Being with People

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I feel that I'm just invisible here. People don't return text messages, when I ask to go do something as friends -- or they make up lame excuses to try to get out of it. I keep asking myself, why? Why are people doing this? I don't take it personally, as I see it as something endemic to our culture.....which is miserable, to be honest. This has always bothered me. It's hard not to get angry, I try not to. I would Never, ever treat a friend like this. I would be glad to have a friend, and to go do something with them. I cannot understand this.

I also feel lonely. Alone, like I'm dying from isolation here. Is it the culture or is it Me? I have been asking myself this for over a decade. I can't figure it out. ...I just can't. Everything seems so lonely here. And it's not me. I want. Want to go out and do things. I'm very friendly to people I meet. It just seems most are standoffish. It seems like, quite frankly, everybody is like this nowadays. ...Why is this?

I'm suffering the pangs of misery and depression/loneliness and I'm surrounded by people --at the same time, who seem to just want to do their own thing. You walk out the door to go and do things, meet people --and everyone's just neurotic as hell, it seems. People appear so focused on themselves and they seem insecure, or awkward constantly. Is this the new normal? .... I find it nearly impossible to 'break the ice' anymore. People just seem nervous, scared or untrusting, and they don't want to talk to you... unless they know you. I always find this very uncomfortable awkward exchange that happens full of tension when out in public - and it seems to be in the air. As in, everyone is affected. When I do manage to strike up a conversation and have fun - it all seems to be about stupid things...not to be offensive, but the general level of intelligence here seems to be very low. At least, people are acting like it on purpose or something. I find this terribly depressing.
I feel like I'm suffocating, in my house from loneliness, but even when I go out, it's like there is an ice-wall.

How can things be this bad/overwhelmingly difficult? Is it me, has this country gotten so bad?

What do I do.

What country are you in? If it's the US, yes I think things really are this bad. Probably the same in some other countries too. It's not you. It's the culture. People are just endlessly busy and caught up in themselves.

I deal with a lot of people from foreign countries in my job. Some are very friendly, and some are quite standoffish...I mean you are going to see that variation within any culture or group. Also some of them are not very intelligent either. But what's different is they see through a lot of what goes on in this country, and they question it, because they are outsiders to it. It's really refreshing to talk to them sometimes because they have such different perspectives on things.

And as for people who were born here? Including the young adult children of some of those foreign immigrants...the "millennial generation" seems really ungrounded. It seems like they are so used to using technology, that they are kind of caught off guard when they have to talk to anyone face to face. They use a lot of cutesy little phrases and try to sound cool (or, I don't know, whatever the word is for that now, lol) but it comes across like they are actually really nervous.

Maybe try seeking out some people from different cultures? older people? people who don't watch much TV or listen to pop music?