That doesn’t involve either masturbating or going to the bathroom.
Mine is leaving Facebook. 4 days ago it has passed its permanent deletion date, so I can no longer recover it. I’ve been on it for 5 years and have been off and on it a little longer beforehand. Yes it sucks that by deleting my Facebook, I’ve closed off the connection to my locals who are on there, who I haven’t seen in 3 1/2 years because I moved.
However, I have tried giving them alternatives to keep in touch but they seemed glued to the platform. Not budging, not caring, though I didn’t want to be around anymore.
I was tired of the ads that I had to keep closing, I was tired of the YouTube shorts-ripoff always shoved in my face that I had to keep closing. I was tired of seeing notifications to things that either didn’t exist or was already read but I got a notification for anyways. I was tired of being recommended people I have had no intention of adding. I was tired of FB Dating, on my phone, making up a number to get me to use it again.
I was just so tired of all of this degradation that FB has become over the years to where it was outweighing whatever use I thought that there was with it.
Asking for a divorce.
What is the most relieving thing you’ve done for yourself?
That doesn’t involve either masturbating or going to the bathroom.
As much as I dislike what Facebook has become, the reason I left was because virtually nobody I knew was posting anymore. WhatsApp took over as the default amongst family and friends, so I basically just use that now.
Relieving things though… the only thing I can think of is helping get someone fired from my work. Socially they were fine, fun even, but in the office when it came to working with them, they were patronising, haughty and a bit sinister. Always a chore, never a pleasure to do work for them.
The day they left, my own days all felt 20% better than they had been before
I stopped reading the news, and I block any and all feeds that relate to politics.
I know, I know…staying informed and all that. Except I’m hard pressed to name a news outlet that informs. What I see is so driven by the engagement metrics, rage baiting, if-it-bleeds-it-leads mentality that any modicum of facts or truth gets lost. Journalists seem to have forsaken their obligation to hold leaders accountable and have become complicit in the problems they’ve created.
I’m old, I’m jaded, and my activist days are far behind me. I’m just done with that shit. My own mental and physical health are my top priority at my age and switching off the never ending River of Doom has improved both.
Same. Stopping following the news has been so great. The live 24hour news cycle is toxic and unnecessary. I’ve also come off all social media (other than Lemmy) and don’t watch/hear live TV or radio. I’m insulated from the immediacy of constant content updates. The content I do still consume, I’ve turned off all phone notifications; so I see it when I intend to open the app rather than having my attention stolen.
I connect to the world through podcasts, reading and specific subscribed YouTube channels. It’s refreshing to step away from the immediacy of having to know as soon as something happens. I find out on a podcast the next day or in a few days. I watch TLDR News on YouTube which does good explanations of current events a few days later (when information is available and the situation has developed). I’m going back to reading books and following a curated list of RSS subscriptions.
Tone down the immediacy of everything, avoid reactionary crap, avoid algorithm recommendations, be intentional in the content you’re putting in front of yourself. Ithas certainly worked out great for me and I would recommend it.
I really like More Perfect Union on YouTube. It’s definitely more journalism than news, so you get investigations into what’s going on.
TLDR News on YouTube
i watch this too and i can attest that it’s not much different than what you get on tv; it’s still beholden to the same forces that control abc, cbs, nbc, fox, cnn, guarding, skyone, etc.
democracynow is on youtube is the best you’re going to get in this country.
I’m in the same boat as you except that my activist days will NEVER get behind me, I’m ready and willing as soon as the first shot rings, and I will be on the right side of history.
But I too stopped following news. I have a window, one or two hours at night, where I turn off all electronics, and just sit and think, in silence. I can have pen and paper, I can have a beer or a spliff or I want, but no electronics.
And it has worked wonders for my anxiety and depression. Really, being constantly deflected from your own internal thought processes is just another cancer killing humanity.
I prefer to be minimally informed than wildly misinformed.
