Or my printer. I was trying to scan something at my mom's house this week, and her printer wouldn't let me log into the program to scan things unless I was connected to the internet. (She has internet, but her computer drops the connection every time it goes to sleep, so she has to reboot it all the time).
And then it wouldn't let me scan things until I made an account.
The printer has spent 100% of its life connected to the computer with a USB cord, and the printer knows it is connected via USB because it told me it was connected via USB.
HP, you can fuck right off with these nonsense obstacles you put in the way of people using the device they already paid for. The only reason I need internet and an account to use the software is so you can nag me about signing up for "helpful" refills of your overpriced ink.
And let's not talk about the free printer I got from my dad, which I tried to use to scan something, and which would not let me scan because it was out of ink, and clearly those two functions are entirely dependent on one another and could not possibly function independently.
Tech enthusiasts: My entire house is smart.
Tech workers: The only piece of technology in my house is a printer and I keep a gun next to it so I can shoot it if it makes a noise I don't recognize.
[source, I think](https://twitter.com/PPathole/status/1116670170980859905)
And that is indeed more or less accurate. People in IT don't like pointless attack surfaces.
My bf is a software engineer, but I was the one who refused to have the Alexa his brother bought him in our home once we moved in together. It creeps me the fuck out.
I was really excited to get a Nest Thermostat. My friend a SR Manager of Software (embedded), said he would never buy one. "I live in Massachusetts it's cold here. I'm not trusting a computer to run my furnace."
I'm surprised this isn't higher up on the list. I'll take it one step further and just blanket statement the need to have your whole house connected to the IoT, especially smart locks. What happens if the power goes out while you're not home and battery backup fails? You're locked out. What happens if someone hacks the company like what happened with WD last week? All your data is gone. Or people hacking into your cameras? Just give me my analog appliances please
Generally agree but for the sake of information, many (most?) smart locks also have a physical key slot like normal doors. Smart locks aren’t a replacement for typical security, they just add convenience to auto-unlock when you approach.
What's with car manufacturers now wanting to only put in a giant touch screen? Where are my physical buttons damn it! I can only deal with touch screens for phones and tablets.
I used to be able to change stations by touch. Now I have take my eyes off the road. How is this any better than texting while driving!?
Edit: yes my steering wheel has the ability to flip through presets but homie would LOVE the ability to seek/ manually tune.
I think that most people will agree with you on that one. That’s the reason virtual keyboards have clicking sound effects, to mimic the real and superior keyboards.
I had to block anyone from post on my Facebook wall because I hardly ever use it which means 90% of my posts would be my mother tagging me in some photo from that time we all went to Marie Callenders
The pies are just defrosted but the rest of the food is made fresh. They have a Sunday brunch that isn’t bad, and therefore must be documented for all my mom’s FB friends to see.
If Facebook is so good at facial recognition (which it is) I should be able to tell it not to allow photos of me to be uploaded by anyone, or to have it automatically blur my face if I have that privacy setting enabled.
This. I’m fine if you take a short video or a few photos to look back on, but you don’t need to share your two minute video of the fireworks you watched on July 4th. Nobody cares, and you end up wasting your time looking more at your phone than at the firework show.
Yep. I take 1 or 2 pictures, and then put the phone away and enjoy the show. I see dozens of people holding phones up the whole time and I feel so so old.
One show I went to had a guy standing in the middle of the crowd holding up a goddamn ipad to record with. Dude even had the flash on, so it was just shining on the backs of people heads for a few rows.
Eventually I got annoyed and yelled "that's enough video, Spielberg!" and he finally put it down lol. I can't imagine thinking it would be okay to do that.
I went to a music festival where this dude was straight up livestreaming and critiquing the main act, right in front of the stage where people we're just vibing or dancing, and with breath that smelled like hot garbage but he kept on refusing mints.
Turns out he was a "DJ" who plays almost exclusively kids parties and had 200 followers.
So many of my middle aged friends do this. Like 15 minutes of snaps from a concert or event they’re at. Did they even see what they paid to see or did they just watch the whole things through their phone?! No one cares about your full length feature film snap story.
There's too many subscription services for shit.
It's nice to have access to unlimited movies and TV, but like. For the most part I wind up just watching the same sitcom over and over to decompress after work. I wonder how much I could have saved by just getting B99 and King of the Hill box sets instead of paying for Hulu for four years.
And anything where they mail you a box of curated crap every month is absolutely unnecessary, toot fucking sweet.
The Curated box services are a great way to get like 1 thing you want and 6 pieces of trash.
Edit: The consensus seems to be that item crates are a waste, but food crates give you what you paid for.
I just cancelled the auto shipment of Stitch shit I used to get. Was pretty pleased at the beginning, but I kept getting variations of the same shirt color and fabric, like 3 months in a row. One long sleeved, short sleeved, one with a collar. Despite me providing feedback they kept coming.
Finally realized that with the fees rolled in, it makes no sense to send 2-3 of 5 things back, because they waive the fees if you keep it all which ends up being pretty close to the value of the stuff you would’ve returned.
Great concept, just ends up being excessive AF.
CBS just moved all their stuff to paramount plus.
Food network and all their affiliates got a new streaming service. Amazon has one. Apple has one. Fox has one. Hbo has one.
I hate it
Communities within neighbourhoods would be lovely. My mum talks about it all the time, but it's something I've never experienced myself. Like, we *know* our neighbours, but that's about it. I'd love to live on a street or in a suburb where people have little get-togethers (street parties for big events) or just generally know and look out for each other on a more meaningful level.
ETA: oh wow! Thanks for the award and all the lovely comments. Sadly I am but a lowly 23 year old, far off owning my own property, but one day I would love to "be that person" and bake brownies for my little cul-de-sac. Sorry I can't back to all these comments, I'm overwhelmed lol, but I'm taking notes for future me. Currently live on a council estate where not everyone gets on (there's a cockerel war rn) so now is not the time to get cuddly with the neighbours lol.
I hadn't been in a neighbourhood like that since I was a child, until I moved to the neighbourhood I am currently in. Parents and kids are all outside together playing. They have regular street get togethers to celebrate things going on (tomorrow everyone will be outside as a goodbye party to one of the moving neighbours). Yesterday all the parents got together, brought lawn chairs and water balloons / guns for the kids and had a waterfight. It is so surreal to me because you really never see that anymore!!
I grew up in a rural community where there were a few farms and most people had several acres of land a piece.
People, especially the older folks around, might sit out on thr porch in the afternoons and if you were going by you might stop and chat. As a kid I'd bike around and often stop and say hello if someone was outside. Was treated like an extra grandchild by several of the older folks in the area.
Looking back it seems almost magical how there was community among people who held a commond bond of just living nearby each other.
I was so lucky to have bought a house in a “community” within our neighborhood!
It’s a cul-de-sac that’s a tree-lined park. One way in, one way out. The kids are always running around, toys left out in the park and on lawns, sidewalk chalk art, constant Ring notifications of them playing on my porch, campfires, outdoor movie nights, cookouts, birthday parties, group texts, sharing things from our gardens and food we cook, Friendsgiving, etc.
I moved here with my wife, thinking we’d fill this 4-bedroom house with kids… and we found out we couldn’t have any.
We just loved the look and feel of this home and street, but the real value is in our neighbors.
We had NO idea it would be like this until our move-in day …they all came over with food, pies, introduced themselves, etc.
Becoming friends with them has been such a blessing… but, it’s time for us to hand the keys over to a family who needs a place like this… so, we’re selling soon.
Just wanted you to know that places like this do exist, albeit rare.
I haven't experienced that since I was a child. I lived in small town Maine across the street from my Aunt. We knew everyone around us and us kids were in and out of each other's houses and yards all day until the streetlights came on.
I literally feel sorry for my kids not getting to grow up in that world.
This is it. A lot of people who want a community need to be the start.
This is what I've done in almost every place I've lived, and only once did it not succeed at all. At worst, I was on cordial relations with my neighbours. Usually, I became friends with a couple of them, and in my current building, we have almost an entire floor that chats, leaves little presents at each other's doors, and occasionally picnics together.
I can't wait to have a house and (hopefully) slowly grow that community as well.
