I can imagine people being so distraught and apathetic that their addiction feels like the only thing that gives them purpose in life. I think that’s why a lot of people find addiction - to make up for what they don’t have. Or, in the context of younger people with phones, they just don’t know a world without it.

If you live alone, have no kids or pets, and all you do after work is play video games or doom scroll or watch porn; as long as your bills are being paid, is this an “addiction”? Are these the kinds of people you’ve met?

I think we’re only just beginning to see the ramifications of phone / social media addiction and our disinterest or fear in engaging with others in real life. Our devices are giving us all this unnatural dopamine drip we otherwise can’t find in the wild. Is this an addiction and if so, is their reliance on screens going to become a problem as these young people face adulthood? Or is adulthood going to change for them? Not to mention how my 70+ year old mother is 100% addicted to the dings from her phone.

“Addicted” means: exhibiting a compulsive, chronic, physiological or psychological need for a habit-forming substance, behavior, or activity.

If something is chronically prohibiting you from living a normal healthy life, that would be considered an addiction. If you have set times or you have the ability to responsibly engage with something without it interfering with other tasks or obligations, it likely is not an addiction. If you continue to do something which is more often detrimental to your well being yet you feel you’re getting a rush by doing it, that is likely an addiction.

No. No one is asking if talking to friends or reading the news is an addiction. However, if you find that you are engaging in these activities as a way to absolve or distract yourself from other obligations, you may fit the definition of being addicted.

This really raises the moral question of what are people supposed to do with their time. If you have the means to care for yourself, who’s to judge you for what you do with your time? If you choose to not have a family or not participate in your community or give back to the world in any way, is an addiction really a problem? If you’re choosing to not have a healthy productive life, is an addiction to drugs or gambling or sex or social media detrimental to anything?

Have you considered Apple’s Support site?

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/get-started-with-your-mac-mchl3a2c2cb0/15.0/mac/15.0

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/switched-from-windows-to-mac-mchlbc684e49/15.0/mac/15.0

There’s also https://www.youtube.com/applesupport

Generally, I’d be cautious with what you share for this sort of guidance. The majority of content related to “Using A Mac” is going to be created by people who are already entrenched in the ecosystem. They can sometimes speak over or around the heads of people just getting started.

Axios
Drop Site (Substack)
Poynter
The Intercept
Truthout

My decision to leave was due to the prevalence of misinformation and / or entirely unrelated comments being upvoted to the top. Fuck that place. It’s just an alternate to Facebook now.

Edit: I just think it’s funny that people left because of the API policy. Not to diminish anyone’s preferences but Reddit’s policy change was actually to retain users, run more ads, and probably increase algorithmic engagement and sell content to LLMs. People left as a protest with the belief that it was run by, for, and of the people and that Reddit didn’t understand its core user base. Reddit has only continued to increase its user base and revenue. I’d venture to guess that the core users leaving was actually a benefit to Reddit. Their departure just made it easier for Reddit to accomplish their goals.

I’ve never actually seen someone write out “pacific” in such a way and it’s quite plausible that people mishear something and presume it to be true based on other context - such as an issue as big as an ocean. Yes. It happens a lot.

You can get free Priority Mail boxes from the US Post office. https://store.usps.com/store/results/shipping-supplies-boxes/_/N-u9qwm0

I was actually being dead serious.

Given the context of your post, I would suggest starting with the basics. Taking the time to learn how to write properly may give you some ability to speak properly.

I have a really pacific issue

I don’t know if this is typo or if you think your issue is as big as the ocean.

Dude.

Dude.

DUDE.

The penises carved into desk and walls because the sewer backed up? What the fuck??

lighter/heavier oil (I can’t remember which)

So… you didn’t even read the first sentence.

“The need is infrastructure,” he said. “You may produce all this light sweet crude oil in Texas. But if you don’t have pipelines to the nation’s refineries to deliver it, how are you going to be able to utilize it?”

Yes, the type of oil is certainly an important part of it and if people were more aware of this I think it would be helpful. But it’s the combination of the type, the refining process, and trade that makes it more clear that “drill baby drill” is not the panacea Americans think it is.

Drilling for more oil is for the benefit of the oil producers, not for American wallets.

