Today's journalistic process involved the dark side of technology. I had to reset my 2-factor authentication.
The premise wasn't even major. I hadn't noticed, but I didn't have the app on my personal smartphone downloaded. By virtue of Apple's products, the download required credentials I didn't have the password to in order to re-download the app to the phone. How frustrating.
An application local to a device, requires the login information despite not spending any money for the download. No purchases needed authorization, especially as the app was already on the phone, just removed for some strange reason. I was truly puzzled because 2-FA is fairly prominent for individuals with my habits. Nearly every crypto related platform (rightfully) asks you to set up the security measure to protect your funds.
I must offer my gratitude for never having dealt with a compromise of this nature. But I'm ranting and complaining, so my thanksgiving will have to wait.
My research process, once the security interruption was dealt with, remained quite grim.
I skimmed the surface of a what appears to be both a controversial, prolific debate: the epidemic of male loneliness. In fact, some of the opening comments suggest the problem isn't entirely male- it's a phenomenon affecting everyone.
But that doesn't make enough for a blog post, nor a discussion.
Are people more lonely than ever? Why? What's it doing to people, and what are people doing in response?
I don't have all the answers, nor even a clue about the reality of the situation, so data helps. A survey recently done in the UK shows that almost one in five men owned up to not having a single close friend. 1 in 3 admitted they didn't have a best friend either.
Women's values contrasted a bit, making for a dynamic discussion topic. 12% of women who answered held that they don't have one close friend; 24% held they had no best friends, either.
The topic seems to have interesting information that disagrees with common assumptions. I have more to dive into on this subject for a particular project, so while I'd like to go in deeper, I'll settle with this open response question: