10 December

In our kidult (adolescent) culture, socialising is seen as the key to a happy life. Teens love nothing more than to ‘hang out’. Without it we are seen to be at terrible risk to our mental and physical health, through ‘loneliness’. Unfortunately that’s completely backwards. Socialising is what amplifies all status comparisons with other people. And our ‘neighbourhoods’ now are social media platforms, where social comparison is turned up to 11. Socialising is making us more miserable and violent every day. Throughout history the actual definition of maturing, of ’growing up’, is needing to socialise less. Socialising is a life stage, teaching kids how to move beyond only family ties, to learn to live with others. The counterculture means we‘re now stuck permanently at that transition point, never moving beyond it. The culture is an episode of Friends (teens worship friendship). Of besties. Of fragile personalities incapable of thinking, feeling or acting without a friend group. Everything is a viral trend. Public life is just a continuous churn of fads and fashions.