When the mods ban US politics the day after an election.

From my experience, I would say it really depends on what kind of smoker you are.

I smoked on and off for over twenty years. I made strong associations with cigarettes in my college years. It was a way to get away, to be different, to meet new people, to relax, etc. Sometimes I smoked two packs a day, but more often a pack a week. I smoked the most while driving or after work or at the bar. My friends at the bar smoked, my girlfriends smoked, my coworkers smoked.

I read long ago that, for some people, nicotine fits like a puzzle piece into a receptor in their bodies. I believe I lack this receptor that causes biological addition and my smoking was due more to Pavlovian conditioning. I never had a morning craving. I never got “the shakes”. I quit over a dozen times, sometimes for more than a year.

When I was finally ready, and I have to emphasize that you need to be ready, I actually went out of my way to not have a cigarette while doing the things I strongly associated with smoking. I knew I was ready and it was going to stick because I quit over the course of “Beer Week” (Beer Week is when all the bars in the city have beer specials and events and serve one-off or collaboration beers from around the world). It was the worst time to quit but also the best time to quit. It was a challenge. When my friends at the bar all went out for a smoke, I joined them - without a smoke. When I was done eating dinner, I’d go outside and just sit and think without the cigarette. I even went for a drive with a cigarette in my hand and pretended to smoke it without lighting it up.

Being ready to quit isn’t about knowing it’s bad for you. To be really honest with you, I quit because I was flirting with a super cute girl who happened to be a doctor (I still remember her name - Rose. Because Rose + Doctor Who). Everything was going great then I interrupted her so I could go outside for a cigarette. The disappointment felt by the both of us when I returned was the gut punch I needed. I still have that pack of cigarettes that I only had three smokes out of.

I’ve not had a single urge to smoke for nine and a half years now.

Or you could try hypnotherapy. Worked for my mom after smoking for over 45 years.

Coven - Satanic Mass (not “music”)

Bach - Toccata And Fugue In D Minor

Victoir Peraino’s Kingdom Come - I Put a Spell on You

It’s not terribly difficult to get on the ballot. But each state has their own requirement so the third party candidates you see may not be on every ballot nation wide.

It’s not just the media that promotes the two candidates. It’s the billionaires and corporations who invest the most money in promoting someone they find favorable to their interests. Given the bankroll surrounding these two parties, the media really don’t have much choice but to reflect their advertising efforts.

In the US, we have what’s called first past the post elections. That essentially means the first person the get the most votes wins. In this case, it’s electoral votes, not individual votes.

Had the US had something like ranked choice voting or star voting in general elections, third party candidates would be given much more attention.

Given the voting system we have, we mostly vote in a manner that prevents the election of the most popular candidate we don’t like.

Secretly, I’ll pass judgement on someone until I realize I know nothing about them and would be unhappy if someone judged me without knowing anything about me. Then I judge myself for being judgmental.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/commonly-confused-words/all-of-a-sudden/

For football fans, the answer is Monday.

Not sure why you think this.

You just reiterated what I said.

If you were to rip a Bluray to your computer, you’re legally not permitted to watch that movie if you’re no longer in possession of the disc.

=

You can legally rip a Bluray for backup purposes. If you sell or give away the Bluray, you have to delete the backed up copy.

Technically, if the FBI were to ask you to prove ownership of a digital copy and you had lost the disc, it would be illegal to retain that digital copy.

Bypassing DRM is illegal because the DMCA explicitly prohibits the circumvention…

Yes. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a law that covers copyright protections.

Everyone should generally assume that unless you have something tangibly in your hand, you either do not own it or you may very easily and/or suddenly lose access to it. You could test this by trying to access the content without having to sign in to something.

All these streaming and subscription services should be considered ease of access conveniences. In other industries, you pay a premium for something to be prepared for you to consume. In the subscription industry, you’re paying less because you’re not paying for the content but for a license to temporarily consume the content (and probably because your info is being sold to advertisers).

Fun Fact: If you were to rip a Bluray to your computer, you’re legally not permitted to watch that movie if you’re no longer in possession of the disc. This is because you’re not purchasing the content of the disc but the license to view the content. Decrypting DRM is illegal not based on whether you own the content but because the DRM encryption itself is separately copyright protected.