The Irony of Apathy

A few days ago, I found myself recommending to a friend of mine that he try to be a little more apathetic. That is to say, to care less about everything. This makes sense to a degree. You cannot care as much as you can about everything you come across and expect to come out emotionally whole. I accused myself of being as apathetic as I humanly could. However, upon further reflection, I find this to be untrue.

I accused myself of being so uncaring mostly on the grounds of my limited social life. However, it is quite the opposite. You see, it makes more sense that people with a larger social life would actually be the more apathetic ones. They would have a larger selection of friends to go through, and they would naturally care less about each friend individually. And due to the fact that the percentage difference would be negligible, the more friends you have, the less it hurts when you loose one. The opposite is true for someone with, say, 3-4 real friendships.

So, it comes down to a matter of perspective. If you are viewing yourself, your caring level is directly correlated to the number of friends you have. However, if you are observing someone else, then the relationship is inversely correlated. And that explains my original fault of judgement.