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 😅

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.

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!

CAN you call him?

I’m autistic and I don’t think I fall into this way of talking but I do know that autistic people have been saying that they are getting flagged as AI more often than non autistic people. It’s only anecdotal but it will be interesting to see if it is really happening!

My question is do people have supervisors that they never see (in a meeting, even on video?) or talk to on the phone? I know a lot is done through text based communication now but I didn’t realize there are people who ONLY have text based comms with their bosses.

Especially video games. Honestly as a casual gamer I get it. Games are expensive and they are a gamble. I’ve bought games in the past and played them for half hour and realized I hate it lol. I rarely buy games now, especially if it’s not a franchise I already know and like, because I can’t afford the gamble. If I do I buy a physical copy so I can sell it on.

At least with streaming services you can check and know there’s a few hours of shows you will definitely watch. It’s still tol expensive and I’m cancelling mine but it is less of a gamble than video games.

Yep. I’m a millennial. I was always pirating as a teenager/early 20s. Then I did join streaming, just Netflix and another local one. I’m about to cancel them both again as I rebuild my own library.

I was reworking my budget the other day and accidentally opened my old one from 5 years ago, so depressing 😅 Everything has gone up so much, seeing it all laid out in a spreadsheet was confronting 😭 both streaming services have doubled in price. 2 streaming services costs $500 a year total - as you say, maybe not a big deal if you’re earning 100k but as a low income earner it’s worth cutting. It’s only going to keep up going up! Subscription models suck for other programs and services too, it adds up so quickly 😭

Yep, definitely not saying that we’re not below the replacement numbers despite certain demographics having more access and increases! The replacement number itself is so generic.

It’s based on developed country’s requirements without taking migration into account. So it’s not what most developed countries talking about declining birth rates, are actually aiming for. Australia, for example, is built on immigration, our goal being based on no immigration makes no sense! Other countries (Ireland for example) still have a high rate of emigration. A lot to take into consideration outside the very generic replacement number of 2.1 when you start to narrow it down 😅 You’re right about Israel in terms of developed countries! They’re sitting at ~2.9!

Some of the rhetoric I see seems to be that the birth rates have “suddenly” dropped which is far from accurate.

I’m looking at a couple of countries but particularly Australia. Contraception being introduced (early 60s) had a big effect as did the accessibility of abortion (70s). In fact, it appears that the biggest “sudden drop” actually occured through the 70s/early 80s. I wonder if they were speaking about it in the alarmist way we (society) do now.

Interestingly - Australia - teen pregnancies have dropped 75% since the 1970s. Gonna say this is a good thing about declining birth rates. 👏

I’m no data analyst but I think that it looks like the biggest factor for declining birth rates came with birth control. If not for that I think the graphs would look relatively stable with smaller fluctuations.

Australia actually had a small increase in the early 2020s! Still below 2.1 though!

I don’t know, it’s all very interesting. I think there are a lot of very good things about the birth rate having dropped. Found a study around the decreasing rate of “undesired births”. Such a nuanced topic! I’m sure there’s more numbers out there for individual countries about the projection around migration numbers needed rather than focusing on the generic replacement number.

A few of the sources I read;

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/historical-population/latest-release

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12205728/

https://www.id.com.au/insights/articles/australias-birth-rate-increases-for-the-first-time-in-10-years/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7834459/