"The Social Isolation of Youtube" an essay by Mr. Regular from RCR - General

Mr. Regular's car reviews are normally lighthearted satirical fun wherein the viewer gets info a new car every week. He has a way with words, as that's what his degree is in, and you can tell in his videos. But this essay strays from the beaten path a little bit (a lot). It's beautifully worded and thought provoking. We've all been there or seen it, it one way or another. I hope you guys aren't alone this holiday season. [video=youtube;2MUhQTpyyZ4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MUhQTpyyZ4[/video]

The old guy at the garage pretending to talk on a radio was particularly sad. I think he was trying to crack a joke in doing that, but goddamn is that ever a haunting image. There's some real horrors hiding in the mundane. Imagine having absolutely nobody to care for you and losing your mind to alzheimers or Huntington's disease. Because it's not just are you suffering, but you have to watch as your ability to deal with it slowly rots and falls away, and you have nobody to hear you when you call for help. Huntington's is worse, because Alzheimers grants a numb bliss of ignorance, but huntington eats your mind out from the inside out as your brain slowly dies, aware of your slow failing but unable to do anything but watch. A spectator to it's own death. There's some bad ways to go. A social creature abandoned is a terrible thing.

I had no idea he lived in my area. That made the story even more relatable for me. He even mentioned the college I'm attending.

I've been working from home for around 5 months now, and it really does get fuckin' lonely. While on one hand I don't have to put up with the commute or internal politics BS from my old job, I really do miss the daily face to face interaction with my old coworkers.

[QUOTE=Trilby Harlow;51542385]The old guy at the garage pretending to talk on a radio was particularly sad. I think he was trying to crack a joke in doing that, but goddamn is that ever a haunting image. There's some real horrors hiding in the mundane. Imagine having absolutely nobody to care for you and losing your mind to alzheimers or Huntington's disease. Because it's not just are you suffering, but you have to watch as your ability to deal with it slowly rots and falls away, and you have nobody to hear you when you call for help. Huntington's is worse, because Alzheimers grants a numb bliss of ignorance, but huntington eats your mind out from the inside out as your brain slowly dies, aware of your slow failing but unable to do anything but watch. A spectator to it's own death. There's some bad ways to go. A social creature abandoned is a terrible thing.[/QUOTE] I work at a pizza shop and for a while an older gentleman would come in, order two slices of pizza, and stare at an old photo album for literal hours all by himself at a table in the corner. This would happen at least once a week. It scared the shit out of me, because a lot of times I wonder if I'm going to end up alone like that.

[QUOTE=A Beaver;51543351]I work at a pizza shop and for a while an older gentleman would come in, order two slices of pizza, and stare at an old photo album for literal hours all by himself at a table in the corner. This would happen at least once a week. It scared the shit out of me, because a lot of times I wonder if I'm going to end up alone like that.[/QUOTE] I'm not a social person, i really enjoy being alone. But even then whenever i see something like that i try to at least start a conversation. You can't live in the present, or live for the future, if you try to live in the past. It just doesn't work

[QUOTE=Zorlok;51543086]I've been working from home for around 5 months now, and it really does get fuckin' lonely. While on one hand I don't have to put up with the commute or internal politics BS from my old job, I really do miss the daily face to face interaction with my old coworkers.[/QUOTE] I've been making a living as a digital artist for over a year now, and it really is a miserably lonely experience. If it weren't for the fact I share an apartment with some university friends, I honestly don't know what I would do. They're usually the only people I talk to physically, and then usually only during dinner. We spend the weekends watching films on Netflix or disk or whatever, though, which is great. But if I'm not with them, I'm in my room, at my computer, balancing working on projects and taking breaks playing games, from 9am to 2am. Every day of every week of every month. For over a year now. It's honestly a surreal experience.

As someone who lives basically alone in a rural area where the demographic isn't compatible with me, this resonates strongly with me. I had friends here once, but they wizened up and left while leaving was easy.

[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;51546407]I've been making a living as a digital artist for over a year now, and it really is a miserably lonely experience. If it weren't for the fact I share an apartment with some university friends, I honestly don't know what I would do. They're usually the only people I talk to physically, and then usually only during dinner. We spend the weekends watching films on Netflix or disk or whatever, though, which is great. But if I'm not with them, I'm in my room, at my computer, balancing working on projects and taking breaks playing games, from 9am to 2am. Every day of every week of every month. For over a year now. It's honestly a surreal experience.[/QUOTE] Mr. Regular explained it perfectly, at first you're like "wow this is amazing, I don't have to commute and I can stay at my desk and avoid that bullshit from my previous job!" Then the loneliness really starts to set in after a few months. While I still get together with my friends on a semi-regular basis it's tough since we all have different schedules.

Social isolation really is awful, and can happen even if you have to commute to a job. I'm in my early 20's and work nightshift in retail, while studying at university. My co-workers are mostly middle-aged parents and even early grandparents, in their 30's to their 50's. There are only two co-workers around my age, and I can never hang out with my old friends from school because they are at work when I am not, and I am at work when they are not. The last time I saw them was January, earlier this year. I do not get along with my co-workers because, aside from the age and lifestyle differences, I'm a quiet person, and in a shitty mood most of the time when I get to work, mostly from road rage as there are a lot of awful drivers in my area. I get to work, I do my thing, and I go home. I've been getting better at talking with my co-workers, but I don't think that the two around my age want to hang out with me anyways. I'm just a boring person. About university, I live an hour away from the campus, so I'm not really a part of the 'uni life' at all; I just don't have the time. I'm also single and I have tried to get with a few of the checkout chicks over the past few years. But one time didn't really work out and she even went on to quit, presumably because she didn't want to see me again. That just made me feel awful about pushing someone to go to that length, so I've never tried that with a co-worker ever again. Also just to finish up, considering that I'm not the only person in the world who feels socially isolated, I just find it ironic how we're supposedly more-connected to each other than ever before, thanks to social media, but we've become further apart. [editline]19th December 2016[/editline] And another thing that doesn't help me is that I have lived by myself for almost three years, and I do not have a strong attachment to family.

