The Cost of Convenience & Revival of Trying
Also: why parents in tech are choosing art for their kids
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The Anti-Social Century
Derek Thompson, The Atlantic
In preparation to speak at a food and beverage conference this month, I dug through data about how often young Americans are, or are not, going to bars and restaurants. I revisited Thompson’s article about loneliness, and I think it’s worth sharing some of the shocking findings from this essay.
This is the gist of Thompson’s article, in his words:
“In a healthy world, people who spend lots of time alone would feel the ancient biological cue: I’m alone and sad; I should make some plans. But we live in a sideways world, where easy home entertainment, oversharing online, and stunted social skills spark a strangely popular response: I’m alone, anxious, and exhausted; thank God my plans were canceled.”
Here are some of the startling stats:
The share of U.S. adults having dinner or drinks with friends on any given night has declined by more than 30 percent in the past 20 years.
Solo dining has increased by 29 percent in just the past two years. The No. 1 reason is the need for more “me time.”
The typical American adult watches 19 hours of television a week.
Americans spent even more time alone in 2023 than they did in 2021.
The typical female pet owner spends more time actively engaged with her pet than she spends in face-to-face contact with friends of her own species. (lol)
From 1965 to 1995, the typical adult gained six hours a week of leisure time. That’s 300 hours a year. Almost all that extra time went to watching TV.
The typical person is awake for 900 minutes a day. American kids and teenagers on average spend about 270 minutes on weekdays and 380 minutes on weekends gazing into their screens. By this account, screens occupy more than 30 percent of their waking life.
It’s clear that overcoming the convenience trap of technology is really hard. Being alone may not be particularly fulfilling, but it is easier than being with actual people.
I am hopeful that the workplace and schools will drive us into new patterns. Schools are eliminating phones in classrooms and teachers are reporting chattier students. More workplaces are moving back to in-person work and the group happiest about that is Gen Z. If the workplace lures people out of their solitude, perhaps there will be a ripple effect into other areas of life as well.
Timothée Chalamet Does Awards Season a Little Differently
Esther Zuckerman, The NYT
Yes, I’m still mourning the end of my favorite season: Award Season. Chalamet gave us the first Gen Z Oscar campaign and it was hilarious. Similar to what we saw in the political arena, niche podcasters and influencers were prioritized. Theo Vonn, Brittany Broski, and Nardwuar were given interviews alongside establishment media like SNL and Rolling Stone.
Eccentricity reigned supreme. Chalamet went live on Instagram to dance to a 2009 Black Eyed Peas song, he performed Bob Dylan deep cuts on SNL (which you have to watch), and he hung out with the University of Minnesota marching band. After winning the SAG award for best actor, he launched into a speech about his “pursuit for greatness.” Effort is back and I think we’re all happy about it.
There was a lot to be learned about consumer engagement during the promotion of A Complete Unknown (and Anora for that matter). Niche audience reach, authenticity, and experiential fan interactions redefined commercial success with the help of young actors.
Parents in Tech Want Their Kids to Go into the Arts Instead
Callum Borchers, The WSJ
Now that AI is outperforming humans in a variety of technical tasks, parents and schools are reevaluating what skills will set up the next generation for success.
In Borchers article, a software engineer asks his favorite AI assistant whether his children, ages 2 and 1, should follow in his footsteps, professionally. The bot advised him against it and suggested fostering creativity and people skills in his children rather than pushing them into STEM fields.
Careers requiring hands-on work are rising in popularity among young workers. In Massachusetts, 1 in 5 high schoolers are in vocational programs, about 30% more than a decade ago. Trade schools that used to accept everyone now have hundreds of teens on wait lists. Public high schools are reviving or expanding shop classes due to high demand.
I think that four-year universities are going to continue pulling from an increasingly shrinking pool of customers (students) as trade schools increase in popularity.
From My Friends’ Desks
The Risks of Underestimating Competition from China
Zak Dychtwald, Harvard Business Review
My biggest takeaway from Zak’s article is that even the smartest people find it difficult to comprehend what they cannot see. Many executives could not visit China during the pandemic so even though the writing was on the wall about China’s AI capabilities and EV innovation, American executives did not believe it until they could see it with their own eyes. And by then, it may have been too late to plan accordingly.
How London Became a Fortress of Privilege
Eliza Filby, The Standard
Eliza released her book, “Inheritocracy” last year and I highly recommend it. Eliza focuses on generational and economic frictions in the UK but it’s easy to see how her findings apply to American cities. In this article, Eliza writes, “London, once a city of opportunity, has become in my millennial lifetime a city of inheritance.”
The Economics of Political Engagement: Do Wealth and Education Shape Opinions
Kylie King, Kylie’s Substack
Kylie explores an interesting question in this essay: Is political engagement a status symbol? She compares today’s political performances to Veblen’s theory of the leisure class and now I can’t stop considering that comparison.
What I’m Working On
I ran a series of focus groups in Minneapolis this month. I’m still going through transcripts and recordings but one topic that stands out to me is the substantial amount of therapeutic language used by young professionals in the workplace. Words like burnout, gaslighting, exploitation, perfectionism, obsessive defiance disorder, toxic, vulnerability, trauma, and boundaries were repeated multiple times in response to a variety of questions.
I also facilitated a CEO roundtable in Chicago and there were a lot of questions about DEI, the backlash to the movement, and the future of inclusivity. I’m writing something up to share more about what I’m hearing from executives and boards of directors on the topic.
I have 5 incredible college interns joining me this summer. I’ll introduce them all in next month’s newsletter.
This month I spoke in San Diego, Minneapolis, Chicago, Naples, Denver, and Nashville.
Misc.
After reading Jon Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, a mom committed to fostering more independence in her children. She shares this video of her 7-yr-old ordering Chik-fil-A by himself and it is the cutest thing. He is so proud :)