I need to stop using the Internet as crutch for my lack of a social life because I think I'm badly addicted to it... I start to feel really lonely and bored/agitated without it because where I'm living now there are hardly any people and no opportunities.. I have no friends, no job and very little money. I've let life pass me by for the past few years and I'm starting to panic a bit because I'm not really young any more (27.) If I think too much about how empty and meaningless my 20s have been so far I start getting upset. Isn't the whole point of your 20s to make good memories for when you're older and build the groundwork for the rest of your life, I don't feel like I've done either of those things. When I'm older I will have nothing to look back on besides staring at a screen for years. I don't know if I can live with that kind of regret in me for the rest of life. I'm starting to think reckless thoughts like maxing out credit cards and just living for today because I don't want the tiny sliver of youth I have left to go to waste like everything before it. Who cares about when I am old, no one gives a shit about you when you are old. That's the harsh truth, isn't it? So why am I just sitting here doing nothing? I'm starting to get really fucking desperate now. On the other hand I don't get any kind of genuine emotional support from any of my family and the Internet is the only place right now where I have support, so what do I do?
Hey there, I just finished writing a post about how I feel lonely and how incapable I am of making new friends, since having social interactions kinda terryfies me, so, I totally feel you. I’m 20, a little bit younger than you, not that it matters: I already feel like I wasted my teen years in depression. I can’t really help you, or telling you what you should do: I’ll follow in case someone who used to struggle with these issues have some good advice for us. I’m starting to realize, though, that there are quite a lot of people in our situation: it would be great if all of us could just meet and befriend each other, that would solve all our problems in a minute, wouldn’t it? I’m kinda starting to wish that people like me could walk around with a sign or something: it would be really easier to recognize them, and I would be less scared knowing that I was talking to someone like me. Still, life can’t be this simple, can it? Hang in there, though: I hope that we can all find what we deserve, somehow…
Oh, it does matter. This is your life. You're at the beginning of your 20s. I implore you please don't make the same mistake I did. Get out there now and have fun. Please.
Whilst it's true that some people binge on the internet and use it as a substitute for real life interaction, it's also true that some people use the internet for information, advice, support and personal growth and in many ways that's what this forum is all about. The internet can be used as a platform and opener into real life social interactions, if we so wish, and all of that's fine providing we exercise due care and caution and don't get carried away, especially if we're expecting to find love online. We make of the internet what we will, in my view. It definitely can fuel feelings of loneliness, but it can also help to break those same feelings if we put it to good use.
You haven't really said what sort of things you would like to fill your time with. If you weren't on the internet all the time, what would you be doing? Working? Traveling? Partying? Going to the gym? Taking up a sport? Visiting museums and galleries? You haven't said what your interests are, so nobody can really tell you "what to do" if we don't know what you want to do. To be honest, I didn't get up to much in my 20s. I'm in my 30s and I have a stable job now and a social life but I still spend a lot of time at home looking at screens, whether its internet or gaming. I do think I should have done more in my 20s, but I don't feel badly about it now. I can't change the past. So even though you may feel badly about not doing much now, the negative feeling doesn't have to last forever. You won't instantly turn into a decrepit old man the minute you hit 30. I'd say set yourself some targets, just don't give yourself deadlines.
Hey don't depress me by saying 27 is not young I'm well past that age and still feel young - as far as I'm concerned it's just a number. NiceDave gives good advice - decide what you are interested in and absorb yourself in it. Most of my 20s I spent in and out dodgy relationships with girls so it wasn't a great period in my life. Plenty of things you can do in your thirties and beyond that you can do in your twenties.
Love that statement. Gives you something to work towards, but no pressure because you work at your own pace. On a separate note, I too am having a similar problem. Like PatrickUK said, I’ve resorted to the internet for advice. I do, however, think about what else I could be doing other than ruminating about the past, and even though I don’t feel it right now, I know that things will eventually work out as long as I am trying to do something about whatever problem I have.
I'm 25 in my first year of college and I'm living in an apartment with 5 other girls and I'm still lonely. I'm not good with strangers so I don't make friends easily. Before I went to college the only people I would talk to for months on end were my parents. The Internet was invented to make life better so use it. And 27 is not old, I was recently called a baby by somewhen who said that my life was barely beginning at 25 and I had plenty of time for everything.
