This sounds like the title of a ChubbyEmu video.

It’s more than that, the anxiety and lack of practice in real, that includes the awful, social encounters growing up creates an environment in which those kids, now adults, have incredible anxiety for social engagement. It’s almost like we created our own Black Mirror world by putting a screen buffer up in front of our children’s faces starting as early as 2yrs.

Helicoptering. Planning the child’s week to enrich them, scheduling play dates with no organic initiative by the child, and inadvertently dictating a script so when that ordered script and mommy umbrella are torn away at college, near panic level anxiety hits. And why wouldn’t it? No practice at deciding for oneself or engaging with real people with the full range of normal human emotions. No chaperoned play dates or protections by mommy when a bad grade happens any more.

But there is a haze right now of sorting out true ADHD from the lack of focus and attention fostered by screens. Which we do want to do, because it’s still reparable if we can start on therapeutic work no later than the early 20s.

Again, yes, with social anxiety being confused with autism. Same deal.

Of course both autism and ADHD are very real, which of course I need to spell out in no uncertain terms because this is Lemmy, but the upbringing of the latest crop of kids also, at the same time, can foster symptoms of both and that needs to be sorted through. It’s not right or healthy to assume either way on this one.

If you watched Stranger Things, the depiction of Nancy going to work and being relegated to making coffee for the boys instead of being taken seriously at an actual job is an iconic representation of women’s struggle in the workplace. Remember, women were only allowed to have their own bank accounts, credit cards, and home loans as legally protected assets, starting in the late 1970s. We were deemed more incompetent, and more wards of our husbands in those respects. Inertia of those notions remained even after the legality changed. That whole bit in Delores Claiborne, where her husband finds her “private”, “personal”, only her name on it bank account and just empties it: real. (That is what RBG had a deciding vote on btw, what gave her such credit back in the day, changing financial freedoms for women to match those of men.)

Yes, this may seem a little focused on women, but it’s a significant piece of the “things were better” push on the right. The right did grow, in part, as a reaction to the loss of the more controlled, traditional, “kept” female. It’s important to keep a full visual of what going back could mean. Roe has already fallen.

Moving away from screen time to more face to face is good. Doesn’t mean texting is bad, it’s fantastic, amazing even, how easy it is to communicate. I love it. But I still drive 10-15min to sit down in a living room face to face with people. I feel little to no stress when disagreement, argument, or even anger occurs. Facing the normal range of human emotion in another doesn’t make me want to hide.

Even just moving back to more long form media would help stop the destructive, anxiety perpetuating, focus reducing rewiring happening. YouTube statistics are now saying anything over 10 minutes is doomed to die based on viewer preference. 9 minutes or less or gtfo. Shorts are quickly taking over and perpetually rewiring people on the daily.

This all or nothing, either or bullshit needs to stop being perpetuated. It is why we have such an inured two party system that effectively makes their followers dance each election.

The tactic here is exactly the one used by Jordan Peterson, mixing truth with garbage for the sake of manipulating an audience into his way of thinking. And it works.

We did stay out in groups of friends, face to face, until it was dark out. We also used destinations like malls, pizza places, and water as an excuse to do so. Cars were a big deal, a means to get there without parents. Summertime involved backyard bonfires in states without burn bans. Uninvited friends and neighbors would randomly show up. Being occupied socially sometimes meant sitting with other people saying nothing, a little bored, doing nothing other than sitting in a room with others, sometimes listening to uninteresting people or TV. But that was ok because you were with friends, spending time.

The reality is there are brain changes due to screens and the invasive format of the “short”. Literal re-writing at the level of how neurons talk to each other. Shortened attention spans. Increased anxiety. Increased impatience. Inability to focus. Worse, inability to go all in on a single point of focus, for hours to create, produce, invent, or simply develop thinking skills. Increased anxiety and lack of coping in interpersonal, not even relationships, but interaction such that this idea of sitting around with groups of people, deliberately, as a way to use free time appears weird and fictional.

That said, the world wasn’t necessarily better. Just watching Wills mom on Stranger Things trying to make a phone call when her phone burned out was painful. It is nice to have a map with a “You Are Here” star wherever you go. No more perpetual cloud of cigarette smoke with all white walls and decor perpetually stained beige or yellow with nicotine sludge from cigarettes. Women’s lib had (past tense) made more progress away from rape culture and towards reproductive freedom. Less racism. And so on.

