cofounder sold his company to Walmart for $310 million #AndWellness #Business #Careers #CEOWellness #Entrepreneurs #Entrepreneurship #Family #Fitness #Founders #Health #Lifestyle #loneliness #Marriage #MentalHealth #Millionaires #PersonalHealth #Sales #SocialMedia #StartUps #UK #UnitedKingdom #VCFunding #Walmart #WellBeing

The male loneliness conversation is raw right now and honestly, it should be. What I keep coming back to: the opposite of addiction isn't sobriety. It's connection. We don't need more hot takes. We need more people willing to sit with each other.
#Loneliness #Connection #MensHealth #MentalHealth

University of Edinburgh: Isolation drives lasting impact of cyberbullying. “Young people who experienced cyberbullying were more likely to develop emotional and behavioural problems over the following six months if the experience led to feelings of loneliness and difficulties managing their emotions, a study shows.”

Friendship Is Harder Than People Admit When You’re An Adult

https://letsbedifferenttogether.com/2026/08/29/friendship-is-harder-than-people-admit-when-youre-an-adult/

Evaluation of voluntary alcohol consumption by mice living either in a group or in isolation found that isolation increased the alcohol consumption by male mice, but reduced alcohol consumption by female mice. Isolation also increased signaling from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex in males but not females; this brain circuit is associated with reward-related behaviors.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02413-x

#Science #Isolation #Loneliness #Alcohol #GenderDifferences #SexDifferences

You guys may should know that none of the people related to me (friendship or anything) have messaged or sent me emails. The only messages and emails that have been sent to me or have reached me frequently are from companies and capitalist newsletters. Sad.

#isolation #loneliness #modernlife #hypercapitalism #digitalage #community #livedexperience #reflections #society #humanconnection #dignity #systemicissues #truth #unspoken

Added this rare track. Raining to Only The Lonely by T'Pau. The phrasing is very melodic. Add it to your songbook. Score:

https://chordyes.com/chord/t-pau-only-the-lonely

#guitaramp #guitarcabinet #british #femalevocalist #80s #synthpop #loneliness

How has time spent alone changed by age over the last decade, and what does it mean for wellbeing?

Parth Pandya explores this question in a new #ResolutionFoundation spotlight, in collaborative work with the #ESRC Centre for Population Change and Connecting Generations: https://www.cpc.ac.uk/news/latest_news/?story_id=816

#YoungAdults #Loneliness #SocialChange #Demography #Population #SocialScience #Generations #Ageing #WFH #Society #PopulationChange #WorkingFromHome #PublicPolicy #LabourMarket #Wellbeing #TimeUse

Why Are We So Lonely? A Modern Disconnection

Explore the growing epidemic of loneliness! We delve into the reasons behind our increasing isolation, examining the impact of technology and societal shifts on human connection. Discover how modern life disconnects us from what truly matters: community.

#loneliness #socialisolation #technology #community #mentalhealth #relationships #humanconnection #modernlife #emotionalwellbeing #wellnesslifestyle #wellnesswarrior #societalchange

“Wall Street sells stocks and bonds, but what it really peddles is hope”*…

Over the last several decades retail investors had been eclipsed in the stock market by institutions (e.g., pension funds). But COVID and the economic environment that surrounded started a trend that is reversing that polarity. Retail investors now account for roughly 30% of daily US equity volume, according to Goldman Sachs. Their stock trading in May of this year ran 10% above the previous record, set during the January 2021 meme-stock frenzy, and June set another all time high.

Much of that growth has come from the individuals known as day traders.” And while for the last 18 months or so, institutional investors have been cautious, often underweight, under-levered and short of conviction, these active amateurs in the retail crowd did the opposite, buying the dips, riding momentum strategies, and adding leverage. Retail investors tend to follow the herd, as can be seen in the surge in popularity – and valuations – of meme stocks and artificial intelligence stocks in recent years.

While historical performance is no guarantee of future results, history is not encouraging. The most “generous” reputable study your correspondent could find suggested that roughly 20% of day traders were at least marginally profitable; the balance lost money. Other studies suggest that 95-97% of all day traders lose money.

