I hear you. Unless you're performing, it's really hard to relate. I started noticing people drifting away from one another a long time ago, as more and more technology was implemented to make people and systems run more efficiently. Privacy laws began to shape behavior in subtle ways. Couples started sitting further apart in waiting rooms, whereas once they would have sat together, supporting each other and regularly attending one another's appointments. That might sound old school, and depending on your age, it may not resonate. But contrast that with the shift from reading together in bed to raising children not just on tablets, but in child minding centers.
For all the whiz bang tech and entertainment at one's beck and call, society could not be more divided. If you don't fit in, there is always a service ready to highlight your impairment and keep your focus fixed on it. [edited by mdoerator]
I had better pull up here. It is hard to find the words when you know we are constantly being monitored or isolated based on how we express. On that front, life in Australia could not feel more oppressive. [edited by moderator] Point in case. But hey, I refuse to be silenced in my isolation. Each to their own, I guess.
But yeah... loneliness is an epidemic and the bright shiny responses can make that feel even more despairing than it already is.
I play a lot of video games and making meaningful connections there, whilst just as through with pretense, I'd say it does help from time to time. I no longer attend facilities as I did pre NDIS. I already explained how the nature of those interactions changed. If you are younger and do not have the hindsight that I am basing my perspective on, perhaps taking on such services might do you good.
Although nearing sixty myself, I feel more like ninety. Arrrgghh...
I use a treadmill in my room like I am on a space station. That is more my pain relief. I venture into the sun in my backyard but dare not go out in public. I no longer have the tolerance level to sustain that act. A small rowing machine that although not a commercial one, I find works as well as the treadmill. It stands up and fits in a corner. I have an air bike that works my legs and arms... that snaps me out of it from time to time. Although I have weights, benches and a cage, I no longer lift as heavy as I once did, nor do I do a full routine. But lifting a few dumbbells and playing with other likewise trinkets lets me know I am still alive.
Human interaction hey? Hmmmm... it scares the hell out of me. Yet maybe just one or two people we can get to know is still a good thing. This I still know. Shame we live in a system that rotates everyone so there is little chance to really get to know anyone. Employment goes through people like that nowadays as well.
Sorry if you can't relate... I'm used to it. The isolation is yet the same for most of us. That does not discriminate. Oh... and it should be ok to share in a way that does not light up the room. Sadly, if not doing so, one is quickly prescribed for that too.
We can always make friends with ourselves, once we stop being highlighted and focusing on what we have supposedly been doing wrong.
Oh ... I meant to say that while what you're going through might feel wrong, it's actually a natural response to living in a toxic society, one that cashes in on suffering. This is why things don't change. China, for example, has a system that's more about the collective. Here, it's more about isolating individuals with all kinds of plans that frame them as problems in need of fixing. It's more about the economy than the people.
Those who fit in simply stick to the script. They're the ones getting around in groups, playing along. I don't care who agrees. I'm not here for validation, even though the algorithm would otherwise try to influence. But for those in control running the show, influence is everything, hence the checks and balances ... or restraints.
