Liberty Lifestyle: Americans Have Become Boring

Humans aren’t born interesting. We develop our personalities and quirks and become fascinating to others by collecting experiences, learning skills, traveling, reading, and developing passions, and then sharing that knowledge and experience with others. Today, though, many Americans seem to have lost the art of being interesting.

Have Americans Become Boring?

If you met someone for coffee tomorrow, what stories would you have to tell that didn’t begin with, “I saw this on TikTok or Facebook, or I watched this video on YouTube?” Even though you may not start a conversation with that, chances are social media will creep into the conversation at least once.

One reason Americans may not be as interesting as our ancestors could be related to how we get our information. Today, a lot of people have turned away from reading local newspapers and instead consume their news through online publications and social media. But social media algorithms tend to recommend the same viral videos, trending stories, memes, and opinions to millions of people.

Science Direct published a research article with the title “What kind of news gatekeepers do we want machines to be?” The research showed that, “On average, 69% of all recommendations were to five news organizations” and “The most-recommended five publishers accounted for 49% of the links collected.” Despite the thousands of sources available, algorithms steer us to certain sites, which can make finding unique talking points a little more difficult.

With each generation, Americans spend less time physically socializing and more time with computers and online games. The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics conducted a survey on how Americans spend their time and found that “Watching TV was the leisure and sports activity that occupied most of the time” which accounted “for half of all leisure time.” Furthermore, “People were less likely to engage in socializing and communicating on an average day in 2025 than in 2015 – 30 percent compared with 38 percent. They also spent less time in these activities.” Participants spent more time playing games or using a computer than a decade ago.

Humans have also become self-absorbed. In some ways, most Americans are social influencers. They may not have the followers or pay that celebrity and well-known influencers have, but they spend a lot of time on social media documenting themselves, sharing photographs of their dinners and other images representing their lives, and basically trying to paint a picture of who they are to people they don’t even know. Ironically, the more intention people focus inward, the less attention is spent on becoming someone worth knowing.

The Death of “The Character”

Back in the day, most towns had a certain resident that was a “character” everyone knew. The older fisherman whose tales grew bigger with each telling. The local inventor whose crazy contraptions very rarely worked. The neighbor who was handy with needles and made quilts for everyone. These characters and their odd quirks made them interesting. They had information to share and could entertain others for hours without even trying.

One of the problems is that just about everything we want we can get without ever leaving our homes. Instead of going to the grocery store, we can have food delivered. Need information? No need to go to a library when we can just search on the internet. Instead of sitting in a coffee shop and meeting new people, hearing interesting stories, many people use the drive-thru kiosks. It seems that everything in today’s life is about expedience and convenience instead of taking time to explore and learn.

Today people are more likely to build online profiles than develop their own unique personalities. Everything we do has to be posted on social media to “show” people that we are cool and lead exciting lives. Our curiosity is becoming outsourced. Instead of reading books, talking to experts, or experimenting for ourselves, we turn to social media and artificial intelligence for the answers. But being interesting often comes from the journey, not the result.

 Being interesting has never required fame, wealth, or millions of followers. It simply requires curiosity. The people we remember most aren’t the ones who perfected the art of the selfie or posted every meal they ever ate. They’re the ones who got their hands dirty, explored unfamiliar places, learned unusual skills, laughed at spectacular failures, and came home with stories worth telling.