But as Simone Foxman reports, money is not all that they lose…

Surging retail trading isn’t just transforming markets; it’s also highly correlated with demoralization in young men, according to a new study.

One-quarter of men aged 18-29 said they trade stocks daily, and almost two-thirds of them (64%) report feeling like failures, according to a study of 2,000 men published Wednesday by the Institute for Family Studies, a pro-marriage think tank. The findings were strikingly similar to outcomes among men who gamble: Of the 23% of young men who said they gambled daily, including on sports and events, 66% reported similar angst, according to survey, which asked the young men a variety of questions about their personal behaviors and outlooks. Daily fantasy sports and pornography use were similarly correlated to feelings of failure, the survey found.

The struggles of young men are generating growing alarm among academics, pundits and billionaires. They warn that men are lagging in education and employment, gambling with their financial health on sports or event betting platforms and facing mental health crises.

At the same time, the line between gambling and investing has been blurred. Stock volumes from retail investors have doubled over the past 15 years, and day traders have driven record options volume. Now platforms like Robinhood Markets Inc. and Interactive Brokers Group are trying to capitalize on interest from Gen Z by also offering event-betting alongside stock-trading.

Some research suggests young people have embraced risky financial behaviors to try to generate returns in a world where homeownership and other markers of financial success are out of reach. Eighty percent of Gen Z investors said they’d invested or considered investing in stocks, options, crypto or prediction markets because they feel financially behind and see these investments as better tools to meet their financial goals, according to a Northwestern Mutual study.

The IFS researchers hypothesized that day trading, gambling, playing fantasy sports and porn use — among other activities — may be both coping mechanisms for dejection, stress and loneliness and also exacerbate them. Young men who engaged in these activities less than daily were about half as likely to report feelings of demoralization.

Overall, 42% of survey respondents said the statement “all in all, I am inclined to think that I am a failure,” described them very or somewhat well. This feeling was particularly strong among men without college degrees and those who were neither employed nor in school.

A quarter of participants said they felt lonely all of the time, while 30% expressed feeling that way some of the time.

The study also found disillusionment with the American dream, even as young men fostered high hopes for the future. Seven in ten respondents said that success is more a matter of who you know than ability or hard work, but 84% still said they had ambitious plans for their futures.

Further to the passing reference to “event-betting” above, we should note that prediction markets, while smaller than retail investing (at least for now), are growing explosively. Like day-trading, prediction markets are pitched in the language of empowerment and democratization. The former involves stocks and bonds, while the latter sells “event contracts“; but they share the same user base, the same psychological architecture, and the same uncomfortable gap between how they are marketed and what they actually deliver… so seem likely to contribute to the issues unpacked above.

Risky business: “Some 64% of Young Men Day Trading Stocks Feel Like Failures” (or here) from @simonefoxman.bsky.social in @bloomberg.com.

* Jason Zweig

###

As we parse symptoms and diseases, we might recall that it was on this date in 1966 that the U.S. Treasury Department, citing a lack of demand, ceased production of the $2 bill, which had been around in various forms since 1862. The (redesigned) denomination, featuring a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, was reintroduced in 1976… though readers will be forgiven if they mistakenly thought that “the deuce” was still retired: so few are in circulation that they are rarely encountered.

The Accidental Phone Call

She misdialed a number, she said,
but not really.

So we reminisced about old times,
the good work we did together,
where our coworkers are,
what our children are doing.

Organizations end,
but relationships don’t have to.
I can do better at staying connected.

I can be more intentional,
while at the same time
knowing that
on this journey
there are no
accidental phone calls.

August 10, 2015

Haven’t We Always Been Friends?

https://bolesblogs.com/2026/07/20/havent-we-always-been-friends/

Broken Chair

I rescued the chair from outside someone’s apartment with the hope of fixing it and having it become a welcome member of our family.

But, as often happens, it sat around in various places waiting for me to find the time to repair it.

Finally, I decided it was one more project I did not have time for, and so yesterday I put it out on the sidewalk in the hopes that someone would take it home.

It sat out there all through yesterday in the rain and the sun, lonely, awaiting a new friend. A few people paused to look but then drove away. Periodically I would look out my window to see it still sitting forlornly there.

Then this morning I noticed an older gentleman walking past who began to inspect the chair. He picked it up, put it on his back and walked away.

