My day so far has consisted of me starting a substack to write about video games and then deleting my substack that I started because I couldn't think of a cool name for it and now I'm just sat here waiting for lunch time
@JohnnyShoulder
Great news, was a bit much that they gave so little notice, especially to developers.
@johncalmc
Call it Exterminatus. Nothing to do with video games but it is a pretty cool name. Feel free to blame me if it turns out it's actually super uncool.
@RogerRoger I could if I owned any games. Well, I do. But not enough to qualify as a stack. More like a small pile. All digital does that. On the plus side, my lunch is a cracker. Got myself a little pot of mixed nuts to go with my usual sandwich and bag o' crisps. Smashed it.
So, here’s something I just need to get off my chest. Well... maybe that’s the wrong intro, it’s just something that concerns me —
I’m troubled by many of my recent social interactions. I feel like people in general are a lot more unhappy and irritable lately. And I’m speaking to the public at large, not just on PushSquare. We’ve mentioned how the comments around here seem to be a bit more toxic, and I don’t mean to pile on with that observation, rather I mean in the day-to-day public, it’s just nasty out there. In my interchanges with co-workers, businesses, and the average citizen on the street, people are much quicker to anger and less cordial than they used to be. Many people just seem miserable and want to make everyone around them suffer.
I attributed this to the pandemic and the perfect storm of social unrest and a bitterly fought recent election in my country. But it seems to persist, despite the pandemic calming down, the election being over, and strides being made in the social issues.
I’ve come to start to blame the internet at large, and social media, which is an easy target and only makes me sound like a conventionalistic old fussbudget. And honestly, I don’t know. Perhaps I’m misinterpreting societal malcontent and anger through some personal character flaw in myself. Maybe I’m the problem. Do I expect too much from my fellow human beings? Am I just seeing things through my own distorted lens, and perhaps society is the same as it always has been, I just either haven’t noticed its flaws or I am magnifying them due to my own unhappiness with the status quo? Maybe this is just a normal part of growing up and all people look back in their childhood through rose-colored glasses?
I’m sorry to get so solemn, but I was wondering what my good PushSquires felt on the issue, especially since you all come from different backgrounds and cultures. Do you sense a lot of irritability and unrest? Do I need to have my head examined?
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Voltan Haha! So it does! It also has @RogerRoger ‘s old pic too. I guess the site refresh takes a while.
And thanks for the reply. 😄 Yeah, I think my interactions with family and close friends seems to be relatively consistent. I might just be in my own personal funk.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I initially wrote a long rambling post which dug deeper into the psyche of the modern world, but I ended up deleting it because it really didn’t add anything. But you have all given me great food for thought.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution Honestly, looking around at the world, if people stop pushing against the status quo then we’ll easily fall back into the trappings of worldwide injustices. It might not be a comfortable environment but change often isn’t. The issue is trying to strike a balance and making sure that the little guy isn’t taking the brunt of it.
@nessisonett Yeah, perhaps I didn’t express my observation clear enough. I appreciate the whole increase of power to those traditionally excluded from having a voice — that’s all positive ... well, mostly. You get a lot of ignoramuses who have a voice in the Twitterverse who I’d just as soon be kept silent. But we can’t have it both ways. And I’m not sure I can blame my observations on any particular increase in public discourse, but it’s likely part of the equation.
But yes - Pushing against the status quo, making society feel uncomfortable due to injustice, exposing isolated communities to more open minded ideas even when it creates unrest — all those things are fine.
My issue is - why are people on the road flipping me off and not letting me merge? Why do people at my work grumble at me when I say “Good morning”? Why is morale at an all time low at the workplace? Why do my co-workers argue all the time? Why are the people at the drive-thru so emotionless? Why are the customer service reps I call on the phone so rude? Why are so many of my friends and family struggling with depression? Why do my neighbors not wave and say hello anymore? Why don’t I get a friendly text every once and a while from my old classmates like I used to? Etc, etc...
The overall sense I have is less joy and kindness in the world and more loneliness, misery, and antagonism. Or, like I say, perhaps is my perception and just in my mind. But it does seem to mirror the rise in toxicity over the last year or so in the PS comments sections. The pandemic is an easy target to blame. But I wonder if it was a catalyst in creating a ‘new normal’ of isolation and bitterness.
Let me see, off the top of my head, Sony have backtracked on their decision to close the Vita and PS3 and they will now remain open. So it seems that #complaining is #winning at the moment. 😅
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Ha ha yes, bonus points for whoever knows what that is from. No sure what the points go towards, but I think that might be a Doctor Who reference I've scooped from the deep recess of my brain.
I think it sums up perfectly how I'm currently feeling after over a year working from home lol.
@JohnnyShoulder I have surprisingly vivid memories of being completely off my face listening to Music for the Jilted Generation at a party and absolutely losing my mind when One Love came on. What an album. Although I do personally prefer The Fat of the Land!
@nessisonett Sounds like most weekends when I was at that age! Yeah Fat of the Land is also a great album, but there are one or two songs on there I've never been keen on. Music for a Jilted Generation i can honestly say I like all the tracks. Even the last three tracks I wasn't initially a fan of, I've warmed to over the years. Especially under the right environment.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
I am procrastinating about writing my CV. I don't apply for jobs often but I've seen one that perfectly describes my skill set so I feel like I should apply. I thought I could just freshen up my old CV but I'm not really feeling the way it was written so I might start again from scratch.
Things I am thinking about as I procrastinate:
Partner wants to get a property with a mortgage, I feel like I should be part of this. Probably can't be a part of this with my current job as it's a zero hour contract. I could earn a lot more if I took more jobs but I don't because it's exhausting. Likewise, some weeks there is just not a lot going on.
I've done nothing over the last year yet my boss has made a moderate effort to look after me. I've had about 5 months of furlough spread out over the last year and I've booked all my holiday. That's why I say moderate, it could have been better and it could have been a lot worse. I'd feel bad to leave on a note like this. Rationally I feel like I've just been given my dues for all the hard work I've put in over the years but realistically this has been an unprecedented year and I feel like I should go back and make an effort to do some work to repay the moderate steps (by anyone's standards, huge steps by his standards) that he has taken to make things right for me. I don't want to burn bridges, I'm not sure how a 9-5 will suit me. I've done it before but in high stress finance sector environments which I obviously would never do again but still, I really need to make an effort to find something stable so I can actually "move on" with my life.
Those are probably the main things, I know that all it is is writing a CV. There's probably little chance of me even being offered the job (I have experience instead of qualifications, I'm too honest to "sell" myself to get a foot in the door). But yeah, my mind still won't stop reaching for these thoughts as I sit here looking at a 4 year old CV thinking about how I should either update it or write a new one.
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