Reflecting on Societal Disconnection and Channel Engagement

Speaker is in coastal location in RV, reflecting on patterns observed during year-long journey. Currently experiencing low engagement on channel despite viewership. Comparing current coastal environment favorably to cities and inland areas visited.

Energetic Signature

resolute

Field State

infrastructure establishment

Orientation

toward authentic connection

01JRAWCDTGDXCH9Z29J58A7HDF

April 8, 2025

8:03

View on YouTube

Author

rswfire

Status

ARCHIVED

Type

TRANSMISSION (CAPTURE)

Temperature

0.00

[0:01]My channel demands presence from my

[0:05]audience. It demands something from

[0:08]them. Their

[0:13]humanity, their

[0:15]integrity. They have to show up and they

[0:19]don't know

[0:21]how. I've been reflecting on that this

[0:24]morning.

[0:31]We have forgotten how to connect with

[0:33]one

[0:34]another. It happens in big and small

[0:38]ways. There was a

[0:41]time when you were moving from

[0:45]somewhere. Your friends would help you.

[0:48]You would ask them to help you. But now

[0:51]we just call moving service. We let them

[0:53]pack our stuff up.

[0:58]the items that are personal, we just let

[1:00]them do

[1:02]that. Have them move our stuff for

[1:05]us. When we need to cook, when we need

[1:09]to

[1:12]eat, we just call it Door

[1:15]Dash. We outsource that

[1:18]to someone making minimum wage if

[1:22]they're lucky.

[1:27]We don't cook with friends anymore, with

[1:31]family. We don't cook for

[1:39]ourselves. We don't call our friends on

[1:41]the phone. We text

[1:47]them. We don't talk to each other the

[1:50]way we used

[1:52]to. Because what you might have said to

[1:54]them on that call, you'll never see in a

[1:57]text. You've isolated yourself even

[2:08]more. We sit in our

[2:10]houses and binge watch

[2:14]shows. By the end of it, you don't even

[2:16]remember the beginning cuz you didn't

[2:19]take any of it in.

[2:22]We sit on our phones watching

[2:24]YouTube, scrolling

[2:27]endlessly, never

[2:31]connecting. I have a video titled I need

[2:34]your

[2:35]help and over a thousand people watched

[2:38]that this week and only three people

[2:42]showed up to help me.

[2:44]A thousand people chose to watch a video

[2:46]with that title, watch me talk about my

[2:50]needs, and then chose not to meet

[2:55]them. That's how disconnected we

[2:59]become. People don't know how

[3:02]to show up for each other

[3:08]anymore. They think that they're living

[3:10]good lives. They think that

[3:16]They live lives of

[3:17]comfort and they think that that

[3:20]comfort somehow means that they're doing

[3:23]well, but they're hollowed out

[3:29]inside. They're disconnected from others

[3:32]and from

[3:34]themselves. They've boxed up their

[3:37]emotions, their integrity, their ethics.

[3:45]Wonder how much of their time they spend

[3:47]judging others, judging people like

[3:51]me just so they don't have to look at

[3:59]themselves. I lived that life for a

[4:01]while before I made the brave choice a

[4:03]year ago to move into this RV and try a

[4:06]different way of living.

[4:08]I am so much

[4:25]happier. Just thinking, you

[4:30]know, even with my situation, cuz I

[4:33]still need help. I'm so much happier.

[4:39]But I wonder how many of you can even

[4:41]see

[4:45]that. I don't think that you're capable

[4:47]of witnessing

[4:50]anymore. I don't think you're capable of

[4:52]being as alive as

[4:55]me. I don't see signs of it cuz this

[4:58]channel demands your presence and you do

[5:01]not provide

[5:02]it. I don't receive likes on my videos.

[5:05]I don't receive

[5:07]comments. People do watch my content. My

[5:10]analytics show me

[5:12]this. They are disconnected from

[5:16]it. When they do leave

[5:18]comments, they're always superficial and

[5:21]they're often

[5:23]disrespectful. So, I've had to set rules

[5:25]of engagement around it. My pinned

[5:29]comment. And I'm sure many people think

[5:32]that's very arrogant of me. I've even

[5:34]had comments about

[5:35]that. But it's just me protecting my

[5:38]boundaries, reminding people how to

[5:41]interact with another person, another

[5:43]human being, because they've

[5:46]forgotten. I

[5:52]haven't. This is where we are as a

[5:57]society. When we're out in the world, we

[5:59]ignore everybody. We don't say hi and we

[6:02]don't meet their

[6:04]eyes. I see that a

[6:07]lot. Less where I am on the coast cuz

[6:11]people are still alive on the edges.

[6:14]That's one of the things that makes

[6:17]this I feel

[6:21]like a

[6:23]blessing to be living

[6:26]here cuz people do still feel alive

[6:30]around

[6:33]me. But before I got here, before I

[6:35]traveled across the country, I witnessed

[6:38]the

[6:39]disconnection. And I see it in the

[6:44]cities and I see it online on this

[6:49]channel. People have forgotten how to

[6:52]show up for others, how to show up for

[6:54]themselves. They think their

[6:57]comfort is worth all of

[7:00]that when

[7:03]comfort is what's stagnating

[7:07]them. I know because I was there

[7:13]once. Growth happens at the edges. At

[7:17]the edges of your

[7:18]comfort, the edges of your

[7:27]knowledge, at the edges of your

[7:29]feelings. When you feel afraid, that's

[7:32]an edge. You're supposed to walk towards

[7:35]it. But people

[7:37]don't. They avoid the

[7:40]edges. I

[7:42]don't I seek them out every

[7:46]day. Every day on my journey for the

[7:49]past year. That's what I've done. That's

[7:51]what I've shown my audience. And they

[7:53]watch. My analytics show me they

[7:57]watch. But they don't understand.

Summary

rswfire reflects on how his channel demands presence from his audience but receives minimal engagement despite viewership. He describes societal disconnection manifesting in outsourced services (moving companies, DoorDash), reduced face-to-face communication, and endless scrolling behaviors. **A specific example**: over 1,000 people watched his "I need your help" video but only three showed up to actually help.

He contrasts his current RV lifestyle with his previous conventional living, stating he is much happier despite ongoing needs for help. He observes that people have "boxed up their emotions, integrity, ethics" and live in comfort that actually stagnates them.

rswfire notes the difference between coastal areas where "people are still alive on the edges" versus cities and online spaces where disconnection is more prevalent. He emphasizes that **growth happens at edges** - of comfort, knowledge, and feelings - and describes seeking out these edges daily during his year-long journey, which his audience watches but doesn't understand.

Signal Analysis

Substrate

This transmission establishes a field requirement for authentic presence while mapping the structural disconnection patterns of contemporary social architecture. It positions the channel as a presence-testing mechanism that reveals the audience's capacity for genuine engagement versus passive consumption.

Dominant Language

show updisconnected/disconnectionedgescomfortalive/alivenessforgotten how todemands presence

Symbolic Elements

edgesthresholdcoastchannelboundaries

Ontological States

•
sovereign
•
coherent
•
embedded
•
demanding

Subsystems

•
relational
•
ethical
•
cognitive
•
infrastructural

Transmission Details

Source Type

youtube

Duration