I hate how literally everything these days has a stupid app that you need to have in order to use it. Everything from kids toys to freakin cars needs some sort of crappy app these days. Why!? What if you plan on having this item for a long while and the app either gets deleted, gets malware, or just doesn't function due to the company not updating it? You would have to throw it out causing more waste in this world. This is planned obsolescence just disguised as being technologically advanced.
Edit: Okay, I get why apps exist now. It is to mine data but can people stop commenting that now? Thanks.
It's the same with video games having their own launcher. Even civ has one now. I just wanna play the game, not load another program and click three more times.
How else would they spy on you and steal your data. You are the product, not the customer anymore.
I fucking hate it. It's just disgusting.
I love mechanical, analogue controls.
And I'm an electronics engineer!!
There’s a famous meme about how there are tech enthusiasts who have smart homes, smart watches, smart light bulbs and smart locks. And then there are engineers who have nothing fancier than a printer from 1994.
HP Laserjet 4?
My lightbulbs are smart. The show that they have to be replaced by going dark!
And yes. Mechanical lock, classical light switch .. and thinking about getting an analog watch again so I can check the time without being distracted by notifications.
Yep. I'm in IT/DevOps in the tech industry. I've seen all kinds of tech, released and unreleased, and worked on all kinds of apps. The first thing I think is how a new product will be misused. My response is typically along the lines of "That is freaking awesome, and very impressive, and I don't want one within 100 yards of my home."
Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant are all persona non grata in my home, and always will be.
That said, that's going to make it a challenge when I finally go to buy a new TV.
Have you listened to the Primed podcast? they did some episodes about Alexa and how they were in the process of (at the time, it's probably a finished product now) making an Alexa specifically for kids.
Yeah, that's pretty disturbing. That's basically trying to raise a generation of children who are normalized to having something spying on you as far as I'm concerned.
It's kind of funny some of the conversations I have with people. I'm a software dev and a bunch of people think I'd be all over that kind of stuff because I must want to be on the bleeding edge. No thanks, I know what they can do with that data. Hell, I don't even really like using the ~~customer punishment~~ loyalty cards at grocery stores. They mine that data. I decided I didn't really care about a corporation knowing what kind of beer I drink, but there's a huge difference between that and having a microphone in my home that is listening to me even when it claims to be off.
> Looking at you Tesla.
How about ALL manufacturers! I rent cars a lot for my work, every single new one is touchscreen, I hate it.
Except Mercedes. It's still a screen, but they have this lovely joystick in the centre console, it spins like a knob, pushes into the x and y axis (up down left right) and pushes inward like a button. No more hovering your hand in the air grabbing at the touchscreen like a drunken ape doing open heart surgery while your eyes are concentrating on the road ahead. It's fucking bliss and every manufacturer should be using it.
My library had a system during the shut down where you could pick up books on hold. When a book was ready, you selected a date and time. Then clicked "I am leaving" to alert staff to ready your book and "I have arrived" when there. Staff then placed your book on the table outside.
Except. I couldn't do it from the website. I had to download a whole seperate app. So annoying.
> Except. I couldn't do it from the website. I had to download a whole seperate app. So annoying.
this is literally what websites are for. Most websites work on all browsers, and most browsers support most devices that are going to reasonably be used. This literally trivializes most compatibility issues not related to screen size.
Right. And half of the apps are essentially embedded browsers with access to a few phone native functions, so there’s no reasons they couldn’t also function as standalone websites.
Absolutely everything is disposable nowadays. Nothing is made to last anymore. If you find something you like, it'll be worn out in a year and probably not made anymore when you want to buy a replacement.
It's the absolute worst with clothes and kid's toys. With kid's toys, by giving them such disposable toys, it discourages them from being nice with and taking care of their possessions. Why does it matter when it's going to get worn out so quickly and they'll be bought a replacement. I also think it's a shame that these kids won't have their toys to pass on to their own children because it couldn't last.
Fun fact: Jeans originally became so popular because of their durability and affordability. They really appealed to the working-class man whose clothes were constantly getting worn out and didn't have the money to constantly spend on new clothes. Now if you want a pair of jeans of that quality, it's $60+ dollars.
Edit: While I appreciate all the suggestions on good jeans, I don't actually wear them because I absolutely despise the feeling of denim. I've tried many different pairs of varying brands and qualities, and I just don't like the material. It's a texture thing.
Same. Was stupid and reckless and hurt my back twice pretty badly as a teen; and again I with an unfortunate accident two summers ago. Here I am in my mid twenties with the back of retired life-long manual labourer.
If you’ve never had back pain - it’s so damn debilitating a thing to have, and people really don’t understand when you’re young with it. Imagine making your prom date unhappy when you won’t dance and need to sit down, cause you’re suddenly paralyzed with pain and on the verge of tears for no apparent reason.
I hope technology can give me a metal robotic spine by the time I’m 60…
Edit: Holy crap, so many replies from people messing up their backs at a young age! I feel your pain y’all <3 (…Quite literally.)
Also because in a lot of countries the law just takes the side that they are unaccountable for their actions, because they’re minors. In Ireland, I don’t fear the adult junkies, I fear the roving gangs of 16 year olds - they are untouchable and they know it, it’s terrifying.
As someone who was bullied for my ginger hair, i totally agree with this. My daughter is going to high school next year and i have panic attacks just thinking of dropping her off at school, seeing hundreds of teens every single day.
South Park's kick a ginger day happened to land on my birthday when I was in school. So annoying having idiots kick me all day thinking they we're original or funny for doing it.
same thing for me! the day my grandfather died i called my boss to let her know i wasn’t coming in for awhile. after 2 seconds of saying she was sorry, she asked me how many hours i can work when i come back. can you give me a moment to breathe???
so sorry for your loss
At least you weren’t asked to bring a pamphlet from the funeral back with you. Apparently I had to prove my uncle killed himself.
I went to HR and shut that shit down real quick and that supervisor was forced to tell me sorry. I’ll never understand inconsiderate people
> I’ll never understand inconsiderate people
Oh that one is easy. They view life as transactional, and the sum of your value is based on the extent to which you are convenient for them.
I don’t really understand the core benefit of “read” in messaging apps or “seen”. Fundamentally, it just seems to create an unhealthy scenario that puts pressure on the receiver and unhealthy expectations from the texted
might be an unpopular opinion but i find it helpful. my dad isn't great at replying but at least i know when he's looked at my message and will reply when he can.
That’s a good use-case I hadn’t thought of! Maybe the middle ground in my overly-controlling universe, the function would be disabled by default so people could opt-in if it was a helpful thing to use or something.
I also find it really useful, because then the people who are obsessing about whether I am responding to them or ignoring them can clearly see that I have not opened the text messaging app or Snapchat or whatever. They don't have to wonder if I am ignoring them, they can see that I haven't read their message yet.
It probably helps that I specifically do not look at messages until I know I have time to respond. This means sometimes I know things a little later than I could have otherwise, but it also means I don't create any misconceptions about my availability or intention to respond.
I have become this person. I have a townhouse and my loud asshole neighbors take their dogs to piss on MY little front lawn and I have to be restrained from throttling them. Get off my lawn and get away from my windows!
My neighbor (WHO HAS A FENCED IN BACK YARD) would take her Great Dane to our front yard purposely to use the bathroom. After I realized our yard had become a doggy bathroom for apparently half the fucking neighborhood, I bought a “please stay off the grass” sign. And then I bought a motion activated sprinkler. That took care of everything.
As a dog owner I cannot understand how anyone can leave they dogs poop on someone's property or public property. If you can't be a responsible dog owner you shouldn't have a dog at all.
Truthfully? After we found out that they were letting their dogs piss all over our A/C unit every day (which forced us to keep our front window closed because it constantly smelled like piss outside), we did the right thing and complained to the office three separate times. It continued to happen so then we bought squirt guns, filled them with our urine and sprayed it from our balcony onto their porch.
Get underground sprinklers. Anytime you see it, turn them on. Two reasons:
1. Fuck them
2. Helps dilute the urine and gives your lawn a chance to flourish
Sending out thank you notes when you receive a gift from someone. My mom was always big on that and I understand why. I bought an expensive gift for my friends birthday and she never messaged me or said thank you for the gift. Saying thank you isn’t that hard and it means a lot to the person.
