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.
I bet the Germans or the Japanese have a word for that feeling that can’t be translated in any other language.
In Filipino, it’s usyoso
That’s just the act of lurking, it doesn’t say anything about the feelings you get while lurking.
I am a Tagalog speaker too (but I had to look usyoso up in the dictionary lol)
Interesting. It’s both the feeling and the act for me.
Who knows, maybe the dictionary is wrong, but I guess it wouldn’t be wrong to extend the meaning of usyoso. Yay for language evolution
The way I’ve been using (and heard it being used) is more about the act. For example: “Nakiki-usyoso ka pa dyan! Pumasok ka na nga!” (“You’re even spectating over therel! Come right back in, you!”)
There’s another word, usisa, which I would characterize as more like “to investigate, to look into” but is also akin to usyoso in a way I just can’t put my finger on. I think it got conflated with usyoso as the colloquial uzi (from usisero/a, “someone who is overly-curious”) took hold (example: "Uy! Wag ka ngang uzi! Kita mo na ngang nag-aamok na yang si Mang Torio eh. Pumasok ka na dito, bago ka pa madamay dyan!" [“Hey! Stop being an onlooker! You already see Mang Torio running amok. Come back inside before you get involved.”])
I’d use neither to refer to the feeling of “wanting to find out about someone I’m spectating on” though. Personally, I’d just use something like na-intriga (“got intrigued/curious”). For example: “Na-intriga ako dun sa nabasa kong blog kagabi. Ano na kayang nangyari sa kanya. Huling post nya 2020 pa, tapos depressing pa yung post.” (“I’m curious about the blog I read last night. I wonder what happened to them. Their last post was on 2020, and the post itself was depressing.”)
I’m a conlanger actually, the dormant person feeling gets its own word in Thiguka (patalara) and Kenahari (second conlang so far).