i recommend learning other alphabets if for no other reason than it’s very fun to see people replace latin alphabet letters with complete nonsense for Aesthetic
as julius caesar famously said: “vspph vphdph vphcph”
I love desire paths. There’s something so wonderous about seeing an echo of humanity. Depending on it’s location, a desire path can mean so many different things.
In a city, like the pic above, they represent rebellion, and efficiency. The messiness of humanity. We like to imagine we’re oh so logical and neat so we design our cities to be logical and neat an then real humans literally trample on that idea. The ego required to think you can design something perfect that checks every box. Life is all about compromise and patching stuff when some new problem arises. Though people have certainly tried! Ohio state univeristy let students carve their desire paths, and then paved them over. It looks pretty artsy.
Some people will try to discourage desire paths, but this is almost always going to fail.
Eventually, people just have to accept them. Humans are too dang stubborn.
Certain desire paths are just adorable. A 0.5 second time saver. You just can’t design for maximum efficiency, humans will always find shortcuts!
Though on occasion a desire path can actually be the least efficient way…especially if you’re superstitious.
In a wilder area, such as below, they show us the curiosity of humans. A desire path somewhere natural often tells you there’s something interesting just ahead. (Though remember some ecosystems are fragile and will suffer if trampled! Stick to paths in these sorts of areas)
And how about desire stairs? I always think these look so cool. We get see humans determination to climb, to traverse every kind of terrain.
And for something really crazy…a desire path used for centuries will create a ‘holloway’
All of these pics are off the Desirepath subreddit, check them out for more examples! And many thanks to the users who submitted these photos.
I always wondered if these had a name. Now I know. :)
Hello everyone, I am Mahdi Jad Al-Haq and I have a family of 5. I am a 57-year-old ، I not working since 2015 ,even my wife is housewife who does not work she is 50 yrs old , my son saied 19 yrs old still studying ,2 daughters Ahlam 22 yrs old and Sherin 15 yrs old still studying. We had no income other than any job.
In our daily lives, we relied on the Social Service Law, which was stopped at the beginning of the war on Gaza, and which was not originally sufficient for the requirements of living.
During the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, we went through very difficult circumstances. We were displaced several times and lost our home due to enemy bombs shortly after our first displacement. We lost all the beautiful things that my family and I used to enjoy, and the most difficult beautiful thing we lost was security and living in peace, due to the violent bombing that surrounded us everywhere we fled to.
Our days were difficult to say the least, as there were no viable sources of work to get the money we needed to meet our needs. Our situation is tragic and we are still stuck in a tent with no healthy food, no medicine, no water, and no electricity.
During the displacement process, we lost the stable and entertaining life that I, my family used to live. We lost all things . My family, who suffers all the time from fatigue, exhaustion, and displacement from one tent to another, which made us despair. We were in a beautiful house to a tent in the middle of the street with no place to sleep. I need your help in raising money to leave the Gaza Strip because of the war and to rebuilt my destroyed house.
This requires me to raise $100,000 that will cover the evacuation fees, travel and transportation expenses about $30000, and about $70,000 that will go to rebuild our house when we return, God willing.
I need to raise money to restore a beautiful life and stability outside the Gaza Strip. Everything I say only reaches a small amount of the suffering we are living. This is a glimpse into the contrast between our lives before the aggression and the nightmare we are suffering now under the aggression.
people are always like “Oh a vampire wouldn’t get horny while drinking someone’s blood, that’s like getting horny while eating a sandwich” and like man have you never had a really good fucking sandwich?
The sandwich i had for lunch didnt moan and scream and squirm against my body and then become limp and pliable when i was done now did it
Are you telling me I am not as popular as Taylor Swift??? I must be envious of her impeccable musical prowess because I don’t get the same views on my PKCH surname as Taylor Swift does.
