Folk song societies are great. Someone else mentioned ballroom dancing. Wonderful activities that take us out of our technology mindset and engage different parts of the brain.
There's also the notion of getting married and raising a family. When you have children, you almost automatically become part of a new social network that you may never have even been aware of before: parents. You suddenly have a lot in common with other parents and it's not unlike being part of a special club. And of course it's the most fascinating hobby there is.
It's somewhat ironic that not so long ago, we were pretty much all married and making babies by age 20, and now we tend to stay single through our 20s while strategizing ways to avoid becoming lonely.
According to bjs.gov (Bureau of Justice Statistics), it's been around 11-12,000 gun homicides in recent years, down from around 16,000 a few years ago. Over half of those are black-on-black shootings, mainly gang related.
If you control for these gangland shootings, the per capita rate in the U.S. is about the same as Western Europe and Canada.
The U.S. has a socio-economic problem in the ghetto areas, not a gun problem per se, unless you want to argue that it's too easy for gangbangers to obtain guns.
Law abiding citizens with guns aren't doing most of the shootings. Suicides, that's a different story.
Arguably, we gave up on stabilizing Iraq and pulled out too quickly, angering the Sunni tribes who were counting on the U.S. to protect them from the majority Shi'ite government. Once they saw the U.S. military bailing out, they began allying with Sunni extremists and gave ISIS a fertile soil in which to take root.
This is not such a bad idea. Unfortunately, it won't help in controlled places like a concert hall (as tonight) where patrons will be scanned at the door. If not today, undoubtedly they'll start doing a lot more of this.
On the street and in restaurants, that's another story.
We have to concentrate on stabilizing Syria, Iraq, Yemen, etc., assist the Kurds and other moderate groups against the extremists, and be vigilant within our own borders, yet without sacrificing our liberties.
This is the point. The actions of the NSA have irreparably damaged the reputation of American technology companies, and all Andreessen does is shoot the messenger.