It is widely acknowledged that working time has significantly increased for a typical laborer in modern society, taking away quality time spent with loved ones. This phenomenon can be traced to multiple factors, with unexpectedly far-reaching consequences.
This problem can be attributed to the following reasons. The first cause is the increased prices of goods and services, especially common utilities, housing and estate, and groceries, as a product of inflation. Compared to the original price from a few decades ago, current prices seem absurdly high, placing pressure on people to generate more income to provide for their families. Another culprit of this tendency is the hustle culture. Hustle culture may lead to toxic productivity for employees, making them falsely base their self-worth solely on their productivity. It may even foster toxic workplace practices from employers, namely forcing unpaid overtime work.
Several related problems can be anticipated for this emotional detachment in family life and society. The main issue is that it may create distance between the parents and their children, giving way to broken relationships and generational trauma. Another repercussion is that diminished familial and platonic relationships discourage new social relationships and erode people’s sensitivity to others and ongoing plights. Further implications of this situation are detrimental to societal development in the cultural aspect as this emotional unavailability equals a dearth in spiritual and emotional artistic works such as literature, arts, etc., and in the future, declined birth rates from people not having adequate emotional bonds to build a family and raise children together.
In conclusion, this increasing gap between people results from various factors and demolishes a society greatly. From my perspective, this problem still has not gained adequate awareness even though its consequences are tremendously destructive.