Hi I’m Jake and I am so glad you’re here.
I was just sitting in this room alone as Hannah usually makes me and it was starting to feel like the loneliest-place-on-the-internet.blogspot.com.
Now this blog by Boy Punk is kind of more of an artist statement. I guess. There's no blog posts or anything
So you can't interact with it. You can't leave comments or likes or any sign of activity.
But it does seem lonely.
And we're gonna look at some very lonely DONGs, things you can do online now guys.
The reason the loneliest-place-on-the-internet.blogspot.com isn’t necessarily lonely is because it is
an unfeeling website.
It may be isolated and cut off from any social contact but that actually doesn’t make it
lonely.
That just makes it alone.
But wikipedia defines loneliness as the discrepancy between one’s necessary and achieved levels
of interaction.
So you could be in the middle of the woods with no one to talk to but if you feel content,
you’re just alone not lonely.
And if you’re experiencing the reverse at a party surrounded by people you feel you
cannot connect with but want to connect with, you are lonely but not alone.
But how lonely are you specifically?
Well find out with this UCLA loneliness scale.
Because loneliness can be linked to a multitude of problems including but not limited to high
blood pressure, depression, and alcoholism, it has been researched for years.
In 1978 the first version of the UCLA loneliness scale was created but the one on this website
is the revised and condensed version.
Answer each of these ten questions using a four point scale ranging from never to often
to see just how lonely you are.
Notice how each of these questions deals with how you feel about situations in which you
are alone as opposed to simply asking how often you are alone.
So on this quiz I personally scored a 27 and if we look over at the key here it says that I have moderate
loneliness.
And now that being said, being alone is often a cause of loneliness even if it’s not loneliness
itself because there is also isolation and extreme isolation can have detrimental effects.
The BBC has a fascinating article called How Extreme Isolation Warps Your Mind.
One thing it talks about is how when people are isolated for long periods of time without
sunlight their sense of time gets thrown way off.
Now to test this on a smaller scale head to
toggl.com/time-perception-game.
To play, click this button to start.
Without a clock guess when you believe a minute has passed by clicking again.
Chances are you might not get 60 seconds on the dot but you should be close.
But this is you now, not having been isolated or hidden from daylight.
In 1961 this French geologist, Michel Siffre descended a little over 905 meters into a
cave where he lived for two months cut off from everyone and sunlight.
While conducting tests it was discovered that he took five minutes to count to what he thought
was only two minutes. That's quite a discrepancy there.
But just like that French geologist many other people choose solitude.
And for that reason loneliness is sometimes replaced with enlightenment and understanding.
But not everyone is lucky enough to choose and some are even forced into solitude for
years on end in solitary confinement.
Many people report horror stories while in solitary confinement and a particularly haunting
one comes from Anthony Graves.
He was a wrongfully convicted man for 18 years and he spent 16 of those years in solitary confinement
in a 8 foot by 12 foot cell.
In this 360 youtube video he gives a very disturbing account of his time in isolation.
You can look around and see the conditions he lived in.
If you’re thinking there’s not much to look at, well that’s pretty much the point
but you’re able to click out.
However he wasn’t.
Being kept in solitary confinement can cause a lot of horrifying effects.
One highly reported one is hallucinations, both visual and auditory.
People have reported seeing flashes of light out of the corner of their eyes.
One woman even reported hearing screaming only to realize it was actually her own.
If you’re interested to experience what auditory hallucinations are like, grab some
headphones and play this video.
It's pretty eerie just to warn you.
And to see someone else deal with isolation, Michael Stevens, yes that very same Michael Stevens
from all your dreams and fantasies, put himself in a room alone for 3 days for an episode
of Mind Field.
I’ll link to that episode in the description below but it’s interesting to see how he
acted in that room alone, and how his brain functioned in cognitive tests after.
Also, speaking of Michael and Mind Field, Season 3 of Mind Field just came out on Vsauce1
and I love it so far and I am so proud of my boy Michael. What what!
There will be a link to that in the description as well as a link right here.
Michael was able to get YouTube to make that episode free and I would highly recommend
watching it.
It has monkeys, Japan and an epic battle between Michael and a Chimp. Who will win? Leave a comment below saying that.
Anyways, to wrap this all up...
Yes, isolation can cause a lot of devastation and loneliness but it doesn’t have to.
Some people purposefully cut off from society and go backpacking in the woods for months
just to find a sense of inner peace and connection with nature.
So with that, I’m gonna go prance into the woods until the next DONG. That's actually a lie because Hannah's gonna keep me in this room forever.
But ya know what? That's fine because I get to see you every now and then. Even though right after this. Right when Hannah hits the button to stop recording
she's probably gonna throw a bucket of ice water on me. Not for like a challenge video just because she's cruel and unusual.
And as always...help.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for watching. But help me.
911. Thanks for watching.