Lonely people's brains are different due to excess of imaginary social contact
After spending a lot of time alone (mostly during quarantine - ironically in NYC, a place I moved to in March given it&#x27;s lower barrier of entry to all things social), as someone who pulls more to the side of introvert but can be socially functional in group settings, I&#x27;m pretty sure that being alone with less social contact causes me far less stress and anxiety.  So in other words, I&#x27;m finding that although there are benefits to being social, the fact that I&#x27;ve saved boat loads of money and have less stress from worthless small talk seems like an ideal way to live.  Which sucks, because I&#x27;ve also realized that networking is the only true &quot;hack&quot; in essence to get past the drudgery of coding interviews &#x2F; otherwise opaque career ladders.<p>I delineate my introvert &#x2F; extrovert brain by classifying people I deem &quot;interesting enough to talk to&quot; and &quot;people I&#x27;d rather not talk to&quot;.  For this reason, work interactions always seem to go better than off hand social interactions.  If someone is condescending or rude then I&#x27;d just rather not waste time talking to them.  At this point in my life I don&#x27;t really feel it&#x27;s worth the effort to force social interaction in either direction, some people like you others won&#x27;t - dating also gets easier if you take this approach.<p>Something I&#x27;m curious of is if &quot;lonely&quot; brains are less healthy?  Also, for reference - the best point of comparison for social anxiety in my case is analogous to why I don&#x27;t see the point in fancy cars.  I drive a 2001 nissan, but I never worry about where I park it, if it gets dented or worry about someone keying it.  If I drove a lambo, I&#x27;d constantly be worried (even subconsciously) about this kind of thing.