Isolated myself and now I socialize in manual mode - give me my Oscar
Anyone else? I’ve always had this to an extent but it’s become worse and worse with time, especially after long-term social isolation. Now whenever I socialize, it feels so dishonest, like I’m doing it from third person perspective. I am just doing an entire choreography, like, okay now smile, now act surprised, now seem interested, now say this and that… I barely care about what people have to say anymore, I can never find someone to talk to that genuinely has similar interests and views of the world IRL and it’s all become this manual, calculated thing. Not too stroke my ego, but I feel like I’m emotionally much smarter than most people and I analyze them through a psychological lens and then it just feels so boring, like I know things about them that they don’t even know about themselves. I already know about what they’re telling me but I act like I don’t to make them feel better. I also struggle with saying no and disagreeing with people, I don’t even bother because whenever I tried it led nowhere, so I just let them do their thing and detach.
Posted Jun 23, 2026, 10:23 AM UTC