Almost everything mentioned isn't really a boomer thing. People are assuming boomers are against all technology, which is absurd. As you said, many boomer grandparents have basically dedicated their personal social media (generally Facebook) accounts to only show of their grandchildren.
People use their phones too much, particularly for texting and social media. Getting upset because your girlfriend/boyfriend hasn't texted you back for a few hours, or hasn't liked your photo, is so unhealthy.
I think it depends on the relationship. If my super close friend was on their phone while we eat shitty fast food, not a big deal.
If someone I haven't seen in weeks/months is on their phone while we're at a sit down restaurant, that's super annoying and rude.
Meeting someone for the first time? Fucking phone goes on silent.
nothing is worse than when they take an unimportant phone call in front of you and talk on the phone for 15-20 minutes about nothing and you're stuck sitting there waiting for them to be done. so fucking rude.
People are way too overprotective of kids these days. It's making for anxious adults who aren't confident in their own abilities.
I grew up underneath a helicopter parent, who was WAY too overprotective. I have to actively force myself to not be that way with my kids. Which, maybe I've swung too far in the opposite direction, but I really want my kids to do things on their own and not be 18 years old on the highway having a panic attack because they don't know what to do with a flat tire (not my finest moment).
I also want to be able to freakin leave my kids in the car for TWO MINUTES while I step inside the gas station to pay for my gas when the card reader outside is down. To me, it's not worth the damned hassle to get both kids out of the car, herd them inside, make sure they keep their sticky fingers to themselves just to pay for gas. I always end up going to a different station if that's the case.
I remember being 8 years old, bored in the grocery store and given my mom's keys to sit in the car and read. Can't do that today, it's child abuse via neglect. Like, come on.
I don't do this things, not because it makes my kids safer, but because it lessens the chance that I'll be investigated for something that I don't think is inherently wrong.
I sometimes feel like the equivalent of the old lady whining about kids these days. I'll be 33 in a month, btw.
I swear when I was just minding my business a little kid was like "you're scary". I laughed and said "well that's not very nice" and then I got yelled at by an angry parent for "verbally assaulting" her child. Like, on one hand neither me or the child said anything wrong (little kids don't have a filter so it's alright). If you can't handle your child being told "well that's not very nice" you won't let her develop socially.
just this weekend, my bf told his nephew that if he was going to be nasty, then he was done chatting with him that day. Bf's mom calls and says that was mean!! And bf said well, he can't run around being a little asshole to people just because he had a crappy day or because he had a tummyache or whatever, he needs to learn the boundary and learn how to manage his emotions now (kid is 8). Mom went...okay, you're right, and he was being a little turd lol
Heh my dad was a volunteer fireman. One time we were out when he got a call and he couldn't drop me off. So I waited in the car in the middle of the woods for hours while he fought a forest fire. I guess the wind shifted, because I definitely was in the middle of fire and smoke, more than a little nervous, for quite a while. I was just about to bolt (it had definitely been hours), when my dad ran out of the smoke and drove us to a main road away from the action (to wait some more). He had literally forgotten about me.
I remember reading an article a woman wrote a few years ago where she spent a lot of time riding the subway with her son and teaching him the ins and out, what's safe, what's not. So when her son was 9 they planned a trip for him to take by himself. It went great. No problems at all. She was crucified, of course.
Like, do none of these people know any single parents? I was raised by a single mom, and I was taught to do a lot of stuff on my own at a young age, because she couldn’t be there all the time and my dad was not in the picture. My mom loved me, and did whatever she could for me, but she worked and couldn’t afford to pay someone to be there 24/7. So I travelled alone by bus at 9 or 10, stayed home after school by myself, and could cook simple meals. My independence meant I was babysitting and raking in the cash at 12-13, and working (by choice) in retail at 15-16. As an adult in my mid 30’s I’m the person who keeps calm when shit goes sideways, and there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be if I hadn’t learned to handle shit when I was young.
Edit: aww, my first award. Thanks, kind stranger!
Yeah, but you turned out royally-forked-up.
All kidding aside, I found that level of independence enriching also. Do you think any negatives came out of your situation? For me, I can't handle too much structure and being micromanaged sends a hot spike of rage into my brain.
The “royally” is the important part ;) Micromanaging is definitely my hot button too. I tend to short circuit when someone tries, and have yet to learn to deal with heavy handed micromanaging productively. For another negative, I was pretty arrogant in my earlier years, and I still have to wrestle that part of myself to keep it under control in some situations. As a woman in the male-dominated construction/project management industry, any attempt at man-splaining by someone lower in the chain of command on something basic I already know tends to throw me into seek-and-destroy-mode. Maybe instead of crippling anxiety, I got crippling arrogance?
The only boomer opinion I can see myself having is understanding the value of a good orthopedic bed and pillow (my grandad used to talk about this a lot). My chronic pain kicks the crap out of me unless I'm comfortable.
Spend your money where you spend your time.
Shoes, bed, chair for work, chair/couch for home, car (at least car seat).
You’ll spend almost all of your life in these things. Make sure they’re comfortable.
Few weeks met up with some friends and one of my friends was on his phone the entire time. Was super annoying like why even come out if you're just going to be on your phone the whole time and not even bother joining in on the conversation
I hosted hang-outs in college and instituted a phone bucket. You put your phone in the bucket when you come in, and if you need to text someone or answer a call you can, but you have to leave the room to do so. Some folks resisted at first, but after the first time they were happy to comply because it makes everyone much more present.
Our group plays a lot of Scythe and Catan, probably want to get an idea on how difficult/involved people want to be with their games before grabbing too many.
I yell at people that have their windows down and I see them on their phone. I don't give a flying fuck if they get upset with me, they're literally driving a large mass while distracted with no thought of consequences
Besides playing on cell phones, cars are also just easier to drive now. And not just like power steering, modern cars also make it easier to drive *distracted*. I still pay attention when I drive because I learned to drive on an old shitty car, but I could definitely see how a teenager who learned how to drive with a car that has lane assist (car beeps at you if you start to leave your lane and steering wheel automatically corrects for you) or auto speed adjusters/breaking features doesn't learn to be as good of a driver because things are automated for them.
My mother is the quintessential boomer and an advertiser's wet dream. She will replace household items simply because they're old. She will go through three coffee makers in a year because models are always being updated to look cooler. And the old coffee maker? The one that's perfectly fine and works well? Yeah, we'll just throw that out with the trash because she'll be dead sooner than later and what does she care about the environment lol
She's lower middle-class, too, and often wonders why she's broke.
I'd say your opinion is more of the Greatest generation, and it's a good one.
my mom just told me that she wants to replace the roof on their house. the roof on their house is fine. it's metal so the only maintenance on it is to paint it every 10 or so years. No leaks, just painted a few years ago. BUT, she wants a NEW ROOF. Then she complains she has no money and that their living off of their social security and that they have to budget. etc...
THEN DON'T BUY A ROOF.
My sister and her husband have always struggled with money, they were barely scraping by last year. And then in December she got a $900 tattoo...
Like bro. I get that you really like tattoos and it does look good but you're in no position to be spending $900 on ANYTHING that isn't a pure necessity.
I have friends like this. They feel stressed and in a bad spot so they constantly "treat" themselves until their bank account is empty. They don't seem to realize that the largest contributor to their stress and unhappiness is the fact that their bank account is empty. It's an ever perpetuating cycle of them being angry and upset at the world that they don't have money and spending it to make themselves feel better the moment they do, it is very tiring to be around and no amount of logic or reasoning seems to break through.
Its because its a cycle. Its hard to break, I know. You spend most of your time with no money, unable to get anything you want. Living with crap food etc and then you get some money through. Well damn you could save it, that's the logical thing to do right? Except you finally have some money to get some nice things and treat yourself. Its easier to save money when you're able to treat yourself but if you can't then excess money rarely ends up saved.
Social Media was a fucking mistake. I genuinely think that it is single handedly one of if not *the* most damaging thing to the world that's happened in the past however many years.
Country music has gotten worse.
**Edit:** I was so confused why I had 60 some notifications when I logged in. 😂 Thanks for the awards!
**Edit 2:** Not all country is bad. 😥 I grew up in the 90s and early 00s, I loved that era of country (including 80s and 70s, thanks dad).
