Stop asking the internet for permission. You're an adult.

I usually just chalk those memes up to teenagers who overthink everything or socially immature people. I often decompress at lunch by leaving the office and grabbing a meal alone somewhere.

I’m kinda reminded of that Kurzgesagt video on loneliness. The video talked about how people who experience loneliness begin to pay more attention to other’s expressions but interpret them incorrectly as negative.

I have seen people express how weird they find people wanting to eat alone occasionally throughout my life, and even had some volunteer to eat with me "so I wouldn't be alone". When I say that I wanted to eat alone, they expressed genuine concern that it is weird to not want company. If I let them sit and talk then they feel good about themselves and leave me alone for a bit.

Honestly the pressure I got from being pestered about eating alone ended with me just eating lunch at my desk and I absolutely love work from home. Going out with coworkers once a month was plenty. They are fun and all, but most times I just want eating to be when I take a break from other people.

I still do and prefer it. I also go to bars by myself on and off. A buddy of mine would decline going to lunch with anyone else so he could go decompress. About once a week he'd come back bitching because someone would go into an empty restaurant and sit as close to him as possible.

My favorite story of his complaining (rightfully so in my opinion) is where he went to a restaurant with benches around the perimeter and sat in the corner far from the only other customer there. He hadn't been there two minutes before some woman came and sat on the bench seat closest to him and started asking him about the book he was reading and generally making small talk. He got so pissed that he ate in his truck for weeks instead of sitting down in a restaurant.

I think she was badly trying to flirt and didn't have the situational awareness to understand that he was trying to get away. He thinks she didn't want to look like she was eating alone and didn't care that she was intruding on a stranger.

That just sounds super boring. I’d rather get it to go and watch tv or something.

One of these things is not like the others

Some hikes shouldn't be done alone.

Also this seems like it's gearing you towards selfish thinking which can set you up to be more isolated and lonely as a person.

I gear towards joining in things that others I like the company of want to do. I get to hang out with them while doing some activity, and they get to enjoy that activity. Of course, if I'm going to invite someone to something, it's most often going to be something I can enjoy myself. If it requires others I just check with my friends on who's interested and do followups with them to reduce barriers and increase their chances of making it.

How I saw all the lotr films

Context doesn't matter when lonely people are seeking a dopamine hit through a false sense of moral / intellectual superiority.

Bad takes drive engagement and the dopamine hits from engagement makes life under hyper atomized late stage capitalism slightly less depressing.

Very clearly not the point op is making at all

Like, the point they're making and your comment are completely unrelated

I would go even further. I enjoy things much more, when I can share the experience with others. I could go out alone, yes, but why should I?

You're making me want to book that plane ticket even more. The main thing I'm struggling with is deciding where I would go. If you don't mind me asking, any favorite locations or cities?

On the opposite, I don’t really get movie theatre as a social activity.

Watching a movie is a passive, solitary activity that you do in the same place and time as other people. It feels to me like it has the same social significance as meeting and then everyone checking their phone for two hours. Sure there is a shared experience at the end of it, but there are a thousand things you could do instead in order to experience things together, most of which more interactive and more “social”.

For me the only benefit of going with a friend is pushing each other to actually go and see the movie. But for myself, I have watched movies alone and didn’t find it significantly better or worse than going with company.

For those of us without 100" 4K HDR TVs and perfect speaker setups, yes it is worth it. Not for every movie but there are movies I am very glad to have gone to the theater for because watching it at home on a 24 inch monitor and headphones is far less immersive and exciting an experience. Yes, even with popcorn crunching.

Is the bigger screen that important?

Depends on the movie. If it's some drama or something a normal sized screen isn't much different experience but like a huge action movie with large scale stuff happening the bigger screen adds to the experience. I went and saw Godzilla Minus One in the theater and it was amazing. Maybe if I had a nice home theater set up it would be different but if I'm not watching a movie at the theater it's usually on my PC monitor at home or my small TV.

Sometimes the people I enjoy movies didn't want to see the same movies, so I have gone alone to see something on the big screen. Not often since large flatscreens made most movies more enjoyable at home, but I would go slone if the situation came up again.

Honestly being alone or with people isn't that much different when I'm watchijg a movie, unless they are distracting. The only thing I get out of going with others is talking about the movie sfter.

Yes, I enjoy movies with striking visuals or music much more on the big screen. I also go to the cinema alone from time to time. I'm rather introverted, so I don't mind the solitary experience. I do like to later talk about the movie with someone who saw it too, though.

