22-year-old YouTuber Jett Franzen has been living alone in a basement for the past seven months.
In an unusually candid - albeit, somewhat concerning - YouTube video, Franzen, who has nearly 200K subscribers on the platform, goes into detail about his struggles with loneliness and social isolation.
"I get, on an average day, zero interaction with other people."
Anyone can see that Franzen looks tired, drained, and depressed. In the background of the shot is a small, dimly lit, cluttered basement. Miscellaneous boxes are strewn across the floor.
Franzen is, by all means, very articulate and appears to be quite intelligent. Still, there's an emptiness behind his eyes. He is monotone and thoroughly unenthusiastic.
While he explicitly says that he didn't upload this video with the intention of soliciting sympathy or pity, Franzen is clearly hurting.
Humans, he says, "crave connection."
His isolation, however, something that he admits is largely "self-inflicted," has become "an addiction."
He's come to prefer the safety of a "controlled environment" over the uncertainty of the outside world.
When you opt to stay inside and forgo social engagements, you eliminate the risk of awkward or potentially anxiety-inducing interactions. There's no question about that. At the same time, though, reclusiveness deprives one of life's most joyous moments: laughs over glasses of beer at your local pub, first dates, get-togethers with your friends, and other little and seemingly trivial timestamps in life that give us purpose, belonging, and camaraderie.
Franzen, I'm afraid, is not alone.
Zoomers are easily the loneliest generation.
His video, which, to date, has accrued nearly 600K views, has a comment section replete with users expressing similar sentiments.
One user wrote, "I’m literally living the exact same life, completely isolated no friends no job.."
Another posted, "I understand. I'm only here because my parents haven't given up on me. Being human is pretty f**ing hard for me."
This is a problem that isn't going away. We better start getting serious about it.
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