anti-loneliness - perhaps become more active on LJ and FB
I do have My Little Family. We care about each other. We interact. So I am not alone, nor feel alone. So this entry is not about feeling alone.
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What I feel, and am posting about is: I find myself lately feeling that I do not have peers/friends to interact with for the fun things I enjoy.
At my workplace of the past 15+yrs, no one that I work with (that I know of) shares my interests of science-fiction, or other interests of mine that I would want to talk about, or interact about, or do as friends. No one at my workplace has become an acquaintance/friend that I would want to invite to interact with socially, off-the-job.
At my previous job at an Entertainment company, there we would go to lunch together as a group often. There would be LAN parties of networked shoot-em-ups after work. The company would host social activities like lunches or dinners. The personality of most of people were Creatives. They would decorate their cubicles and dept work areas and conference rooms with lots of fun decorations, posters, garlands. They were into cosplay, things like Burning Man. It was good for my "social fix," and most of the five years I worked there.
But working there and access to that "social fix" was over fifteen years ago : |
The SGVLUG that I am a member of, the folks that I liked interacting with, have stopped attending regularly. I still attend once in a great while, if the presentation topic interests me, but the main joy used to be the "after party" where a subset of the group would go to an eatery after the mtg, and hang out for a few hours. I went to the mtgs regularly back then, not really caring about the presented topics, but to enjoy the social hanging out at the after party and those people. This was a good fix and would often be "enough" to get my social fix.
My spouse and children rarely seem interested when I invite them to do the "little things" that I enjoy: exercise walks, going for a burger, trying new foods, watching a show/movie together at home. So no solution with just using My Little Family for my social fix.
So, and kinda embarrassed I didn't remember to do this like I used to: time to actively find social media groups, clubs, etc, that I can join, to interact with folks with similar interests, virtually.
So, will be experimenting with joining LJ groups, FB groups, etc, where I can read/interact, and maybe make some new acquaintances that I can interact with semi-regularly, and feel less "I want to share this, but do not know someone to share this with."
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EDIT 2022-12-03 Feeling better. Looked at a handful of LJ groups. Found some candidates to maybe join. Looked at a handful of FB groups, joined a few, interacted on some. Got my "social fix" needs met.
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EDIT 2022-12-05 Self-reminder, to join LJ members or LJ groups, mouse-over the little icon to the left of their name, then click the "join" or "add" link that appears.
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EDIT 2023-01-02 It seems to be a working strategy. I joined a handful of Science Fiction groups. Folks asking/sharing about favorite shows and books. I interact with "likes" and what my favorites are. Does give a feeling of community.