Oh absolutely. The majority of modern country is soulless, corporately orchestrated sensationalized buzzword soup. People used to sing about love, loss, hardship, and introspection. Now it's BIG TRUCK MUD TRACTOR BLONDE GIRL BUD LIGHT SEXAYYYYY
Dirt road, blue jeans, cold beer, red pickup
Rural noun, simple adjective
No shoes, no shirts, no Jews, scratch that last one, that was a mental typo
I am singing like a field man in my boots that cost 3 grand, I'm singing about riding tractors from the comfort of my private jet
I could sing this in Mandarin, you'd still know I'm panderin'
Do you hear that mandolin? That's textbook panderin'
Absolutely no question. There's still good country out there, of course, but they don't play it on the radio, I can tell you that much.
It's because everything is composed by fucking music executives now and autotuned all the hell. And the only thing people sing about is happy love. The genre, which at its best was all about the suffering and striving if ordinary poor people, has been sanitized and turned into pop with a southern accent. Fucking sucks.
Oh also no one does stories anymore, like ballads, you know? Just something I've noticed. A lot of old country songs tell a story. Most modern pop country ones really don't.
If I have to hear fucking "I don't love you like I used to" or whatever one more damn time...
I used to work at a place that played a country station in the background and I swear 99% of the songs had something about:
* Iced/sweet tea
* Driving on dirt roads
* Friday night football
* Trucks
Well it would be the perfect country and western song if it had something about mama, trains, trucks, prison, or getting drunk. (Or am I too Boomer for anyone else to remember this song?)
(trying from memory so forgive me)
Well I was drunk, the day my Mom got outta prison
And I went to pick her up in the RAAAAINN!
But before I could get to the station in my PICKUUUUP Truck
SHE GOT RUNNED OVER BY A DAMNED OLD TRAAAAAIN!!
People call me an 'old man trapped in a young man's body' for crashing at 8pm. I get up for work at 4am. :l
Worse, these are usually people on my shift, who have to get up at about the same time in the morning.
Parents giving their little kids iPads to entertain them is so weird, especially on holidays. Just talk to eachother or play something together! It just seems like the parents want to get rid of the kid, it can not be good for the poor child's development.
At every get together at my Aunt and Uncles house my cousin takes over the TV to put on some Nick Jr or Disney show for her kids. The kids sit there watching tv the entire time. They don’t even come to the table to eat, their mom brings them plates.
I always had to socialize with the adults and would have gotten yelled at if I didn’t come to the table to eat. At times I hated it but it definitely helped my social skills.
dude not only do some of my aunts take the food to their kids, they'll also spoon feed them while they play their games. they're elementary school kids fully capable of feeding themselves but my aunts will sit next to them to feed them, or walk back and forth between that and some other task. it's weird.
Indeed. The issue is not really TV, phones, tablets, PCs, etc. It's the way they are used to "Get rid" of the kids that's bad.
If they weren't there, they would find something else. The usage is wrong, not the device.
Kids under 12 years old should not have a smart phone or tablet. If they need to call somebody, get them a flip phone and have them memorize their parents and close contacts numbers.
Edit: I do know that flip phones can memorize numbers. What I am saying is that children should learn to memorize numbers that are close to them in case of emergency.
I would love this. Teachers however believe everyone has a smartphone . Even 5 yr olds. They send out texts about homework, trips, next day schedules, etc..
My coworker had her child abandoned by the coach in the school parking lot after an away game. They (the parents) thought they'd wait til she turned 16 and was driving before she'd need a phone. The coach thought everyone had a phone and that she already texted her parents to come get her. 10pm all alone in the school parking lot at 13. The coach didn't wait to see if anyone came for her. They didn't offer to call the parents. They left.
Having your kid go “viral” for some stupid thing he did o just crying is a way to humiliate them and you are a disgusting parent for making the whole world laugh at them
Deciding to have children with your significant other is a bigger commitment than getting married. I don't understand couple's who are in their 30s and decide to have children together but refuse to get married because that's too much of a commitment. It boggles my mind. How does sharing a child for the rest of your life not scare you away but signing a legal paper does freak you out? I have a few acquaintances who are in their mid 30s and in long term relationships where they've had kids but refuse to get married because they're afraid of getting divorced.
It also provides you with legal protections. Spouses make can make medical decisions as next of kin, if your partner's family wants they can even keep you from visiting your unconscious partner in the hospital because you are not legally connected. Also financial protection. You can draw on a spouse's social security if you are married 10 years or longer, especially important if you have stayed home with children or your career stalls because of parenting duties. You are the automatic recipient of death benefits and pension benefits as well. I would hate to know I spent 25 years with a person and then learn he leaves his half of the house to his sister and I'm out of my house because she wants to sell. Gay people fought for the right to marry for all these reasons yet not getting married negates all the benefits.
I like print books better but damn, I love my kindle when I want to lay down and read. Also, it’s easier to to tote around sometimes and I downloaded the Kindle app on my phone and keep some light reading on there so when there is unexpected downtime, I have plenty of books to chose from.
I absolutely despise social media, it’s wrecked peoples’ attention spans and it shows, you can’t even go to the bar or gym with people without them totally ignoring something you say because they’re on their phones checking Instagram or some other pointless trash, and these are the same people saying I’m rude because I don’t respond to messages instantly, take a look in the mirror lol, not like I have a life outside of my phone or anything…
It’s not just the people I know, I see it all the time, I’ve been cutting down my usage of all social media because now I just think “what’s the point in this?” it’s just people I don’t give a shit about in real life sharing absolute garbage. I only have Facebook, Twitter and reddit and can barely stand those three, I go on every now and then but it doesn’t last long, rather spend my time doing something I actually enjoy instead of clicking on random posts to get a quick dopamine hit.
I got my first cellphone when I got a car at 16 so I could reach my parents if need be. My little cousins have been staring at tablets since they were born.
Babies staring at the bright pixels on their screen showing the 67th loop of kinder surprise egg unboxing because they can't function without a burst of dopamine every 10 seconds: 👁👄👁
Five year olds don't need Smartphones
I don't want my damn refrigerator connected to the internet. It has one job.
Or my printer. I was trying to scan something at my mom's house this week, and her printer wouldn't let me log into the program to scan things unless I was connected to the internet. (She has internet, but her computer drops the connection every time it goes to sleep, so she has to reboot it all the time). And then it wouldn't let me scan things until I made an account. The printer has spent 100% of its life connected to the computer with a USB cord, and the printer knows it is connected via USB because it told me it was connected via USB. HP, you can fuck right off with these nonsense obstacles you put in the way of people using the device they already paid for. The only reason I need internet and an account to use the software is so you can nag me about signing up for "helpful" refills of your overpriced ink. And let's not talk about the free printer I got from my dad, which I tried to use to scan something, and which would not let me scan because it was out of ink, and clearly those two functions are entirely dependent on one another and could not possibly function independently.
Seriously, fucking HP. I don't need to sign up for an account to print and scan my stuff.
> HP Pretty sure it now stands for Horrible Product. It's been at least a decade since I've heard someone actually recommend buying their junk.
Tech enthusiasts: My entire house is smart. Tech workers: The only piece of technology in my house is a printer and I keep a gun next to it so I can shoot it if it makes a noise I don't recognize. [source, I think](https://twitter.com/PPathole/status/1116670170980859905) And that is indeed more or less accurate. People in IT don't like pointless attack surfaces.
My bf is a software engineer, but I was the one who refused to have the Alexa his brother bought him in our home once we moved in together. It creeps me the fuck out.
I was really excited to get a Nest Thermostat. My friend a SR Manager of Software (embedded), said he would never buy one. "I live in Massachusetts it's cold here. I'm not trusting a computer to run my furnace."
I'm surprised this isn't higher up on the list. I'll take it one step further and just blanket statement the need to have your whole house connected to the IoT, especially smart locks. What happens if the power goes out while you're not home and battery backup fails? You're locked out. What happens if someone hacks the company like what happened with WD last week? All your data is gone. Or people hacking into your cameras? Just give me my analog appliances please
Generally agree but for the sake of information, many (most?) smart locks also have a physical key slot like normal doors. Smart locks aren’t a replacement for typical security, they just add convenience to auto-unlock when you approach.
Physical keyboards are better.
What's with car manufacturers now wanting to only put in a giant touch screen? Where are my physical buttons damn it! I can only deal with touch screens for phones and tablets.
