Solipsistic Nation: Are Americans growing more self-centered and insular?

Details

Solipsism. Look it up! Our topic basically asks: Have social media, the "loneliness epidemic," smaller families and all those divorces, overwork, consumerism, the loss of vibrant local communities, or streaming TV or sunspots combined to make Americans...um, even more self-centered than the old stereotype of us says we are?

Do we still care enough about our neighbors, our neighborhoods, our IRL friends, our fellow citizens in an increasingly diverse nation, or anybody to -

-- Pay attention to what's happening to them?
-- Care about what happens to them?
-- Do something about it?

Or do we all just shrug and go back to entertaining ourselves on our phones? Civilized Conversation has discussed the loneliness epidemic (declared to exist by the U.S. Surgeon General in 2021). We have debated the problems of finding and maintaining romances and friendships.

But we have never discussed whether our isolation is - in part at least - voluntary and even preferred! What are the ramifications if Americas are atomizing by choice? What happens to our mental health, our families, our culture, our political system, and to U.S. democracy if we are too apathetic to care anymore?
Optional Backgrounders -

DEFINITION –
· Two meanings. One is a philosophical position, resembling Descartes’ “all I can know for sure is that my mind exists.” My idea = focus on the common meaning as overly self-centered and lacking concern for others.

CULTURE/OUR PERSONAL LIVES -
· An Age of Selfishness is making Americans sick, single, and miserable. Recommended.
· Main Character Syndrome – don’t make your life all about you in some romanticized way.
· Self-centeredness is NOT a good skill for most future jobs.

POLITICS -
· Trumpism’s War on Empathy. Sue me. It is so self-centered we it should call it, The Sociopathic Style in American Politics. Recommended.
· Does the West have a self-obsession problem?
· Key Q: Do many of us care so little because we simply do not know how others, including govt, have helped to make our lives better?