Comment by majormajor

> That's exactly it. Romantic relationships aren't what they used to be. Men like the new normal, women may try to but they cannot for a variety of unchangeable reasons.

Men like the new normal? Hah, it seems like there's an article posted here weekly about how bad modern dating and relationships are for me and how much huge groups of men hate it. For reasons ranging from claims that women "have too many options" and are only interested in dating or hooking up with the hottest 5% (or whatever number), all the way to your classic bring-back-traditional-gender-roles "my marriage sucks because I'm expected to help out with the chores."

The problem is devices, especially mobile ones, and the easy-hit of not-the-same-thing online interaction and feedback loops. Why talk to your neighbor or co-worker and risk having your new sociological theory disputed, or your AI boyfriend judged, when you instead surround yourself in an online echo chamber?

There were always some of us who never developed social skills because our noses were buried in books while everyone else was practicing socialization. It takes a LOT of work to build those skills later in life if you miss out on the thousands of hours of unstructured socialization that you can get in childhood if you aren't buried in your own world.