To me, this lyric sounds like someone who keeps engaging in dialogs with "trolls" through social media. The lyricist seems to be trying to have a productive conversation with those trolls, as a part of that particular online community: "only wanted to be part of something", but those he's engaging with are literally just trying to provoke negative reactions from him, because that entertains them: "cutting him open just to watch him bleed".
Within that interpretation, I think "the emptiness machine" is the internet enabled device that many of us have in our hands right now. It promises us meaningful connections with others, but ultimately, it offers us few truly fulfilling social connections, due to those ever-present "trolls". They are always "just waiting in the distance" on the other side of our screens.
To me, this lyric sounds like someone who keeps engaging in dialogs with "trolls" through social media. The lyricist seems to be trying to have a productive conversation with those trolls, as a part of that particular online community: "only wanted to be part of something", but those he's engaging with are literally just trying to provoke negative reactions from him, because that entertains them: "cutting him open just to watch him bleed".
Within that interpretation, I think "the emptiness machine" is the internet enabled device that many of us have in our hands right now. It promises us meaningful connections with others, but ultimately, it offers us few truly fulfilling social connections, due to those ever-present "trolls". They are always "just waiting in the distance" on the other side of our screens.
[Edit: Typo fix]