Why does it seem like fails?

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> opens my email

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> launches a software

And sure, you can dismiss these people as lazy, as stupid, as being elderly and so who cares. But from my 17 years of experience, I can tell you that technical instinct and ability varies widely across the entire adult spectrum. And I can also tell you that people have different strengths, and that just because someone isn't good with computers doesn't mean they aren't smart as hell.

And I can also say, again, that it really doesn't matter.

Gen Z did not get that privilege.

They were called "digital natives" and people assumed they'd "just pick it up" without ever considering that everything else we ever "just pick up" is taught to us. We don't just sing the alphabet one day, someone taught us the song and that the letters mean things. We don't just start talking out of nowhere, we learn it by observing how the people around us do it, which is why you do not see a Mexican toddler spontaneously speaking Chinese.

At the same time that we decided we could throw Gen Z to the digital wolves, companies like Microsoft and Apple started making their software harder to access. When I was a kid, we could (and did!) poke around our computers' virtual guts for fun. We learned to download custom desktop icons and screensavers and where to put those things to make them work; we ran Napster and Limewire and had to sort the resulting files; we had to know where stuff went because autosave didn't exist yet.

Today's kids and teens are not having that experience. Indeed, today's kids and teens don't know how to access hidden files because there's no toggle for it anymore. I met a teenager last year who had no idea what "local memory" was because her entire life she'd been encouraged to "save to the cloud." If she had to set up Steam she'd be fucked.

A lot of the younger generations literally don't know they can do this, because they've been let down by an educational system that decided you could learn computer literacy the same way you learn to walk. And megacorps have taken advantage of that all the way to the stock market.

For fuck's sake don't be an ass to people who don't know. Teach them. Or direct them to someone who can.

Fandom Problem #15,250:

"fiction doesn't affect reality blah blah blah hiding behind flimsy shield"

They focus on the race and gender history like shields and bank on the liberal arguments of equality, but these people that believe voice acting should be limited to the demographics that aren't white, somehow get to hide the other half of the argument and exempt it from dissection.

The side of their argument where they put forwards the idea that a double standard is somehow "good, ackshilly." And why is it supposedly good? Under what pretense and belief can being racist or sexist against people in the name of progress?

Why, Critical Race Theory and Critical X. Theory, of course. The beliefs hinging on class consciousness and oppression dynamics, that puts forwards absolutes that whites are oppressors, men are oppressors, that The Oppressor Cannot Be Oppressed By Those They Oppress.

So they argue, without supporting their argument, that in western societies (though they'll allow one to assume they're speaking universally), white people should not be allowed to voice black or Asian people, while Asians and black people should be able to voice whomever they want. That any designated white role in a story or any piece of media should never validate that role is supposed to be a white person specifically, but that any given role should be gatekept to allow people of other ethnicities to take it (see: Switching out any time a redhead appears in movies, television, or any live action depiction) and at absolutely no point is it ever acceptable for black or Asian or Native American characters to be played by white (appearing) people.

They deliberately avoid putting the parts of their arguments, the foundational parts, up for debate, and instead try to keep people distracted and arguing circles Vs. squares on racism.

The racism debate is over; They don't care about REAL racism, they're defining their very ideological take on racism as the only legitimate version and demanding everybody else play along with it. They're fine with racism (real) when it fits their ideas of ideological justice and fairness, and their idea of equality is white people being developmentally retarded in society to the benefit of every other demographic, and above anything else, validation for the idea of defining justice based on Marxist principles that treat collectives and social constructs like legal parties or nations, and conceptual violence or offense as more important than real violence or offense.

Wow what a coincidence that anti Zionist threads turn into anti semitism every time

for example, we have a microscope that is perfectly functional, good microscope, but its software is abandonware because the company refused to maintain it. the company is still in business, still makes essentially the exact same software, but they made all of the old tech incompatible with new software to force people to buy the new microscope tech. it would cost a quarter million dollars to replace this microscope. this perfectly good microscope.

But that's not true. Where on the planet are you where there isn't a park? Lol. But really. There is always a park. Yes, you can just be a random adult and take a book to the park and sit on a bench and exist in a place that is neither home nor work. Yes, kids can still go to parks where they can play basketball and run around screaming like banchees and climb on jungle gyms. Yesterday, there was hardly any room under the cherry trees in Central Park, so many families and groups were having picnics. Recently, I was struck by how many middle and high school-aged kids I saw at ice skating rinks over the winter, just hanging out in groups on a Friday night, often being very silly, but still, not just sitting at home communicating only in virtual space.

We also often confuse things like malls and movie theaters being past their peak with them disappearing entirely. They're still around, and you're still allowed to go lol.

Coffee shops are also thriving. And many of them serve as prime "third places." They're upbeat. They're comfortable. They're inviting. You can sit in them for two hours, talking or eavesdropping or reading or writing or drawing, and nobody will bother you. I'm not just thinking of one special place that I'm really lucky to have access to because most people will never get the chance to visit it, I could rattle off a list.

Bookstores are also increasingly becoming a "third place" - Barnes & Noble is particular good at this, with ample space to peruse books at your leisure and seating to hang out for a while, but it's certainly not just Barnes & Noble.

