Hypothetical Question

[Jeeqbit]

Here is the thing about these things you have mentioned, they are completely impersonal and I wouldn't consider this an actual meaningful socialization.

You're absolutely right! You have identified why I play an MMORPG. For the impersonal natural of communication.

Maintaining a personal friendship with someone is effort. Scheduling around them, doing everything you can to be their "best friend" only for them to consider someone else their best friend that they don't talk to as much.

You can grow too attached to these friends and become dependent on them. And if something happens to them, it could affect you in a big way.

So eventually I felt it would just be a whole lot easier to allow my interactions to be fleeting. I have conversations with people as if they are my friends. In some cases, I will have another conversation with them weeks, months or years later. Sometimes they will just "see me around" (sort of like on these forums).

But none of them will truly know me so I won't have to deal with the emotions that come with that too much, nor will I carry the burden of being available for them always.

That is the strength of an MMORPG. You are exposed to people and conversations and community constantly. It can remove your loneliness to the maximum extent, without the need to deal with actual friendships.

Whether it removes your loneliness depends on your mindset. You can be surrounded by people constantly (like a celebrity) and be lonely, or you can have a small group of friends with rare interactions with others and feel like everyone you've ever met is your friend and feel socially fulfilled. It's all about mindset and who you consider a friend, really.

Discovering that made me happy and content. I literally rely on no single person to make me happy. Like an investor, my eggs are not all in one basket.

noone will notice you are gone

I think some of them would because I ponder that sometimes when people vanish.