I find that one of the most frustrating things about being human is that I have a strong desire to have people share in my experiences while at the same time an inability, a lack of capacity, to have them do so.
Take music, for example. Music dominates me. No other medium has even close to the same level of emotional effect on me. Some songs are, for me, as close as it gets to sacred. And I treat them as such, i.e., I refuse to listen to them over computer speakers, I scoff at the idea at covers, and I listen with lights off or eyes closed. These are intensely emotional experiences, meaning that I intensely want to have someone share them with me, but how do you do that—tumbleblog the shit?
In case you’re dumb, posting your favorite songs on tumblr is unlikely to induce much empathy in your followers. We humans just don’t work that way. Oh you like that song? Good for you.
On the one hand, we want to believe we are unique and different, that certain traits or preferences make us special. On the other hand, in some ways it’s horribly lonely to think that the feelings or experiences we have are different. And in fact the feelings probably aren’t different – our emotions are probably manifested in very similar if not identical ways – but we experience the feelings in response to different things, in response to different songs or different chords or lyrics within a song. And that’s what makes it frustrating. And lonely.
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P.S. – This is why I think dating sites based on music preferences or sense of humor are not such a bad idea.
Jan 26, 2012
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