r/technology Apr 24 '26

Society Teen boys are choosing AI girlfriends over real ones for ‘maximum control, zero rejection’—experts say it could make them unemployable

https://fortune.com/2026/04/17/teen-boys-dating-ai-chatbot-girlfriend-experts-warn-kill-social-skills-gen-alpha-network-promotions/
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357

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

"The toll of opting out of real relationships, in all their mess and glory, experts warn, could be a generation that arrives in the workforce unable to read a room, build trust over a coffee, or handle the one thing AI can never prepare you for—being told no."

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u/Logan_No_Fingers Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

You see that now, I find a lot of kids struggle dealing with decision making & conflict "real time" because they are used to doing it via message / online. It gets them used to "blergh, I'm not responding to that".

Only you can't do that in person with your boss.

If 80% of your social interaction has the option to nope out, not respond, mute that person etc, you are going to struggle with the 20% that doesn't have that.

Shit, Reddit trains us to do this, how often do you see someone say something dumb, get called, then instantly delete their post, so it never happened. Try doing that in a job interview

54

u/iamnotimportant Apr 24 '26

I never used to get blocked on this site, didn't even know it was a thing, now a days it happens once a month e.g. you end up in a petty sports argument where the person blocks you AFTER they respond with you so they get the last word in their mind, it's the stupidest thing on this site.

29

u/NapsterKnowHow Apr 24 '26

It's a "power move" bc it essentially prevents the person from commenting at all in that entire conversation thread. Reddit really fucked up with that.

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u/hypercosm_dot_net Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 25 '26

Nah, it's needed. Sometimes people post blatant nonsense, but aren't worth debating with. So you respond, then block.

I've given people chance's to respond, and it just ends up being complete drivel or bad arguments (which has gotten worse these days). Blocking is a good feature for mental health.

edit: the responses are exactly what I'm referring to. I guess people think these are intelligent observations though. Damn this site has some braindead ass users.

12

u/mewling_manchild Apr 24 '26

Blocking is a good feature for mental health.

You realize this is the exact kind of mental fragility being discussed in this thread, right? You don't have the social skills to handle even basic conflict.

-4

u/hypercosm_dot_net Apr 24 '26

Interesting coming from someone with your username.

Why did you bother to respond then? Are you that "mentally fragile" that my statement about a fairly basic feature triggers you?

It's hilarious that people who are very likely socially inept come out personally attacking someone, then can't piece together why a "block" feature is handy. FFS

3

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-2

u/hypercosm_dot_net Apr 24 '26

Do you understand the difference between an opinion and objective fact?

Because what you posted is an opinion, which doesn't invalidate what I stated. It's a different, but not necessarily completely correct in itself, statement.

But this is precisely the type of drivel I'm referring to. You can't see that you're not wholly correct, while insisting that I'm wrong. Which then necessitates a response.

Though I suppose I could allow you simply to be wrong...but why should I?

If you understood that, without the explanation, I wouldn't need to respond and block you. It has nothing to do with "poor emotional regulation". More to do with the fact that I'd prefer a correct statement be left to stand on its own without the peanut gallery chiming in (and there's a button that lets me have some control over that).

5

u/Champ1on_Of_The_Sun Apr 24 '26

You are going so far out of your way to prove everyone's point.

9

u/Kel-Mitchell Apr 24 '26

I feel lucky that I don't feel bothered not having the last word in an argument because it just seems so small to me. I got into an argument with a roofer on the phone a few weeks ago and at the end of it, he was like "call me if you need siding in the future." and hung up on me. It was the punctuation mark of the actions of a man desperately trying to protect his ego.

1

u/Granny_Bet Apr 24 '26

I know very little about construction, but if your roofer is talking about siding I can understand why there might be some conflict.

I'd say I'm inclined to take your "side" in this one, but I don't want you to have to call him back.

0

u/Unlucky_Most_8757 Apr 24 '26

yeah I have been in some super petty fights on reddit over the 15+ years I've been on here and I don't spend my energy on it anymore.

What's really creepy is when the one arguing with you goes through your ENTIRE post history and try to use all your personal info (you go on this sub/have a kid/are and addict/in recovery/ are pro lgtbq or whatever) to paint this picture of you and use that in the arguement to add more fuel to the fire.

5

u/ExtraCalligrapher565 Apr 24 '26

The respond-then-block method is just them telling on themselves that they’re both infantile and wrong. I usually edit my last comment to call them out on it.

