I genuinely don’t understand why society treats social interaction like it’s one of the most important things in life.
If someone spends a weekend alone, people assume they’re lonely. If someone has no interest in constant messaging, group chats, or hanging out every week, people think something must be wrong.
Meanwhile, a lot of social interaction seems repetitive. The same conversations, the same small talk, the same routines repeated over and over.
People talk about socialising as if it’s automatically meaningful, but for many interactions the main purpose seems to be avoiding boredom or avoiding being alone.
If somebody has no friends it’s often treated like a tragic disaster, but what if that’s actually what they prefer?
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see why being comfortable alone is viewed as strange while constantly needing people around is viewed as normal.
I’m curious to hear this about what someone may be doing alone that strictly isn’t “social interaction”. Normally I would think that they are doing something that only requires one active participant – maybe reading a book, watching shows, browsing the Internet, even something like taking a bath and enjoying a candle.
I might consider each of these to actually involve other people outside of that moment who you are experiencing asynchronously. The media is written, the candle is made, they were bought from a store. Not sure if I would count the bath water yet, but there was some work done before even laying the pipe and collecting the materials.
Unless you are literally making everything from raw natural materials, other people are deeply involved in our lives and I don’t think we appreciate that enough about society. So while you would be at least arm’s distance from anybody in your room, I don’t think you are ever really alone.
Re-reading this, maybe your standards for “content” you consume are too high. The people around you tend to be average or uninteresting and that’s normal. Get better friends or be better as a friend and have something to do or talk about.