I’ve never been great at drawing super realistic art, and I think it’s because it never really held my interest. I just love stylized characters which is why I’ve been drawing them obsessively for over 20 years! Because of that, I’ve got a lot of ideas about how you can approach stylized anatomy - here’s a snippet of a longer video I made on this topic ✨
I’ve never been great at drawing super realistic art, and I think it’s because it never really held my interest. I just love stylized characters which is why I’ve been drawing them obsessively for over 20 years! Because of that, I’ve got a lot of ideas about how you can approach stylized anatomy - here’s a snippet of a longer video I made on this topic ✨
I’ve never been great at drawing super realistic art, and I think it’s because it never really held my interest. I just love stylized characters which is why I’ve been drawing them obsessively for over 20 years! Because of that, I’ve got a lot of ideas about how you can approach stylized anatomy - here’s a snippet of a longer video I made on this topic ✨
Me: Exercise does not cause weight loss. This is a fact that has been demonstrated so robustly in research that even doctors, who hate and fear evidence, are grudgingly starting to admit this.
Someone reading that post: Cool, but have you considered that exercise leads to weight loss?
does it? not for people exercising for their non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Interactive computer-based reminders to diet and exercise are useless.
I mean, I literally went to Cochrane Reviews, one of the best-respected sources for massive meta-analyses, and I just input the keywords “weight loss” and “exercise,” and I’m tooling through the results. Every one of the damn things shows that we do not have high-quality research indicating that exercise leads to weight loss. So no. I’m right, and you need to adjust your worldview–ask yourself, if not for weight loss, then why? Re-read those sources: exercise improved muscle density, insulin sensitivity, and cholesterol. It’s good for your blood vessels, it’s good for your strength, it’s good for your brain.
But it won’t make you thin. Maybe two pounds, maybe five, but that’s about it. If you’re looking at short-term, like a year, sure, you can lose weight–but the effort will almost always result in your body going “oh shit, we’re living in a famine” and you will regain it, and now, with your body at a new set-point, losing it will be harder. Regaining will be easier. Welcome to the life-destroying yo-yo.
#then what the fuck are we supposed to do?
Exercise and eat lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains because those things will keep you healthier longer, regardless of how much you weigh, and pick up your pick-axe in the ongoing horribly slow and frustrating fight of chipping away at the idea that being fat is a bad thing that means you’re a bad person. I recommend the book Fat Talk for a good place to start.
Weight does not determine health!
Exercise and healthy eating do.
Weight diversity is not a bad thing, albeit it was more useful once upon a time.
Me: Exercise does not cause weight loss. This is a fact that has been demonstrated so robustly in research that even doctors, who hate and fear evidence, are grudgingly starting to admit this.
Someone reading that post: Cool, but have you considered that exercise leads to weight loss?
does it? not for people exercising for their non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Interactive computer-based reminders to diet and exercise are useless.
I mean, I literally went to Cochrane Reviews, one of the best-respected sources for massive meta-analyses, and I just input the keywords “weight loss” and “exercise,” and I’m tooling through the results. Every one of the damn things shows that we do not have high-quality research indicating that exercise leads to weight loss. So no. I’m right, and you need to adjust your worldview–ask yourself, if not for weight loss, then why? Re-read those sources: exercise improved muscle density, insulin sensitivity, and cholesterol. It’s good for your blood vessels, it’s good for your strength, it’s good for your brain.
But it won’t make you thin. Maybe two pounds, maybe five, but that’s about it. If you’re looking at short-term, like a year, sure, you can lose weight–but the effort will almost always result in your body going “oh shit, we’re living in a famine” and you will regain it, and now, with your body at a new set-point, losing it will be harder. Regaining will be easier. Welcome to the life-destroying yo-yo.
#then what the fuck are we supposed to do?
Exercise and eat lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains because those things will keep you healthier longer, regardless of how much you weigh, and pick up your pick-axe in the ongoing horribly slow and frustrating fight of chipping away at the idea that being fat is a bad thing that means you’re a bad person. I recommend the book Fat Talk for a good place to start.