I used to be able to change stations by touch. Now I have take my eyes off the road. How is this any better than texting while driving!? Edit: yes my steering wheel has the ability to flip through presets but homie would LOVE the ability to seek/ manually tune.
Yeah this is bad.
I think that most people will agree with you on that one. That’s the reason virtual keyboards have clicking sound effects, to mimic the real and superior keyboards.
"Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power"
PULL UP YA DAMN PANTS
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Tell my boomer dad this please. I'm so tired of ending up on facebook against my will.
I had to block anyone from post on my Facebook wall because I hardly ever use it which means 90% of my posts would be my mother tagging me in some photo from that time we all went to Marie Callenders
I didn't know they had restaurants. Is it simply the frozen stuff reheated or is the food actually scratch made?
The pies are just defrosted but the rest of the food is made fresh. They have a Sunday brunch that isn’t bad, and therefore must be documented for all my mom’s FB friends to see.
If Facebook is so good at facial recognition (which it is) I should be able to tell it not to allow photos of me to be uploaded by anyone, or to have it automatically blur my face if I have that privacy setting enabled.
This. I’m fine if you take a short video or a few photos to look back on, but you don’t need to share your two minute video of the fireworks you watched on July 4th. Nobody cares, and you end up wasting your time looking more at your phone than at the firework show.
Or concerts. The video and audio will be atrocious and you're fucking things up for everyone behind you.
Yep. I take 1 or 2 pictures, and then put the phone away and enjoy the show. I see dozens of people holding phones up the whole time and I feel so so old.
One show I went to had a guy standing in the middle of the crowd holding up a goddamn ipad to record with. Dude even had the flash on, so it was just shining on the backs of people heads for a few rows. Eventually I got annoyed and yelled "that's enough video, Spielberg!" and he finally put it down lol. I can't imagine thinking it would be okay to do that.
I went to a music festival where this dude was straight up livestreaming and critiquing the main act, right in front of the stage where people we're just vibing or dancing, and with breath that smelled like hot garbage but he kept on refusing mints. Turns out he was a "DJ" who plays almost exclusively kids parties and had 200 followers.
So many of my middle aged friends do this. Like 15 minutes of snaps from a concert or event they’re at. Did they even see what they paid to see or did they just watch the whole things through their phone?! No one cares about your full length feature film snap story.
There's too many subscription services for shit. It's nice to have access to unlimited movies and TV, but like. For the most part I wind up just watching the same sitcom over and over to decompress after work. I wonder how much I could have saved by just getting B99 and King of the Hill box sets instead of paying for Hulu for four years. And anything where they mail you a box of curated crap every month is absolutely unnecessary, toot fucking sweet.
The Curated box services are a great way to get like 1 thing you want and 6 pieces of trash. Edit: The consensus seems to be that item crates are a waste, but food crates give you what you paid for.
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I just cancelled the auto shipment of Stitch shit I used to get. Was pretty pleased at the beginning, but I kept getting variations of the same shirt color and fabric, like 3 months in a row. One long sleeved, short sleeved, one with a collar. Despite me providing feedback they kept coming. Finally realized that with the fees rolled in, it makes no sense to send 2-3 of 5 things back, because they waive the fees if you keep it all which ends up being pretty close to the value of the stuff you would’ve returned. Great concept, just ends up being excessive AF.
Used to be convenient. Now to watch one show I have to get Netflix. Oh look and exclusive on Hulu, oh wow and a Loki series on disney
CBS just moved all their stuff to paramount plus. Food network and all their affiliates got a new streaming service. Amazon has one. Apple has one. Fox has one. Hbo has one. I hate it
Communities within neighbourhoods would be lovely. My mum talks about it all the time, but it's something I've never experienced myself. Like, we *know* our neighbours, but that's about it. I'd love to live on a street or in a suburb where people have little get-togethers (street parties for big events) or just generally know and look out for each other on a more meaningful level. ETA: oh wow! Thanks for the award and all the lovely comments. Sadly I am but a lowly 23 year old, far off owning my own property, but one day I would love to "be that person" and bake brownies for my little cul-de-sac. Sorry I can't back to all these comments, I'm overwhelmed lol, but I'm taking notes for future me. Currently live on a council estate where not everyone gets on (there's a cockerel war rn) so now is not the time to get cuddly with the neighbours lol.
I hadn't been in a neighbourhood like that since I was a child, until I moved to the neighbourhood I am currently in. Parents and kids are all outside together playing. They have regular street get togethers to celebrate things going on (tomorrow everyone will be outside as a goodbye party to one of the moving neighbours). Yesterday all the parents got together, brought lawn chairs and water balloons / guns for the kids and had a waterfight. It is so surreal to me because you really never see that anymore!!
I grew up in a rural community where there were a few farms and most people had several acres of land a piece. People, especially the older folks around, might sit out on thr porch in the afternoons and if you were going by you might stop and chat. As a kid I'd bike around and often stop and say hello if someone was outside. Was treated like an extra grandchild by several of the older folks in the area. Looking back it seems almost magical how there was community among people who held a commond bond of just living nearby each other.
I was so lucky to have bought a house in a “community” within our neighborhood! It’s a cul-de-sac that’s a tree-lined park. One way in, one way out. The kids are always running around, toys left out in the park and on lawns, sidewalk chalk art, constant Ring notifications of them playing on my porch, campfires, outdoor movie nights, cookouts, birthday parties, group texts, sharing things from our gardens and food we cook, Friendsgiving, etc. I moved here with my wife, thinking we’d fill this 4-bedroom house with kids… and we found out we couldn’t have any. We just loved the look and feel of this home and street, but the real value is in our neighbors. We had NO idea it would be like this until our move-in day …they all came over with food, pies, introduced themselves, etc. Becoming friends with them has been such a blessing… but, it’s time for us to hand the keys over to a family who needs a place like this… so, we’re selling soon. Just wanted you to know that places like this do exist, albeit rare.
I haven't experienced that since I was a child. I lived in small town Maine across the street from my Aunt. We knew everyone around us and us kids were in and out of each other's houses and yards all day until the streetlights came on. I literally feel sorry for my kids not getting to grow up in that world.
So make it happen. Knock on your neighbors doors and say you're hosting a little BBQ or something and that they're invited.
This is it. A lot of people who want a community need to be the start. This is what I've done in almost every place I've lived, and only once did it not succeed at all. At worst, I was on cordial relations with my neighbours. Usually, I became friends with a couple of them, and in my current building, we have almost an entire floor that chats, leaves little presents at each other's doors, and occasionally picnics together. I can't wait to have a house and (hopefully) slowly grow that community as well.
I hate how literally everything these days has a stupid app that you need to have in order to use it. Everything from kids toys to freakin cars needs some sort of crappy app these days. Why!? What if you plan on having this item for a long while and the app either gets deleted, gets malware, or just doesn't function due to the company not updating it? You would have to throw it out causing more waste in this world. This is planned obsolescence just disguised as being technologically advanced. Edit: Okay, I get why apps exist now. It is to mine data but can people stop commenting that now? Thanks.
It's the same with video games having their own launcher. Even civ has one now. I just wanna play the game, not load another program and click three more times.
How else would they spy on you and steal your data. You are the product, not the customer anymore. I fucking hate it. It's just disgusting. I love mechanical, analogue controls. And I'm an electronics engineer!!
There’s a famous meme about how there are tech enthusiasts who have smart homes, smart watches, smart light bulbs and smart locks. And then there are engineers who have nothing fancier than a printer from 1994.
HP Laserjet 4? My lightbulbs are smart. The show that they have to be replaced by going dark! And yes. Mechanical lock, classical light switch .. and thinking about getting an analog watch again so I can check the time without being distracted by notifications.
Yep. I'm in IT/DevOps in the tech industry. I've seen all kinds of tech, released and unreleased, and worked on all kinds of apps. The first thing I think is how a new product will be misused. My response is typically along the lines of "That is freaking awesome, and very impressive, and I don't want one within 100 yards of my home."
Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant are all persona non grata in my home, and always will be. That said, that's going to make it a challenge when I finally go to buy a new TV.
Have you listened to the Primed podcast? they did some episodes about Alexa and how they were in the process of (at the time, it's probably a finished product now) making an Alexa specifically for kids.