Yeah, even the most loner-y people can't escape the 'ache' that sets in. The 'ache' that makes you want to go out and do something, see someone. I saved up a bunch of money and quit my frustrating job a couple months ago to give myself a nice long holiday vacation before I go and get a new job. It was really nice and relaxing at first, but a month in I was already feeling the 'ache'. I went into it thinking I was about to blow through a big chunk of my video game backlog, but once the 'ache' set in, I didn't feel like playing anything. Everything that doesn't involve getting out and hanging out with someone feels weirdly boring. It's like I need to fill some sort of social interaction quota before I can enjoy anything else. Even if it's just taking a long walk, I can't stay here at home all day every day. Luckily I have a friend who quit his job to do freelance work at home, so I can ring him up and hang out almost whenever. But even if my next job sucks too, at least I'll get back to having that daily social interaction again.

I live alone as well but as I work a job doing customer service so my alone time is much appreciated as far too much time is social for me as it is

[QUOTE=Shugo;51547747]Yeah, even the most loner-y people can't escape the 'ache' that sets in. The 'ache' that makes you want to go out and do something, see someone. I saved up a bunch of money and quit my frustrating job a couple months ago to give myself a nice long holiday vacation before I go and get a new job. It was really nice and relaxing at first, but a month in I was already feeling the 'ache'. I went into it thinking I was about to blow through a big chunk of my video game backlog, but once the 'ache' set in, I didn't feel like playing anything. Everything that doesn't involve getting out and hanging out with someone feels weirdly boring. It's like I need to fill some sort of social interaction quota before I can enjoy anything else. Even if it's just taking a long walk, I can't stay here at home all day every day. Luckily I have a friend who quit his job to do freelance work at home, so I can ring him up and hang out almost whenever. But even if my next job sucks too, at least I'll get back to having that daily social interaction again.[/QUOTE] I know exactly what you mean. Social isolation can seriously mess with your focus and can keep you from wanting to do just about anything if it's bad enough. humans need social interaction.

I hate that weird impulse we have to act "normal" in front of people. I've been working for years to get over that fear of just being myself from the get-go but it's been fucking hard. It's not worth it to act the part IMO, better to stand out as an interesting individual so you can make connections with other interesting individuals.

For over a year i was unemployed and not in education, not having proper contact with people but just seeing their lives move on facebook and snapchat was like torture. I was imagining and playing out conversations i wanted to have with people in my mind. Getting back to uni and work was so relieving.

[QUOTE=Qwerty Bastard;51548759]I hate that weird impulse we have to act "normal" in front of people. I've been working for years to get over that fear of just being myself from the get-go but it's been fucking hard. It's not worth it to act the part IMO, better to stand out as an interesting individual so you can make connections with other interesting individuals.[/QUOTE] this post is giving me mad deja vu

I beg mr regular on twitter to please....please write a book. About anything about his time in radio how he transistioned to cars. memories of his biking experiences and growing up in PA. I adore this man to absolute death and i was so quickly drawn to him for his writing styles. Even back when he ran his webcomic i loved him for the topics he chose and how he wrote about them. He imbues this light touch of Hunter S Thompson as well as kurt vonnegut and william s burroughs. Overt detail to otherwise dismissed overlooked aspects to trail along a thought peotically to set the theme tone and even time. His authors of choice, his voice, his narrative, ideas and segues are velvet to my ears and reach certain parts of me that lead me to introspectionary hauntings. Like his talk on 'potentia' during an s2000 video, or even just his simple closing greetings wishing me a happy week. I feel bad for him learning of his okcupid date. I'm actually tempted to try and ebb my sister on to trying to date him. We're both fans of his show and my sister knows the RCR crew from mutual friends and has gone on outings with then. His cry about normalcy always being an act he maintains (much like his subaru wrx video in which he goes back to a time when someone asked him to 'just be normal') until his self bubbles up and ruins it with some awkward gesture that to the regular folks is unsavory or peculiar enough to terminate any feelings. My sister loves his writing much like i do and has the same interests as him. I feel so awful to hear of him having a difficult time being normal and thats why i'd like to see my sister push a bit towards him. She's just as weird as he is and that normal act wouldnt have to be an act, hed just get to be his normal, not status quo normal.

[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;51546407]I've been making a living as a digital artist for over a year now, and it really is a miserably lonely experience. If it weren't for the fact I share an apartment with some university friends, I honestly don't know what I would do. They're usually the only people I talk to physically, and then usually only during dinner. We spend the weekends watching films on Netflix or disk or whatever, though, which is great. But if I'm not with them, I'm in my room, at my computer, balancing working on projects and taking breaks playing games, from 9am to 2am. Every day of every week of every month. For over a year now. It's honestly a surreal experience.[/QUOTE] I feel it. At the moment it's just me in my apartment, all my university friends have gone home for Christmas. I'm staying a little longer because I'm working nearby but it is bizarre just walking around with your own thoughts for company, and then you get to the end of the day and realise you've gone a whole day without talking to anyone edit; fuck I didn't expect this to be so deep. I feel like I've had this exact essay in my head and haven't been able to articulate it

Mr. Regular is so popular because although he's anything but, he's [I]relatably[/I] anything but. He's the regular weirdo. He's a weirdo regular person. He's a lot of us. I also deeply fear dying alone. I don't have many close friends, and I struggle to keep up with them because of work and other obligations.