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Probably a combination of things, I wouldn't pretend to know, but I have my theories. For men, one half-backed thought I've been having revolved around social circles, friends and places outside work or home. I'm a member in a "men only" sports club (we have a few exceptions due to a special program, but mostly it's men only). One of the older gentlemen, probably in his early 80s, made the comment: "It's important for men to socialise with other men, without women. Young and old men have a lot in common, and have a lot to talk about. An 18 year old woman, and an 80 year old man have very little in of shared interests or concerns."

What I notice is that the old members keep the younger members engaged socially, teach them skills and give them access to their extensive network of friends, family, previous (or current) co-workers, bosses, managers. They give advise, teach how to behave and so on. The younger members help out with moving, help with technology, call an ISP, drive others home, to the hospital and help maintain the facilities.

Regardless of age, there's always some dude you can talk to, or knows who you need to talk to, and sometimes there's even someone who knows how to make your problems go away or take you in if need by.

A former colleague had something similar, a complete ready so go support network in his old-boys football team. Ready to support in anyway they could, when he started his own software company.

The problem: This is something like 250 guys. What about the rest? Everyone needs a support network, if your alone, or your family isn't the best, you only have a few superficial friends, if any, then where do you go? Maybe the people around you aren't equipped to help you with your problems, not everyone is, some have their own issues. The safe spaces are mostly gone.

We can't even start up support networks, because the strongest have no reason to go, so we risk creating networks of people dragging each other down. The sports clubs works because members are from a wider part of society.

From the article:

> > Meta said its AIs carry a disclaimer that “indicates the responses are generated by AI to help people understand their limitations”.

That's a problem, because most likely to turn to an LLM for mental support don't understand the limitations. They need strong people to support and guide them, and maybe tell them that talking to a probability engine isn't the smartest choice, and take them on a walk instead.






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