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Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

Of course, if you go to some event and you're the only one, or one of the few without a partner or a group of friends, it's gonna feel shit.

It's why so many people don't want to go to the movies or to the restaurant alone.

If you go to the park and see many happy couples on benches kissing and you've been single and alone for a while, it's gonna be soul crushing.

On the other hand if you go to an event where everyone goes alone or doesn't know anyone, you don't feel bad at all.

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Yeah. The best example is going to a party/bar/club alone, while most other attendees are there with their friends. Being there alone can feel incredibly awful, except if you are a high extraversion type who can make new friends quickly.

I loved going to the movies alone. Pre-Covid, that is. Haven't been to a movie theater since.

For some reason, that never felt weird to me. Unless it's a super hero movie or something similar, that kind of movie is more fun with friends.

it depends on the motivation for going to movies. i like watching movies alone, because i don't want to be disturbed when focusing on the story. if i were someone who really enjoyed the big screen, i'd happily go to a movie theater by myself too. as it is, i don't care about big screens and high resolution as much, so my tv or computer screen at home is enough. that leaves going to movies for social events, which i actually don't like as much as it invariably leads to more disruptions.

I was terribly shy very depressed for most of my life since childhood. I've come a long way since then but I started going to EDM shows alone in my home city in my mid-30s recently and damn has it shifted my perspective on going out alone, talking to strangers. I've made so many new diverse friends and it's really helped my own struggles with loneliness. It has been overall been positively transformative to me.

I absolutely love going to the movies alone.

One of life’s great gifts.

I was listening to The Big Picture podcast, of which the podcasters watch way more movies in the theatre than I ever could. They seem like raging extroverts, but I guess a lot of podcasters are. One of them poked fun at men watching a movie alone in the afternoon not being dating material. The host (mostly?) was joking as he was watching the latest Transformers movie alone. It’s not just feeling alone in a crowd in that situation—-people fear being judged as well, like being forever stamped with “not dating material” on your forehead regardless of it being true or not. It kind of bothered me that he focused on that as it just adds to the social stigma.

I love going to the movies alone or a restaurant alone. Sometimes when I have half a day without family around these are exactly the activities that I choose to undertake. It’s not rare.

I see a lot of people disagreeing with you, but HN is heavily biased towards a certain type of person, so it's not surprising. Most people don't want to do those things alone, I couldn't even imagine going out and eating alone.

Going out alone where everyone else is together feels terrible. It's part of why I despise work parties at Christmas, because in that case feeling terrible is mandatory.

Couldn't disagree more with this.

I've been alone my whole life and wouldn't want it any other way.

I go to the movies alone, go out to eat alone. Who cares? Certainly not me.

I do what I want when I want and it's fantastic. I couldn't care less that other people around me are "together". I've never had any desire for that.

You don't want social connections which is fine, but most people do want them.

I love doing both things on my own. I also deeply enjoy doing them with friends. Both things are fine. Both can be great experiences.

hey, movies alone are pretty cool, and I like to think of myself as a sociable person

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