Articles like these, similar to political pundits, seek to muddy what is true by using truth to spread lies.

Here’s the thing about “groceries in town”. You will find deals at the deli/bakery and possibly the butcher areas of the store. Sometimes. That said, 80% of it is ridiculously priced.

What often happens is people store more food and bundle their drive into town for stuff.

I will, for example, do most of my grocery shopping after my last shift in a run. Less gas and bother and it’s on the way.

We have a large garden. Two freezers. Cold storage. Two fridges. Fruit trees. If a snow storm dropped and we were stuck for a month we’d be fine. The food would get boring, but we’d be fine.

The one danger to this move you’re making will be the sounds or lack thereof. Once you go rural you may have a very hard time going back to hearing people and their vehicles all the time. As in they become a point of grating stress until they stop.

Consider the luffa next. It’s a squash of sorts that grows on a vine. The inner matrix of the large zucchini looking fruits is the luffa sponge. Zone 10.

Post face surgery Luke, clearly. All in black, Return of the Jedi, I think.

There’s photo perfect, then there’s artist stylized.

No, the regular Scrabble app. There are solo games, but mostly one on one games with strangers. And a speed competition more in keeping with real life play.

EA originally owned it. I bought it for $5 back on the first iPhone. Limited to banner ads. Then it died, because it was sold. Now it’s ScrabbleGO. The same with some eyeroll garbage for collecting new tile skins and a store for new skins and some pay to play. If that wasn’t bad enough, every time you take a turn, an ad plays after. Banners included as well. It’s unplayable in its current state.

The closest approximation would be words with friends. Also riddled with ads, triggered to play every 1-2 turns. Also unplayable. Also in addition to banner ads.

Scrabble is officially dead outside of real life play on a physical board. Which makes me sad. Real life play almost no one plays defensively so it’s just aggravating.

My initial thought. But at this point we’re already watching the planet burn.

Ok. Can we engineer the death of all mosquitos already?

That’s foul. I wouldn’t touch YouTube without Ublock. You ever try watching that garbage without it?

The one app game I like(d) was Scrabble. It was sold and is now an endless stream of ads. Turn, ad, turn, ad, turn, ad, nonstop. It’s unplayable. I had to delete it.

Ad blockers make media consumable. Granted, less screen time would likely benefit everyone.

Health care here still uses fax machines.

So much for Europe being more progressive. They’re shilling for corporate on par with the states.

Mark Rubio has proven to be quite demonic.

It’s fine when there’s one or two high quality. The current setup is to bleed people dry.

When AI composes imagery.

Buy a thermos. Make and bring your own coffee.

It’s not all or nothing. Each case is individual. Sometimes the bullet is intact and sometimes it’s in pieces. Sometimes trauma repairs minor injuries to the intestine, pulls the bullet, and they go to a post surgical floor like any other GI surgery. Sometimes trauma pops the spleen and the bullet and the patient still goes to med/surg. It depends on what a bullet hits and how, and how it lands is ruled by chaos and statistics. Sometimes it doesn’t puncture an artery but lodges next to it creating a future potential aneurysm that is monitored in ICU for 24h and then they’re off to med/surg, and the potential aneurysm goes on “continue to monitor” mode outpatient.

In reality, a person ignoring diverticulitis (then perfing) can sometimes spend more time in ICU than a bullet wound. And sometimes the bullet kills outright. It’s so variable. But that’s adults. Tiny bodies have far worse odds on any hit.

I’m not making light. I’m emphasizing how chaotic it is.

Thank you for widening this perspective. I had no idea, but it fits.

In theory. Realistically it’s also about what you’re shot with and where. A robust man shot in the gut with a standard .22 that doesn’t ricochet or hit anything immediately vital probably isn’t even going to ICU after the bullet is fished out. 9mm changes the odds on everything. Again though, 1 bullet to the gut may not be an ICU scenario after surgery, depending. An AK/AR though, why are they even legal for civilians?

A child, with any bullet, I don’t like to think about it.