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218 sats \ 5 replies \ @AlCoHoLnAcEtOnE 28 Dec 2024 \ on: Who Americans spend time with, over time mostly_harmless
It's true, before the COVID era I was barely alone..during COVID everything and everyone around me fell apart. Now, besides work I'll be lucky to go out or socialize. I had a lot of terrible things happen during COVID deaths, lay off,losses and lock ups major weight gain and all that nearly drove me to you know what but regardless of all that I think our brains are rewired by the Internet essentially to seek and meet our social gratifications through it because it mostly dissolves all of the barriers that irl has to new relationships. I'm 36 and I can definitely say that life before modern Internet was much better for our species. We're hybrids of our former selves.
Curious -- COVID was super disruptive for all the reasons you mentioned. It sounds like for you, the effects have lingered, and your social life has not returned to its former shape. Can you say more about why that is?
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I also think when you get older, just in general, you start to feel outpaced by things going on around you and it compels you to draw inward and focus on the easiest path ahead (work, survival n such) rather than building relationships because time starts to feel like it's fleeting and you don't want to waste it by the relationship not working out. That would make you feel like you wasted valuable time. Catch-22's all through life haha
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Dang. This makes sense, and I can feel a lot of these same instincts in myself. Sounds like you have a pretty keen eye to your own situation and how / why you arrived there. What now?
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I just assume since we're all the same species that went through the same thing on a grand scale, that a majority of us went through and are still going through the effects of that. I've been told I am very self aware but I think it's mainly allowing myself to be honest about it that keeps the clouds out of my eyes haha. As for what now though, at least for myself, I'm going to keep pushing myself to communicate with everyone I can and very recently a few work friends and myself are forcing ourselves to check in on each other at times besides work, so that feels nice to know we care. So, how are holding up? Are things getting better since COVID ?
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I certainly can. For one, I believe since I was separated from most of the people I was spending time with in-person, due to lockdowns and my own personal reasons, we just adapted to that isolation and kept it up, also society and corporations built means to service itself in a way that we don't need even leave the home to get what we need...wether it be food, conversation, entertainment etc. Also, the depression became so deep seeded that it eroded my confidence so much so that I feel as if nobody cares on an empathetic level enough to want to get to know me or anyone else in an organic way. Like it's too much work, trust and time involved because we've been trained lately to self satisfy and the easiest way to do that is to make money and consume. Now we don't have time for one another. I also think that everyone is paranoid of each other due to the media mainly portraying the evils going on in the world and not the beauty of humanity and life, because it's dramatic and drama sells.
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