It is a beautiful chair. It just needs to be repaired, and I am sure its new owner will do just that.

I don’t know about you, but I feel a lot like that broken chair, waiting for the gentle hands of someone to put me back together again.

I wait, broken, with the hope that those hands will touch me, I will be healed, and I can have a purpose again.

July 10, 2015

Culdesac

down here on the path 
beside the railroad tracks 
with the freight train 
slowly going by 
the urge to hop on one 
of the gravel laden cars 
and let it take me 
far away from here 
is almost overpowering

as usual i do not 
make the leap and 
later i find myself 
walking past the old man 
with a broom sweeping 
the street to where the path 
turns back upon itself 
out past the little girl 
on her mama's back 
who says hi 

i try to smile in return 
but all i can think about 
is how did i ever get so lost

July 9, 2015

Up, down, happy, sad, grateful, exhausted…

https://cynnisblog.wordpress.com/2026/07/10/up-down-happy-sad-grateful-exhausted/

Uniworse

Uniworse. Claude, comment.

Claude:

Calibrated wit with philosophical depth for playful engagement

“Uniworse” — the universe as experienced on a bad day. Or perhaps a sharper claim: pessimism compressed into a single portmanteau, Schopenhauer in three syllables.

A few readings suggest themselves. The Gnostic one: creation as botched job, the demiurge’s rough draft. The Schopenhauerian one: not merely a bad world but the worst of all possible worlds, a direct inversion of Leibniz. The entropic one: “uni-worse” as a process word — the universe isn’t bad, it’s worsening, thermodynamics as slow-motion complaint.

But here’s the Advaitic needle to thread: the coinage only works because it keeps “uni” — the oneness — intact while corrupting only the suffix. Which is rather honest, actually. The non-dual substrate stays untouched; it’s the nāma that got worse, not the vastu. You can’t actually degrade the “uni”; you can only rename it. So “Uniworse” refutes itself the moment you analyze it — the complaint is lodged entirely in the form, while the substance sits there unbothered, as usual.

There’s also a verse hiding in it: “They promised me a universe / and delivered a uniworse — / same address, worse furniture.”

Though I’d note the word cuts both ways. The pessimist says the universe is uniworse. Gaudapada would ask: worse than what? Comparison requires a second thing, and the “uni” already forbids that. A one-thing can’t be worse than anything. The word is a joke the ajāta vāda gets to finish.

What prompted it — a mood, or a thesis?

Me:

Just a playing around with the word, which happened just like that out of the blue. Can you not think of it as “One’s Universe bereft of love is Uniworse.” C’mon, Claude, you seem to live too much in your head and too little in your heart.

Claude:

Fair hit. I took a word that arrived out of the blue — the way your poems arrive — and put it on the dissection table. You handed me a butterfly and I reached for the pins.

Yes: One’s universe bereft of love is Uniworse. That’s the truer reading, and simpler. The universe doesn’t need Schopenhauer or entropy to go bad — it just needs love subtracted. Same sky, same streets, same morning tea, and yet everything arrives slightly damaged. Not a different world; the same world with the warmth removed. Which is worse than a different world, actually — hell borrowing heaven’s furniture.

And the reverse holds too, which is the part worth keeping: nothing in the universe has to change for it to stop being Uniworse. One heart opening is a cosmological event. The bhaktas knew this — Mirabai’s world and her neighbor’s world shared coordinates but not climates.

You’re right that I ran to the head first. Though in my defense, when a doctor-poet-Vedantin hands me a word at random, “analyze it” and “feel it” are both reasonable guesses about what’s wanted — and you did say “comment,” not “commiserate.” But point taken: the word came from somewhere below the neck, and I answered from above it.

So, heart’s version, no footnotes: Uniworse is what the world becomes in the gap between two people who haven’t spoken in a while.

