Hacker News with Generative AI: Social Trends

Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable? (goodtechthings.com)
It’s pretty disorienting to me that smart people, secular people, particularly people in tech, view homeschooling as a high-status option now.

Homeschooling, Education, Social Trends, Technology

367 points by forrestbrazeal 4 days ago | 1322 comments

The Anti-Social Century (theatlantic.com)
Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It’s changing our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship to reality.

Social Trends, Sociology, Loneliness, American Culture, Politics

148 points by coloneltcb 7 days ago | 158 comments

Americans are now spending more time alone than ever (theatlantic.com)
Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It’s changing our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship to reality.

Social Trends, Loneliness, Psychology, Politics

16 points by williamsmj 10 days ago | 1 comments

The average American spent 2.5 months on their phone in 2024 (pcmag.com)
There's a good chance that you're currently reading this article on your phone. If you’re like one of the Americans surveyed by Reviews.org, this is one of 205 times today that you’ll be checking the device in your hand.

Mobile Usage, Technology, Statistics, Social Trends

192 points by elorant 20 days ago | 202 comments

"Unprecedented" decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts (arstechnica.com)
Teen drug use continued to fall in 2024, extending a dramatic decline spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic that experts expected would reverse now that the acute phase of the global crisis is well over.

Teenagers, Drug Use, Public Health, Social Trends

7 points by GeoAtreides 29 days ago | 6 comments

Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts (arstechnica.com)
Teen drug use continued to fall in 2024, extending a dramatic decline spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic that experts expected would reverse now that the acute phase of the global crisis is well over.

Teenagers, Drug Use, Public Health, COVID-19, Social Trends

371 points by pseudolus 31 days ago | 596 comments

Scores for adults are dropping on tests of basic skills (nataliewexler.substack.com)
An international test of adults’ “basic skills” shows that an increasing number of Americans are struggling to do moderately complex tasks that involve reading and math.

Education, Literacy, Testing, Social Trends, United States

82 points by akantler 33 days ago | 111 comments

Ask HN: Do you believe we are in a particularly chaotic time period? (ycombinator.com)
Ask HN: Do you believe we are in a particularly chaotic time period?

Ask HN, Current Events, Social Trends

10 points by bloomingkales 38 days ago | 17 comments

Boomers grieve not becoming grandparents–Millennials have little sympathy (independent.co.uk)
Amid falling birth rates and growing numbers of U.S. adults opting to remain child-free, boomer and Generation X grandparents are mourning the prospect of ever becoming grandparents. However, according to millennials themselves, the reasons for not having children far outweigh the disappointment their parents may feel.

Generations, Family, Social Trends, Demographics

9 points by ganzuul 42 days ago | 2 comments

The myth of the loneliness epidemic (asteriskmag.com)
Are we really living through a uniquely lonely moment in American history? When it comes to friendship, this isn’t the first time that authorities have cried wolf.

Social Trends, Sociology, History, American Culture

48 points by Luc 54 days ago | 56 comments

China's population woes deepen as marriage registrations tumble (scmp.com)
China is on track to post its lowest number of marriage registrations since 1980 this year, with an estimate from a leading demographer suggesting as few as 6 million couples would tie the knot, prompting local governments to hand out cash incentives.

China, Demographics, Social Trends, Marriage, Population Decline

9 points by paulpauper 69 days ago | 1 comments

Lead–Crime Hypothesis (wikipedia.org)
After decades of increasing crime across the industrialised world, crime rates started to decline sharply in the 1990s, a trend that continued into the new millennium.

Crime, Sociology, Social Trends, Demographics

8 points by segasaturn 79 days ago | 0 comments

Teens Want Less Sex in Movies and TV Shows, Study Finds (variety.com)
Teens want movies and shows to stay in the friend zone.

Entertainment, Media, Teenagers, Social Trends, Research

48 points by Michelangelo11 83 days ago | 42 comments

Peak population may be coming sooner than we think (ft.com)
Peak population may be coming sooner than we think

Demographics, Population Growth, Predictions, Social Trends, Future

17 points by johntfella 85 days ago | 21 comments

UK's fertility rate falling faster than any other G7 nation (news.sky.com)
The average number of children women have in the UK is falling faster than any other G7 country since 2010, Sky News commissioned analysis has found.

Demographics, UK, Fertility Rate, G7, Social Trends

6 points by dustedcodes 97 days ago | 0 comments

Freemasonry in 2024: What makes young members decide joining a lodge is for them (slate.com)
What makes a guy decide to join a really old fraternal order in 2024.

Freemasonry, Social Trends, Fraternal Organizations, Demographics

4 points by Anon84 105 days ago | 2 comments

Bad service is a sign of a better world (economistwritingeveryday.com)
I’ve been hearing more grumbling about bad service in restaurants than usual, bundled with a growing nostalgia for when service was “better”. This could, of course, be simply a sign that my cohort and I continue to rise in age, but let’s put aside healthy skepticism for a moment and accept this observation at face value. What if service in restaurants, hospitality, etc is, in fact, lower in quality than it was one or two decades ago?

Customer Service, Social Trends, Nostalgia

10 points by paulpauper 112 days ago | 0 comments

Gen Z just overtook Baby Boomers in U.S. full-time workforce, by generation (twitter.com)

Generations, Workforce, Demographics, United States, Social Trends

9 points by toomuchtodo 117 days ago | 1 comments

Why has sexual choking become so prevalent among young people? (theguardian.com)

Sexuality, Social Trends, Youth Culture

13 points by howard941 139 days ago | 1 comments

Why So Many People Are Going "No Contact" with Their Parents (newyorker.com)

Family Relationships, Mental Health, Social Trends

22 points by Anon84 139 days ago | 29 comments

More people than ever are eating alone at restaurants (cnn.com)