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thecastingforecast t1_jbsn0m6 wrote

Reply to comment by ThatTallAwkwardGuy in I just noticed when thinking of the popular modern sitcoms vs the popular sitcoms of the early/pre 2000s, many of the older ones used to be more centered around friends just hanging while modern are workplace set. Why do you think this is? by 3kool5you

I'd also argue it's the exact opposite. It's so much easier to meet people now than anytime in the past. Before you had people you went to school with, people you lived next to you, friends of the family, or colleagues. You had to be close to get to know people and keep in contact. Now people can have much more diverse friend groups through hobbies, by meeting online, have long distance friendships through texting or FaceTiming. Its easier to have a lot more acquaintances and keep in casual contact through social media than a handful of constant companions. You can fade in and out of people's lives and still keep track of them without spending all that time face to face. And if you don't like them, there are always hundreds, thousands, millions more people at your digital fingertips ready to meet and socialize with... like here on reddit, discord, etc. Before people kept hanging out with crappy friends that caused conflict because getting new ones was hard, and a shared history was enough to hold the group together. Now people have more discerning standards and a workplace is a much more convenient place to have chaos through forced proximity, which suits a sitcom situation.

So many comedies back in the day were about toxic families that stayed together..... because??? That's just what they did, even when they were miserable. That was the whole joke of the show. Nowadays that dynamic would be considered borderline emotional and verbal abuse. Same with a lot of the shows with friend groups. They're practically bullies who constantly insult and undermine each other, or act as sponges who use each other.

In a workplace you're under no obligation to like each other and can have zero in common with those around you. Dynamics that wouldn't be tolerated in most friend groups. But because the characters work together they're forced to bear it and at least act polite, hence creating the situation for comedy.

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bravetailor t1_jc344gh wrote

I think it's like the internet. Just because you have all this access and connection at your fingertips doesn't mean everyone is getting closer together. Quite the contrary in fact.

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thecastingforecast t1_jc3s9vy wrote

Sure but it's also how you use the internet. Introverted, shy, or awkward people were always going to have a hard time forming relationships, and shallow self centred people would have a hard time keeping them. But I've amassed friends in dozens of countries with relationships the have lasted more than a decade because we could keep in touch online. People that I met for a week when travelling have become lifelong friends because I can keep up to date with them, see photos of their lives, chat or message them multiple times a week on social media. Before that a couple random long distance calls or post cards would have never been possible to keep up that kind of connection. Through the pandemic I made more friends than ever on random discord servers for various creators and hobbies. I saw people fall in love and move across the country to be with the partners they met there, who they spent months talking to each other daily, or sharing late night watch parties, posting pics of their meals, sharing stories of their hardship, venting about work etc. I built connections with people who shared my interests and random obsessions. People that I never would have met before. Or never could have kept in contact with had we been relying on old school telephone calls or letters. These are all friends I could message day or night and who would be there for me whenever I needed. We've had multiple meetups irl, in multiple countries. Getting together to go to events or just so we could all hang out for real.

People who feel a lack of connection 'because of the internet' were never going to put in the work to get to know or care about other people. They would only hang around people who were convenient and in close proximity. Which is exactly what I said in my last post. The internet is full of opportunities, but not everyone wants to take advantage of them. And that's their loss.

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