Me: Exercise does not cause weight loss. This is a fact that has been demonstrated so robustly in research that even doctors, who hate and fear evidence, are grudgingly starting to admit this.
Someone reading that post: Cool, but have you considered that exercise leads to weight loss?
does it? not for people exercising for their non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Interactive computer-based reminders to diet and exercise are useless.
I mean, I literally went to Cochrane Reviews, one of the best-respected sources for massive meta-analyses, and I just input the keywords “weight loss” and “exercise,” and I’m tooling through the results. Every one of the damn things shows that we do not have high-quality research indicating that exercise leads to weight loss. So no. I’m right, and you need to adjust your worldview–ask yourself, if not for weight loss, then why? Re-read those sources: exercise improved muscle density, insulin sensitivity, and cholesterol. It’s good for your blood vessels, it’s good for your strength, it’s good for your brain.
But it won’t make you thin. Maybe two pounds, maybe five, but that’s about it. If you’re looking at short-term, like a year, sure, you can lose weight–but the effort will almost always result in your body going “oh shit, we’re living in a famine” and you will regain it, and now, with your body at a new set-point, losing it will be harder. Regaining will be easier. Welcome to the life-destroying yo-yo.
#then what the fuck are we supposed to do?
Exercise and eat lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains because those things will keep you healthier longer, regardless of how much you weigh, and pick up your pick-axe in the ongoing horribly slow and frustrating fight of chipping away at the idea that being fat is a bad thing that means you’re a bad person. I recommend the book Fat Talk for a good place to start.
It’s weird to me when people try to put really hard boundaries on what cheating is in any relationship when the real question isn’t “do most people agree this is cheating?” but “does this hurt my current partner or make them uncomfortable?”
Like, the fact of the matter is, you’re going to date people who have different boundaries and the goal should be to communicate with them rather than try and logic your way into doing what you want.
once youre on hrt every doctor and specialist be like hrmmm i dont know anything about being “”“trans”“” but have you considered your issue is because of your testosterone usage. r u buying these hormones illegally btw? Yeah i think every problem you have is because youre a tranny taking evil hormones. we need to detransition you rn or your body will disintegrate into a fine dust
Every few months for the past 5 years I’ve been like “I should listen to Randy buying a bookshelf off Gumtree again”
I have gone on a journey.
The story’s fun but I’m always equally blown away by Heath’s puppetry skills. That’s a puppet there. A lil felt man. It’s so hard to remember that he’s not alive. Heath McIvor is a fucking master.
He has an actual name? The illusion is ruined, I’ve only known him as Randy Feltface for forever.
Nah I’m lying to you, this whole time Randy Feltface was actually animated by black magic.
Every few months for the past 5 years I’ve been like “I should listen to Randy buying a bookshelf off Gumtree again”
I have gone on a journey.
The story’s fun but I’m always equally blown away by Heath’s puppetry skills. That’s a puppet there. A lil felt man. It’s so hard to remember that he’s not alive. Heath McIvor is a fucking master.
He has an actual name? The illusion is ruined, I’ve only known him as Randy Feltface for forever.
Nah I’m lying to you, this whole time Randy Feltface was actually animated by black magic.
10 years ago, I was watching my Potential and Opportunities dissolve and evaporate in an ocean of cheap gin and expensive whiskey.
But 5 years ago, I was in Rehab.
One of the exercises they had us perform was to imagine ourselves happy, 5 years in the future.
Many of us in that room had forgotten how to imagine nice things happening to them. A few snorted (well, I snorted), finding the notion that we’d even still be around in 5 years grimly humorous.
For about half of us, it was the last stop on the way down.
But I indulged the therapist. I was there, after all, because I did not want to die. So, I imagined myself, 5 years hence.
Happy.
It came to me all at once; an artistic remix on Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want, reframed with myself placing food at the table.