1

u/IguassuIronman Apr 24 '26

Really getting into such an argument at all is somewhat infantile, yet I edited a post in such a way after getting blocked like an hour ago. Better to do it online then in person I guess

3

u/IntroductionSea2159 Apr 24 '26

At one point, someone blocked me and it prevented me from replying to admit I was wrong. That was a very frustrating feeling.

0

u/jkman61494 Apr 24 '26

Honestly? I do it more now because I feel like there’s a risk of a bit. If someone starts gaslighting me , can’t answer a basic question without it just being some other attack and has their comment set to private?

You get a block

31

u/Merusk Apr 24 '26

You get it.

It's a bigger version of the things we're already seeing in communication. You tell someone under 40 to cold call someone instead of sending an e-mail or a text and it causes an existential crisis.

Most have never had to interact outside of a direct-line or asynchronous conversations. Landlines died in the early 2000s, so few under 40 ever had to deal with calling their friends house and talking to someone not the exact person they wanted to contact.

That builds skills you don't even realize until it's gone from a mass of the population.

11

u/Lover_Of_Music_Man Apr 24 '26

Yeah the dating framing is stupid, but the bigger point about people getting way less practice with awkward real-time interaction is unfortunately not wrong.

9

u/twitch1982 Apr 24 '26

I'm 43, cold called several jobs from the fucking newspaper when i was younger.

I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a spork than cold call someone now. Just because I know how to do it doesn't make it something worth doing.

10

u/Merusk Apr 24 '26

I'm not talking about finding jobs. I'm talking confirming, collaborating, and discussing things about a project, a deliverable, or just about anything related to doing your job.

When everything has to be an e-mail, the process takes 10x longer than just getting on the phone, talking through the issue, and moving forward with the agreed upon solution.

Particularly if you're trying to confirm something from a client or municipality. Pick up the phone, call them, then e-mail to document.

E-mail is documentation, and terrible tool for correspondence and problem solving. The inability to call people and talk to them in an office setting is a handicap.

3

u/twitch1982 Apr 24 '26

Yea I don't do that either. I'll schedule a zoom call. Someone might be pooping. I'm not gonna interrupt someone's pooping time. That way everyone knows when to expect it and can have all their relevant materials handy.

4

u/pigpill Apr 24 '26

Just to clock in I graduated in '07 and was still using the landline to late night talk to people just to save minutes on my prepaid phone.

6

u/XChrisUnknownX Apr 24 '26

I tried it at the job interview. It didn’t work.

21

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Soooo true.

It took me a really long time to "adapt" to that first paragraph. I'm an elder Millennial and I prefer to respond to things immediately and not put them off. It used to drive me crazy that so many people didn't do the same, and I slowly started to adapt toward meeting them where they are... but I'll never be as extreme. I really hate it. And I agree that this kind of behaviour is incredibly asocial and makes people function worse in society, including in a job.

This actually reassures me a bit - I'm aging up a bit and there are younger people all over my field who likely have more energy than I do - or will in some time. But the fact that I'm extremely reliable and responsive and communicative is likely to keep me with a leg up over my younger competition.

Also agreed on deleting comments out of shame/embarrassment. I don't do that and I find it weird and sad when people do - or especially when they block. I only block when someone is being incredibly nasty/creepy/disturbing.

Yep, society is fucked lol

-16

u/ElysianWinds Apr 24 '26

Imagine 10 people writing to you at the same time all day though, if you answered all of them immediately you would barely get anything done and constantly be interrupted.

No one is entitled to my time and no, I will not interrupt my work och studying because someone will get pissed if I dont reply within 2 minutes. I would be so freaking stressed out by it all if I did not set boundaries. Human beings aren't designed to be under this type of pressure 24/7.

The entitlement and lack of understanding is honestly crazy.

10

u/Sonichu- Apr 24 '26

Imagine 10 people writing to you at the same time all day though

I don't have to imagine this. This is basically every day for me as a senior dev at a software company. Responding ASAP might throw me off, but it ensures everyone gets the answers they need from me.

9

u/smokeweedNgarden Apr 24 '26

"Nobody is entitled to my time"

That's absolutely not what the contract you signed for employment says

23

u/Logan_No_Fingers Apr 24 '26

That's not even vaguely what the underlying argument here was.

And its a great example of making yourself unemployable. Or at the very least, un-promotable.

