Male loneliness: porn and video games as a refuge

'Gentlemen, it's over for me': male loneliness is being treated with porn and video games

When a man confesses that he expects to die alone and isolated, in the Japanese style, the response from his digital circle ranges from sarcasm to advice to pay for sens. Nobody asks him why he feels this way. Instead, he is told to fall in love with a fictional character, to use artificial intelligence to create a virtual girlfriend, or to accept that love is a scam designed for a lucky few.

The digital refuge: from the cat to the video game character

Some find comfort in a female video game character and in their own pets. Others point out that technology already makes it possible to turn that fantasy into an almost real companion: images, videos and, soon, virtual reality interaction. The economic argument also plays in its favor: free porn avoids the expense and complications of real relationships. Loneliness is managed like just another form of consumption.

The theory of disillusionment: hypergamy, 'chads' and surrender

A more sophisticated reading holds that romantic love is a scam and that the winners only accumulate superficial relationships without building anything stable. Hypergamy, the tendency to seek partners above one's own status, would condemn everyone to unhappiness. Against that determinism, the only practical advice is to lower expectations and start with those you're not attracted to. A suggestion that clashes with emotional needs but at least acknowledges the urgency of the problem.

The drama ends without a solution. The man who announced his death in solitude receives a catalog of digital escapisms and an ideology that explains why it isn't worth trying. The conversation is an uncomfortable mirror: male loneliness is not only not addressed, it is dressed up in cynicism. Meanwhile, he will keep waiting for someone to prove him wrong.