Sunday Dinner At My Place, I answered, when it came my turn to share my fantasy. I was asked what food I imagined eating.
It’s not the meal itself, I said, it’s the implications framed around it. Sunday Dinner At My Place means that I have a Place. It means that I have Family that will actually speak to me and friends who actually want to see me. It means money enough not just to feed myself but others too. It means having the time to spare to take the time preparing the meal.
A lot of nodding heads all around me. A struck chord. Many people with no Place, in that place. Nowhere that would lament their leaving.
5 years hence, as I lay down to sleep in my Home, with my Wife and my Son, surrounded by my Art and my Flowers, I reflect.
It was a long road. It was hard. We lost people. So many people. There were long days and long nights and hospital stays. Angry arguments with ghosts. I changed, in ways I never hoped for, or expected. Good ways, finally, for once. Slowly, against the backdrop of a world in chaos, I found my mind.
Sometimes, My Wife wondered aloud, what she did to deserve me. After some stumbling with my feelings, I eventually settled on an answer.
I’m a Rescue.
She gave me a Home.
And, so, I gave her a Family.
It seemed fair
This Sunday, my folks, which whom I have not had a shouting match in years, will come over for dinner. We will cook and eat together. My Friend became My Wife, and she took a piece of me and with it she made Our Son. There will be many hugs, and no violence. Good Things Happened.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you don’tknow what the future holds.
i’m using wungle text on my rp blogs from now on to add ooc comments when i feel like it
being a child from an abusive home is so funny because sometimes you’ll be like “well there was only a little physical violence in my household growing up” and then someone will inform you that in many households the amount of physical violence is actually zero
10 years ago, I was watching my Potential and Opportunities dissolve and evaporate in an ocean of cheap gin and expensive whiskey.
But 5 years ago, I was in Rehab.
One of the exercises they had us perform was to imagine ourselves happy, 5 years in the future.
Many of us in that room had forgotten how to imagine nice things happening to them. A few snorted (well, I snorted), finding the notion that we’d even still be around in 5 years grimly humorous.
For about half of us, it was the last stop on the way down.
But I indulged the therapist. I was there, after all, because I did not want to die. So, I imagined myself, 5 years hence.
Happy.
It came to me all at once; an artistic remix on Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want, reframed with myself placing food at the table.
Sunday Dinner At My Place, I answered, when it came my turn to share my fantasy. I was asked what food I imagined eating.
It’s not the meal itself, I said, it’s the implications framed around it. Sunday Dinner At My Place means that I have a Place. It means that I have Family that will actually speak to me and friends who actually want to see me. It means money enough not just to feed myself but others too. It means having the time to spare to take the time preparing the meal.
A lot of nodding heads all around me. A struck chord. Many people with no Place, in that place. Nowhere that would lament their leaving.
5 years hence, as I lay down to sleep in my Home, with my Wife and my Son, surrounded by my Art and my Flowers, I reflect.
It was a long road. It was hard. We lost people. So many people. There were long days and long nights and hospital stays. Angry arguments with ghosts. I changed, in ways I never hoped for, or expected. Good ways, finally, for once. Slowly, against the backdrop of a world in chaos, I found my mind.
Sometimes, My Wife wondered aloud, what she did to deserve me. After some stumbling with my feelings, I eventually settled on an answer.
I’m a Rescue.
She gave me a Home.
And, so, I gave her a Family.
It seemed fair
This Sunday, my folks, which whom I have not had a shouting match in years, will come over for dinner. We will cook and eat together. My Friend became My Wife, and she took a piece of me and with it she made Our Son. There will be many hugs, and no violence. Good Things Happened.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you don’tknow what the future holds.
10 years ago, I was watching my Potential and Opportunities dissolve and evaporate in an ocean of cheap gin and expensive whiskey.
But 5 years ago, I was in Rehab.
One of the exercises they had us perform was to imagine ourselves happy, 5 years in the future.
