I’m not really sure why, maybe this concept is overloading my weakbaby social capabilities. But looking at a circular owl profile pic shitposting loudly, or a username venting about something in main, and making the connection that those words were said by an entire human being with a life of their own hundreds or thousands of miles away is just sort of short circuiting my brain. Obviously I have intellectually, logically known that you’re all people, because you say things, but actually conceptualising it…
That is a huge amount of person by volume for such a little bear website.
It’s tough to visualise, like even for a small hexagonal bear post, if every profile pic and username is an actual person, (THEY ARE) then there are more of them than could comfortably fit in my living room. That many entire real people, in one place, badposting. Being gay(and more), saying ‘Death to Amerikkka’, sharing heartfelt support for people and movements, yeah that’s too many people, this is definitely short circuiting my brain.
May update when I figure out how to make my grey matter stop having a panic attack.
I don’t see how it’s any different from knowing someone who lives far away. Before the internet people would have pen pals. Some would even talk to people through newspaper classifieds. Some people had those trucker radios too.
I do share your being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people though. I feel the same when I stop to think about there being 8 billion of us on Earth, or the population of China. Or when I drive somewhere and stop to think about just how many people are around me.
Or that enough people are playing Mario Kart at any given time that the Online lobby is never empty.
I think there is something cool about the fact that we all come from such faraway places yet we are all united in wanting a better world. There is something very comforting in knowing that humans are human no matter where they’re from.
Also, I will never stop shitting loudly
When I’m internet friends with a person, or a penpal(did it once) of someone, that’s just one person! I probably know them, and it’s easier to conceptualise their being. Who Are You, cool owl???
I think that’s what it comes down to, though. To me, I get that there are 8 billion little flesh automatons on earth, but they’re so far away and trying to visualise them becomes impossible, disconnected. That’s pure scale, I guess, but there’s already more than a crowd (three) in this goofy thread, and the variety of posts makes the individual existence of each person really obvious, all at once.
Also good! Do not stop!
It really is wonderful isn’t it? Where else can leftists of all nations support one another? Reassure each other that “NO! you are not crazy for having empathy”.
I legit stay a while longer to avoid noticing whoever the loud shitter next to me was in case they might feel self-conscious. Do I really want to be cursed with the knowledge that Steve from accounting had the bubble-gut today? /joking