To think there's an off/bad vibe out there?

[ARichSeamToMine]

Does the world feel "off"?
Sorry if this seems ranty, I'm really interested in the vote though.

I'm feeling like there's a weird vibe out there.

I live in London, meet a lot of people through work and am not just judging by my circle.

I've been struggling to articulate this.

I'm late 40s and have seen recessions etc before.

Was out in the City tonight and I would say bar and restaurant were busy for a Monday night, so good there. The street I was on had several completely closed offices, pubs and two gyms, which was sad.

I understand that changes in social habits have been affected by working patterns etc.

I just feel there is something else at play

I increasingly find that people are a bit...strange? We saw groups in the bar, who presumably went out together from choice, just gazing at their phones. I was never anti tech but I'm starting to wonder if there is something in the idea that it affects communication skills.

my friend is worried about her dad because he constantly watches videos of fights - this is a TV show in the US now I hear.

I know a lot of people in my age group feel very "meh" and have little enthusiasm for things, but it's not just middle age. I don't think so anyway.

I'm happy if people are happy, but starting to wonder if they are happy. I meet a lot of people who don't want to go out, are up at 5am walking a dog, they take care of themselves with a good diet, often vegan, don't drink alcohol.

I'm not saying any of these things are bad. I can see if the City is reasonably busy on a Monday night, hospitality must be recovering, which is great.

But something out in the world feels off...like people aren't interested in much.

My online creative writing group has almost no posts. The tutor is regularly cancelling workshops and looking to do online only.

I'm in touch with a couple of exes and we are staying friends but they seem to do nothing but gaming. One in particular has no friends and is not bothered.

I might get flamed but I do wonder if men are particularly prone to doing less stuff if they are single.

Again, that is fine if they are happy. But I get this sense that people aren't happy.

Social anxiety seems very much on the rise.

Just curious to know if others get this vibe.

YABU - people are fine and just living life as usual

YANBU - people are losing communication skills and becoming unhappy

Yeah I agree. Our nursery did loads to help, not our DC but all the children. From changing the dirty pants, reassuring the child about 'accidents happen' etc. helping with hand washing technique, singing the hand washing song etc. The survey didn't take into account the context. click bait rubbish.

Growing up we ate out probably once every couple of months. Just because we could but it was a small local family owned restaurant. So relatively inexpensive.
And back in the days when it was acceptable to have A pint or shandy and drive.
I think that makes a difference too, adding on taxi prices makes a night out more expensive.

Restaurants also used to keep costs down by offering up half portions of the adult food rather than doing completely separate children's menus. Which aren't always that cheap.

Restaurants for everyday people only really work as costs rise by being run by independent owners who cook and serve, or by large economies of scale like weatherspoons. There have for many years been cheap chinese and indian restaurants where prices were always fairly low.
Its the mid chains that will not survive. Places like Pizza Express whose food is no better than a supermarket pizza but costs a lot of money.

Yep, I think that is already happening.

It's not just the cost of restaurants in absolute terms, although that has absolutely risen. In so many cases recently the whole restaurant experience has changed since COVID. Service times, deterioration in the quality of the food - I get there's a labour shortage but honestly, it's just not at all relaxing or a 'treat' the way it was before. It can be unavoidable if it's work related (usually, these days) but if I'm going out now it'll be pizza (not too expensive, reliable quality) or perhaps a REAL treat for a special occasion only where I'm confident it's going to feel special.

And so many places are cold.

Yep, total deterioration in the experience, staff know they could lose their job at any minute they are just turning up now and resent the low wages, I think that is a large part of the problem, plus the bubble mentality people now have where they will shout into phones or take selfies and be loud in places in their little group without considering other customers, that wrecks it worse than the prices IMO.

I don't agree with the premise of the thread, but this I do agree with. I also find that service can be quite rude and offhand. I'm not the sort of person who expects waiters to be servile and bend to my every whim, but I do expect common courtesy and also for music not to be at top volume, neither of which is a given in all too many places these days (more bars than restaurants imo)

Yes, how much could they save by not running air con so hard.