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Midterms are in a few days. The talk about AI and data centers is everywhere. And have you seen the gas prices recently?
There is a general uneasiness that is most stark when we're "doom-scrolling" on social media.
My advice: Keep paying attention to the news. The world is moving at a fast pace and we're all better off for understanding what is happening around us.
But more than that -- get outside and be in nature. Spend time with other humans. Have a conversation that goes deeper than the weather.
Ironic ...perhaps... but while I was recently on my phone, I saw a chart that stunned me. Data for Monitoring the Future reported that the percentage of 12th graders who went out with friends two or more times a week plummeted from 2005 to now.
From 1980 to about 2005, 75 to 80 percent of girls and 80 to 85 percent of boys went out with their friends two or more times a week. But that number dropped off a cliff since 2005, bottoming out in 2020 at about 50 percent of girls and about 55 percent of boys going out multiple times.
The numbers have rebounded slightly, but we're still about 20 percent less than we were 20 years ago in terms of this behavior.
It's not just teens.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Americans' time at home has increased steadily since 2003. It was an incremental increase until 2020, when Americans devoted 100 more average minutes at home than in 2003. Like the teen graph, the trend marched slightly downward since 2020, but we're still averaging an hour and a half more at home since 2003.
Yes, some of this math can be explained by COVID, remote work, or the ability for teens to connect to others from the comfort of their bedroom via online platforms.
But is it to our benefit?
If around 2005 was the high point for interpersonal interaction, I hit my teens and early 20s as if I was at Cinderella's Ball just before the clock struck midnight.
I graduated high school in 2001 and college in 2005 and in-person social gatherings were everything.
Two stories from my college time stuck out to me and now make me realize these innocent moments were me awakening in a new world.
The first -- I was in between classes my freshman year of college. Walking across campus on a nice day, I looked around and noticed seeming everyone had a phone they were talking into. I did not have a cell phone at the time, and that moment was an "aha," that a strange new world was brewing.
The second, toward the end of my time in college came when talking to a friend. She talked about a new website, where you could "chat" with people you met in class, see photos of them, and learn more about them.
"Why would anyone want to do that rather than just meet up," I remember saying on that day I learned about the newest technology -- Facebook -- that had come to campus.
Looking back, I both laugh and realize how different of a world it was. Professionally, I remember spending my first years working hanging out with co-workers after work weekly. It was a great way to transition into the real world.
Workplace socialization is another trend that has lessened sharply over the last 20 years.
As my daughters get closer and closer to their college and young career years, I wonder what will be the small moments in their lives where they look back later as their "aha, the world indeed is changing" moments.
I hope their world sees something of a retreat back to in-person experiences. Life surely is meant to be lived collectively.
Artificial intelligence is great, and should be understood and leveraged to change the world in positive ways.
But it will never trump what humans need and crave most -- Actual Interaction.
Jeremy Speer is the group publisher of The Courier, Findlay, the Sandusky Register, The Advertiser-Tribune, Tiffin, the Norwalk Reflector and Review Times, Fostoria. He can be reached at jeremyspeer@thecourier.com.