But in the end all the successful relationships I ever had were people I met in real life. Is it really that hard to meet people in real life these days? I mean, in fairness, I was on a campus most of that time, and so mingling is sort of built in. But surely there are other contexts where people mingle?
My personal experience, the boring sexual harassment training, and talking to the AI, suggests that asking out a coworker at the same level of the org chart with whom you don't closely work is not considered really problematic, especially among young people.
You can't ask out someone you supervise and its considered a little socially risky to get involved with someone who you work with really closely, but nothing seems to prevent coworkers from asking each-other out, as far as I can tell.
Yes. *especially if you don’t drink*.
The loss of a third space and common community center (Churches, in the US past) has cascading effects.
Well, what are they?
That's the always-online contingent, though. In real life, a lot of people still go out and would be glad to be chatted up in person. By someone they find attractive, of course, but that's always been the case. If you do it today, one advantage is that you stand out, since so many are afraid to do it.
They're exhausted from work, commutes, everything costing more money, being advertised/pitched/upsold to at every chance, crypto bros, noise, constant calls to their attention, being the target or witness of unsavory interactions, etc.
There are a bunch of reasons to hate it "outside", in increasing numbers, with at best no increase in reasons to enjoy it.