[tmountain]

I guess it depends on your perspective. Here in Portugal, lots of people ended up sitting on their patios, chatting with friends, cooking on the grill, playing cards, sipping wine, and generally having a pretty good time. There was a collective groan around the small village where I live when the power came back on, and quite a few people commented that they were disappointed that they'd have to work in the morning.

[Aachen]

Right, it's fun to sip wine and chew bubblegum for a day, but that's not the scenario people are worried about

[herzzolf]

Also based in Portugal, big city, and had a shockingly different experience. Fights in the street over traffic violations, fights at the bus/train stops for cutting 3h+ long queues, people hauling multiple 5L bottles and emptying the stores...

I doubt everything would be as idyllic as you describe if the blackout went for longer.

[Fnoord]

> and quite a few people commented that they were disappointed that they'd have to work in the morning

Hangover from the port.

Instead of doing drugs or chatting, I'd read a book on my Kobo.

The thing with the stuff you mentioned. I already drank enough alcohol jn my life to not bother with it anymore. Same with card games. And random chitchat.

[maplant]

You've had enough random chitchat to last a lifetime?

[Fnoord]

With my neighbors? For sure. Friends? Don't live near me anymore. How am I going to chat with my friends if they're hundreds of kilometers away? By way of a (smart)phone, which requires power.

We actually saw the effect of downtime during covid. In the beginning, a massive appreciation for health services. We all know how long that lasted. In the beginning, it was us against the virus. Eventually, we were fighting with each other, even over details. Rest assured, offensive propaganda services from secret agencies learned a lot from that (one may guess which one primarily).

If it was so awesome that wine drinking and chit-chat, why aren't we doing it? A pretty simple explanation is: because it ain't awesome. Yes, a change of pace can be regarded as a fun challenge or change of pace. Heck, it may even open up people to changing their life. But look how much we remote work post covid. Policies were reverted.

[maplant]

People absolutely drink wine and chit-chat with each other. They can't during the day usually because they have work.

It seems to me that these modern anti-social tendencies are actively driving a wedge between most people and their surroundings, making people further isolated from each other. Young people tend to spend time in doors alone because they don't know _how_ to interact with strangers. But they should because being alone is literally damaging to your health.

Being far away from friends is bad for you[1]. Being socially isolated is bad for you. Promoting a lifestyle in which you don't have friends and don't talk to strangers is akin to promoting a lifestyle in which you don't exercise.

It's not "awesome", it's a necessary component of living healthily as a human being.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/social-connectedness/risk-factors/index.... - I found this source from the CDC but there are numerous others

[numpad0]

Perhaps too late to comment - but I think it's just population density being too high. There's only so much presence of others that you can take without getting tired of it. Just having people around is communication of its own.

That much anyone can figure, and my point is, that threshold of sustainable density can be way lower than commonly thought. We're just too used to it, like we're used to burning fossil fuel. There might be a "peak density", hopefully after population growth resumed on the high orbit and beyond.

[ornornor]

You sound fun