Many of us in that room had forgotten how to imagine nice things happening to them. A few snorted (well, I snorted), finding the notion that we’d even still be around in 5 years grimly humorous.
For about half of us, it was the last stop on the way down.
But I indulged the therapist. I was there, after all, because I did not want to die. So, I imagined myself, 5 years hence.
Happy.
It came to me all at once; an artistic remix on Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want, reframed with myself placing food at the table.
Sunday Dinner At My Place, I answered, when it came my turn to share my fantasy. I was asked what food I imagined eating.
It’s not the meal itself, I said, it’s the implications framed around it. Sunday Dinner At My Place means that I have a Place. It means that I have Family that will actually speak to me and friends who actually want to see me. It means money enough not just to feed myself but others too. It means having the time to spare to take the time preparing the meal.
A lot of nodding heads all around me. A struck chord. Many people with no Place, in that place. Nowhere that would lament their leaving.
5 years hence, as I lay down to sleep in my Home, with my Wife and my Son, surrounded by my Art and my Flowers, I reflect.
It was a long road. It was hard. We lost people. So many people. There were long days and long nights and hospital stays. Angry arguments with ghosts. I changed, in ways I never hoped for, or expected. Good ways, finally, for once. Slowly, against the backdrop of a world in chaos, I found my mind.
Sometimes, My Wife wondered aloud, what she did to deserve me. After some stumbling with my feelings, I eventually settled on an answer.
I’m a Rescue.
She gave me a Home.
And, so, I gave her a Family.
It seemed fair
This Sunday, my folks, which whom I have not had a shouting match in years, will come over for dinner. We will cook and eat together. My Friend became My Wife, and she took a piece of me and with it she made Our Son. There will be many hugs, and no violence. Good Things Happened.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you don’tknow what the future holds.
Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but
Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the ‘standard’ sense?
Like, everyone I talk to who’s over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just… dont.
My mom tells stories of skipping school to sneak across the border and spend the day at a bar in Mexico. I was threatened with not being allowed to graduate because of senior ditch day. One of my friends had to go to his first hour class on senior ditch day because the teacher, who almost exclusively taught seniors, arranged a huge exam that day with no available makeup days, specifically to punish kids who took part in ditch day. Our wild and crazy ditch day was playing mini golf and then stopping for ice cream on our way back to one of our friends’ houses to play cards against humanity.
Don’t get me wrong, we had fun. But all of that, threats of not graduating, threats of failing classes over a single test, over some mini golf and ice cream?
Throughout high school and early in college, my friend group got kicked out of malls, stores, and even a parking lot just for being there wrong. Not being loud of disruptive. Not causing problems. Just being there too long, or without buying anything.
My mom graduated high school, after repeating her senior year, without a single grade above a D, and was offered a full ride scholarship to a state university to play on their women’s football team. I had a 3.8 GPA, multiple extracurriculars, a summer job, and over 100 hours of volunteer work, and barely got into that same university, and then couldn’t afford to go there anyway.
We’ve made getting into college so important and yet so difficult that kids are sacrificing their childhoods for it.
Then they become adults and it doesn’t go away. Your employer/ potential employers are searching your social media and internet presence so you’d better hope no one has ever posted a picture of you at a party, or with alcohol, or wearing revealing clothes, or whatever else they’ve deemed unprofessional. And if you want to go out it’s a 10 dollar cover and drinks are at least 8 dollars, and you need to tip if there’s any kind of live entertainment, who can afford to do all that regularly?
My physical therapist, when I was 18, told me about his 21st birthday, how the last thing he remembers is people taking body shots off him. I spent my 21st birthday alone, was in bed by 10pm because I had to be at work the next morning. My boss had already told me that they knew it was my 21st, and if I called out, she’d write me up for improper use of sick leave because you’re not allowed to use sick leave for a hangover. I don’t know anyone whose 21st birthday was a big deal. No one went out and partied for it.
