Complex Numbers

Home Alone

Hey look. Another article about being quarantined.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/02/998440/lockdown-was-supposed-to-be-a...

I love how the header image makes sure the Apple logo on the notebook computer is in focus while everything else is out of focus. If Apple didn't pay them for that, the website is doing it wrong.

Lockdown was supposed to be an introvert’s paradise. It’s not.
Calendars cleared by coronavirus are filling up with virtual happy hours, and some people are starting to feel exhausted.

Really? Because I'm not seeing that happen.

This was supposed to be the moment for introverts—the disaster preppers of our new, covid-ravaged social lives. Those who cherished their time alone at home were already experts at voluntary self-isolation.

And you know what? It is our moment. My whole life has been leading to this.

But as people began to adjust to isolation, they started to find ways to bring their outside social lives into their homes.

My outside social life, apart from drinking at bars, involves typing to people on the internet. No one invites me to anything else. Well, rarely. Mostly just in December. You think the bitching level is high now? Imagine if this shit had started in November.

Calendars that had been cleared by social distancing suddenly refilled as friends, family, and acquaintances made plans to sip “quarantinis” at Zoom happy hours, hold Netflix viewing parties, or just catch up over Google hangouts.

Hey, look, three stock recommendations. Four if you count the Apple ad at the top.

“There’s no way you can pass that off as having other plans,” says Jaya Saxena, a staff writer at Eater, who is currently socially distancing with her spouse in her apartment in Queens, New York. “The only excuse is ‘I don’t want to,’ and no one wants to hear that right now.”

"I don't want to." There. That was easy, wasn't it? Or you can always fake a scratchy throat. Just be sure to assure them it's not the 'rona.

The reality is that introverts don’t want to be alone all the time, and extroverts can appreciate moments of quiet. But the division exists as a way to describe how people gather their energy: introverts charge up by having quiet time to process, and extroverts do it by socializing.

That's still very simplistic. Look, I'm not antisocial or misanthropic. I like meeting people. I like hanging out with people. I just can only take so much of it before I have to go do something solitary. This applies online, too; I don't like multiplayer video games.

For some, staying home means solitude and a lot of extra time. Others are trying to finish school, homeschool children, or work under difficult conditions. As one group looks for things to do, the other longs for a free moment to leave the home and hunt for toilet paper.

Not only have I been preparing my entire life for this, but I'm in an extraordinarily fortunate position in that I have no other obligations, and I don't need to leave the house; I have groceries delivered, and I order other necessaries online. I still haven't found a source for toilet paper, but I haven't been looking very hard because I'd just bought a good supply before people started to decide that it was Official Currency of the Apocalypse.

Introverts socially distancing with others might feel an additional layer of stress, even before the first virtual happy hour invitation, Rutledge notes. “Staying at home with others places a burden on introverts because they are not wired for full-time interaction,” she wrote in an email.

I do have a housemate, and she's also home all the time. Fortunately, it's a big enough house, and we generally occupy different areas of it.

Stacy, who works for an ed-tech company near Albany, knows how that feels. She used to meet friends a few times a week to play Dungeons & Dragons. (Like Tarek, Stacy asked to be identified by her first name only.) Now, those physical games have moved online, through the same laptop camera that provides a portal to all her work meetings.

I played D&D with a group online for a couple of years. We're supposed to start up again, but I haven't heard back from the group. But yeah, there are tools out there for doing the standard D&D experience online. It has its advantages. I don't suggest playing D&D on your work computer, though. Unless you're the boss.

So yeah, I feel like I'm handling this better than most. I'm trying not to be smug about it, because the last thing I need is to alienate even more people. I might want to hang out with them again if this ends before I croak.