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I mean. I’m not okay either. I work to try to reduce my screen time as much as I can but when it’s part of the job and also an always ready hit of dissociative
by taurath 7y ago
I mean. I’m not okay either. I work to try to reduce my screen time as much as I can but when it’s part of the job and also an always ready hit of dissociative dopamine in my pocket it creates an awful feedback loop that I’m not equipped to handle.
At work as a programmer, you’re “supposed” to spend some free time doing projects and have “hobby development”, so you can reach the next career echelon. Even not in a programming career, everything is rushed, it must happen now. People are either on or off, and off is a dissociative activity, desperately trying to save our sanity so that we can be on the next day. We’re rich, but it doesn’t feel like it. I think we need a way for the culture to emphasize “slow down”. If you travel to other countries, you’ll find a much slower pace of life - there needs to be a better way to opt into something like that without giving up basic security. If I quit my job to pursue a slower pace of life, it’s almost a guarantee that I will lose my health insurance. I probably would have to move to another area, but the “slow” areas are either riddled with their own problems or are the playgrounds of the super rich. Where’s the calm, collected, slow middle? I’d like to find it. My job is even very good about work life balance and I struggle with this.
- tjr225 7y agoThis is why we need to advocate for this stuff from our government. If enough of us agree that we should make this possible, it can happen.
- Simon_says 7y ago> If enough of us agree Then the market will sort it out.
- taurath 7y agoThings like... community gathering that people will actually use (see: night markets anywhere in Asia), banning of outdoor billboards, health care gauranteed whether you’re working a good job, a bad job, or taking a break. Mandatory vacation leave. Overtime pay for even salaried workers. Plenty of things that could say that we as a society mean to do more than make the rich richer for a .1% chance to become the rich.
- scroy 7y agoOutdoor billboards...?
- taurath 7y agoAds. Ads are a constant drumbeat saying whatever you have isn't "enough". That you should be striving for something better, or worse, that what you have now is crap. They drive a lot of the hurriedness in society. They drive companies to get your attention at all costs - they make your social network a cesspool of extreme politics, not because people wouldn't post them normally, but because ad money incentivizes the networks to promote them. They make your local news only care about grabbing your attention. Go somewhere without billboards and notice how much more peaceful it is. One of the properties of the nicest vacation spots especially where you're supposed to relax is that there are no billboards. True, a lot of the economy wouldn't work without some sort of advertising, but I've felt that they almost always incentivize people to act against their own interests, and companies to stop treating the end users as a customer.
- soup10 7y agosounds like you live in the city, suburbs and the country have a slower pace of life
- agent008t 7y agoOut of interest - what is stopping you from moving to one of these other countries?
- taurath 7y agoAt the moment a desire to find something sustainable here, where most of my relationships are. I think about it all the time, and have ran budgets, and have vacations with the intent of "feeling like I live" there. I know there'll be a lot of downsides that I can't know about, but I try to talk to expats and migrants to get their take on things.