I dont really know where I’m going with all of this. I guess I just don’t understand the point of it all. We spend our youth working hard to provide a future that we still can’t afford. We have to be responsible and professional as teenagers. And we get nothing out of it. We can’t afford life or friends or fun. At least our parents got to have fun being young and dumb, we just got groomed on kik.
So I’m not the only one noticing this. I wish I had an answer or at least something to say about it. But I dont. I’m just tired.
Original report (waybacked PDF) is from 2007. That’s Gen Z kids.
When I, Gen-Xer, was about 12 - in my rural home, I had about a three-mile range. (Could’ve pushed it to more, but didn’t want to walk that far.) In the city, it was about a mile. Not that anyone was checking; again, that was about the distance I wanted to walk, and besides, that covered all of “downtown.”
My kids? Closer to that 300 yards limit at the same age. Not because I wanted to restrict them, but we live next to a freeway on-ramp and between two sets of train tracks… and there is absolutely nothing kid-friendly within a half-mile for them to visit.
I spent my 21st birthday bar-hopping. My kids spent their 21st birthdays at home with a nice meal. I don’t think either of them wanted to go bar-hopping - but yeah, as a society, we’ve removed a LOT of teen-friendly options.
See also: End of Third Places, switch from video game arcades to home consoles (hey, then every kid has to buy their own copy–great for game-makers!), shutdown of malls or restrictions on youth at them, closure of public parks, reduced/removed after-school programs, etc. Plus the places that think it’s illegal for a 12-year-old to walk to the corner store unsupervised.
I am, however, DELIGHTED to hear that the booze & other vices industries are panicking over Gen Z not going out to party. Like, you spent 30-odd years removing all the places and ways people can hang out together and have fun outside of someone’s personal house, and… guess what, when people hit milestone events (graduation, milestone birthdays, job promotion, whatever), they don’t immediately flock to the Party Zone that they have never been welcome at. How shocking.
It sucks that Gen Z does not get to party, does not have good celebration options. REALLY sucks that that’s often because school or job has decided to tell them not to celebrate, rather than just not having places to go. I’m just not upset over party capitalism taking a hit.
Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but
Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the ‘standard’ sense?
Like, everyone I talk to who’s over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just… dont.
My mom tells stories of skipping school to sneak across the border and spend the day at a bar in Mexico. I was threatened with not being allowed to graduate because of senior ditch day. One of my friends had to go to his first hour class on senior ditch day because the teacher, who almost exclusively taught seniors, arranged a huge exam that day with no available makeup days, specifically to punish kids who took part in ditch day. Our wild and crazy ditch day was playing mini golf and then stopping for ice cream on our way back to one of our friends’ houses to play cards against humanity.
Don’t get me wrong, we had fun. But all of that, threats of not graduating, threats of failing classes over a single test, over some mini golf and ice cream?
Throughout high school and early in college, my friend group got kicked out of malls, stores, and even a parking lot just for being there wrong. Not being loud of disruptive. Not causing problems. Just being there too long, or without buying anything.
My mom graduated high school, after repeating her senior year, without a single grade above a D, and was offered a full ride scholarship to a state university to play on their women’s football team. I had a 3.8 GPA, multiple extracurriculars, a summer job, and over 100 hours of volunteer work, and barely got into that same university, and then couldn’t afford to go there anyway.
We’ve made getting into college so important and yet so difficult that kids are sacrificing their childhoods for it.
Then they become adults and it doesn’t go away. Your employer/ potential employers are searching your social media and internet presence so you’d better hope no one has ever posted a picture of you at a party, or with alcohol, or wearing revealing clothes, or whatever else they’ve deemed unprofessional. And if you want to go out it’s a 10 dollar cover and drinks are at least 8 dollars, and you need to tip if there’s any kind of live entertainment, who can afford to do all that regularly?
