My wife and I, very early in our relationship, bought cheap tungsten carbide rings to prank my parents by telling them we had eloped. When we actually did get married, we decided to use those same rings. I like her.

I lost entire weeks of my childhood playing at being an ant.

Now that I’ve typed that out, bug big chunks of my childhood suddenly make more sense.

Edit: dammit. I’m leaving that typo because it’s perfect.

Yeah, they’re not even close for hotel. Here’s the etymology:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/hotel

They’re correct about motel, though:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/motel

I think more men are aware of the existence of toxic masculinity than before and many of them are trying to get out from under it. A lot of young men still are unsure of how to fit into the world, though, which is how the alt-right snaps them up with easy “answers” to complex problems.

I definitely see a lot more women fighting against traditional gender roles than men. They’re killing it, it’s really great to see.

Much of my exposure to younger adults is through my work. It definitely attracts more progressive candidates, although nothing like fields such as social work, psychology, etc., so take all of this with a grain of salt. I do work fairly frequently with more traditionally “macho” workers like the trades, and they’re starting to reject toxic masculinity simply because it’s bad for business.

Hell yeah. My experience may be skewed due to my field, but I’ve noticed my Gen Z peers are SO much better at critical thinking. If someone asks most of my millennial coworkers to do something, they generally just do it. Ask one of my Gen Z coworkers and they’ll usually ask you why, often followed by probing questions to better understand what they’re doing. They’re full of healthy skepticism.

As a cohort, they’re also better at enforcing work/life balance. I’ve been fighting for employee rights for years but for so long felt like I was alone. Now I’m at home with the newer coworkers who (politely) tell their bosses to fuck off when asked to do extra unpaid work (we’re all salaried) or to work outside of their job description.

While many aren’t technically advanced - many couldn’t build or troubleshoot a broken PC - they are as a group fairly technically capable, having uniformly been raised using technology. Teaching my computer illiterate boss to use Excel is so frustrating that it feels like repeatedly punching myself in the side of the head. Teaching my equally Excel-unskilled, twenty-something coworker the same is a breeze. He has no fucking idea what he’s doing, but he picks it right up. He knows how to use a PC, just not how to use Excel in particular. My boss knows neither.

I absolutely love working with them, Gen Z is the best.

I think their metaphor is referring to ease of use and the knowledge required for use. I have a few personal anecdotes as examples.

I’m an eighties kid. My first PC was a Commodore 64 and my first car was a 1966 VW Bug. Neither was reliable nor easy to use. I had to learn to utilize interfaces that were more finicky and complex than modern equivalents, and I spent a great deal of time learning how to make them work when they glitched out or were broken. The alternative was not having them at all. It was hard to get BBS advice when your PC took a dump and no one else you knew had one you could use, and then where would you get car advice? Certainly not from my dad!

A kid growing up with an Apple anything and driving a 20 year old car doesn’t face the same kinds of difficulties. Many things just work more reliably and aren’t as difficult to use. One can easily buy gaming systems now where we often had to build our own to get what we wanted. My buddy’s 23 year old daughter had never even heard of CLI. That’s all I had!

It doesn’t make one generation better than the other - younger people today are skilled in ways I could have only dreamed of. We just have different opportunities for excellence.

A little of both, but I think it’s mostly enshittification. I’ve had nothing but trouble with Asus, to the point where I don’t buy their products anymore and try to persuade others to avoid them.

Ugh, blockchain. During the pandemic, I had absolutely no work to do so my boss asked me to make a presentation for him to present on the merits of blockchain. When my response was that it’s overhyped bullshit, he was not thrilled.

I made the requested presentation but it made me feel dirty, so I alt texted every slide’s graphics to include the counterpoint to the bullshit benefits being presented.

It’s actually a reflexive response by your body caused by the constriction of blood vessels in the skin, improving grip on wet surfaces. If you have nerve damage to the hands, feet, or related areas of the spine, the wrinkle reflex won’t function.

Related article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-our-fingers-and-toes-wrinkle-during-a-bath/

Only your kidneys handle the expulsion of excess water, so what you read isn’t accurate.

I’m the same way. I take like a quarter hit and I’m alright. The whole puff? Gone for hours.

I just respond with a hearty “yeeearghhhh!” and continue the conversation. The coworkers that know get it, the rest think I’m a lunatic.

Gary M. Zalewski is listed as the inventor. He is listed on 99 patents, several of which are related to increasing advertising proliferation and penetration. He’s basically a driver of enshittification. My favorite was “System and method for taking control of a system during a commercial break”. Can’t have the plebs changing channels!

I looked him up on LinkedIn and he looks exactly like you’d imagine. Fuck you, Gary. Fuck you.

Agreed. The only time I was suspended was because I filed a charge back for an incomplete, buggy game that was sold as finished. It took so long to even get running that I was just over the refund time limit and they refused to make an exception. There was some verbiage about being banned if I continued to do charge backs. I just stopped using Steam.

I agree to an extent. I feel the difference is it’s popular in conservative culture to do things simply to “own the libs”, even if that behavior is self destructive. Actions primarily meant to harm others celebrated simply because they hurt others shouldn’t be condoned.

If the pursuit of a more just and equitable society results in the tears of fascists, misogynists, and/or racists, I’ll gladly bathe in them.

That’s actually an urban legend. Most of it was shown again by the NFL back in 2016 after they used various incomplete sources to patch the majority of the material back together.

The bit about the tape has a grain of truth to it. A man found a copy of most of the show in his father’s attic, had it restored, and wanted to sell it to the NFL but the two parties couldn’t agree on a price. The man and the curator of the organization which restored it both had watched it. It was then kept in a vault due to its value.

It was recently shown to the public by the organization that restored it, so I’m assuming it was never purchased by the NFL. Bummer for the finder.

Edit: I haven’t watched all of this, but it appears to be on YouTube. Grab a copy before the NFL finds out!

You could have been helpful without being condescending. It’s actually allowed and even encouraged.

Many people, myself included, prefer to read. I can quickly skim an article to make sure it’s worth investing some time into before reading it for retention and understanding. I can also read far faster than a narrator can narrate the same. Overall, written word is just a significantly more effective medium for me. Others may have different reasons.

Oh shit, there’s a guy in the wall! How did I miss that?

Three foot long femurs!

I remember seeing my ex used to cause a spike of adrenaline and a feeling of dread. Last time I saw her, a few years after we split, I barely recognized her and didn’t care once I did.