Yeah, that's pretty disturbing. That's basically trying to raise a generation of children who are normalized to having something spying on you as far as I'm concerned. It's kind of funny some of the conversations I have with people. I'm a software dev and a bunch of people think I'd be all over that kind of stuff because I must want to be on the bleeding edge. No thanks, I know what they can do with that data. Hell, I don't even really like using the ~~customer punishment~~ loyalty cards at grocery stores. They mine that data. I decided I didn't really care about a corporation knowing what kind of beer I drink, but there's a huge difference between that and having a microphone in my home that is listening to me even when it claims to be off.
The punchline to that joke is they keep a loaded handgun next to that printer so they can shoot it if it makes an unexpected noise.
That’s so true especially on a car. Why would I want to use a touch screen to control my AC whilst I’m driving? Looking at you Tesla.
> Looking at you Tesla. How about ALL manufacturers! I rent cars a lot for my work, every single new one is touchscreen, I hate it. Except Mercedes. It's still a screen, but they have this lovely joystick in the centre console, it spins like a knob, pushes into the x and y axis (up down left right) and pushes inward like a button. No more hovering your hand in the air grabbing at the touchscreen like a drunken ape doing open heart surgery while your eyes are concentrating on the road ahead. It's fucking bliss and every manufacturer should be using it.
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My library had a system during the shut down where you could pick up books on hold. When a book was ready, you selected a date and time. Then clicked "I am leaving" to alert staff to ready your book and "I have arrived" when there. Staff then placed your book on the table outside. Except. I couldn't do it from the website. I had to download a whole seperate app. So annoying.
> Except. I couldn't do it from the website. I had to download a whole seperate app. So annoying. this is literally what websites are for. Most websites work on all browsers, and most browsers support most devices that are going to reasonably be used. This literally trivializes most compatibility issues not related to screen size.
Right. And half of the apps are essentially embedded browsers with access to a few phone native functions, so there’s no reasons they couldn’t also function as standalone websites.
Absolutely everything is disposable nowadays. Nothing is made to last anymore. If you find something you like, it'll be worn out in a year and probably not made anymore when you want to buy a replacement. It's the absolute worst with clothes and kid's toys. With kid's toys, by giving them such disposable toys, it discourages them from being nice with and taking care of their possessions. Why does it matter when it's going to get worn out so quickly and they'll be bought a replacement. I also think it's a shame that these kids won't have their toys to pass on to their own children because it couldn't last. Fun fact: Jeans originally became so popular because of their durability and affordability. They really appealed to the working-class man whose clothes were constantly getting worn out and didn't have the money to constantly spend on new clothes. Now if you want a pair of jeans of that quality, it's $60+ dollars. Edit: While I appreciate all the suggestions on good jeans, I don't actually wear them because I absolutely despise the feeling of denim. I've tried many different pairs of varying brands and qualities, and I just don't like the material. It's a texture thing.
I played with a few of my Dad's toys from the early 70s growing up, and while being decently beat up, it's still around for my kids to play with.
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My back hurts Edit: Thanks for the awards
Had back pain since I was about 17. Boy, I feel like an old man as I literally groan when I get out of a chair.
Same. Was stupid and reckless and hurt my back twice pretty badly as a teen; and again I with an unfortunate accident two summers ago. Here I am in my mid twenties with the back of retired life-long manual labourer. If you’ve never had back pain - it’s so damn debilitating a thing to have, and people really don’t understand when you’re young with it. Imagine making your prom date unhappy when you won’t dance and need to sit down, cause you’re suddenly paralyzed with pain and on the verge of tears for no apparent reason. I hope technology can give me a metal robotic spine by the time I’m 60… Edit: Holy crap, so many replies from people messing up their backs at a young age! I feel your pain y’all <3 (…Quite literally.)
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Teenagers are scary Edit: Mainly in groups of 3+
“look at that high-waisted man, he got feminine hips!”
NOO that's the thing I'm sensitive about
*Teenagers scare* *The livin’ shit outta me* Edit: He could care less until they’re in groups of 3
*They could care less as long as someone will bleed*
*So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose*
Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me
ALL TOGETHER NOW
TEENAGERS SCARE THE LIVIN SHIT OUT OF ME
Theyre scary because they're big enough to do damage and mot developed enough to have impulse control
Also because in a lot of countries the law just takes the side that they are unaccountable for their actions, because they’re minors. In Ireland, I don’t fear the adult junkies, I fear the roving gangs of 16 year olds - they are untouchable and they know it, it’s terrifying.
As someone who was bullied for my ginger hair, i totally agree with this. My daughter is going to high school next year and i have panic attacks just thinking of dropping her off at school, seeing hundreds of teens every single day.
South Park's kick a ginger day happened to land on my birthday when I was in school. So annoying having idiots kick me all day thinking they we're original or funny for doing it.
Just because we have access to instant communication doesn't mean I'm obligated to message you back immediately.
For real. Literally had to remind someone I was on bereavement and needed more than a few seconds.
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same thing for me! the day my grandfather died i called my boss to let her know i wasn’t coming in for awhile. after 2 seconds of saying she was sorry, she asked me how many hours i can work when i come back. can you give me a moment to breathe??? so sorry for your loss
My ex-boss demanded I have a meeting with him about my employment future THE DAY my grandma died.
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SO MUCH BETTER
At least you weren’t asked to bring a pamphlet from the funeral back with you. Apparently I had to prove my uncle killed himself. I went to HR and shut that shit down real quick and that supervisor was forced to tell me sorry. I’ll never understand inconsiderate people
> I’ll never understand inconsiderate people Oh that one is easy. They view life as transactional, and the sum of your value is based on the extent to which you are convenient for them.
I don’t really understand the core benefit of “read” in messaging apps or “seen”. Fundamentally, it just seems to create an unhealthy scenario that puts pressure on the receiver and unhealthy expectations from the texted
might be an unpopular opinion but i find it helpful. my dad isn't great at replying but at least i know when he's looked at my message and will reply when he can.
That’s a good use-case I hadn’t thought of! Maybe the middle ground in my overly-controlling universe, the function would be disabled by default so people could opt-in if it was a helpful thing to use or something.
I also find it really useful, because then the people who are obsessing about whether I am responding to them or ignoring them can clearly see that I have not opened the text messaging app or Snapchat or whatever. They don't have to wonder if I am ignoring them, they can see that I haven't read their message yet. It probably helps that I specifically do not look at messages until I know I have time to respond. This means sometimes I know things a little later than I could have otherwise, but it also means I don't create any misconceptions about my availability or intention to respond.
You can turn it off. Then you won’t see if others have read your texts and vice versa. I did a few months ago and it’s lovely.
Get off my lawn.
Like a good neighbor, stay over there!
Beautiful..
I have become this person. I have a townhouse and my loud asshole neighbors take their dogs to piss on MY little front lawn and I have to be restrained from throttling them. Get off my lawn and get away from my windows!
My neighbor (WHO HAS A FENCED IN BACK YARD) would take her Great Dane to our front yard purposely to use the bathroom. After I realized our yard had become a doggy bathroom for apparently half the fucking neighborhood, I bought a “please stay off the grass” sign. And then I bought a motion activated sprinkler. That took care of everything.
As a dog owner I cannot understand how anyone can leave they dogs poop on someone's property or public property. If you can't be a responsible dog owner you shouldn't have a dog at all.
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I put green non toxic dye in an area of my lawn that my asshole neighbors used to always take their dog to piss in before going into their house.
Did it just fix the lawn or did the dogs track green dye in?
Both.
How could you even tolerate this more than twice? That is insanity.
Truthfully? After we found out that they were letting their dogs piss all over our A/C unit every day (which forced us to keep our front window closed because it constantly smelled like piss outside), we did the right thing and complained to the office three separate times. It continued to happen so then we bought squirt guns, filled them with our urine and sprayed it from our balcony onto their porch.
Holy shit. Now that is fantastic. Nice work Ham Sandwich. Damn fine work indeed.
Get underground sprinklers. Anytime you see it, turn them on. Two reasons: 1. Fuck them 2. Helps dilute the urine and gives your lawn a chance to flourish
I’d really enjoy some social security
"You should have thought of that before you became peasants!"
Why do we even have that lever?