My physical therapist, when I was 18, told me about his 21st birthday, how the last thing he remembers is people taking body shots off him. I spent my 21st birthday alone, was in bed by 10pm because I had to be at work the next morning. My boss had already told me that they knew it was my 21st, and if I called out, she’d write me up for improper use of sick leave because you’re not allowed to use sick leave for a hangover. I don’t know anyone whose 21st birthday was a big deal. No one went out and partied for it.
I dont really know where I’m going with all of this. I guess I just don’t understand the point of it all. We spend our youth working hard to provide a future that we still can’t afford. We have to be responsible and professional as teenagers. And we get nothing out of it. We can’t afford life or friends or fun. At least our parents got to have fun being young and dumb, we just got groomed on kik.
So I’m not the only one noticing this. I wish I had an answer or at least something to say about it. But I dont. I’m just tired.
Original report (waybacked PDF) is from 2007. That’s Gen Z kids.
When I, Gen-Xer, was about 12 - in my rural home, I had about a three-mile range. (Could’ve pushed it to more, but didn’t want to walk that far.) In the city, it was about a mile. Not that anyone was checking; again, that was about the distance I wanted to walk, and besides, that covered all of “downtown.”
My kids? Closer to that 300 yards limit at the same age. Not because I wanted to restrict them, but we live next to a freeway on-ramp and between two sets of train tracks… and there is absolutely nothing kid-friendly within a half-mile for them to visit.
I spent my 21st birthday bar-hopping. My kids spent their 21st birthdays at home with a nice meal. I don’t think either of them wanted to go bar-hopping - but yeah, as a society, we’ve removed a LOT of teen-friendly options.
See also: End of Third Places, switch from video game arcades to home consoles (hey, then every kid has to buy their own copy–great for game-makers!), shutdown of malls or restrictions on youth at them, closure of public parks, reduced/removed after-school programs, etc. Plus the places that think it’s illegal for a 12-year-old to walk to the corner store unsupervised.
I am, however, DELIGHTED to hear that the booze & other vices industries are panicking over Gen Z not going out to party. Like, you spent 30-odd years removing all the places and ways people can hang out together and have fun outside of someone’s personal house, and… guess what, when people hit milestone events (graduation, milestone birthdays, job promotion, whatever), they don’t immediately flock to the Party Zone that they have never been welcome at. How shocking.
It sucks that Gen Z does not get to party, does not have good celebration options. REALLY sucks that that’s often because school or job has decided to tell them not to celebrate, rather than just not having places to go. I’m just not upset over party capitalism taking a hit.
Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but
Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the ‘standard’ sense?
Like, everyone I talk to who’s over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just… dont.
My mom tells stories of skipping school to sneak across the border and spend the day at a bar in Mexico. I was threatened with not being allowed to graduate because of senior ditch day. One of my friends had to go to his first hour class on senior ditch day because the teacher, who almost exclusively taught seniors, arranged a huge exam that day with no available makeup days, specifically to punish kids who took part in ditch day. Our wild and crazy ditch day was playing mini golf and then stopping for ice cream on our way back to one of our friends’ houses to play cards against humanity.
Don’t get me wrong, we had fun. But all of that, threats of not graduating, threats of failing classes over a single test, over some mini golf and ice cream?
Throughout high school and early in college, my friend group got kicked out of malls, stores, and even a parking lot just for being there wrong. Not being loud of disruptive. Not causing problems. Just being there too long, or without buying anything.
My mom graduated high school, after repeating her senior year, without a single grade above a D, and was offered a full ride scholarship to a state university to play on their women’s football team. I had a 3.8 GPA, multiple extracurriculars, a summer job, and over 100 hours of volunteer work, and barely got into that same university, and then couldn’t afford to go there anyway.
We’ve made getting into college so important and yet so difficult that kids are sacrificing their childhoods for it.
Then they become adults and it doesn’t go away. Your employer/ potential employers are searching your social media and internet presence so you’d better hope no one has ever posted a picture of you at a party, or with alcohol, or wearing revealing clothes, or whatever else they’ve deemed unprofessional. And if you want to go out it’s a 10 dollar cover and drinks are at least 8 dollars, and you need to tip if there’s any kind of live entertainment, who can afford to do all that regularly?
