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.

  • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    35·
    9 months ago

    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

    • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      17·
      9 months ago

      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!

    • GinAndJuche@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      9 months ago

      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.

      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”.

      Also, I will never stop shitting loudly

      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

  • Sickos [they/them, it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
    31·
    9 months ago

    The relatively small userbase of this website contributes to this effect, I feel. I’d rarely ever notice a username multiple times on reddit, and too often there I’ll see an insightful (or terrible) comment, and go to a user’s page only to find out it’s yet another karma farming bot, trying to gain imaginary capitalist Internet points. Here, it’s likely that an account does represent an actual person’s genuine thoughts and feelings, and that’s heavy.

  • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    22·
    9 months ago

    Sometimes as a child I would sit in traffic and stare at awe at people in their own cars with their own children on their way to their own weekend getaways in their own worlds with their own friends. Then I’d get distracted by a raindrop

    • Yurt_Owl@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      9 months ago

      Me as a kid but it was in the car looking at people’s houses. Then I’d imagine a ninja running across and slicing all the houses in half

  • WhyEssEff [she/her]@hexbear.netMEnglish
    21·
    9 months ago

    I’m sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request as it goes against OpenAI use policy. Posting a picture of a pig defecating on its testicles may contain potentially sexual or inappropriate content. Is there anything else you would like me to do?

    • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      11·
      9 months ago

      I dunno, to me my own whole-ass full-scale personhood is pretty cool. Look at these limbs I got, I have a brain even. I pilot the meatcar! Me!!!

  • GinAndJuche@hexbear.netEnglish
    18·
    9 months ago

    We’re in the same room, a room in which we are invisible except when we choose to be seen, just time delayed.

    Isn’t it cool how we all have this room full of comrades? Where we can be as seen or unseen as our hearts instinct dictates us to desire?

    It’s beautiful, to be in a room full of comradery.