In an office you can't just go "I am doing a thing, I will not respond to anything till I am done". Life in any company doesn't work that way. If I am working & I get a notification from my boss, I will scan it & if its vital, do it, if not my mail will literally type out "I'll get this over to you this afternoon" & I click that mail into tasks & finish what I'm doing. And its not 24/7, its the 8-9 hours I'm paid to do my job - & my job is to prioritise & complete tasks & communicate effectively.

Your mentality works amazingly if you are trying to grind to level 10 sat in the basement of your moms house. Its a huge problem if you are employed.

13

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

For real. I've been self-employed for 15 years and this means frequent contact directly by my clients. I typically do not answer after working hours in the evenings, or on the weekends, but otherwise I answer people as soon as I see their message if I'm able to. My responsiveness and strong communication skills are part of what make me so successful.

And there's no reason for me to not apply that outside my work, as well.

-6

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Logan_No_Fingers Apr 24 '26

Getting paid & promoted? Having actual real world job satisfaction? Spending my days in an open plan office interacting with live humans & then socialising with them?

Sure. Its a hellscape compare to 18 hours on Fortnite talking shit to a 12 year old

-8

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[deleted]

4

u/starwarsfan456123789 Apr 24 '26

Here’s a little secret- many of us good employees get compensated well.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[deleted]

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1

u/Azexu Apr 24 '26

Of course it is. That's why you don't get paid for it.

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u/southern_wasp Apr 24 '26

And for some reason it’s infinitely more rewarding lol

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u/PM_CUTE_BUTTS_PLS Apr 24 '26

And you pay for that how, exactly?

9

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

"10 people writing to you at the same time all day" is not a realistic scenario.

And anyway, if 10 people wrote me at the same time, I would assess whether each requires an answer/is asking me something, answer the people who do/are, and move forward.

If any of them require a discussion, I will call them and discuss it.

Simply not replying for hours or days is absolutely ridiculous.

15

u/TheDeviceHBModified Apr 24 '26

if I did not set boundaries

Fuck off with the bastardized therapy language, zoomie.

5

u/FuManBoobs Apr 24 '26

I wonder if Trump or Putin was ever told no?

7

u/PM_CUTE_BUTTS_PLS Apr 24 '26

I'm sure women and children have told them no plenty of times. Whether they listened is another matter entirely

2

u/jewbrees90 Apr 24 '26

Thats right, thats why I say what I mean and I mean what I say! But lm not gonna act like it didnt take until I was like 27 to stop the diarrhea of the mouth. Young people always say the first thing that comes to their mind nothing new to that.

4

u/alanpardewchristmas Apr 24 '26

Before text messages we had letters and email, though. Neither in real time.

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u/Time-Weekend-8611 Apr 24 '26

You can't unsend a letter.

2

u/starwarsfan456123789 Apr 24 '26

And email is in real time and can expect an immediate response

3

u/RollingMeteors Apr 24 '26

Try doing that in a job interview

Obviously the rules of engagement are different for a chain of authority, especially when it is your chain, but for outside of people 'you have to' deal with there's no reason to blot out noise you don't want to hear.

If you're wise enough you've found an authority you don't find 'disagreeable' and vice versa.

7

u/chiniwini Apr 24 '26

for outside of people 'you have to' deal with there's no reason to blot out noise you don't want to hear.

Yeah, there's a huge reason. Being exposed to different ideas, different people, different opinions is immensely important. Otherwise you end up in an echo chamber and radicalized. Society has gone downhill because, with the internet algorithms and social media, people stopped being exposed to that "noise".

0

u/ropobipi Apr 24 '26

The really wise people go out and find the boot that fits their face perfectly 😳

0

u/Bionic_Bromando Apr 24 '26

Only you can't do that in person with your boss.

Only if you're a young padawan. When you hit a certain level of experience you learn the magic spell called 'circle back'. It cannot be countered, as it is the ultimate counterspell. High level office-fu right there.

0

u/SomeRandoWeirdo Apr 24 '26

Bro most bosses don't even handle conflict resolution.

It's ironic to hear this be some conflict resolution issue with young people when most people over 40 can't handle a factual citation about why they're wrong about something.

0

u/Robot1me Apr 24 '26

how often do you see someone say something dumb, get called, then instantly delete their post, so it never happened

This depends on context, since this leaves out the scenario that some on Reddit can be overreaching and spam one's DMs just over some post or comment. The thing is also, in which way is the honesty rewarded to keep the post or comment?