My physical therapist, when I was 18, told me about his 21st birthday, how the last thing he remembers is people taking body shots off him. I spent my 21st birthday alone, was in bed by 10pm because I had to be at work the next morning. My boss had already told me that they knew it was my 21st, and if I called out, she’d write me up for improper use of sick leave because you’re not allowed to use sick leave for a hangover. I don’t know anyone whose 21st birthday was a big deal. No one went out and partied for it.
I dont really know where I’m going with all of this. I guess I just don’t understand the point of it all. We spend our youth working hard to provide a future that we still can’t afford. We have to be responsible and professional as teenagers. And we get nothing out of it. We can’t afford life or friends or fun. At least our parents got to have fun being young and dumb, we just got groomed on kik.
So I’m not the only one noticing this. I wish I had an answer or at least something to say about it. But I dont. I’m just tired.
Original report (waybacked PDF) is from 2007. That’s Gen Z kids.
When I, Gen-Xer, was about 12 - in my rural home, I had about a three-mile range. (Could’ve pushed it to more, but didn’t want to walk that far.) In the city, it was about a mile. Not that anyone was checking; again, that was about the distance I wanted to walk, and besides, that covered all of “downtown.”
My kids? Closer to that 300 yards limit at the same age. Not because I wanted to restrict them, but we live next to a freeway on-ramp and between two sets of train tracks… and there is absolutely nothing kid-friendly within a half-mile for them to visit.
I spent my 21st birthday bar-hopping. My kids spent their 21st birthdays at home with a nice meal. I don’t think either of them wanted to go bar-hopping - but yeah, as a society, we’ve removed a LOT of teen-friendly options.
See also: End of Third Places, switch from video game arcades to home consoles (hey, then every kid has to buy their own copy–great for game-makers!), shutdown of malls or restrictions on youth at them, closure of public parks, reduced/removed after-school programs, etc. Plus the places that think it’s illegal for a 12-year-old to walk to the corner store unsupervised.
I am, however, DELIGHTED to hear that the booze & other vices industries are panicking over Gen Z not going out to party. Like, you spent 30-odd years removing all the places and ways people can hang out together and have fun outside of someone’s personal house, and… guess what, when people hit milestone events (graduation, milestone birthdays, job promotion, whatever), they don’t immediately flock to the Party Zone that they have never been welcome at. How shocking.
It sucks that Gen Z does not get to party, does not have good celebration options. REALLY sucks that that’s often because school or job has decided to tell them not to celebrate, rather than just not having places to go. I’m just not upset over party capitalism taking a hit.
“don’t look away” is a meaningless phrase. who are you benefiting by inundating yourself with misery porn?
DO something about things you care about. Go to a protest for something you believe in, if you can. Donate money to a cause if you have it to spare. Volunteer your time to help people if you have the energy. Write a letter to your political representatives if that’s something you can do. These are meaningful ways to try to make change in the world.
And then? don’t feel bad about insulating yourself from horrible news. Don’t make yourself look at images that make you feel sick. Don’t read endless things that depress you. Because frankly it gets harder to actually do the more you doomscroll. Reading constantly about things you can’t change because they’re happening at a systemic level or on the other side of the world is paralyzing. It makes you less able to help where you can.
I’m not saying be willfully ignorant. I’m not saying pretend horrible things aren’t happening. I’m saying don’t destroy your mental health going in-depth and cycling through horror after horror on your phone. I’m saying there is no virtue in making yourself experience other people’s traumas because mere awareness is not activism. you inflicting suffering on yourself is not activism.
doomscrolling is literally sapping your energy and focus away from doing anything useful to help other people. you can burn yourself out without ever lifting a finger by exposing yourself to all the bad news in the world and who does that help? no one.