The dormant person feeling is a feeling I find myself having on the Internet often. Casually browsing the Internet, I find myself reading through threads and websites that don’t look like they’ve been updated since 2009, or 2010, or ${currentYear - 10}. Profiles that haven’t posted in so long either.
When I see just how long ago their last activity was, it gives me the feeling, which I can only describe as a mix of concern, curiosity, and empathy. In my head, I go “I wonder how they are doing now”, and “are they alive and well?”. Sometimes I find myself “investigating” them or looking them up to see if they are still alive just so I can satiate this feeling of mine.
Do other people experience the dormant person feeling too? Is it wrong to have such a feeling? But hey, if I feel the dormant person feeling, it does show that I do have empathy for strangers, a good quality, I suppose.
For me I think part of it is more nostalgia for a certain relationship I had with this person, even if it wasn’t a close one, and my life during the time I knew them.
I think that the internet has given us this almost elongation effect to personal relationships though. Some people are just meant to pass into our lives for a brief time then pass out of them, and that’s okay