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November 5, 2026 at 08:34PM
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To Engage, or Not To Engage

 

The Internet isn't reality.

X and other platforms peddle sensationalist slop meant to provoke outrage, not inform users. 

And legacy media beats us over the head with story after story about how polarized we are. 

The culmination of all of this breeds misanthropy. 

Most people, however, are not anything like the media depicts them to be. Americans are, on the whole, pleasant and affable. 

In the Washington Examiner, Samuel J. Abrams writes that we "underestimate other people’s willingness to engage with us."

Because we assume - often wrongly - that others would be disinterested in connection, we avoid social encounters entirely. 

Better to play it safe.

The fact of the matter, though, is that people are yearning for social connection. Even small talk is better than no talk. 

But, as Abrams writes, by hearing so much about how angry and divided Americans are, we may be inadvertently talking "ourselves out of making connections."

From the piece:
Think about how often we hear that Americans are divided, angry, suspicious, and unwilling to engage with people who are different from them. Online conflict goes viral, and the negativity is amplified and compounded. I wonder what happens when we hear these messages often enough. Are we being primed to cocoon and disconnect from others? Do many Americans stop trying to engage with others because we have already convinced ourselves that nobody wants to talk?

Don't get me wrong, I've contributed to this narrative, too. I've opined, for example, that, if we don't rebuild our civic fabric soon, we might become a low-trust society like Southern Italy. 

Such pieces, however, are not meant to encourage people to "cocoon" themselves in their apartments and avoid social contact. On the contrary, they're meant to spur people to action. 

But Abrams is right: consuming endless negative media must have an adverse impact on human social behavior. It's black-pilling us. 

Rejecting the black pill entails - not reading another op-ed, unless it's one of mine, of course - but actually doing. 

If you encounter real people - not Internet avatars - at social events, bars, cafes, or wherever, you'll find that they're mostly, though not 100% of the time, open to conversation. Bars are often the best place to try this, as alcohol famously acts as a social lubricant. 

As Abrams writes, we "need the confidence and gumption to walk across a room, extend a hand in greeting and friendship, and introduce ourselves."

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October 28, 2026 at 09:15AM
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Engaging with Nature

 


I live in New York City. The "Concrete Jungle," some call it.

There's an LCD Soundsystem lyric that I often think about: "New York, I love you, but you're bringing me down."

For all that's great about New York, one of its obvious down sides is that it's largely divorced from nature. 

The city can often feel cold and drab. 

Lack of greenery, it turns out, is bad for us. 

According to a new study in The Lancet, engaging with nature can actually help combat feelings of loneliness. 

Conducted in Barcelona, the study found that nature-based social prescribing (NBSP) "alleviated loneliness among 18+ vulnerable participants in urban areas at M3 by an average of 10.5 percent and these reductions increased through M12 by an average of 16.8 percent." 

This, from the Foundation for Social Connection:
When linked with nature-based programs, social prescribing can promote nature contact to foster restorative and social benefits. Group-based activities that include natural elements have been found to cultivate connection and belonging, and increased program length is correlated to increased benefits.
I live in a studio apartment in Brooklyn, though. I'm not really familiar with nature-based anything over here. 

We've got some beautiful parks. That's true. But largely insufficient.  

I found a cheat code, however, in the world of fish tanks. 

I have three nano tanks around my apartment: a 5-gallon, 6-gallon, and 10-gallon. 

These are my little slices of nature. 

I propagate freshwater plants, breed fish, and cultivate self-sustaining ecosystems. 

Every morning, I make a pot of coffee, sit on my couch, and watch as my rasboras swim in a tight school, and my guppies pick on hair algae. 

In this video, aquarist Corvus Oscen talks about the aquarium hobby as something that allows you to escape the "sadness of a cubicle." 

It makes sense: we weren't meant for a world of DoorDash and Excel spreadsheets; we were meant for rootedness, place, and communion with nature. 

Wendell Berry once wrote that "the ancient, sacred bond between land and people has been broken."

Too many on the coasts have become rootless city-dwellers. And that's just no way to live. 

My advice, not that I'm any kind of expert: if you're like me and you live far from nature, introduce a slice of it into your living quarters. 

Make your apartment verdant with house plants, aquariums, terrariums, and the like. 

Watch this music producer. He works with computers and hardware all day. But he's made it a point to ensconce himself in plants and foliage. 
Legowelt producing music

These things take upkeep, of course, but it's less than you think. 

Touch grass, and if there is none, import it.

Fish tank in my parent's apartment.

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October 24, 2026 at 10:05PM
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Study: Americans Still in Need of Connection

 


Findings from the latest Social Connection in America™ survey don't exactly inspire much optimism. 

They more or less confirmed what we already know to be true: Americans are devoid of adequate social connection. 








According to the survey, "four in ten Americans report moderate to severe loneliness."

That's significant. And very troubling. 

And virtual connection - whether it be Zoom or FaceTime calls - doesn't cut it. 

I wrote a bit about the inferiority of virtual connection for RealClear Books & Culture last year (see here). While better than nothing, IRL human connection remains inimitable. 

Another, sadly, unsurprising finding: "57% of Americans do not belong to clubs or organizations."

I can already hear Robert Putnam, 26 years after the publication of Bowling Alone, saying "I told you so."

As I said, this survey just reinforces what we all see around us. Take the train, for instance, and you'll see the zombified masses tethered to screens. There is no effort to connect to our fellow community members. 

Work has become transactional, with little emphasis on the importance of shooting the breeze by the water cooler. 

Rather, the emphasis is on efficiency and productivity. Working on Excel sheets until your fingers feel numb and your eyes are red is productive; chatting with colleagues is not. 

What if we've become too productive? Too obsessed with work? Too preoccupied with self-improvement?

Perhaps we'd be better off if we learned to slow down. Leisure mustn't continue to be looked down upon as wasted time. 

This study, for example, finds that "doing the things you enjoy can be good for your health."

So, the jury's in: Loneliness is bad for you. Leisure is good for you. 

Americans, thus, must make an effort to slow down, embrace leisure, and reorient their mindsets away from workaholism and towards quality time with quality people. 

Perhaps this is something that Europeans understand better than we do...

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October 14, 2026 at 04:41PM
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Most people... are not anything like the media depicts them to be. Americans are, on the whole, pleasant and affable. https://t.co/a7aDh...