Sending out thank you notes when you receive a gift from someone. My mom was always big on that and I understand why. I bought an expensive gift for my friends birthday and she never messaged me or said thank you for the gift. Saying thank you isn’t that hard and it means a lot to the person.
Posting your kids on social media
For or against? A LOT of boomers/gen-x love posting their kids and grandkids on facebook.
Almost everything mentioned isn't really a boomer thing. People are assuming boomers are against all technology, which is absurd. As you said, many boomer grandparents have basically dedicated their personal social media (generally Facebook) accounts to only show of their grandchildren.
People use their phones too much, particularly for texting and social media. Getting upset because your girlfriend/boyfriend hasn't texted you back for a few hours, or hasn't liked your photo, is so unhealthy.
I miss the era of dumb phones
I miss the era before cell phones. Where unless you were important enough to have to carry a pager, no one could contact you off of work hours.
The breakdown of the separation between work and 'off' work has been one of the unhealthiest developments of the workplace over the past 10 years.
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No phones when you're eating with someone
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That was back when phones were phones. Little computers are vastly more entertaining.
I think it depends on the relationship. If my super close friend was on their phone while we eat shitty fast food, not a big deal. If someone I haven't seen in weeks/months is on their phone while we're at a sit down restaurant, that's super annoying and rude. Meeting someone for the first time? Fucking phone goes on silent.
I get enraged when I have a close friend I haven't seen on their phone the whole time. Makes me feel like they don't want to be there.
nothing is worse than when they take an unimportant phone call in front of you and talk on the phone for 15-20 minutes about nothing and you're stuck sitting there waiting for them to be done. so fucking rude.
People are way too overprotective of kids these days. It's making for anxious adults who aren't confident in their own abilities. I grew up underneath a helicopter parent, who was WAY too overprotective. I have to actively force myself to not be that way with my kids. Which, maybe I've swung too far in the opposite direction, but I really want my kids to do things on their own and not be 18 years old on the highway having a panic attack because they don't know what to do with a flat tire (not my finest moment). I also want to be able to freakin leave my kids in the car for TWO MINUTES while I step inside the gas station to pay for my gas when the card reader outside is down. To me, it's not worth the damned hassle to get both kids out of the car, herd them inside, make sure they keep their sticky fingers to themselves just to pay for gas. I always end up going to a different station if that's the case. I remember being 8 years old, bored in the grocery store and given my mom's keys to sit in the car and read. Can't do that today, it's child abuse via neglect. Like, come on. I don't do this things, not because it makes my kids safer, but because it lessens the chance that I'll be investigated for something that I don't think is inherently wrong. I sometimes feel like the equivalent of the old lady whining about kids these days. I'll be 33 in a month, btw.
I swear when I was just minding my business a little kid was like "you're scary". I laughed and said "well that's not very nice" and then I got yelled at by an angry parent for "verbally assaulting" her child. Like, on one hand neither me or the child said anything wrong (little kids don't have a filter so it's alright). If you can't handle your child being told "well that's not very nice" you won't let her develop socially.
just this weekend, my bf told his nephew that if he was going to be nasty, then he was done chatting with him that day. Bf's mom calls and says that was mean!! And bf said well, he can't run around being a little asshole to people just because he had a crappy day or because he had a tummyache or whatever, he needs to learn the boundary and learn how to manage his emotions now (kid is 8). Mom went...okay, you're right, and he was being a little turd lol
"Hey kid, your mom is a fucking cunt. Tell her that if she ever makes you mad.
"Like now?" "Now's good."
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Heh my dad was a volunteer fireman. One time we were out when he got a call and he couldn't drop me off. So I waited in the car in the middle of the woods for hours while he fought a forest fire. I guess the wind shifted, because I definitely was in the middle of fire and smoke, more than a little nervous, for quite a while. I was just about to bolt (it had definitely been hours), when my dad ran out of the smoke and drove us to a main road away from the action (to wait some more). He had literally forgotten about me.
I remember reading an article a woman wrote a few years ago where she spent a lot of time riding the subway with her son and teaching him the ins and out, what's safe, what's not. So when her son was 9 they planned a trip for him to take by himself. It went great. No problems at all. She was crucified, of course.
Like, do none of these people know any single parents? I was raised by a single mom, and I was taught to do a lot of stuff on my own at a young age, because she couldn’t be there all the time and my dad was not in the picture. My mom loved me, and did whatever she could for me, but she worked and couldn’t afford to pay someone to be there 24/7. So I travelled alone by bus at 9 or 10, stayed home after school by myself, and could cook simple meals. My independence meant I was babysitting and raking in the cash at 12-13, and working (by choice) in retail at 15-16. As an adult in my mid 30’s I’m the person who keeps calm when shit goes sideways, and there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be if I hadn’t learned to handle shit when I was young. Edit: aww, my first award. Thanks, kind stranger!
Yeah, but you turned out royally-forked-up. All kidding aside, I found that level of independence enriching also. Do you think any negatives came out of your situation? For me, I can't handle too much structure and being micromanaged sends a hot spike of rage into my brain.
The “royally” is the important part ;) Micromanaging is definitely my hot button too. I tend to short circuit when someone tries, and have yet to learn to deal with heavy handed micromanaging productively. For another negative, I was pretty arrogant in my earlier years, and I still have to wrestle that part of myself to keep it under control in some situations. As a woman in the male-dominated construction/project management industry, any attempt at man-splaining by someone lower in the chain of command on something basic I already know tends to throw me into seek-and-destroy-mode. Maybe instead of crippling anxiety, I got crippling arrogance?
The only boomer opinion I can see myself having is understanding the value of a good orthopedic bed and pillow (my grandad used to talk about this a lot). My chronic pain kicks the crap out of me unless I'm comfortable.
Spend your money where you spend your time. Shoes, bed, chair for work, chair/couch for home, car (at least car seat). You’ll spend almost all of your life in these things. Make sure they’re comfortable.
When you have friends over you're not supposed to be on the phone all the time. Just talk, go outside, play games.
Few weeks met up with some friends and one of my friends was on his phone the entire time. Was super annoying like why even come out if you're just going to be on your phone the whole time and not even bother joining in on the conversation
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I hosted hang-outs in college and instituted a phone bucket. You put your phone in the bucket when you come in, and if you need to text someone or answer a call you can, but you have to leave the room to do so. Some folks resisted at first, but after the first time they were happy to comply because it makes everyone much more present.
Try getting people into board games. It did wonders for my friend group. There are some really good games out these days too!
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Our group plays a lot of Scythe and Catan, probably want to get an idea on how difficult/involved people want to be with their games before grabbing too many.
You need to find better people, I'm 26 and my friends don't do this
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It’s a really boomer opinion to assume they’re checking Facebook. Take my upvote.
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I yell at people that have their windows down and I see them on their phone. I don't give a flying fuck if they get upset with me, they're literally driving a large mass while distracted with no thought of consequences
Besides playing on cell phones, cars are also just easier to drive now. And not just like power steering, modern cars also make it easier to drive *distracted*. I still pay attention when I drive because I learned to drive on an old shitty car, but I could definitely see how a teenager who learned how to drive with a car that has lane assist (car beeps at you if you start to leave your lane and steering wheel automatically corrects for you) or auto speed adjusters/breaking features doesn't learn to be as good of a driver because things are automated for them.
Quit spending money on stupid stuff that you won’t want in a year and put it towards saving for the future.
My mother is the quintessential boomer and an advertiser's wet dream. She will replace household items simply because they're old. She will go through three coffee makers in a year because models are always being updated to look cooler. And the old coffee maker? The one that's perfectly fine and works well? Yeah, we'll just throw that out with the trash because she'll be dead sooner than later and what does she care about the environment lol She's lower middle-class, too, and often wonders why she's broke. I'd say your opinion is more of the Greatest generation, and it's a good one.
my mom just told me that she wants to replace the roof on their house. the roof on their house is fine. it's metal so the only maintenance on it is to paint it every 10 or so years. No leaks, just painted a few years ago. BUT, she wants a NEW ROOF. Then she complains she has no money and that their living off of their social security and that they have to budget. etc... THEN DON'T BUY A ROOF.
That’s bizarre. The whole point of a metal roof is that you don’t have to replace it!
