Funny story: I actually did try tracking daily ‘social interaction time’ for a while. It’s much harder to track than anything else, because it is such a fluid and unpredictable activity, and I don’t have access to my spreadsheets while socializing.
I’ve had moderate social anxiety for many years, starting because of issues (mostly inside my head) in early public school. It was severely exacerbated when I switched to online school because I spent so much time, locked in my room, on pleasurable activities.
I have a small group of friends who I met in public school; we still meet once every couple of months to play video/board games. This results only in casual interaction centered around the game, never anything serious that involves personal issues or philosophical debates. And of course, the entire time, I am thinking that I could be doing something more productive or fun-efficient. Those friends are not exactly positive influences: they spend a lot of their time on video games (CoD etc.), and they are constantly laughing at internet memes or terrible sex jokes. I’ve tried meeting other people online, but I never really can get engaged with them, also because I feel that I am using time inefficiently. So, in the social interaction department, I am not really making any progress. That could be considered another big problem in my life; I probably should have included it in the main article.
Nice to meet you, person with above-average intelligence. My name is Optimal, because I am always seeking optimal outcomes. I’m 16 years old and currently enrolled in an online high school that provides me with an exceptional degree of educational freedom. I’ve been lurking around here for a few weeks, but I just now decided to join in because I could use some serious life advice.
Based on the contents of the article above, and on other discussions I have observed, I think it would be better to explain and discuss my situation in a discussion. Actually, I’ve already written the discussion article; I’m commenting here to get 2 karma points so I can submit it. My article looks something like this one. Please don’t hate me, I promise that my submission will be found mildly interesting by at least one person.