Live and let live. Their choice doesn’t have any impact on you

Not to mention some of Gen Z is still only around 12 years old.

I think you raised a good point. A household where one or both parents is heavy into coding or missing would probably help them more than a household that only relies on ‘smart’ technology. Either of those options would be way more helpful for these skills than growing up without any technology, which is just reality for a lot of people.

I know someone from Gen Z who is horrible with computers. I also know someone from Gen Z who is fantastic with computers.

To be honest, I don’t think any generation is immune to this, despite what some want to think.

My personal experience might be biased, but I’ve also seen a lot of millenials in their early to mid 30s who struggle with almost anything online. Too damn many. I’ve also seen some people from Gen X who are beyond tech illiterate. We don’t really talk about those guys though.

There is still time to fix this problem with the younger Gen Z, but there’s almost never any discussion about actually doing that either. “Gen Z” also includes kids who are around 12, but we often act like Gen Z all grew up into adults. Let’s get some of that school funding back ffs! Kids have to learn from somewhere, and many of their parents seem to not care about teaching them any of this stuff.

Many of us were lucky enough to grow up when most of this technology was still developing. We HAD to troubleshoot things if we wanted them to work. Fewer things were locked behind “customer service” and crappy warranties. You could physically open things up to fix them without having such a high risk of breaking them in the process.

If they want more people to switch to EVs specifically, they absolutely need to try to make some changes if they can.

Chargers: In a world where many people are living in old apartment buildings and condos, people are going to need public chargers. I don’t just mean enough for 20 people. If we want a big societal switch, we need to be able to assure people that they won’t encounter what happened in Texas recently. 60 chargers is still pretty rough if your city has half a million people in it.

Cost: MANY people can only afford used vehicles. This is not only because of the up-front cost. Parts for repairs can become a massive factor when deciding what type of car to buy. Even if you can get a used car for 6K, you might not go for it if you know that certain important repairs will cost you up to 20K.

Design: There are concerns for a lot of people with things being too screen-based. Some people like knobs that you can change without having to look away from the road. How many functions will be stuck behind a subscription? Will an update brick your car? Is it ok to tow normally, or will it sometimes require a special flatbed that most people can’t afford? Do we have the battery fire thing under full control yet?

If every single car eventually becomes too expensive, driving will either become a “caste” thing, or people will put things together at home that might be even worse for the environment. Shoddy DIY repairs can also count for this.

I hope that works better for other schools than it did for mine.

Most of the students that went to the school that I went to opted for a “spare” class instead of taking photography, business, arts, programming, or any of the other creative courses. The tools were there in my case, but most people just ignored them in favour of being able to leave school early, or in favour of taking an extra long lunch. They ignored the after school stuff too, because they wanted to spend time with their friends somewhere else.

We had a pretty good photography course too, they covered almost everything and there was even an option to take it for multiple years/grades if you wanted to learn even more about it. The kids at my school who usually did things like Tik Tok and Vine in the bathroom didn’t seem to really care for those courses. Social media was just fun for them, they never intended on making anything of it.

There has to be some solution that we aren’t seeing yet. There has to be some common ground between “let the kids do whatever they want, regardless of their education” and “dystopian hell”.

It would also help if kid’s parents were more involved overall, although you could also argue that a huge part of the cause is the insane hours that many of the parents have to spend working to let the family survive.

This all sucks. I hope someone is able to make your idea work, truly. We need a solution, asap.

I think I’ve decided to not publish anything that I want to keep ownership of, just in case. There’s an entire planet’s worth of countries, which will all have their own sets of laws. It takes waay too long to polish something, only to just give it away for free haha. Someone else is free to do that work if it is that easy. No skin off my back.

I think it’s similar to many other hand-made crafts/items. Most people will buy their clothes from stores, but there are definitely still people who make beautiful clothing from hand better than machines could.

Don’t even get me started on stuff like knitting. It already costs the creator a crap ton of money just for the materials. It takes a crap ton of time to make those, too. Despite the costs, many people just expect those knitted pieces for practically free. The people who expect that pricing are also free to go with machine-produced crafts/items instead.

It comes down to what people want, and what they’re willing to pay, imo. Some people will find value in something physically being put together by another human, and other people will find value in having more for less. Neither is “wrong” necessarily, so long as no one is literally ripped off. (With over 8 billion people, it’s bound to happen at least once. I feel bad for whoever that is.)

That being said, we’ll never be able to honestly say that the specific skills and techniques that are currenty required are the exact same. It would be like calling a photographer amazing at realism painting because their photo looks like real life. Photographers and painters both have their place, but they are not the exact same.

I think that’s also part of what’s frustrating so many artists. Coding AI is not the same as using the colour wheel, choosing materials, working fine motor control, etc. It’s not learning about shadows, contrast, focal points, etc. I can definitely understand people not wanting those aspects to be brushed off, especially since it usually takes most of a lifetime to achieve. A music generator and a violin may both make great music, but they are not the same, and they require different technical skills.

I’ll never buy AI art if I have any say in the matter. I’ll support handmade stuff first, every time.

IIRC the protests in Canada were also super controversial, especially for the people who lived there at the time.

I will not get into that here, though.

If you aren’t keeping your life savings in cash and you wouldn’t trust digital currency, how would you propose your idea?

Even stuff like bitcoin would be susceptible to your concerns about government overeach. Investing could also easily be a crapshoot, because your entire life saving would still be reliant on someone who doesn’t know or care you.

What do you suggest?

If you are actively trying to cause someone else (especially reoccurring) harm, I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for you if it doesn’t work. I hope that karma does get you back if that stuff exists, because you earned it.

