Social Isolation

[hester_prynne]

Mousey, I agree with what you said.
But I also think for me anyways, it goes in spurts.
I am isolated now, adrift in this neverending leap I took to change my life.
I feel very alone, yet I'm not alone, because of the interactions I have with people on the net, especially here at the studio. It keeps me fed, motivated, in touch with my inner humaness as I navigate through the surface humaness lookin for my surface spot.
Once i'm working full time at the clinic though, and meeting more people, getting back into singing, etc., then I may not be online as much for the social reasons, not like I am now. Right now, I feel like folks at studio eight are about the only connection I have. A veritable lifeline!
I'm grateful to this place
H

[Arcadia]

interesting thread!

I mostly connect here while eating of after eating at midday, and I love to talk while eating or after eating and I usually eat alone at this hour of the day in labour days, so maybe at that point it could be plain social-ghost-substitute!

Most of my friends/family are near. I prefer to interact face to face with them instead of telephone/internet connection and I do it and enjoy it a lot. My job involves intense personal interaction during five hours a day. I´m grateful for that even though sometimes is a bit exhausting (and I know I barely survived three years of 9 hours recluse-style office work...!).

I don´t know if the more/less thing is accurate at all (at least in my caso). Internet is different : I can interact with people and their art,works & life (reading, writing, listening, seeing) that if not thanks for this source it´s quite probably I will only know about them in the official news of some foreign anonymous newspaper in catastrophic circumstances.

Besides, writing & art is at the same personal and not personal. Paradoxically, it´s an interesting point for communication.

And, no, I don´t know persons with internet as their only social interaction.

[mtmynd]

social isolation. self-imposed? intentional or not?

does your internet connection alleviate your social isolation? now is a good time to find that out. were you always a bit on the edge... one of those people that never had a lot of friends or acquaintances? the one that others paid little attention to? possibly a type that stuck with one or two people for fear of losing any friends at all.

were/are you a gluttonous reader by chance... reading the latest novel or the next million seller? do you find interest in subjects that few of your friends talk about for fear of showing others how ill-informed they are?

then you must be an internet junkie! now is the time to hook up with others just like you.. those that can relate to your present condition as stated above.. any of them.. or all of them. here is the place to exchange what you do best with others... and no matter what the subject is, this internet can find somebody just like you! no more need to feel like a loner. no more need to feel like nobody can relate to you. just log on and find your cyber-world. connect like nobody has ever contemplated in the whole of human life. become the internet junkie and watch your lonliness evaporate... at least in measure.

perhaps the next generation of internet.. or the one after that, one will be able to be a hologram and create any persona you'd like and make it so friggin' real that it will fool you! imagine... new lives, new destinations, new origins, new experiences, new friends, new parties, new, new, new... everything new and nothing old. how freaky is that? you can even be 98 yrs old and act like a teenager and get away with it. yippee1 no more social isolation no matter how old you get to be. you can fool others and they will certainly be fooling you! how great is that! the entire internet will be comprised of fools. coming soon to a IP near you.

[Dave The Dov]

I get out once a while. So I'm not with out human contact. Thoreau did live in a isolated way. But went into town every so often to see what was happening.
_________________
Honda FES125 Pantheon

[Doreen Peri]

Me too, Dave. Every now and then.

[stilltrucking]

DTD
you mentioned checking out jobs on the net have you ever seen this
it looks legit
My sister found a work at home job on it

http://www.ratracerebellion.com/

[WIREMAN]

check out the chinese hermit tradition....han shan......many more poet recluses....i wonder if these cats are sitting up in the tien tai mountains with a connection these daze???

[gypsyjoker]

I usually live in seclusion
but sometimes I go to Kuoching
to call on the Venerable Feng-kan
or to visit Master Shih-Te.
But I go back to Cold Cliff alone,
obeying an unspoken agreement.
I follow a stream that has no spring
the spring is dry but not the stream.

HanShan

[the mingo]

"Messages from invisible sources", ain't we all? The patch works, our radios have stopped bleeding. We speak towards the sky and the sky bounces it out worldwide. Talking to one another makes two things one for however long the talk lasts. We cannot be isolated now no matter how hard we try. Thats gone, as gone as if it had never been. This is the beginning of the world the cave painters imagined for themselves.
The cetacean life.

[judih]

mingo, that seems like you got it in a nutshell
an open nutshell
bouncing off the sky - sharing till each heart feels fuller

gotta say 'thanks' to this tool of ours

[Doreen Peri]

Seems like the consensus of opinion is that the internet alleviates social isolation, rather than causes it.

That's cool!

That's what I thought you all would say. Just checking.

Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.

[doreen peri taps on the keyboard to make words then taps on the screen]

There are PEOPLE in there!

All the real people in the room just shake their head and walk away.

"What's WRONG with her!? There are no people in there! Those aren't real people. We're real people!"

Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.

I wrote a poem about this several times... Here's one of them. I wrote it in 2000. Eight years ago. Eight years. Nice number 8. I can't believe it's been 8 years. And I'd already been on this machine for 2 years by that time. It's been 10 years for me. This really is my primary social life, unfortunately, not that I don't love you all and everything.

Anyway, here's the poem...

<center>October 2000...

- go pick apples -

how can you just sit,
caught up in an
electronic nowhere?
he asked, shaking his head,
rolling eyes up and
around confusion --
there's love in a box?
his laugh shook the
edges of china and
stem glasses
on a shelf not used -

maybe you're blind,
he grinned,
and then screened words
took over and he stood,
saying,

what about it?
get up.

go pick apples
go walk out in the woods
find a rock to sit on -
read a book

and he pulled out
his measuring tape
as if he could come up with
some precise answer
to the 64th of an inch.

the clock is wrong,
he affirmed,
whatever you do
don't look at it,
cocking his head
slightly to the right
trying to avoid
the monitor.

come here
let's dance, he said
and the kitchen
became
a ballroom.</center>

[constantine]

despite the camaraderie i remain socially isolated. it is the engine of my art. i don't have to make concessions or compromise - i don't have to fit in.

[Doreen Peri]

well, not totally.

You go to school. You go to work. You are around people both places.

I love my solitude... it's important to have... and important for creating art and poetry..... but i want it when i choose it, not when i don't, but hey beggars can't be choosers, right?

I love cliches.

[constantine]

perhaps alienated is a better word. alone in a stadium.

[Lightning Rod]

Some acts are solitary
I won't mention the obvious one
but writing is another

Most creative acts are solitary
composing music, painting
the core creative acts are lonely

but there is another part to it
the implementation of a creative idea
can involve many people

It takes many people to present a Stephen Sondheim musical
but he probably wrote it while he was all alone

that's why both quiet and solitude
and interaction are both essentials
we can choose our methods of interaction