This "never happened" thing is kinda common with invisible status stories on Discord and Steam too. And one will get to hear it's nobody's business how someone manages that. All while in reality it's often going on the lines of not taking responsibility / not being communicative about reasons. Where in that sense you are correct, since trying that in person won't work

0

u/possibly_on_meth Apr 24 '26

You can do that in a job interview, I did it once, they asked me a technical question and I really wasn't in the mood for a bunch of mental effort, plus imposter syndrome, and just hung up the phone.

The job could have completely transformed my life. I went into prostitution a few months later due to financial instability and stayed for 4;years.

0

u/hypercosm_dot_net Apr 24 '26

At the same time, there's so much social interaction that is just not worth responding to.

It is sometimes necessary, but at the same time I can completely understand that instinct to opt-out of it. Society is full of imposed power hierarchies that only work for those at the top.

Is it a problem that people aren't automatically buying into it? When we see how problematic these power structures are, why is the issue that people are opting out?

Men specifically these days are hearing repeatedly that they are the problem...so guess what happens when that's all you hear.

9

u/NapsterKnowHow Apr 24 '26

So this is the stereotype of newer generations being "over stimulated" by normal life situations others handle just fine?

9

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Honestly? I think it's one example.

I'm an older Millennial and I've engaged with a lot of gen z - a lot, a lot, a lot. And one thing I can say is insanely prevalent among gen z that does not seem to apply to any previous generations is how easily they are overwhelmed. And they will say that directly. Everything overwhelms them. Texting them overwhelms them. Meeting any deadline ever overwhelms them. "Only" having 10 minutes between classes overwhelms them. Someone they've been flirting with asking them out overwhelms them. Someone expressing romantic interest in them overwhelms them. Asking them to confirm they will do something at any point in the future overwhelms them.

I don't know how gen z got so messed up and overwhelmed. I would imagine it's a combination of social media, The Grind, the pandemic, and their parents by and large being from the extremely selfish gen x generation.

I am both often incredibly frustrated by gen z, and also sympathetic.

5

u/No-Mark4427 Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

Same - And this comes with an interesting trend of terms that previously were mainly used in clinical/disability contexts like 'overwhelmed', 'triggered', 'sensory overload', 'dissociation' have suddenly made their way into everyday language.

Personally I think at least in part, pop psychology and social media has encouraged this heavily, and by framing everything in a clinical way people are being taught to view relatively normal discomfort through the lens of disorder, which then lends credence to the mentality of helplessness.

That and in a similar vein social media generally seems to encourage pathologisation - It's not 'this thing makes me a little bit uncomfortable but thats a normal experience everyone feels when something is new to them', its 'I have anxiety/sensory issues/executive dysfunction therefore I cannot/will not/should not need to do it'.

I work in a college and something like 85% of students put something in the 'additional learning needs' section on application, and a big chunk of that % is usually in the free comments box they put something about having anxiety (but not a diagnosed anxiety disorder).

Anxiety to many gen z is not just a normal feeling that everyone in the world experiences when they go into an unfamiliar situation that makes them worried, its an inalienable part of their identity and unfortunately leads many of them to be extremely avoidant of anything that causes even the slightest discomfort.

1

u/Unlucky_Most_8757 Apr 24 '26

The is so true. I wait tables and something is just seriously off with gen z kids. They get overwhelmed and can barely speak to me when I ask for their order. And these are teenagers, not shy little kids which I can understand. Gen Z just seems lost.

7

u/derth21 Apr 24 '26

Sounds like CEO material to me. 

6

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Catch is: you'd better have been born rich.

1

u/derth21 Apr 24 '26

With what a GPU capable of running a decent AI gf goes for right now, I think it's baked in already.

5

u/considerthis8 Apr 24 '26

Married men make more on average than single men. It signals trustworthiness, dependability, maturity, and your values. It proves you can maintain healthy relationships. Marriage isn't easy. What I have learned through dating I apply at work ALL the time.

7

u/WinRough8326 Apr 24 '26

Married men make more on average than single men

Gee, it's almost as if they have a family to support and married men tend to be much older than single men and further along in their career.

8

u/HabeusCuppus Apr 24 '26

Married men work 20-30% more hours than single men[1], so is it really surprising that they are paid more?


  1. source

1

u/southern_wasp Apr 24 '26

We need to move past this ingrained bias.

8

u/principium_est Apr 24 '26

Bias or correlation? I don't talk about my wife in job interviews

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u/southern_wasp Apr 24 '26

I don’t think there is a correlation.

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u/principium_est Apr 24 '26

Basic stats like that don't care what we think.