There is way too much and always has been, this tug of war of which angle is the most righteous than that angle. Until I see some honest and serious action towards a better tomorrow that’ll benefit ##all## (scratch that, how about the majority of those that just want live with as little conflict as possible), I can’t care too much about waving flags, playing labels, shouting buzzwords and brainwashing myself to think a certain way to appease some demographic.
It is incredibly taxing and exhausting.
Switching from gas cars to EVs and having chargers at home. Always leaving the house with a “full tank of gas” and never needing to stop at a gas station again. I did stop by one to clean my windshield a while back and there was ground in trash around the pump, the wiper had no fluid, it was overall disgusting. I don’t remember them being that bad.
Finding a good therapist. Within those sessions, some moments stand out: the ACT exercises that were experiential. Those exercises transformed many fucked up beliefs. I went from “the world is shit and I’m fucked” to “the world’s complex but I commit to be a kind person”.
I can’t recommend it enough: experiential ACT exercises.
Nice headphones. Life is too short to be using shit headphones.
Man, I bought proper earbuds after using bottom shelf specials all the time and I realized there were sounds in my favorite songs I’d never heard before.
Now I’m just hoping they last more than a year. The last time I bought expensive brand name earbuds one stopped connecting in literally a few months while the cheap knockoffs seem to last forever.
Earbuds have come a long way and are very convenient, but IMO there’s no match for proper over-ear open-back headphones. My first pair of “nice” headphones was the Sennheiser HD555, and I made sure all my rips were at least 320kbps. Had the same experience, suddenly I was hearing sounds in songs that I never knew were there!
I was just so tired of all of this degradation that [it] has become over the years to where it was outweighing whatever use I thought that there was with it.
This is my take on society as a whole.
Fitness.
I had been getting more frequent backpains and just a general feeling of being unfit. Walking uo stairs would leave me breathless. I couldn’t run for more than 200 meters without gasping for air.
Now I started going to the gym, 3 years ago and I feel fit now. Sometimes I still get pains, sometimes I even get pains because of cardio of lifting, but those arent as bad. I feel more alive and more comfortable because I’m fit now. I’m still fat and ugly, but also fit.
Getting rid of Windows, Instagram and Reddit, switching to Linux, Mastodon (not a direct comparison) and Lemmy.
Got my three remaining wisdom teeth out last week. It’s been quite a few years since I could chew without biting the inside of my cheek. Being able to chew properly is a highly underrated ability.
Last year I left town for Christmas. Family is always rushing to church, then to photos, then to lunch/dinner.
Rush rush rush.
Apparently its tradition. (I thought family time is more important, no matter if its 8am in a church, or 11am at the beach)
Go by myself to the Big City. Got to sleep in on Christmas day. Peace. Quiet. Best Christmas ever.
Switching from a car commute to ebike + train. I don’t get pissed off easily, but the traffic where I live can easily get you stuck for over an hour traveling 2-3 miles. And it was just inevitable that I’d finally get home in a shit mood. Biking and chilling in public transit is the exact opposite experience, especially if I manage to catch my usual train. I feel refreshed.
An extra hard drive for offline backup of my home server. Just knowing I have a cold, unplugged copy of my data in my drawer has made me less paranoid about accidentally “rm -rf”-ing my computer and taking all the mount points with it or my dog getting her paw caught on a wire (she likes to run around haphazardly and is pretty clumsy) and dragging the entire hard drive enclosure down with it.
Ideally I wouldn’t keep that drive in my house but I don’t have anywhere else to put it. Maybe someday I’ll get a safe deposit box or something but then my lazy ass probably wouldn’t bother to retrieve and sync my data nearly as often.
Building up a good emergency savings fund. When things break I don’t even have to think about if I can afford to fix or replace them. I may have to make decisions on how nice of a version I can have, but I never have to worry I won’t have a car or may have to take a quick loan. Financial worries have become “how long can I be unemployed without issue” or “can I upgrade this thing” or “what’s our budget for a car/apartment/house”.
