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Why Every Young Man Should Join a Garage Band

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monday

I have written before that while women are gloriously surging in academic, social, and career achievement, many young men are flailing. Pop culture pieces as well as academic dissertations are replete with accounts of male aimlessness and resultant disaffection and disengagement. They point out that the growing achievement gap and resultant maturational/responsibility gap between men and women are making young men progressively less and desirable to modern young women.

Life companionship was once almost a guarantee for young men in that the job market was for the most part limited to men. Familial and cultural norms pressured women into marriage and childbearing often shortly after high school. Many were forced to “settle” for less than desirable, or even safe, partners. Without such drivers, many younger women are now opting out of relationships with their often less worldly, less formed, less promising male counterparts.

Many young men seem to have retreated into the digital worlds of gaming, social media, and influencing. Young men are therefore entering young adulthood often isolated from inter-gender social interaction, out-of-house experiences, workplace socialization, and romantic engagements. Disconnection, loneliness, frustration, depression, misogyny, and anti-social behaviors are rampant.

While contributing factors are plentiful, solutions are complex, and likely costly. But what if more young men engaged in activities that routinely featured intense interaction, necessary

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