I am convinced that most modern kink has been created to adress this kind of issue. In my ted talk I will...
But you have to meet a stranger and get to know them before you can :corporate-art:
So it is a paradox.
Most people I know simply talk about it now. It is like going to the bar to meet people.
The paradox remains. The more time you take getting to know people the farther you are from meeting your bodies biological goals. So the paradox then is that we are touch starved, yet we must do a coffe date and not make it weird.
in a way that is super uncomfy I think that for some ranges of men they do have a fundamental level of intamacy that they need to function appropriately. So we get this negative feedback cycle where some guys get touch starved then act out, and that pushes people away and only makes their problems worse. Historically I think the absolute floor to this kind of thing was well managed legal sex work. There is probably a high minded solution we could implement after the revolution but there is no way we could manage it as a society now. Since as you pointed out, the maintence of empire works better with young bitter angry men around to help keep pressure on the rest of society.
ASMR videos often involve intimate connection with the artist. not everyone gets the classic ASMR effects (tingling, shivering, pleasurable euphoria) and some just enjoy the psuedo connection of having someone simulate attention and taking care of them. i use them to sleep but only after i've watched one artist enough that i'm comfortable with their mannerisms and personality. then it becomes the visual/auditory equivalent of a late night cuddle session that helps me sleep.
Hmmmmm ... remember how we all built a parasocial relationship with this friendly little guy? :comfy:
Damn, i'm still so happy to see them. Seriously, just look how comfy they look!
i've been so isolated during the pandemic that i lost my social anxiety out of pure sheer desperation lol, now i talk to strangers like i've always craved it
I can go out shopping, visit friends, go on a walk - all things I couldn't do before the pandemic due to my agoraphobia. I think it's the public demasking (excuse the unintentional pun) that has made it so much easier. All of my maladaptive behaviors are just becoming normalizes survival techniques. Everyone around me is feeling just as lost, scared and incompetent as I always have, but I've got the advantage of decades of experience.
I hate the pandemic due to all of the death and I don't want to appear to take pleasure in others' suffering - it has just made my personal circumstances a lot less uncomfortable.
I mean, it is one thing to want close contact with a loved one and something else entirely to have someone with a head-cold and 18th-century understanding of germ theory grind up against you at the bus stop.