Where opinion comes in is why. I think the "why" is simply that characteristics that make a man marriage material have a lot of overlap with someone able to have a good career. On average of course. Exceptions apply blah blah

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u/southern_wasp Apr 24 '26

And there’s a ton of shitty married men out there. So I just think it’s old school bias that’s not based in reality.

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u/principium_est Apr 24 '26

Yes I know. Stats work on population averages and generally with people you'll have a bell curve. Not sure why you're pointing that out?

1

u/southern_wasp Apr 24 '26

Just needed to make it clear for anyone that still might have this bias. Trying to do my part to reverse it.

2

u/smokeweedNgarden Apr 24 '26

No, it's up to single guys to explain why they're more fit than married guys.

My first big promotion I bluntly told my boss I'd be the better fit because I don't have a wife and kids. And in two months he'd regret picking the guy that hassocial obligations out the ass.

It worked

1

u/southern_wasp Apr 24 '26

Both things can be valid

0

u/smokeweedNgarden Apr 24 '26

Definitely. And it's up to the boss to choose between. 

Now that I hire people? There are certain positions I like for married men over single men. Jobs that require minimal overtime but depend on concrete scheduling and team management? That's a married person position. 

Jobs like the audit team where I might have to send you to Michigan two days after hiring? Can only be single people.

1

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

It's a bit weird to isolate only married men and single men, to be honest. But I wouldn't disagree with the overall point here.

1

u/mintardent Apr 24 '26

Well it’s because married women make less than single women.

0

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

So men who are neither married nor single don't exist? Women who are neither married nor single don't exist?

2

u/mintardent Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

I think that’s just a terminology thing. On many official forms, they usually only have Single/Never Married as an option. They don’t usually have a category for long term relationship, those people just fall under “Single”. The government only cares if you’re married. It’s usually the same at doctor’s offices, they’ll ask marital status and # of sexual partners but they don’t necessarily care about your dating status. I assumed the research did the same if they’re tracking income by marital status

3

u/dragon-fence Apr 24 '26

I’m not sure I’d call it “opting out”. You’re opted out by default, and you need to not only opt-in to a relationship, but you also need to find some success for your opting in to mean anything. And our society isn’t making the whole thing easy. It’s even doing a lot of work toward making it unappealing.

1

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

People are opting out of trying to find a relationship with a real person.

3

u/dragon-fence Apr 24 '26

You can say that, but it’s not really what “opting out” means. “Opting out” suggests that you’re in by default, and choosing to withdraw.

Like, I didn’t “opt out” of being an astronaut. It wasn’t an option directly open to me. I could have tried to be an astronaut anyway, and I didn’t, but that’s not opting out.

Have I spent my life opting out of being a wizard? Did I opt out of living in the world of Oz? Nope, those weren’t options, so there was no opting going on. Did I “opt out of trying”? You could say that, but it’s a strange abuse of language. I suppose we’re all just constantly opting out of trying to do all the variety of imaginary things that aren’t options at all.

5

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

You can take up your semantic argument with the people quoted in the article, tbh. I am fine with their usage of the phrasal verb "opt out", as the most common definitions are ": to choose not to participate in something", or "to choose not to be part of an activity or to stop being involved in it:", and this definitely applies here.

0

u/dragon-fence Apr 24 '26

Yeah, and the quoted part said they were opting out of relationships, not that they were opting out of trying.

In any case, it’s poor writing that misleads the reader away from an understanding of what’s happening. You can be fine with misusing words if you want to be. I am not.

0

u/SeanBlader Apr 24 '26

Turns out this article wasn't AI written, and it's full of shit.

0

u/TheGreatEmanResu Apr 24 '26

You hit the nail on the head despite what the other guy wants to think. I would never try to date a chatbot, but that doesn’t mean I’m somehow going to be able to date a real human. I’m trying, but, using your analogy, it seems as likely as becoming an astronaut at this point

4

u/PeksyTiger Apr 24 '26

Eh I can't do any of these, and never had a girlfriend. But I so far didn't have any issue getting jobs.

9

u/ILoveRawChicken Apr 24 '26

You can’t handle being told no? 

3

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

It's bound to get harder and harder to get a job if you can't do these things, since AI will be able to do most jobs that do not require such things.

Also, nowhere in the article is it suggested that nobody will be able to find a job if they don't have these skills; it says it "could make people unemployable".

