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Body Doubling

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Re: Body Doubling

#91

Post by carapace »

sfink wrote: post #40
carapace wrote: post #13

Does the effect fall off with the square of the distance? Is it linear? Is there a threshold? Does adding a third person (or more people) affect it? How is it different from, say, sitting in a cafe with another person? Do you have to know each other? If there is a difference what criteria determine that difference? Can one "pretend" that one is "body double"-ing with a unknowing stranger? Or does each person have to…

> Does the effect fall off with the square of the distance? Is it linear? Is there a threshold? You seem to want to treat it as some sort of physical field or force. IANAP (I am not a psychologist), but it seems fairly self-evident that the effect arises from the awareness of being observed, which leads to you observing and mediating your own actions. Based on that, I would predict that physical distance is only indi…

> You seem to want to treat it as some sort of physical field or force.

Of course (I'm a rational materialist) it's "some sort of physical field or force", there's nothing else it could be, eh?

How much of the effect is due to power (in the physical sense) and how much due to modulation (communication)?

(Not to be coy, I'm a rational materialist but I'm also a Reiki Level III Master and I would really really like someone somewhere to do science to that. If I can influence these folks to take a more scientific materialist tack on their investigation they might discover something relevant to my own curiosities.)

Re: Body Doubling

#92

Post by uoaei »

munificent wrote: post #61

There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…

I have noticed in social circles that skew heavily Western that a large majority of small talk revolves around media consumption, whether it's recounting TV episodes, quoting movies, meme-ing Spongebob, etc.

There's a lot of factors to blame for our feelings of isolation. I tend to look toward the fortress-ing of private homes and the sprawl of suburban developments, which encourage seeking enjoyment through pseudo-socialization with the characters on your screen.

Parasocial relationships were a thing long before Twitch and OnlyFans, only people were attaching to fictional characters so the effect wasn't quite as pronounced until actual humans became the objects of consumption (see: Disney adults, MCU ultrafans, etc.). This probably has to do with isolation from social groups as you describe, particularly as people in general lost community centers such as churches due to the sprawl and pace of modern life.

Re: Body Doubling

#93

Post by rospaya »

munificent wrote: post #61

There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…

I don't get it. Do people not do that anymore?

Re: Body Doubling

#94

Post by uoaei »

411111111111111 wrote: post #75
vorpalhex wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a reminder, you can still do those things. Have a weekly hangout day with friends with no firm plans. Spend time at hobbyist shops on the regular. Play board games with strangers.

It's theoretically possible, but not really if you're honest. People have gotten used to the isolation, so they're not gonna enjoy it if you randomly invite yourself literally every day of the week. You'll need like-minded friends and that's not something you can really "just decided" to change.

The great thing about joining a club is that you know everyone there is already interested enough in the subject of the club to participate with you whenever they've availed their time to be at the clubhouse.

You don't have to drag your old friends out so much as make a couple new (low stakes, with boundaries at first, if you are anxious about it) friends.

Re: Body Doubling

#95

Post by MiddleEndian »

uoaei wrote: post #92
munificent wrote: post #61

There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…

I have noticed in social circles that skew heavily Western that a large majority of small talk revolves around media consumption, whether it's recounting TV episodes, quoting movies, meme-ing Spongebob, etc. There's a lot of factors to blame for our feelings of isolation. I tend to look toward the fortress-ing of private homes and the sprawl of suburban developments, which encourage seeking enjoyment through pseudo-s…

Seeing parasocial relationships infect the internet like regular celebrities in the past is really a bummer and not what I had hoped for the technology. Real life interactions are the way to go more often than not.

Re: Body Doubling

#96

Post by MiddleEndian »

411111111111111 wrote: post #75
vorpalhex wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a reminder, you can still do those things. Have a weekly hangout day with friends with no firm plans. Spend time at hobbyist shops on the regular. Play board games with strangers.

It's theoretically possible, but not really if you're honest. People have gotten used to the isolation, so they're not gonna enjoy it if you randomly invite yourself literally every day of the week. You'll need like-minded friends and that's not something you can really "just decided" to change.

I'm seconding what the others say. I see a few close friends 1-3 times a week in relatively unstructured or impulsive situations, and I also go to martial arts and latin dance clubs at no regular interval (although I should work on getting that back on a regular schedule), and play dungeons and dragons once a month. You can absolutely meet people with mutual interests in person, and it is worth pursuing regardless of whether you consider yourself an introvert or not.

Re: Body Doubling

#97

Post by soci »

Body doubling might help on not getting up from the chair while working on a computer. However, not having someone watching over my screen -which I’d rather not do for obvious reasons- allows me for infinite procrastination. For other kind of tasks like studying, writing on paper, or doing phone calls, I agree body doubling does the trick.

Re: Body Doubling

#98

Post by klenwell »

munificent wrote: post #61

There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…

On this topic, I find this article fascinating:

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23758087

But life in New Jersey was not working out for Yarima. It wasn't the weather, food or modern technology but the absence of close human relations. The Yanomami day begins and ends in the shapono, open to relatives, friends, neighbours and enemies. But Yarima's day in the US began and ended in a closed box, cut off from society.

Re: Body Doubling

#99

Post by klenwell »

marshmallowmad wrote: post #57

I think this is the reason why in-person work environments will be more productive over the longer term for any larger organization. Not saying I’m against remote work, as I actually prefer it myself.

I actually do this more effectively working from home with my wife. For people who like the aesthetics and atmosphere of an office for some reason, I think a coworking space would as productive or moreso than the company office. (Is this Body Doubling website coworking industry guerrilla marketing?)

I was dragged back into the office for a couple months in 2021. I was stupefied by how pointless it all was. From the time and resources wasted driving to and fro to the office every day to the meetings which were still largely done online (since we were a distributed team.)

I had to go 5 days a week. The company bled people. Most the people who were sticking around as I was leaving confided to me that they weren't happy about it. The company struggled to hire new workers. That's probably all abated to some extent since then. With a flexible hybrid schedule, I think they could have found a sweet spot.

Re: Body Doubling

#100

Post by jvm___ »

munificent wrote: post #61

There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…

profoundly lonely and isolating media consumption is

This is the main problem in my marriage, we don't consume the same media - we've tried to find something in common to watch, but mostly spend it on our phones watching our own media streams, edu-tainment YouTubers for me and Netflix/Disney/Facebook watch for her.

You can't make cultural references or have inside jokes if you don't consume the same media.

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