I’m aware of how I live in a social bubble of my own making, with much or perhaps even all of its components having been handed to me through privilege combined with some lack thereof. It’s fascinating, these social bubbles in which each of us belong and foster, whereby some of them directly interlink/overlap/are largely within certain others’. But, I am acutely aware of how I stand outside of others’ bubbles to varying degrees, including that of friends’ and (more apparently) neighbors’. I’m doing my best to not let my bubble of familiarity, comfort, and safety stay the same and keep me from letting new people and information into it. It is so easy to subconsciously, or otherwise, keep one’s bubble unchanged or largely/overly-closed wherever one goes, whatever one does. Biases, prejudices, assumptions, dislikes and likes of people, places, and things can easily remain unexamined and even entrenched in reaction to any attempts to examine and re-evaluate the usefulness of them.
Perhaps I’ll write more on this later.
The Practical, Fanciful Pagan 
I would love to hear more from you about this topic. I purposely try to stay outside of other’s bubbles. That’s where I am most comfortable. Nonchalantly carrying on conversations from a safe cacoon helps me maintain boundaries. In many ways, it gives me the time to feel more about the person I am speaking or listening to. The use of that wall to maintain safety is important for my parts to feel that they will not be taken advantage of or more likely, not become enmeshed in someone else’s stuff. Whether that is useful is questionable. Whether it is necessary is absolutely essential.
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Yes, agreed! I have found it essential to step out of (expand?) my own ever-variable social bubble on a regular basis in order to examine the dimensions of my own semi-conscious limited assumptions/beliefs/comfort zone. Dramatic examples include the afternoon I hung out with a homeless man who’d bummed a cigarette from me in Seattle, or more recently an hour+ spent on a Washington, DC sidewalk talking about philosophy with a 90+ man in a wheel chair. Both of those moments were actually life-changing for me and never would have happened if I hadn’t “wasted the time” or “taken a risk.”
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Jazz, I feel most comfortable striking up a conversation with a person I have met by chance. Those times happened most when I was waiting for public transportation. The next time I saw that person, it was like meeting an old friend.
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Those are heartwarming, inspiring anecdotes. And I fully agree with your points you make.
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