Links to Consider, 10/11/2024

N.S. Lyons and Freya India on young people's anxiety; Alice Evans on anxiety and infertility; Moses Sternstein on young people not growing up; Robin Hanson rants

In a dialogue with N.S. Lyons, Freya India writes,

Women are more anxious, on average. We tend to be more neurotic. And so it gets to me when I see girls being told to focus on their feelings, to take their thoughts so seriously, to search their lives for symptoms. That’s the worst advice we could give. It’s heartbreaking to see how many young women are so miserably stuck in their own heads now, and encouraged to go further and further inwards to find relief. Do the work! Go to therapy! Unpack your trauma! Reflect, analyse, ruminate!

…I think social media took things to a whole new level. Therapy culture mixed with social media is, in my opinion, a very damaging combination. Therapy culture encourages girls and young women to focus on themselves and their feelings; social media then not only spreads these messages but constantly reminds us that we are each a self. That we are the main character. That our selves are something to be endlessly managed and obsessed over.

Alice Evans writes,

Suicides are highest in South Korea. Desire for status and exhausting competition may be fuelling feelings of failure.

Koreans are also increasingly anxious and pessimistic. Less than a third believe that their children can achieve social mobility. If children are an investment, then Shiller’s theory would predict falling fertility in Korea.

She goes on,

At this stage, evidence of causation is lacking. At best, we see a correlation and a plausible story: news media has become increasingly negative, while young people increasingly express both despondency and reluctance to procreate.

I share this hypothesis not because I’m certain, but rather to push back against explanations that are overly materialistic.

I think that we need a general story that explains why many young people do not grow up emotionally. And my guess is that this is a cause of infertility.

Speaking of young people not growing up, Moses Sternstein recycles some statistics. The charts show that from 1983 to 2023 the share of 30-year-olds living on their own, having been married, living with a child, or owning a home has plunged by roughly 20 percentage points each.

Robin Hanson writes,

We now push less for conformity to traditional norms, and more tolerate and even celebrate defiance of many pro-coordination norms, such as anti-crime and pro-work-org norms. We work less, are more promiscuous, and consume more entertainment. We invest less in fertility, and more in education, which is at our margins a poor investment. We less promote and more hinder innovation. We are less ready to die in war for our community. And we are in less awe of religion and other sacred things larger than ourselves.

Hanson is 65. This sounds like a rant of someone close to that age. I am 70. I find myself in agreement with him.

substacks referenced above: @

Culture Drift Predicts Decadence

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‘More reliant than ever on Gov’t aid’

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What’s the Connection between Despair and Low Fertility?

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A World In Upheaval

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The Self and the Soul: A Dialogue with Freya India