Wanting human presence while doing your own thing
When I am at home, I have this thing that I enjoy human presence such as video calling or phone calls with my friends.
But sometimes I just want their presence and not really want to chat or talk to them. What we do is we will just leave the discord on for hours while doing our own thing.
I did this frequently with my ex when we don’t meet. He will video call me and we will do our things, occasionally chitchatting about random stuff and back to doing our things until either one goes to sleep.
Now that we have separated, I am dealing with this through watching live youtube channels (e.g Study with me Pomodoro) so that I can still have that.
Does anyone else have this problem too? Is this common? How do you deal with this.
Netizens’ comments
- This is what I do with my Dad. He doesn’t say much but I just sit next to him while he’s watching TV. Occasionally I will ask him stuff about the show he’s watching otherwise I’d be using my phone. It feels comforting to me regardless.
- it’s called body doubling, i use a discord channel with people from different countries that does it similarly as well. you feel more accountable to finish your daily works as well since you feel that someone is looking at you
- There’s a do nothing escort in japan. U hire the person literally to follow u around. They wont talk to u unless u talk to them.
- Maybe podcasts would help. The kind where the host is talking to his guests, or 2 hosts talking to each other. Just the sound of ppl having a conversation. I usually play these kinds when I’m working from home.
- It just means your love language is quality time. I have the same thing too. Luckily I have a cat. His presence suffices.