I really appreciate you writing this up! All valid points. I recently learned what exposition means (I’m a native English speaker, but it was new to me.) It sounds like a lot of what you didn’t like is exposition in dialogue, and I agree - when I notice it, I instantly think less of the writing.

Also, great points about the characters being unfamiliar with these unique childless-world experiences even though it’s been their reality for 18 years.

Thanks again for taking the time.

I mean, One Battle is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last 10 years. I’m excited for another chance to see it on a big screen.

I loved the movie and I’m interested in specifics about what you didn’t like! Being passionate about your opinions isn’t inherently disrespectful.

She played Comfrey on Succession, Kendall’s social media manager in seasons 3-4.

In general I agree with you. If you haven’t seen this movie, IMO it’s his best performance by far.

I don’t know how any of this works. What’s stopping Google from doing the same thing to old phones?

I agree, and to the comment above you, it’s not because it’s guaranteed to reduce symptoms. There are many ways that talking with another person is good for us.

Agree with everything you said. It was like Alex Garland had a sketchbook of all the random ideas he had for the franchise, and they turned it into a movie. Sometimes I think a movie is bad, but I don’t harp on it because everyone has their opinion. But the sheer grandiosity of the positive reviews on this movie are so far from my experience, I just feel so confused.

Do you have a source on your claim that data centers recycle water? Because these researchers state that 80% of the water is evaporated, and the other 20% is discharged to municipal wastewater facilities.

Ha, I was doing a similar calculation recently. I think the only subscription I ever paid for was Netflix, and for the others I used family and friends’ accounts. Only replacing Netflix, I haven’t broken even, but considering I pirate content from 5-6 different services, it’s absolutely cheaper.

But techbro 10 years ago was an undercut and a leather jacket. I’m hoping there’s a label for this iteration.

Looks like he and Zuck have the same stylist. Anyone know what this look is called, with the oversized tee and chain around his neck?

I know someone who just got hired at an unfinished Meta data center, ostensibly to do some low-level hardware monitoring and maintenance. His boss admitted that he accidentally hired people a couple months too early, so the first couple weeks have consisted of sitting around, eating free food and playing mobile games. Next week they’re being flown to an active data center out of state, but they won’t have much of their own work to do for another 4-6 weeks.

So these guys are being paid $25/hr, 40hrs a week, with a free lunch, and making no money for the company. I would expect any other company to find this unacceptable, but it’s just a drop in the bucket for Meta.

I’m gonna need a source on that.

Thank you for expanding on that point. I meant it to be a “here’s how we got here” before the rest of my “this is where we are today.”

You’re totally right, and any conversation about men’s behavior at large should include the experiences you just described. Even though we didn’t get ourselves into this situation - in that we didn’t raise ourselves - we’re the ones who will get us out.

I’m a therapist who works almost exclusively with men. Here one pattern I’ve seen often:

• Man is conditioned from a young age not to identify, process or express his feelings
• Man doesn’t share his feelings with anyone - friends, family, partners - for years
• Man sees woman as safe, caring and validating
• Man confides in woman only and continues not sharing feelings with others
• Woman becomes overwhelmed, resentful, dismissive
• Man gets the message that he never should have opened up in the first place

It can be true both that men need to open up more and should not treat their partners as therapists. We all need support systems because no one person can always be available to give us everything we need. It’s not wrong to confide in a partner, but if that partner is the only confidant it’s precarious for both. And I want to emphasize this is not the fault of a man, or men as a community. This is the result of generations of conditioning from both men and women, and both men and women play a part in the solution. I also want to recognize that many of us don’t have a network of people we could open up to even if we wanted to, and many more can’t afford therapy.

If anyone reading this can afford therapy, I highly recommend it. It’s a place to undo some of that conditioning, to sit with someone who’s committed to listening, caring, and not judging.

young people feeling depressed and isolated is the least of your problems.

Children are the future of EVERY country. The future is looking bleak for young people in the US. Where do you live? Are young people unaffected by social media or what?

Out here in actual civilization though, tik tok youth drama is not representative of reality whatsoever.

That’s the thing though. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around sometimes, but for lots of young people, social media IS their reality. This became even more true during the pandemic. We asked young people to go to school on a screen and pretend it was the same as doing it in person. Why wouldn’t they have the same mindset about chatting, hanging out, flirting, dating, etc.? They don’t see it as simulated socializing, it’s just how they socialize.

I agree that this is a sickening amount of e-waste, and companies should be responsible for processing/recycling their own waste, but what’s the alternative in this case? Mail the faulty batteries back to Anker?

Oh I don’t at all support what Meta has done, and I don’t trust any company not to harm and exploit users. I was responding to your comment by saying that talking to a chatbot doesn’t necessarily indicate that someone has “bigger problems.” If they’re not in a crisis, and they have reasonable expectations for the chatbot, I can see how it could be a helpful tool. If someone doesn’t have access to a real therapist, and a chatbot helps them feel better in the meantime, I’m not going to gatekeep that experience.

I’m a real-life human therapist (honest!) and while I don’t think it’s a substitute for talking to a real person, I’m happy that some people get some benefit from chatbots. I had a client who used Rosebud Journal in between sessions and found it helpful. I tried out Rosebud myself and I was very impressed with how it replicated the basics like reflective listening and validation. It was even able to reframe my input using various therapy models when I requested it. I didn’t use it for long because I’m not big on journaling, but I wouldn’t dismiss it completely as a tool.