You American are so proud !!! ):-|

Yeah, sorry abou.... WHAT THE PLUCK WAS THAT?! A garbage truck falling off the Empire State Building outside? ',',',:-O
**Scared of loud noises hug** :"|

This thread wouldn't die even if you killed it.

Huhu you're such a wuss my Agent
**Big giggling comforting hug**

It actually was a garbage truck. Maybe it hit something? Strange...
**Hyperventilating thank you hug...** Thanks, my heroic supervisor :-)

I bought the Anno games they looked great :)
**Big happy hugs all around **

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuoKNZjr8_U

Given this thread is a free-for-all...

Does anyone else here have the majority of their communications be textual? Do you find it lacking, kind of like masturbation, where it temporarily fixes a need and yet overall feels unfulfilling? After 2 months of 99% of my communications with others being via text/email/fb/gog I am starting to wonder why I am doing it. I'm going to sleep on it but can see myself turning off my internet and phone. To me, whilst this kind of communication can provide a band-aid patch for the loneliness I am feeling (living alone for the first time in my life after my partner of 2.5 years left me suddenly), I cannot help but feel that ultimately it is doing me more harm than good.

I am interested in other people's stories, experiences and thoughts as I am prone to making hasty decisions, and this may just be one of those heightened depressive moments. Cheers to anyone who reads this and responds. Regardless of what I have said, I do know that on the other end of the screen and keyboard is another real human being.

Cheers to you too! :)
Sorry to hear about separating.
Isn't it same as with lots of other things, too much is too much...?
It might be a good thing to live without online communications for a while.
I mean humankind managed somehow for a quite a bit of time :)
I am presently yelled at to go buy some food, so actually now I must venture to this Strange Hell (tm) known as real life...

Hum... sorry about your story.
I tend to share your opinion about communication... nothing compares a nice talk with people who are physically there... but Internet, and phones, are always a good substitute when the first option is not available. As you said, they are real people too... most of time, I don't have this "virtual" feeling with this particular GOG thread... But I agree, it can be very frustrating, and a bit puzzling, when you can't enjoy both (textual and physical) at some point. For me, these feelings come and go as my mood changes... hopefully it won't last for you, and you'll quickly feel as comfortable again with textual conversations than with "true" oral ones. Anyway... don't let depression gets you down... your partner might have left, but you're not alone... hang on!

Well, face-to-face conversation is the purest, most basic form of interaction, and it's never going to be the same when you can't look someone in the eye when you're talking. I think that online communication is definitely valuable, and I love talking with the people here in this thread and I genuinely care about everyone here. Having said that, it's never going to be the same as with someone you actually know in real life. And even texting and such with people you do know in RL isn't the same as physically being in the same place. Perhaps you could try to get things balanced out a bit more? Maybe join a sports club or something of the sort in order to meet some more people? (If there is one where you live.) You don't have to bare your heart to them or anything, but even casual interaction can go a long way. So, my advice would be: don't give up on either, but try to combine them in a way that works for you.

Having a breakup like that really sucks and it can completely throw your life upside down, so I think it's normal to feel a bit depressed and lonely. I hope things will become better for you soon.

I feel like I make more of a connection with people online than in real life. I have social interactions with my coworkers when I work and maybe my real life friends once a week. I do think you need face-to-face time, but I've always felt closer to my online friends. Just my two cents.

Balance, contemplation, re-learning. Cheers :)

I moved to a new town at the end of March (it is tiny in the middle of nowhere) with my partner, hence my heightened sense of shock and loneliness.

Agreed on multiple counts. I am having a particularly challenging down moment right now and am wondering if my recent excessive textual communication is exacerbating it. I'll figure it out eventually and only I can "know". I often learn by bouncing ideas off others until something makes sense to me. Recently not much has been making sense. I feel like life is a dream from which I want to wake.

Thank you are there are some words of wisdom in there :) I think from how I am feeling and have been feeling, that I need to retreat for a while to see what is left. I'm still in shock. I thought I was doing okay until things hit me really hard this evening. I started a much healthier routine with diet and exercise to try to balance out my falling moods, and realised that one thing is lacking massively, and that is a connection to other human beings. I've thoroughly enjoyed the majority of my interactions on GOG, but have been getting this very strong feeling of late that I am trying to unsuccessfully fill a void and it isn't working.

Thank you all for your replies :)

In my case: I love face-to-face conversation way more than online interaction. Online interaction is a mean to kill time during work for me. That's why you see me inactive especially during the evenings when I either go out or do other things with friends and mainly active during morning and work hours.

Online interaction can be valuable, but it can't convey certain feelings. For example some people here don't notice my dislike for them (its not the blob), because I can't be condescending enough via text and I feel the dire need for some gestures and mimics. Then again I can't show "positive" feelings as well to some people (Its not the blob).

I lead a long-range online relationship for quite some time and it was one of the purest connections I had. But then again most of it was Skype and not texting. It failed due to a misunderstanding caused by people being able to just be limited to characters and text in one case. One of the reasons why I really can't be bothered to build up online connections anymore.

Additionally I quit facebook, because if people want to know about me and talk to me about something they experienced they can call me up and we go out for dinner or something and talk. Works way better and you avoid the "i know everything about you" problem that many people face nowadays, because... Why bother asking what music someone likes if you already checked her favourite bands on facebook? Makes dialogues incredibly boring.

Last but not least, flirting and physical contact. Is there anything better than winning at the flirting game? Except world domination.

A dream from which you want to wake... I know this crappy feeling. :-\
I agree with Fearful's wise advice ; one nice and effective (anyway for me it was) thing to do is keep seing people. Any people ; close friends, old friends, family, collègues, or even random strangers some time :) I never go to gym classes, but I had some surprisingly interesting talks with unknown people in bars (lol) and in thé street... even a very short but nice exchange (with people I should never see again) was generally enough to cheer me up and refill my batteries/need of human contacts :)