Something Smart. Also Intelligent. Probably. Maybe

generational categories are subjective and contain a lot of variety

Given the commonly-accepted definition of Gen Z years and presuming that most people don't have meaningful social media presences before age 13, that would mean Gen Z wasn't meaningfully on social media as a group before 2010, and the youngest members of that group who made their first account at 13 only did so within the last year.

Would you like to know what year Twitter introduced ads? 2010. (Source: NYT.) Facebook? 2007, with Sponsored Stories in 2011, (Source: CNet) and ads continuing to encroach on feeds until the last time I opened my Facebook feed to check up on family, I got approximately one ad for every post by an actual human, and half of the posts by an actual human being aren't for people that I actually follow or know, but promoted posts from influencers. Instagram came out in 2009 and introduced ads in 2015, so a few outlier Gen Z people may have experienced those social media platforms without ads, or indeed without ubiquitous, pervasive, endlessly intrusive ads, but it is still a reasonable statement that the life experiences of most members of this age group do not include "an online experience devoid of an amount of intrusive advertising that would have made me think my computer had a fucking virus in 2010, let alone 1997," sheerly based on how online advertising has proliferated during their lifetime.

1: socks are not super complicated. they are a tube with one end closed. good socks are a tube with a bend at one end and then the short end closed. As clothing go, that's fairly simple.

2. they are a high wear item--even the most well-cared-for sock is going to wear out faster than most of your clothes because, well. you walk on them all day.

3. feet are one of the most homogenous human body parts. feet come in a fairly limited size range which can mostly be accomodated by stretchy fabric and two or three size ranges. even outliers in size are still the same shape.

notably, this is not true for other areas of the body where a tube shape would work! human torsos can come in many different shapes and sizes! all of which change the places and ways that tube top/dress/skirt would need to stretch!

If you start ballet at 16, you are too old to ever expect to be able to do it seriously. If you start at 12 you’re too old. If you want to do ballet as a serious thing, as a career, you need to start at like eight years old or even younger, because your bones and joints need to be trained while they’re still flexible in order for you to be able to perform many of the required motions and stances of ballet. In particular, you need to be able to perform turnout of the hips, but all of your joints in your legs and feet will be affected, and this irreversibly changes your body.

And yet! Nobody talks about this as a negative thing! Little girls say they want to be ballet dancers, and if their parents have enough money, that’s what they get to be! Does it cause problems in later life? Yeah, sometimes! Often, even! But nobody talks about that because it’s a thing for cis people to do and so naturally it’s all fine!

By the time I was done dancing at age 18, I had been through physical therapy for 3 separate issues caused by ballet. The worst one was because of how my hips and muscles developed and it cause discomfort in my knees so bad that I couldn’t walk very far without pain, much less climb stairs. One time at a pt session, a neighboring patient, who was elderly, said I was “too young to be here”. I was in middle school so I rolled my eyes. It was/is funny to me.

I am 23 now, and I still get stiff in some places, and I’m sure it is related to dancing as a kid. I snap, crackle, and pop like Rice Krispies.

I have no regrets because ballet and was a big part of my life. I just know that it will have long term effects on my body and there is nothing I can do to change it.

(was asked to put my Bluesky thread on tumblr)

Just because of some stuff I saw yesterday: if you are a minor online, please do not openly identify yourself as such. It is not safe, it allows adults who want to interact with minors for bad purposes to know you are one.

There are different, safer ways to accomplish your goals than to do that.

You do not need to identify yourself publicly as a minor online to:

Ask that people respect your boundaries

Not create or interact with adult material

Not be a victim of harassment

Not give away personal information

All these are normal things anyone of any age can do online.

If you are being invited into spaces you don't want to be in as a minor, or which people have asked you not to be in as a minor, decline for any or no reason. If an adult wants to do something with you they should not with a minor, decline for any or no reason. If people do not accept that, they are not people you should be interacting with. Don't pretend to be an adult, just don't say you aren't.

I understand that recently, more people under 18 tend to say that they are under 18 to protect themselves online. People who are not dangerous don't need that information. People who are dangerous will gladly use it because they know you are vulnerable. You are not protecting yourself.

As an adult who doesn't really care to interact with minors, I probably won't interact a lot with you if you are "young." That's not hard to catch from the way people act online. If you are "young" I care about you being safe and not victimized by opportunists, regardless of your birth year.

Protect your identity and safety on the internet, and if you are a person who is vulnerable, be a mysterious figure. Make silly posts. Complain about "people you know." Complain about "living with your parents."

"ADULTS DNI!"

Most adults will see this, roll their eyes, and respect it by moving on.

You know what predators see when they see "Adults DNI!"? They see a target who trusts adults to respect a DNI, but probably doesn't trust adults enough to go to one if there is a problem. They know really defensive teens are more likely to have past trauma, which, like any vulnerability, can be easily exploited. All they have to do is pretend to be your age. And yes, it's easy to fall for it. And they will absolutely cultivate your mistrust of adults to make sure you feel like you can't go to anyone. "Adults just won't believe you, or will blame you" is where a lot of you are at to begin with.

Which was something I kept asking about for years following the injury, but got told over and over again would be impossible because I’d know if I was in that much pain. I’d be screaming all the time.

Anyway, shout out to my current medical team ✌️ I actually have something approaching quality of life these days.