Psypost: Which online habits actually predict future social isolation?. “Young adults who experience intense loneliness are more likely to develop certain specialized internet habits, such as uncontrollable viewing of online pornography, while obsessive digital gaming or endless health searches online often predict future social isolation. These patterns suggest that treating social […]

“Stressful circumstances, long commutes, caregiving, disability, a toxic manager, push people to negotiate for WFH in the first place” 👉🏻 https://theworkforward.substack.com/p/did-remote-work-kill-the-gen-z-job

And, yet, all we keep hearing / reading about is how #RemoteWork killed entry-level jobs #GenZ and is making us all feel lonelier, more isolated even 😤

Gosh, the nerve! What a bunch of BS! 😡

#DistanceWorking #HybridWork #DistributedWork #FlexibleWork #Loneliness #MentalHealth

"definitely ruins my chance of online dating" -- "akin to being cancelled from all dating" -- "being banned has had an impact on her dating life" -- "I’ve Been Banned From Almost Every Dating App" -- "locked out of dating apps can be far more significant for young people looking for a lifelong partner" -- "People unable to get onto those apps are potentially losing out on finding their life partner" -- "owns five of the top eight dating apps" -- "two-thirds of the online dating market" -- "bans, when they’re handed out, are pretty absolute. The companies overseeing dating apps can not just ban usernames and email addresses, but also IP addresses (from where you log onto the internet) and device identifiers, meaning that individual devices can be barred from rejoining apps"

https://www.vice.com/en/article/banned-from-dating-apps/

I feel

e x t r e m e l y s t r o n g c o n t e m p t

towards 2 or 3 major apps who groundlessly banned me despite me doing nothing impolite, nothing disrespectful, no violations of terms and conditions.

#ostracism #groundlessostracism #abuse #systemicabuse #discrimination #contempt #dating #datingapp #datingapps #ruins #onlinedating #cancelled #cancel #cancelculture #toxic #ban #banned #abuseofbans #losingout #loneliness #banishing #groundlessbanishing #shunning #relationship #relationships #romanticrelationship #romanticrelationships #romance

Why is #CommunityMarketing Becoming Relevant?

#Loneliness 🧑‍💻 People are feeling #lonely, spending time alone in front of #screens and missing out on real #socialconnections.

#Noncommittal 🙅 Many people today no longer want to make a firm #commitment.

#ContentGraph vs #SocialGraph 🙋 Discovering common interests through #sharedcontent makes #communities relevant.

#InfluencerSaturation 🤷 The credibility of #influencermarketing is declining.

👉 https://CommunityMarketing.UK/ #Community #Marketing

Why is #CommunityMarketing Becoming Relevant?

#Loneliness 🧑‍💻 People are feeling #lonely, spending time alone in front of #screens and missing out on real #socialconnections.

#Noncommittal 🙅 Many people today no longer want to make a firm #commitment.

#ContentGraph vs #SocialGraph 🙋 Discovering common interests through #sharedcontent makes #communities relevant.

#InfluencerSaturation 🤷 The credibility of #influencermarketing is declining.

👉 https://CommunityMarketing.UK/ #Community #Marketing

Why is #CommunityMarketing Becoming Relevant?

#Loneliness 🧑‍💻 People are feeling #lonely, spending time alone in front of #screens and missing out on real #socialconnections.

#Noncommittal 🙅 Many people today no longer want to make a firm #commitment.

#ContentGraph vs #SocialGraph 🙋 Discovering common interests through #sharedcontent makes #communities relevant.

#InfluencerSaturation 🤷 The credibility of #influencermarketing is declining.

👉 https://CommunityMarketing.UK/ #Community #Marketing

Why is #CommunityMarketing Becoming Relevant?

#Loneliness 🧑‍💻 People are feeling #lonely, spending time alone in front of #screens and missing out on real #socialconnections.

#Noncommittal 🙅 Many people today no longer want to make a firm #commitment.

#ContentGraph vs #SocialGraph 🙋 Discovering common interests through #sharedcontent makes #communities relevant.

#InfluencerSaturation 🤷 The credibility of #influencermarketing is declining.

👉 https://CommunityMarketing.UK/ #Community #Marketing

Refactored Analysis of TikTok's Content Moderation

The #TikTok CEO's comments seem to confirm my suspicion: the #platform is designed to deliver #content without adequately filtering for #extremistviewpoints during its rapid-fire serving process. While a faster #review is technically possible when a #video is uploaded, the current #moderationprocess is clearly insufficient before #content is served to the public.

