Alone

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I recently noticed that I feel even more alone and/or separated on this site than in real life. It's not a happy conclusion.
Anyone else feel this way?

Not really sure.

Tim

I feel alone and separated wherever I go.

That's the way I usually feel, too. I've been online for 9 years now, and have pretty well decided that the Internet is a lonely place for people who think. But the "outside" world is the same way.

It's almost impossible to find anybody who wants to carry on a serious conversation, either online or elsewhere. "Popular" culture seems to have infected everybody; but I imagine that's always been the case, from the Neanderthals onward.

I keep seeing news stories about people of all ages who are exuberant over their social contacts via the Web or email. I've been able to have enjoyable correspondences with a few people but they never last. I think I raise too many troubling and thought-provoking issues when I correspond. Well, I'm not going to be a hypocrite and pretend to be jolly and positive.

I have found one forum that was a lot of fun and also helped many people; it was a cycling forum, and I was very active on it when I was a cyclist. There was no flaming, almost never any uncivil behavior, and lots of good interchanges. There is also one Linux forum that is pretty much that way--and surprisingly, it's probably the most popular one.

But, yes, I generally feel alone and separated here, and everywhere else. I am not attracted to mediocrity and that makes life fairly difficult for somebody with any kind of intellectual capacity these days.

I can so identify with what you say here. Almost every forum I have been to, I was either to honest and open and outspoken, or too sensitive.

Exactly why I don't spend more than fifteen minutes on WP every day.

I think I said in another post that the social structure of WP (as well as many other message boards) can often be equally as complex - if not more - than the social structures that exist in real life. I'd theorize the reason has something to do with that on a message board, one's reputation is more clear-cut and there are various metrics one can use to determine his or her social status.

I've probably been on and off on various forums for five years and have noticed a lot of the same patterns.
There's always a controlling elite.
There are always LOTS of inside and exclusionary references, potentially even more than a group of real life friends might have. And your average group of friends in this hypersocial world has countless inside references, often dating back to elementary school.
So on, so on, yada yada yada.

Yes, I feel this way as well. I originally came here hoping to find friends, or at least decent conversation, but for the most part, with a few exceptions, I feel like I'm talking at others rather than to them. I wind up feeling just as alone here, as out there.

Loneliness - wow, I haven't interacted much.

"Every single living creature on this earth dies alone."
- From the movie Donnie Darko ("Grandma Death" said it to Donnie, for those of you who haven't watched it - this could be a possible spoiler, OH WELL!)

A cynical upside to this topic of loneliness is that, if the above statement is true, then we won't have to worry about - yikes. It's unavoidable. At least we have adapted. This is difficult.

I wonder how Emily Dickinson felt, you know? She lived most of her life in her house. She didn't even leave her house for the last twenty years of her life.

Imagination vs Reality - Babble. I don't mean not to contribute. The topic seems to flutter throughout my mind though, without settling down.

In the movie K-PAX, the main character Prot (pronounced similar to goat) spoke of Earth's rich connections. He spoke of how everything is connected and everything depends on everything else. I realize how general the prior statement was. Most of the world doesn't rely on "social" etiquette. Of course, most of the world cannot have decent conversations with you, or me. When I say 'most of the world' I mean every creature in this world, not only human beings.

We are never completely alone. I've felt alone before. I know that I am not though. Even in the times when I would wonder what I am doing so wrong to leave me without friends to relie on.

There are too many people on this planet to just give up the search for a friend, or a partner. There has to be someone out there in this world that's fit for us all, even if it's just one person.

I don't understand what you mean by being lonelier on this site than in real life...

In real life (face to face, if you prefer) I have a few friends, some people who I can talk to and be assured that they actually care. We joke around, have fun, and are more or less connected. Here I have one friend - and we've been friends for several years off of a writing forum (meeting again here was a total concidence). I just get the feeling that I'm not connected here. I'm not very good at explaining it...

Edit: I think T-rav20 described it the best.

I care.

Thank you.

No problem.

Sometimes.

Probably because you ain't talking to KBABZ.