I’m not American so I won’t claim to know what needs to happen. But from an outside observer, it seems that the majority are complacent and willing to sacrifice those “below” them to keep treading water.

Which isn’t uniquely American - complacency and a lack of compassion is an issue in a lot of places. But America is definitely showing us how dangerous it can be when enough people have the “ehh, I’m still surviving so yeah this isn’t great but oh well, go with the flow” kind of mindset/action.

Ooh fantastic, I will have a look through there for sure - go raibh maith agat!

So I am autistic and my interests tend to get quite stuck on one thing. I think mine started with Derry Girls lol which I needed the political context for so started reading books about the troubles. Then I heard Sinead O’Connors song Famine which is better than any history lesson I ever did at school and that led me to digging further into the history of Ireland!

One of the things that kept coming up was the erasure of the Irish language which really pissed me off 😡😅 I enjoy creative writing and learning different communication styles it’s all very close to my heart (I know I sound articulate here but I can struggle quite a bit with my verbal communication!). I don’t like the idea of people limiting that for others! I find the Irish language very interesting historically and it sounds so beautiful. I like the roots of words and phrases - even though I’m not religious haha and a lot of it is based around religion of course.

Things like tà bròn orm being the sadness is on me - as opposed to I AM sad really speak to me. The well wishes of the greetings/farewells. Slàinte - health, slàn - safely, etc.

I love learning the direct translations and deeper meanings behind the words. I think it’s a very poetic language.

The dialects absolutely 😅 Picked up on that through Duolingo giving different pronunciations for the same words!? Even different phrases!? Conas atà tú was what I knew for how are you but all of a sudden that was wrong and the answer they were looking for was Cad é mar atá tù? And some dialects still use mh = w for certain words whereas others don’t! Maidin mhaith - some say “ma” some say “wa”!?

Northern accent is brilliant but definitely harder to understand for a lot of people (my mum needs subtitles for Derry Girls 😅). All the accents are so lovely haha. Are you still living in Ireland yourself?

Of course I have seen and listen to kneecap! I love music that uses English/Irish interchangeably! Fun way to pick up on the language.

If you read all of this go raibh maith agat as léamh 😅

Yep. And even then, our desktop computer was upstairs - which was out of the way, nothing up there except my sister’s bedroom and a living room that wasn’t really used - so arguably that was too isolated lol. We weren’t allowed laptops until we finished high school! Even my friend who did have a laptop wasn’t allowed it in her bedroom.

The internet was also restricted to go off at 9pm because I was staying up on msn and Myspace all night otherwise 😅

I’ve noticed this even in gen z. Everything is just an app and having a laptop is less common so all they seem to know is phone/tablets which just have apps that work lol. Their troubleshooting skills go as far as “turn it off and back on”. If that doesn’t work…do it again. Otherwise… it’s broken and they need a repair shop or a new phone 😅

Obviously a generalisation but something I’ve noticed as a millennial. Older gen x/boomers and Gen Z’s seem to struggle more with basic computer skills (or what millennials just grew up with so it seems fairly basic!) I’m not particularly techy but I’m always asked by those people (zs and boomers, some older xs) how to do shit on the office computers.

I think more people would know “windows” rather than “the Microsoft one” ? As a layperson we always called it windows 😅 I think people know Microsoft office but I don’t know that they would refer to their OS as “microsoft”.

I don’t think so lol. I’m not a super techy person and the only reason I know Linux is because of my high school boyfriend lol, 20 years ago, who used it. I think he set it up on one of my computers at one point too. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else (offline) talk about Linux 😅 definitely not a common knowledge thing.

It’s actually been pretty interesting watching some of the stuff he used back 20 years ago that has started being spoken about more commonly that were just “nerd shit” back then lol. Vpns are common knowledge now, they were definitely “nerd shit” back in the day. Plex is widely used. I’m also glad I still have access to the private tracker he got me onto because that’s grown big too, easy as.

But Linux? Nope. I don’t think that’s entered the common knowledge base. People know windows, android and maybe iOS. I don’t even think a lot of people would know what “open source” means.

Absolutely agree. People who are asking questions (in good faith) are looking for a human interaction, not just a Google search. It’s much more engaging for a lot of people to have a discussion about something new than to just read about it. Then if they’re interested they might choose to go deeper in their own research.

I’m not techy but this goes for anything. “Google it” just shuts down human interaction and someone who is trying to learn. Better to just not answer than to be condescending if you don’t want to engage in a discussion.

Neurodivergent? I am lol and this resonates. I write a lot more now that I have an ereader (that can also be a notebook!) I get it out rather than my phone sometimes and there’s less distraction on it. It’s either read, write or browse the bookstore 😅

They kinda all play into each other.

I’ve been dealing with depression and other health conditions since I was a preteen. It took me a longggg time to recognize my mental health is always the priority but also ongoing, there’s no “destination”. If I’m the right weight, no debt, zero alcohol etc but I still want to die then there’s no point.

Of course they all intertwine but front of mind for me is keeping some semblance of a purpose and desire to want to be here. For example, I can’t work full time because I don’t cope. Took me a long time to give myself permission to just not have that as a goal. I survive by working part time, the finances aren’t ideal, but I am able to enjoy moments of life more often than when I was working full time (in and out of hospital).