Do some people go to the movies just to see the movie? Is the bigger screen that important?

Maybe they want to see it as soon as it's released instead of waiting for it to be available to stream. Also yes, some movies are definitely better and more immersive on the big screen with the big sound systems, like space or adventure-type ones with special effects.

Movie theaters always seemed like such weird places to go to in general. I mean I get it if you go with a large friend group or to see a movie that has a lot of large scale scenes but for pretty much everything else it has literally zero advantages to make up for its major downsides.

Other people being noisy, no ability to pause, shitty audio quality due to bad placement, expensive tickets and food, having to go there and having to be there at a specific time, usually not being able to watch the movie in the original audio even when you do speak the language, pre-movie ads,...

People always talk about it as this great experience but I feel there is a reason they have to put the movies in there first because otherwise very few people would be willing to suffer through it all.

That and the sound I think? Maybe people enjoy being in a crowd while being entertained? I don't know: it's not for me.

But this is in support of those people. The tweet is responding to people who believe these behaviors are something that is considered worthy of judgement, and are advocating that they should be exempted. This tweet is instead saying they already are and have been. So no validation has ever been needed, and if you felt otherwise, you were wrong. So you can feel free to do this and likely other things you felt self-conscious about because nobody cares.

let them ask on the safety and confidential internet

Can't tell if you're being facetious or not.

I found it deeply uncomfortable that there's people who take the direction of an online community and base their real life actions upon it. making choices about their relationships, marriages, csaeeere, health and so on.

For every grain of truth or solid perspective given there are 10 which are pointless or unproductive and ar least a couple which were wrong or dangerous.

None of this is real, its tiny snapshots in a moment of time, stripped of all context but preserved.

i upvote therefore i validate

"Normalize dining alone."

"No you're wrong, you should normalize dining alone."

At the end of the universe, there is a café with the last known entities that persist. They exchange stories, favorite experiences and say their goodbyes to one another, ancient and forgotten.

There's a dreaded moment when straws are drawn or a volunteer is called to be the last one to turn off the lights -- to herald the calling of the next universe.

No one wants to do it however, because the last one has to do it alone.

It's in that quiet abyss, in the consuming darkness, the expanse and contracted void of dead light, where stars no longer shine, where trillions of lives existed and were extinguished -- that an epiphany can be had, as one celestial appendage holds over the reset toggle:

Everything matters. Even if no one is around to experience it.

-- Click --

I am several decades old and I still have to remind myself I'm allowed to go have fun by myself.

only problem is there's still other people there.

I used to live in a small town with a cheap historical monoplex about 15 minutes walk from my apartment. I’d just check what was playing on my drive home from work all week and if I was interested I’d walk over on the weekend and see a $10 showing of something. I’ve never been much of a moviegoer but it was really nice. Literally the only nice part of living there except the 15 minute commute to the job I had. Round here though it’s just not worth going to a movie alone

Most people aren't paying any attention to you at all. Unless you're being loud or making a lot of quick movements they probably don't even notice you beyond the generic recognition that another person is present.

As long as you aren't talking to yourself loudly in the theater or eating popcorn at a volume comparable to the Dolby, literally nobody will fucking care. In both cases, the solution is to close your god damned mouth.

I go to restaurants, concerts and other shit by myself all the time. I go some Sporting events by myself, even out of town. In fact, I'm going to take a nostalgia road trip and watch an indoor soccer match.

The ones I go to have armrests that fold down. No need to share with others.

Only if you care. I went to the local spa alone a number of times to have a decompression day in particularly stressful periods, never thought twice about it.

What? I feel the opposite you have big tourist energy when you show up there with a group, couples sure but I feel the spa is closer to a doctor visit or a haircut. You need the whole gang there?

From a business perspective, any customers please

Going to restaurants and movies gets expensive fast. If it's just me, there's no way I'm burning through my disposable income on that stuff.

Yep, you're right it is the wrong take. I would suggest a little inward thought as this seems like a pretty toxic thought pattern.

Sorry, but nobody asked - that is a completely unrelated issue. It's not about not having time.

The point of this post is that if you have no one to accompany you somewhere, you can just go alone, nobody cares - only you.

”I’m gonna go watch this movie you don’t care about”

“Cool”

“Bye”

It’s not complicated and works both ways.

I'm married and eat alone regularly on work trips.

Ok, breeder