bad news everyone: i have a take
the loneliness epidemic/gen z dead-eyed stare/poor socialization of younger generations and increasing rudeness of older ones is kinda an internet thing and kinda a pandemic thing but it is also the well-meaning chickens of the Stranger Danger movement coming home to roost
something something everybody thinks violent crime is at a high when it’s at a 30 year low, something something training your children to see everyone outside of their family as a threat until you yourself believe it, something something. again this was well-intentioned, people want their kids to be safe, but when you’ve heard “dont talk to strangers” all your life it’s hard to kill that instinct as an adult
but yeah if you’re an early 20-something person, it might be helpful to be directly told this: talk to strangers. that rule only applied when you were a child. you not only should but must talk to strangers
The rule also did not apply when you were a child. Every time you started a new class with a new teacher and a room full of new classmates, you were in a room full of strangers you had never met before. Adults never actually expected you to never talk to strangers. They just expected you to be able to telepathically intuit from their brains what THEY viewed as an acceptable stranger for you to talk to.