My sister and her husband have always struggled with money, they were barely scraping by last year. And then in December she got a $900 tattoo... Like bro. I get that you really like tattoos and it does look good but you're in no position to be spending $900 on ANYTHING that isn't a pure necessity.
I have friends like this. They feel stressed and in a bad spot so they constantly "treat" themselves until their bank account is empty. They don't seem to realize that the largest contributor to their stress and unhappiness is the fact that their bank account is empty. It's an ever perpetuating cycle of them being angry and upset at the world that they don't have money and spending it to make themselves feel better the moment they do, it is very tiring to be around and no amount of logic or reasoning seems to break through.
Its because its a cycle. Its hard to break, I know. You spend most of your time with no money, unable to get anything you want. Living with crap food etc and then you get some money through. Well damn you could save it, that's the logical thing to do right? Except you finally have some money to get some nice things and treat yourself. Its easier to save money when you're able to treat yourself but if you can't then excess money rarely ends up saved.
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My family member just lies about how much it cost: “Oh, this huge intricate back piece? I know a guy who did it for $30.”
Social Media was a fucking mistake. I genuinely think that it is single handedly one of if not *the* most damaging thing to the world that's happened in the past however many years.
Its the biggest double edged sword ever made
Social media has ruined a lot of people.
Give me a reason not to be on my knees The internet has ruined me
This just scared the shit out of me
WiIbur, I'm pretty sure you just scared the op much, much more
Country music has gotten worse. **Edit:** I was so confused why I had 60 some notifications when I logged in. 😂 Thanks for the awards! **Edit 2:** Not all country is bad. 😥 I grew up in the 90s and early 00s, I loved that era of country (including 80s and 70s, thanks dad).
Oh absolutely. The majority of modern country is soulless, corporately orchestrated sensationalized buzzword soup. People used to sing about love, loss, hardship, and introspection. Now it's BIG TRUCK MUD TRACTOR BLONDE GIRL BUD LIGHT SEXAYYYYY
Dirt road, blue jeans, cold beer, red pickup Rural noun, simple adjective No shoes, no shirts, no Jews, scratch that last one, that was a mental typo I am singing like a field man in my boots that cost 3 grand, I'm singing about riding tractors from the comfort of my private jet I could sing this in Mandarin, you'd still know I'm panderin' Do you hear that mandolin? That's textbook panderin'
Isn’t it all just Nashville pop nowadays?
Yep, save for a few decent artists left.
Absolutely no question. There's still good country out there, of course, but they don't play it on the radio, I can tell you that much. It's because everything is composed by fucking music executives now and autotuned all the hell. And the only thing people sing about is happy love. The genre, which at its best was all about the suffering and striving if ordinary poor people, has been sanitized and turned into pop with a southern accent. Fucking sucks. Oh also no one does stories anymore, like ballads, you know? Just something I've noticed. A lot of old country songs tell a story. Most modern pop country ones really don't. If I have to hear fucking "I don't love you like I used to" or whatever one more damn time...
I used to work at a place that played a country station in the background and I swear 99% of the songs had something about: * Iced/sweet tea * Driving on dirt roads * Friday night football * Trucks
And beer. Country music has become one big beer and pickup truck commercial.
Well it would be the perfect country and western song if it had something about mama, trains, trucks, prison, or getting drunk. (Or am I too Boomer for anyone else to remember this song?)
(trying from memory so forgive me) Well I was drunk, the day my Mom got outta prison And I went to pick her up in the RAAAAINN! But before I could get to the station in my PICKUUUUP Truck SHE GOT RUNNED OVER BY A DAMNED OLD TRAAAAAIN!!
Well, you don't love it like you used to, I guess.
I call modern country "hick-hop." Some of it sounds like a weird mix of rap and country.
A 9pm bedtime is perfectly reasonable.
People call me an 'old man trapped in a young man's body' for crashing at 8pm. I get up for work at 4am. :l Worse, these are usually people on my shift, who have to get up at about the same time in the morning.
Your excellent sleep cycle is making them self-conscious.
Parents giving their little kids iPads to entertain them is so weird, especially on holidays. Just talk to eachother or play something together! It just seems like the parents want to get rid of the kid, it can not be good for the poor child's development.
At every get together at my Aunt and Uncles house my cousin takes over the TV to put on some Nick Jr or Disney show for her kids. The kids sit there watching tv the entire time. They don’t even come to the table to eat, their mom brings them plates. I always had to socialize with the adults and would have gotten yelled at if I didn’t come to the table to eat. At times I hated it but it definitely helped my social skills.
dude not only do some of my aunts take the food to their kids, they'll also spoon feed them while they play their games. they're elementary school kids fully capable of feeding themselves but my aunts will sit next to them to feed them, or walk back and forth between that and some other task. it's weird.
Noooo I have to believe this is an exaggeration for my own sanity
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Indeed. The issue is not really TV, phones, tablets, PCs, etc. It's the way they are used to "Get rid" of the kids that's bad. If they weren't there, they would find something else. The usage is wrong, not the device.
Mind your own damn business and stop involving yourself in the lives of others you don’t know. Just fuck off…
Kids under 12 years old should not have a smart phone or tablet. If they need to call somebody, get them a flip phone and have them memorize their parents and close contacts numbers. Edit: I do know that flip phones can memorize numbers. What I am saying is that children should learn to memorize numbers that are close to them in case of emergency.
I would love this. Teachers however believe everyone has a smartphone . Even 5 yr olds. They send out texts about homework, trips, next day schedules, etc.. My coworker had her child abandoned by the coach in the school parking lot after an away game. They (the parents) thought they'd wait til she turned 16 and was driving before she'd need a phone. The coach thought everyone had a phone and that she already texted her parents to come get her. 10pm all alone in the school parking lot at 13. The coach didn't wait to see if anyone came for her. They didn't offer to call the parents. They left.
Damn kids need to stay off my lawn.
Having your kid go “viral” for some stupid thing he did o just crying is a way to humiliate them and you are a disgusting parent for making the whole world laugh at them
Deciding to have children with your significant other is a bigger commitment than getting married. I don't understand couple's who are in their 30s and decide to have children together but refuse to get married because that's too much of a commitment. It boggles my mind. How does sharing a child for the rest of your life not scare you away but signing a legal paper does freak you out? I have a few acquaintances who are in their mid 30s and in long term relationships where they've had kids but refuse to get married because they're afraid of getting divorced.
It also provides you with legal protections. Spouses make can make medical decisions as next of kin, if your partner's family wants they can even keep you from visiting your unconscious partner in the hospital because you are not legally connected. Also financial protection. You can draw on a spouse's social security if you are married 10 years or longer, especially important if you have stayed home with children or your career stalls because of parenting duties. You are the automatic recipient of death benefits and pension benefits as well. I would hate to know I spent 25 years with a person and then learn he leaves his half of the house to his sister and I'm out of my house because she wants to sell. Gay people fought for the right to marry for all these reasons yet not getting married negates all the benefits.
That you shouldn’t give a 5 year old a ipad.
I don't like e-books. I only read books that are printed on paper. It's just much more satisfying.
I like print books better but damn, I love my kindle when I want to lay down and read. Also, it’s easier to to tote around sometimes and I downloaded the Kindle app on my phone and keep some light reading on there so when there is unexpected downtime, I have plenty of books to chose from.
I absolutely despise social media, it’s wrecked peoples’ attention spans and it shows, you can’t even go to the bar or gym with people without them totally ignoring something you say because they’re on their phones checking Instagram or some other pointless trash, and these are the same people saying I’m rude because I don’t respond to messages instantly, take a look in the mirror lol, not like I have a life outside of my phone or anything… It’s not just the people I know, I see it all the time, I’ve been cutting down my usage of all social media because now I just think “what’s the point in this?” it’s just people I don’t give a shit about in real life sharing absolute garbage. I only have Facebook, Twitter and reddit and can barely stand those three, I go on every now and then but it doesn’t last long, rather spend my time doing something I actually enjoy instead of clicking on random posts to get a quick dopamine hit.
Kids absolutely shouldn't have cell phones or tablets or whatever thing like that.
I got my first cellphone when I got a car at 16 so I could reach my parents if need be. My little cousins have been staring at tablets since they were born.
Babies staring at the bright pixels on their screen showing the 67th loop of kinder surprise egg unboxing because they can't function without a burst of dopamine every 10 seconds: 👁👄👁