Why aren't people hanging out as much?

Hey everyone! Today is a day to celebrate life and be thankful to exist. Thank you for enjoying it with me!

I recently filmed a video announcing that my YouTube channel, The No Deo Hero, is now officially a solo channel. Technically it's been a solo channel for over a year now after T-Wrex got married and left the show, but I was still occasionally featuring other friends in my uploads as well as having a few of them available to film video commissions with me.

However, it's recently become very difficult to feature anyone in my videos anymore aside from K2, and the reason for this is because people aren't hanging out with their friends as much as they used to. If you look through the history of uploads on my channel and the behind-the-scenes extras on this website, you'll notice there was a lot of different friends who made appearances with me on camera years ago. Suddenly, I can't even get those friends or even new ones I meet to hang out anymore, let alone participate on my show with me.

And why is this? It's not because new friends I meet don't like me or my content. I'm the same person I've been since I started filming videos, and my content is the same it's always been as well. So what's happened to people to make them want to stop spending time with their friends?

Of course some people are really busy in life. Work and family are prioritized over friendship, so if people are already booked from those important things, they won't have time to spend with friends. Some people are also more introverted some others. But everyone in life is busy, and in other instances, people aren't making the effort to hang out despite having time on the side to do so. Why is that?

The answer lies with the negative effects of what has happened to the world in the past few years. While I personally refused to let any of it impact or change me in any way, many people were unfortunately affected by it. Not only financially, but mentally, and this is where the disconnect with other people comes from.

To this day, so many people still have the mindset that we are in "trying times" and that the world is in such a terrible state. My question to people who have this mindset is: when are you going to stop seeing the world from such a negative standpoint? I stopped watching the news years ago and I also stopped using social media because I refuse to let anyone tell me how I should feel and act. The effects of the news and social media on peoples' minds can be very toxic and powerful; I see it in co-workers and even members of my family on a regular basis, and it's also evident in peoples' posts online.

There's also the issue that after so many people were laid off and forced to apply for unemployment, many people became accustomed to that government dependence and didn't want to work anymore. So many places continue to struggle with understaffing issues, and I've felt the effect of this with people not wanting to participate on my show anymore because they see it as a job and obligation that they don't want to commit to. This has always been odd to me since I've always done all the work myself by being the sole operator and video editor of the show and its sites since day one. In fact, the only thing anyone other than me has ever had to do was show up and participate in the videos. Hanging out with your friends and having fun together on camera isn't work, and giving people around the world something to watch and enjoy is not a chore.

Sadly, this mindset has even affected some of my fans. I had one fan express he was too depressed by the news of impending war and invasions happening in the world. As a person with empathy, I sympathize with anyone going through tough times and difficult situations no matter where you're from, but we can't let everything negative in the world get us so angry and depressed.

My core message is to focus on your world, not the world as a whole. Unfortunately there's always going to be negativity out there if you go looking for it, and if you focus on it, you're allowing it to negatively affect you. Remember: negatively breeds negatively, and fear is stronger than love. Divide and conquer is an evil we need to avoid. We need to unite as living beings on the planet we were given and tune out the distractions.

I gave up on social media because people were hardly using it to socialize with friends -- they were either hooked on endlessly scrolling for a dopamine rush or using their accounts as a platform to argue political views and such. I'm not political and I avoid political discussions. I'm also not religious, so neither of those topics interest me.

I actually lost a friend who had made an appearance on my channel because I tried to continue hanging out with him while everyone was still at the height of fear and uncertainty because there was a global sickness going around. Even though the governor of our state had already lifted the restrictions, this person was appalled that I was still trying to hang out with friends because he was so scared of getting sick, even though he was still working full time and being around a lot of people on a regular basis. When I kindly pointed out that we were "allowed" to hang out again according to the governor and that he was already around other people at work anyway, he removed me from his Snapchat account and stopped replying to my texts. I never heard from him again.

How many people do you know are still living in fear, anger, and sadness instead of enjoying the gift of life and the wonderful rewards it brings? Be strong and think for yourself. I for one am not going to sit around waiting for the news to tell me when "trying times" are finally over or when I shouldn't feel angry or scared anymore, I'm going to continue living my life to the fullest and stick to the things that make me happy since I prefer happiness and love over the negative emotions that are constantly being inflicted by the powers that be.

I'm just one person with one platform, but I want to use my platform to inspire and empower. I hope my words and spirit get through to many people out there watching and reading because the one thing I'll agree with about all of what I'm mentioned in this post is that we are indeed in trying times right now, but that's only because so many people are allowing themselves to have that mindset forced upon them.