this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
33 points (97.1% liked)

Australia

5085 readers
87 users here now

A place to discuss Australia and important Australian issues.

Before you post:

If you're posting anything related to:

If you're posting Australian News (not opinion or discussion pieces) post it to Australian News

Rules

This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone. In addition to those rules:

Banner Photo

Congratulations to @Tau@aussie.zone who had the most upvoted submission to our banner photo competition

Recommended and Related Communities

Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:

Plus other communities for sport and major cities.

https://aussie.zone/communities

Moderation

Since Kbin doesn't show Lemmy Moderators, I'll list them here. Also note that Kbin does not distinguish moderator comments.

Additionally, we have our instance admins: @lodion@aussie.zone and @Nath@aussie.zone

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
lodion@aussie.zone
bestusername@aussie.zone
eatham@aussie.zone
Nath@aussie.zone
33
Gen Z is living in an intimacy economy, where connection is commodified (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 days ago by arbilp3@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/35023765

Leading AI researchers now expect artificial general intelligence (AGI) – where AI meets or exceeds human intellectual capabilities – within three to five years. When AGI automates thinking, the economy will need to reorganise around what machines cannot do: feel.

We are already in the intimacy economy. But if we are to thrive within it, we must wrestle back our most valuable economic asset from technology: the messy complexities of being human. My generation are the begrudging harbingers of what will happen if we continue to outsource intimacy: we will lose the emotional skills a post-AGI economy will depend on most, rendering us unemployable. We knew social media was addictive and slowing our cognitive development, but officials took until this year to act. We can’t make the same mistake with the intimacy economy.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Ediacarium@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago

If you talk to people who have pulled themselves out of holes (addiction, loneliness, etc) they are usually pretty clear that the first person to blame was themselves and they are willing to accept responsibility for that. This is what gives them the agency to do something about it.

There is some truth in that, but I think that people who have pulled themselves out, have done a lot of work outside of treating the addiction part of the addiction, because imo addictions are mostly crutches.

Sure, there is the addiction part, but addictions often start as a replacement for something else you're missing. Be it alcohol being a replacement for a way to unwind after work, porn for missing intimacy and social media/AI replacing a social life/a good friend.

So, those people will often have to fix what is missing in their life and then they will be able to let go of the addiction. This is also the reason why addiction treatment facilities don't work. You basically take a vacation, all your needs are fulfilled and you don't need your addiction as a crutch anymore. You're healed.

Then you get dropped into your regular life and fall back into the addiction, because you never learned the tools to change your current life into a more fulfilling one and the cycle repeats.

The people who think they have a chatbot friend who "understands them like no one else" have completely lost touch with reality, though. This is the bit I find difficult to understand, because at this point I feel like most people should know the basics of how this technology works and understand that what they're saying is happening is impossible.

Oh, I think, people are able to hold contradicting believes, if they need it, but I don't think people are stupid. I think those people have, probably for the first time in their life, encountered something friend-shaped, that responds with understanding and empathy, instead of punishment, rejection and anger.

So it's not that they're being understood for the first time. They're just used to getting negative feedback as a form of understanding. Suddenly getting positive feedback feels like 'understanding me like no one else', because it is.

Someone that was pushed by their parents to be something special, will only feel that they're worth of love by being special. And an AI will accept them as they are, because the AI kinda has to. And they become dependent on the validation of the AI, they just need to find a reason to justify it to themselves.