• Replies 50 replies
  • Subscribers 89 subscribers
  • Views 2425 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Do people still have value to you?

purelambdaphi

Non-instrumental social value, that is. I'm sure they still have moral value for you still.

And by "non-instrumental" I just mean something you value for the sake of it, as opposed to valuing it because it enables you to experience/achieve/etc. something else (like how money is usually seen as valuable to the extent that it can buy you things, be passed down to enrich your progeny, etc.).

I'm sure the ones out of you that are parents, or have SOs, will say yes. I'm more leaning towards no, myself. After I reached a certain age experiencing social dynamics for the sake of it has become almost "conceptually dubious" to me.

In fact, I suspect I only interact or post things online instrumentally -- with the goal of putting boredom at bay or something like that.

(And, yaeh, I'm anticipating that it is plausible that someone here has the view that "All social valuing is instrumental" or some such. You're still welcome to elaborate on your position, if that is the case for you.)

Parents

  • I would remove the word 'still' because I don't think my position has changed.

    I have tried having almost no interactions, after some months  I started going crazy (same problems as people who are in solitary confinement). Same issue during COVID lockdown, and I had more virtual contacts then. So some real world, not virtual, interaction with people is needed.

    Do I value it though is harder to answer. I don't want to go crazy, so I value that. But if people disappear, change jobs, move, die, etc. I don't feel much or often anything, as long as there are others I can interact with, so the people are interchangeable.

    I think you can't change your instinctive requirement for interaction, it is what humans need. Do you need to be conscious of it or question or analyse it, probably not.

    I would say everything you do serves a purpose, whether you recognise it or not. Your subconscious is deciding things for you based on requirements you don't always know and can't control.

    Just do what makes you feel better, as long as it is not harmful to yourself or others.

  • in reply to Stuart333

    I'm interpreting that as you only seeing instrumental social values for other people.

    Surprising how someone like you would even notice COVID was happening at all. If it wasn't for a certain trip I was planning to do at the time being cancelled, I'd likely only have had discover about COVID in 2023 or so when the circle of niche YouTubers I watch started sufficiently talking about it.

Reply
  • in reply to Stuart333

    I'm interpreting that as you only seeing instrumental social values for other people.

    Surprising how someone like you would even notice COVID was happening at all. If it wasn't for a certain trip I was planning to do at the time being cancelled, I'd likely only have had discover about COVID in 2023 or so when the circle of niche YouTubers I watch started sufficiently talking about it.

Children
  • in reply to Stuart333

    I merely reported how I interpreted your answer, and then reported something I find surprising. My reply involves no illocution or "implied statements." Does that clear things up?

    And, yes, you having a job, and having COVID-related problems getting food/etc., makes you being aware of COVID in the sense I meant less surprising.

  • in reply to purelambdaphi

    I don't get what point it is you are trying to get at.

    I think you are asking if people are important even if they bring nothing and add nothing and you want nothing, if they add something through mere presence. As we are subconsciously social creatures the answer is yes, even if we think it is no, as evidenced by the problems of solitary confinement.

    COVID was easily noticeable as i was barred from the office, couldn't go out, struggled to get food, had to cover with customers as other people were ill or struggling to cope or just didn't bother joining calls. I tried to be professional, which was excessive and stressful and lead 6 months later to burnout and a breakdown at the GP.