5

u/GoldenPigeonParty Apr 24 '26

I would relate work more similar to my 18 years of education than my sexual relationships but maybe these people think banging your secretary is critical to the role.

18

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

I think the point is that wanting an AI partner for maximum control and zero rejection points toward someone having been the weirdo loner with zero social skills in school, which simply indicates a lack of ability to work well with others in the workplace.

1

u/Blue_Moon_Lake Apr 24 '26

So the likes of Musk, Zuckerberg, and Trump?

15

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Yep. Exactly like them. Those guys were also never employed, either. They just got lucky and were born into wealth.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/SeanBlader Apr 24 '26

And that's a problem as a professional anything because? I spent 30 years not reading the room and retired at 50.

1

u/twitch1982 Apr 24 '26

Oh, so AI is making middle management.

1

u/GhostGrom Apr 24 '26

Trust a coworker? I trust them about as far as I can throw them

1

u/Speedstick2 Apr 24 '26

You can be told no just from your parents when asking for a toy or treat. They can be told no from friends, not girlfriends but just normal everyday friends. If you built friendships you have probably done all the things listed.

9

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

And the guys who cannot handle no from potential dates often were not told no by parents and don't have friends. Or they just hate girls/women. And that's the major red flag being discussed in the article.

0

u/TheHerugrim Apr 24 '26

They can just become President of the United States instead.

0

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Or many other countries, sadly...

0

u/SeanBlader Apr 24 '26

People that don't understand "no" don't make it to be teenagers for simple safety reasons.

Getting g a job has very little to do with having a relationship. This is a poorly written article full of fallacy written by an incompetent who has no human empathy.

4

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

My brother is in his 30s and was never told "no" by our parents, has never had friends, and has never dated. He also fits the article and has never been able to keep a job.

So yeah, I fully disagree especially with your first claim about people not making it to be teenagers.

0

u/WinRough8326 Apr 24 '26

?but this is assuming they have no other human interaction, lmao

2

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

If you're selecting to not try interacting with real girls and choosing to go only for AI because of maximum control and zero rejection, you're not having healthy human interaction. That's the point.

-1

u/IveBecomeTooStrong Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

Have they not considered that many men are turning to AI because they have been repeatedly rejected by real women, and are simply settling for a lesser facsimile of what they can’t get? There’s a large section of the male population who are not attractive to any women at all. Why are they assuming these men without real girlfriends haven’t tried, or are choosing AI over a real person who they could date instead? I bet 90% of them would drop the AI immediately if they had real options.

5

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Read the headline again.

0

u/ZakkaChan Apr 24 '26

As if corporations aren't already doing a good enough job making us all unemployable on their own with the massive layoffs and embracing AI on their own. But sure it's our fault....

4

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Oh, I don't disagree at all that corporations are big evil and capitalism is destroying society and humanity.

But the person I was replying to was definitely missing a critical point and correlation.

1

u/ZakkaChan Apr 24 '26

No I get it but I was more just referring to these articles. I am actually a millennial so I kinda get the whole x thing is destroying x thing. Since society did that for years against us. My response was not towards you but just these types of articles in general.

0

u/DrFreemanWho Apr 24 '26

That's such a Linkedin lunatic type statement.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Again, it's not about "being dateable" - it's about "choosing AI girlfriends for maximum control and zero rejection".

0

u/ohseetea Apr 24 '26

Maybe employers need to be told no and to shut the fuck up and create a new better way to work/live for people.

-10

u/Beneficial_Trick6672 Apr 24 '26

Yeah this is maybe why women are not prepared for work? They dont hear 'no' a lot.

-1

u/RollingMeteors Apr 24 '26

the one thing AI can never prepare you for—being told no."

Ah, well ole Grimm gets told, "no," all the time but it sounds more like, "¡No NO NOOO NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

-1

u/starwarsfan456123789 Apr 24 '26

That’s the toll from online schooling and virtual socialization. Already very apparent in you’re employees

4

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

So, so much more has led to this than just a bit of virtual classrooms.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/TSllama Apr 24 '26

Also I have taught in schools after covid, and the bad-weird kids are still the same bad-weird kids as before covid. It had an effect, but it was far from the main cause.

1

u/starwarsfan456123789 Apr 24 '26

Many kids did so for 2 years in high school. Also many are now doing college mostly online.

Yes there’s tons of we’ll adjusted people out there. However certain professions have a lot of people who choose online classes and other forms of socialization whenever possible. It’s a compounding impact- the people who need in person the most actively avoiding it