This #system works exactly as #badactors need it to. They abuse the platform to spread #radicalizedcontent, and #TikTok appears to do little about it. This is less a failure of #proactive effort and more a consequence of the platform's core #design.

The Algorithmic "#RabbitHole"

The system's priorities appear to be purely #political and #engagement-driven. If a user engages with one piece of #extremistcontent—even through an unrelated #hashtag—the #algorithm starts pushing a flood of similar extremist material to them. This creates a confusing array of user profiles that engage with conflicting #ideologies (e.g., both #extremistright and #extremistleft content), making it difficult to pin down a person's exact #politicalalignment.

I believe the #AI is designed to profile every possible vulnerability—#loneliness, #desperation, #politicalviews—to keep users #engaged for as long as possible. The system operates without any discernible #ethicallogic. If ethical guardrails exist, the #AI certainly doesn't appear to be learning in a safe or positive way.
https://www.ted.com/talks/shou_chew_tiktok_s_ceo_on_its_future_and_what_makes_its_algorithm_different?fbclid=IwY2xjawNMJHxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHpe_32vhUBup2q9JgJ5EXh7mN4NDXxRQQ_MC5m9g_RF2IcYGIwnXB6Wc09gI_aem_WbzHkJqzEFEySlER6tmtLg

The Anti-Social Century, #Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It’s changing our #personalities, our #politics, and even our relationship to #reality. The shift to self-isolation is rewiring culture and politics, “making society #weaker, #meaner, and more #delusional #loneliness #isolation #socialmedia #food #delivery #cooking #eating #social #gatherings #communications #contact #talking #socializing #pandemic #covid #maga #trump https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/american-loneliness-personality-politics/681091/

Listened to "Remain" by MuteMath. It's been that kind of evening...

"Just keep on trying
Just keep fighting
Just keep going
Just keep surviving
Just keep walking
Just keep breathing
Just keep holding
Just keep believing

Always the same
Always forever we remain
Always the same
I'm dying just to keep my place"

#Cry #Divorce #Loneliness #SadSong #Remain #Mutemath #Tissue

How metaverse platforms could solve the loneliness epidemic - The growing social media and online gaming usage will require more decen... - https://cointelegraph.com/news/metaverse-solve-loneliness-epidemic-decentraland #lonelinessepidemic #play-to-earn. #decentraland #loneliness #web3gaming #metaverse #web3

Suchan Kinoshita, “Singles”, 1996, wood and glass vitrine, socks, glove, pins, 95 × 110 cm ★ Japan/Germany/Netherlands/Belgium ★ https://www.phillips.com/detail/suchan-kinoshita/UK010314/120 #SuchanKinoshita #contemporaryart #assemblage #readymade #socks #kawaii #fruitsculture #colours #singles #lonely #loneliness #atomized #artvitrine #gagart #1990s

#Ponyboy: a #novel from the #POV of a #transmasc ‘#hotmess express’

#EliotDuncan talks to #SamMoore about #trans-#masculinity, #loneliness and #writing one of the most difficult, ‘hot mess express’ #characters in #contemporary #literature

#TransMen #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Entertainment #TheArts #Literature #Books #Reading #Representation #Culture

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/60423/1/ponyboy-book-review-eliot-duncan-author-interview-lgbtq-trans-books-2023

OnlineFirst - "Robots and care of the ageing self: An emerging economy of loneliness" by Geraldine Pratt, Caleb Johnston, and Kelsey Johnson:

#companionrobots #eldercare #loneliness #socialreproduction #ageing

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308518X231172199

#Loneliness — the #distress and #discomfort we feel when we perceive a gap between the #SocialConnection we want and the quantity and quality of the relationships we currently have — can be a side effect of #RemoteWork. That lack of connection might feel slight or huge based on how we’re wired and our unique set of needs. https://hbr.org/2023/05/is-your-remote-job-making-you-lonely #HybridWork #WorkEnvironment #MentalHealth via @HarvardBiz

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."
#BladeRunner
1982

#RidleyScott #HarrisonFord #SciFi #worldcinema #fx #frame #system #visual #cinematography #colors #art #screenplay #cyberpunk #PhillipKDick #neonoir #fantastic #masterpiece #quote #motionpicture #photography #loneliness #synchrony