Current Events > Is it an unpopular opinion now to actually like interactions with strangers?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I see this opinion in various forms on the internet these days:

"Automation can't come any sooner, the less people I need to speak to the better".

I'm trying to imagine a world like that, where all interactions with strangers are replaced with kiosk machines. Never talking to a cashier again. Never speaking to a shop assistant again. Never being greeted by a real person in a store or care or restaurant. Just walking around punching commands into computers and the only discussion or smile you see comes from your colleagues talking about work-related things or your friends who you never see anyway.

I know this would be paradise to a lot of people, but to me that sounds like an absolute dystopian hellscape.

I don't enjoy every retail interaction I have, but christ, are they really that bad? Most of them are totally unremarkable. Many of them are pleasant. Like when a cute barista smiles at you and you get to pretend she was flirting. Or when the restaurant owner says something funny when he shows you to your seat.

Just little things that remind you that there are human beings in the world outside of the ones you see ever day.

I can't even remember the last bad interaction I had with a stranger. Even the bad ones eventually become funny stories.
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yes

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I like interacting with my pharmacist.
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I don't dislike people, but I generally don't want to be around them unless I'm drinking
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pinky0926 posted...

I see this opinion in various forms on the internet these days:

I think this is part of the problem. People spend a lot of time on the internet, where they're shielded behind a screen and have plenty of time to think their words through before clicking "post." When they find themselves in real-time, face to face social situations without any buffers or escape routes, they can feel cornered or anxious.

From what I gather, it's basically the result of having too little direct social interaction while growing up.
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the internet changed us and how we interact with eachother a lot

On this board it is.
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90% of it is fake. I can't wait for it to go away, speaking from both sides of the counter.

Some things require actual human interaction, but I love kiosks. Those jobs or parts of the job are pointless anyway. Just work for the sake of work.

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Always fun to strike up a conversation while waiting in line with someone.
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I think it's fun to meet new people, but I'm also weird when it comes to small talk at a barber or something. I just need you to cut my hair, I know you're just trying to pass the time, but I don't care what about what you're talking about. I have trained myself to be better at it, just asking simple questions to keep them talking about themselves so that I dont really have to say anything.
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This is literally just an internet edgelord thing.
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