Another example of a very common third place I can think of is a farmers' market. This is somewhere you can meet new people, talk, and exchange ideas (or not), try new things, and be outside in the sunshine. And oh my goodness, spare me the excuses. I've shopped at a variety of farmers' markets in different parts of the country. I've seen people shopping with EBT at the farmers' market in the Bronx. There are Wednesday markets, Saturday markets, and Sunday markets. Before I had a car, I walked two miles to the farmers' market that was open in the summer and took the train to the farmers' market I liked that was open in the winter. Spending time at the farmers' market is a feasible solution for a lot of people who might be looking for a third place.

Tangentially related, I saw an article several weeks ago about the "disappearance of the Sunday drive." Meaning, you can't just go drive around the countryside for pleasure anymore. Well, er, you can. Case in point, I do it all the time. Its "disappearance" is a choice.

This could all be an excuse to sit at home and rot on your phone, but it could also be more significant; pushing this negative message about third places to the masses (which doesn't seem to be working too well yet given the hoardes of people I find in parks and coffee shops) leads people to spend more time in front of screens, making more money for tech companies and also getting them slowly more comfortable with the concept of cramming into smart cities and traveling via virtual reality.

I live in rural Pennsylvania, last year some kids organized a hide and seek tournament. Nothing spectacular just kids playing a game, rules stated that they had to stick to public places, had to keep their cellphone on in case of emergency. They stuck to the park and the adjacent library and courthouse grounds no one went inside the buildings.

The cops were called within the first hour to break up the gathering.

So while third places will always exist, I have fond memories of just fucking around with friends by the river, that doesn't mean anything when you're heavily incentivized not to make use of them vis police or legal intervention.

As we become a lower and lower trust society, Public (government) 3rd spaces are being overtaken by violent crime, drug use, or simply anti-social activities. And instead of fixing the endemic problems, governments are simply cracking down on use of public spaces. Out of respect for new immigrants, we no longer have festivals in public spaces. Schools used to be public spaces, as the playground was a public playground, and as long as you acted in a manner that was appropriate around children, you were accepted. Children would literally just run up to a random stranger for uppies, and the stranger would be judged if he did not comply with the random child's request.

Parks are heavily restricted, and if a one adult sits too near to the child play area, the police will often be called, and they will be excised. People keep trying to push the library as a 3rd space, when the library is for RESEARCH. That's why you have to be quiet. The only community thing that should be happening in a library is a public book reading, either by a local author, or by reading children books appropriate for children, (I loathe that this last part has to be explicitly stated). Instead of using libraries, we used to either use the community hall, or - literally - any other part of the city, for community events. Everyone seems to have forgotten that public libraries also include archives, preserved news papers and magazines, historical documents, that kind of thing.

BUT ABOUT PEOPLE THAT DIDN'T FIT IN WITH MAINSTREAM SOCIETY.

*deep breath*

This is - quite literally - Tumblr.

Alts. have always found a place to gather, but more stringent and labyrinthine regulation has made it almost impossible to rent small meeting spaces anymore. Every commercial districts used to have a number of (shady) backrooms you could rent for gatherings. As, people loudly proclaiming that libraries are a 3rd space, always, always forget, CHEAP places also count. Pubs and coffee shops are being regulated out of existence, it's harder and harder to rent a back room somewhere, and if you do, because it has to meet arbitrary government standards, you can't do it cheaply. My boss renovated the old garage, and was forbidden from having PRIVATE gatherings there until it was properly bullshitted by the government, considering he just redid the flooring and one face, it legally should have been exempt from government bullshit oversight.

Without even the tiniest amount of hyperbole, I can relate a story. We're on a well. The old well was shit, he wanted a knew one. He made it bigger than he needed to, and this triggered bullshit government oversight. He spent 8 months trying to get a simple overview of the filtration system, and we only got it because the old well crapped out, and we had to shut down for a day, putting us at the front of the queue.

Any Public (government) 3rd place requires you to satisfy a bullshit panel of karens to make sure your group of alternate weirdos (affectionate) is properly government certified for diversity and inclusion. Which should make everyone fault, the fact that those excluded by society have to active cater to THOSE THAT EXCLUDED THEM in order to find a gathering place.

One of you made a spicy tweet, years ago before the xeetification of twitter, well, your group is banned from all Public (government) 3rd places. If you try to find a private third place to gather, the throng gaggle murder of karens will descend upon it to pile five years of government regulation on it to prevent you from gathering.

You seriously used to be able to rent a (nearly) abandoned building/room on the outskirts of society for dirt cheap, so your group of alternate weirdoes (affectionate) could meet to... do whatever you wouldn't post on your main. Use your imagination. Or just type LGD into Tumblr's search, and a lot of fun/horrifying ideas you never would have thought of will suddenly cross your threshold.

Seriously, Tumblr WAS the place for alts. to meet, and they nearly took that away, and they are trying to take away AO3 as well. I've been skulking around the dark shadows at the periphery of the internet since before the World Wide Web was invented, and you literally needed to know the weirdo's (affectionate) computer existed before you could even engage with them.

And since, karens, communists, and appealing to the (fictitious) larger audience has destroyed nearly every place where people who do not fit in with mainstream culture can gather. The Barbie website used to have forums where girls could safely gather to?..

(I honestly don't know; following female conversations is trying)

Ah yes, Israel's goal is to make Jewish people unsafe anywhere else.

Israel is a manipulative conniving evil group with the goal of making Jewish people in danger and victims of violence. Nevermind that it would effect about 73% of their own people, they are a single-minded evil.

and water is wet.