Have the courage to own your shit if you insist on trying to do that to someone. Take an ounce of accountability and maybe rethink some of your life decisions. (Probably for about 98% of these situations.)

Yes, we all get mad. That being said, most of us don’t try to literally curse someone over it. Reasonable people usually talk it out and problem solve, not try to play god using the abilities that they believe someone else has.

Damn, that website almost has some of everything.

I saw a building that looked like it was waiting to be boarded up. There were some streams with beautiful scenery. There was an official looking meeting room in Greece for, and I even found a stream of a train table!

Personally, I might be done with the series at this point.

Did they not just put a lot of the vehicles behind a paywall in GTA V this year? If you previously had them, you were fine. You would be SOL if you didn’t buy them in the game before the update, though. IIRC some of cars were even stuck behind the GTA+ subscription.

I don’t want to buy a game, and then have to buy some of the exact same content again years later. They should have also told people that they would be paywalling the cars a decent amount of time before they went through with it, imo.

It’s not the end of the world or anything, but I’m concerned that this might be an attempt at starting a new type of profiting. This is worse than the horse armour from Oblivion. At least that gave you new models and textures.

“We’ll just sell them a game, then we’ll sell them the same assets in the same game years later!”

Just wait until it spreads to more game companies. I wish that there was a stronger push back when it happened. People are going to completely forget about it until it happens again.

With their current track record, maybe I’ll buy it after a decade haha

I used to fear what would happen if I dropped one of the older TV’s on my foot. It was a pretty great motivator to not drop it, and to try to fall towards it if I fell. Sometimes it even took two people to move them because they were heavy and awkward.

We have definitely advanced in making them more moveable, and I’m happy about that. I don’t miss throwing out my back.

I do miss the screen static though.

I think they might have mixed you up with OP

I think I first learned about Opera from the one Episode of Drake and Josh. The episode when Josh freaked out because he ran over Opera with his car.

Can’t say I’ve really heard much since, but I don’t exactly go looking either

One of my coworkers struggles with this too, but maybe for different reasons.

My coworker projects that he just wants a long term relationship. That’s fine and dandy on the surface, but hear me out for a second. Would you rather date someone who loves you specifically, or someone who just wants to be in a relationship? Would you rather be with someone who finds you amazing, or someone who is only dating you because other people their age are dating?

This can also cause the person you’re interested in to be concerned about whether you are who you say you are. It may cause them to question if you did really fall for them, or if you’re playing the part to avoid being single. People who have experienced that will be more cautious dating anyone who just wants to be with someone.

I’m not saying that’s the case for you, but I’ve seen it happen a lot. I think that’s also a part of what people mean when they tell you to focus on building yourself up, and to let love happen when it happens. Don’t be like my coworker.

You are still very young, and you have a lifetime ahead of you. Don’t count yourself out yet.

It’s probably not feasible or realistic for most people, but I met people through working for a temp agency in my early twenties. Sometimes I would work with up to three different teams of people in one week. The pay was shite, but it actually really helped me curb a lot of my social anxiety. I met some awesome people that way.

Yes, but I still wouldn’t trust a map that doesn’t match what I’m seeing.

I agree with you completely

I’d trust it over a map that’s inaccurate, tbh. Otherwise, research, research, research.

ETA: To me, a large part of this is situational awareness. There is almost nothing that would make me trek deep into woods on an unfamiliar path, without being as prepared as possible. You can only see so many deaths happening before it makes a mark on you. Life over convenience, personally.

I also agree with the other person who said this stuff should be taught in school.

Hypothetically, you should always be aware of what you’re doing before you go on a hike. You’re supposed to stop and look back every so often to make sure you will recognize the way back. Bring a bright-coloured line with you if it seems like you might get lost, but just remember to take it home with you when you go. Always assume that a map could be outdated, regardless of if it’s a paper map or a digital map. Be very cautious if the trail doesn’t match how it’s “supposed” to look. Bring a bit more food and water than you think you’ll need, and plan what to do in case of emergency.

After writing that, it might not be terrible for them to remove trails, to be honest. Even if they just had icons, people would still be arguing liability based on a lack of warnings. If they had warnings, it’s almost guaranteed that some would be missed (or skipped past.) Additionally, it’s likely difficult to consistently and continuously stay updated about localised terrain conditions, on a near global scale, simultaneously. We would need a level of surveillance that almost no one wants, just to keep these maps as updated as people expect them to be. For every path that’s busy, there are many that are mostly forgotten.

I’m starting to think that we might not have the proper capabilities to use GPS systems as a species. The number of people getting lost, stright up driving off of cliffs, or drowning from these situations is beyond insane to me. Do people not research anything before these hikes? Do people think that a GPS will substitute for situational awareness? What would they do if we still only had paper maps?

Sorry for the rant. I’m all for holding corporations accountable for their fuck ups. That being said, people should also be researching these things much more than they have been. Google having possible liability won’t make you less dead, and it won’t fix your loved ones grief after you’re gone. Even if they sued and won a lot of money, they would still never see you alive again.

Yeah, they should add a disclaimer if nothing else.

It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve played WoW.

I remember the days of the spiffworld youtube videos, where Jonathan Coulton songs were played in the background while WoW characters dancing/acting along to the lyrics.

Not to mention, new buildings are excluded from rent control in Ontario.

Fuck that, in every sense. Why should the people already struggling for housing have to worry about landlords suddenly deciding to jack up rent by thousands, just so investors can have an easier go with AirBnB? That kind of expectation worsens a community, and absolutely contributes to the homelessness situation.

Nothing will make me support things like AirBnB at this point. People having homes should be more important.