Purpose is the biggest thing to find, something that gives your life meaning, everything else comes after that.

Not possible entirely. These goals are unrealistic really!

How to manage stress is a better goal because life is always going to involve stress. I think it’s managing everything on this list rather than eliminating. Zero debt isn’t possible for a lot of people. Zero alcohol is a choice, why?

Just figure out what’s important to you personally and how to manage things the best way that you can. All these things go in and out of whack through life.

Really? That’s sad that this seems unrealistic! I think this is still the time that the kids I knew and the ones I know now did/do have the right nutrition. Right nutrition for their development. I would say it starts to go off track around early teens/preteens when kids are having a lot less supervised times, access to pocket money, body image issues etc.

But idk I’m not in the US, maybe it’s a US thing. Not saying kids don’t have sugar and shit here but the “right nutrition” doesn’t have to be extreme though it is a vague term.

Personally I grew up malnourished and still am but that’s due to medical issues. I’m jealous of how well everyone around me was raised to eat a balanced diet 😅

Ignorance is bliss!

Ah okay yeah, I barely use steam these days. Can’t remember the last time I bought anything there, I just occasionally play very old games I already have on there haha.

Yeah i love a few Nintendo classic titles but $$$ 😭 kinda a good thing that I don’t like the direction they’re taking pokemon because it removes the temptation to upgrade to the switch 2. Not sure I’ll bother unless I somehow get free money to throw around haha.

Nice! Are you Irish yourself? Yeah I started with Duolingo which I still use - I’ve looked at Sionnach but I don’t love the interface though I like the concept. I used duocards for a while too. I think they both have different methods of learning than Duolingo but neither quite has the easy, smooth interface yet! Also did a local online class for a couple of months but the teacher wasn’t very engaging unfortunately so I didn’t carry on 😭 I want to get some 1:1 tutoring at some stage, I think that’s the best way but obviously $$$ 🙄

I have a coworker and friend who is Irish (but not fluent in Irish) and I love getting to practice it with her and leaving her notes in the office in Irish haha. I think getting to use it is the key which is why I’d like a tutor. I’m Australian so no “need” for it here, I just enjoy it and find Ireland fascinating.

Yup my kobo libra colour. It was pretty pricey but well worth it. Had a Kindle for about a decade or so before that so it was a big upgrade.

Love that it’s easy to borrow from the local library on it (couldn’t do that on Kindle where I’m from) or yeah, books from anywhere. I quite like the colour e-ink, I don’t read much in it but the occasional illustrations in books is cool to be able to see in colour.

I do annotate a fair bit so the different coloured highlighters help there too.

And I love having the notebooks. I’ve been writing creatively so much more now that I have it. I missed handwriting but I have so many physical notebooks I would buy and then not use or use once or twice lol. Having the kobo with me all the time is great because I have all my notebooks on it for different things. It’s helped my productivity a lot!

There’s only one thing that I came across recently that I wish I could do and haven’t found a way. I transferred some of my typed poetry to my kobo and I wish there was a way I could throw it in with my handwritten notebooks rather so I could keep editing there rather than having to switch to the pdf version in the other section. But that’s really only a pretty minor thing in terms of e-readers!

Yup. Autistic and noise cancelling headphones help me in all kinds of environments I wouldn’t be able to deal with otherwise. Including the airport!

I still need to find some good NC earbuds though. The Bose quiet comfort are fantastic but unfortunately known to stop working repeatedly (I’m about to get my 6th pair replaced through warranty over about 18 months!)

I’ve been learning Irish for a few months now - incredibly difficult language but fascinating.

Also getting back into poetry and learning different techniques around writing. Not sure I always like some of the very rigid “rules” but it’s interesting to learn. I’ve never been particularly technical with my writing but it has opened my mind to trying new styles.

This annoys me to no end! I work in disability and take our clients out for regular dinners. It’s important to look at the menu for medical reasons and even better if we can print them off for some people to read beforehand.

It’s an absolute pain trying to go through the hoops to just get to the full menu of some places, prices and more and more places don’t have printable menus, the only way you can see it is through the delivery option menu!

Personally, I hate any kind of website that doesn’t have prices for their products and either wants you to go in, call or not buy anything. 🤷‍♀️

Yeah indies usually have pretty decent demos! I actually haven’t even looked at the switch store lately but I don’t remember the bigger titles having demos?

And idk where everyone else is but the big games here (Australia) are still what I consider expensive (USD$45 minimum without a sale). Typical price is around USD$60. Even on sale they don’t get much below that for the big stuff - zelda, pokemon, Mario, animal crossing, etc. Curious how comparable that is to elsewhere.

True. Just depends on device and how committed people are to doing that lol. As a casual gamer (PC barely ever anymore and Nintendo switch, then I have emulators with a bunch of Nintendo classics) I wouldn’t bother. I don’t even know how to do that for a Nintendo switch.

So yeah it’s an option but in terms of the discussion about Gen z people not shelling out for video games, I think part of the decline has been from casual users who aren’t either shelling out $ and aren’t interested in enough to pirate 😅 I’m a millennial.

I assume to pirate and transfer to a Nintendo switch (I don’t have 2, just the original) there’s an initial set up cost?

I tend to stick to the emulator my brother got me with all our 90s(ish) childhood games lol. I don’t know if those exist yet for more modern games - or at least not at the cost of the classics!