The refusal to try something just because it’s popular.
It’s social signalling, and it’s supposed make the curmudgeon seems better than the common rabble and therefore high-status.
That is a reasonable explanation of people who announce their refusal to participate in a fad.
What of the people who just ignore the fad, without publicly declaring their refusal?
This is something I do, so I’ll take a crack at it—though, bear in mind, it might be total bullshit.
It’s a defense mechanism. Many popular things are—in my estimation—objectively terrible. Every time something utterly devoid of merit (and often actively detrimental to the public good) is generally agreed to be a popular sensation, the connection I feel to my fellow human beings takes a hit.
I want to believe in people—in society. But I’m clearly a judgmental sob. So maybe by avoiding the popular things, I’m trying not to further my own alienation.
For me, it’s kinda the other way around. I’m often the sort of person that does exactly that, refuse to try something exactly because it’s popular.
Why? Well, when everyone around you is doing a certain popular thing (let’s think like video games or sports, but could be anything really), I sit on the sidelines and realize it’s becoming an addiction for them, and I’ll literally count the years my friends and others waste away partaking in that addiction.
Don’t ask me how many years I watched friends waste playing Call Of Duty. For me, I like to mix it up, a different hobby or project or whatever almost every day.
If you’re enjoying your time, it’s not a waste.
You do have a point there, I’ll give you that 👍
My skills, projects and hobbies just tend to be a bit more diverse than people that seem to get stuck in ruts.
Sure, sometimes I like playing games. Sometimes I like fixing stuff. Sometimes I like modding and inventing stuff. Sometimes I like programming. Sometimes I study mathematical theories. Sometimes I like riding BMX flatland.
…
I’m the same except I don’t have productive hobbies like you. I refuse to do things which are popular. Not all but most things. I don’t refuse them because they’re popular but when I feel they’re popular for no reason.
I refuse to use Instagram, tiktok because they have no reason for me. I don’t posts pics or videos of mine on the internet and content there is largely trash. But I use YouTube.
I refuse to watch mainstream movies and series because for some reason I don’t like watching humans act. But I watch anime.
Fuck pickleball.
I played pickleball in secondary school for gym. I’ve had enough of it for you.
So it wasn’t just me?
The gym teacher was an Olympic badminton athlete. Anyone who could beat him in any sport automatically got to marks and never had to show up again. It never happened.
I do this sometimes but typically more because I want to see if people still think it’s good post-hype.
This product costs $14 to make, they sell it for $30.
They remove three screws and replace the beautiful $6 screen with a bottom of the barrel $3 screen saving $3.06. People would easily pay $5 more for the nicer screen, but they can only focus on cost cutting instead of making a still modestly priced great product.
Shitting on weaker people. I mean I kinda do get it, because I had the instinct when I was little. But I very quickly got taught respect by people who refused to be bullied by me.
I guess what I don’t get is … how can people still be doing that as an adult? Have they literally never had someone stand up to them before? Or are they addicted to it, unable to control themselves?
I had the impulse toward evil, but it got beaten out of me really young. It really didn’t take much — just one kid being like “no I’m not doing that”.
Agreed. And in the same vein…people who are unkind to others for no discernible reason. I’ve heard people give the excuse that they were just “stressed out” or “XYZ unrelated thing happened so I was upset”.
Almost never in my entire life have I ever understood putting down innocent people because something was going on in my life. It’s the absolute lowest form of the low to me. But people taking their anger out on innocent people is so fucking common that it’s so fucking frustrating.
I’ve snapped at people when stressed out but will apologize if so. Stress does change your thinking and makes all sorts of bad decisions more likely. As I get older it happens a lot less, fewer things bother me emotionally, age is a great moderator of mood. But I would accept that as an excuse for uncharacteristic behavior in someone.
Eating boogers!
Why!? Like sure, kids do it but they also eat sand and basically anything they can put in their mouth.
But why would you do it as an adult?! You can pick your nose and the fling it away, or even wipe it on a wall like a psycho, but eating it?? I guess at least it’s keeping the environment clean?
There’s such an amorphous dividing line around bodily fluids. Swallowing your saliva is fine, but as soon as it exits the mouth, it shouldn’t go back in. Unless it’s from someone else that you really like, but even then only a tiny bit, incidental to the act of kissing. The same does not apply to boogers. There’s also some sort of age or stage of life after which it’s no longer acceptable to drink breast milk, unless it’s from a different species.
I’ll eat ass after a rave but I won’t eat a booger.
Honestly I think the grossest part of eating boogers is putting dirty fingers in your mouth
I mean afaik boogers are just the dirt that gets filtered out when you breathe so not eating them seems the correct thing since the body already stops it from entering.
from entering your lungs, your lungs don’t really break those stuffs down as well as your stomach does.
The need some people have to be part of a group.
I’ve been “alone” for such a long time that it probably affects how I see things like this, but I just don’t get the need some people have. I’m thinking from things like worshipping a politician just to be part of a group to more simple things like needing to insert yourself into a group at work just to be “one of the guys.” I’ve always just done my own thing and never considered myself part of anything, whether friend groups, work “cliques,” or whatever. If it was “Tim, Tom, and Tina” I could be friends with all of them, but I never felt like I needed to be, or even ever was part of “their” group. I just come and go as the situation arises.
Some things like politics I obviously fall into one category or another based on my beliefs, but I don’t conform or alter my beliefs just to maintain a position within that group.
A type, true believer office people.
It’s all laid out, you have at most 100 years and 50ish healthy ones if you’re extremely lucky, and you want to spend more energy then you absolutely have to… micromanaging others and bragging about maximizing your office work output as you eek out a living?
I genuinely find the coworkers that try to drown themselves in corpo kool-aid disturbing. Soulless. I find them as sad and pathetic as they probably find me for my half hearted, clearly mocking impression of corpo culture, as I don’t show my true self at work.
Like just… Why? It’s a job. The owner truly doesn’t care if you live or die. Stop bragging that you canceled on your family yet again in favor of your "work family."🤮 They think they’re setting an example for their coworkers to follow, but I’m just sitting there pitying them.
Not putting your fucking shopping cart away. There’s no better way for me to explain it than the shopping cart theory:
A bit similar to this: leaving a table or waiting place and pushing your chair in.
Except at Aldi’s.
If you put your shopping cart away at Aldi’s, you probably hate the poor.
I have my own variant on this which I call the Neapolitan Ice Cream test
Neapolitan Ice Cream has three flavours.
Logically, everyone has a favourite and an un-favourite of the three.
No one will judge you if you dig out just the flavour you like… But the right thing to do. The one that is fair to everyone else who is eating the ice cream, is to scoop a straight line that gets a bit of each. Similarly, it’s not some great sacrifice to eat flavours you like a bit less. It’s just less nice.
This tests how fair people are when the stakes are low as shit. Which to me is the true proof of having principles. That you uphold them – Despite there being zero consequence to not doing so, and even a small punishment.
You haven’t considered all the possible intended outcomes the participants envisage in the consumption of the icecream.
It may generally be agreed that strawberry is best, therefore, everyone takes strawberry as their first choice until it runs out, and then maybe vanilla is eaten, the final flavour, chocolate, is finally consumed because there is no other choice and by the time you reach the chocolate all the participants, while agreeing chocolate is the worst, also now have a mild sugar addiction that requires satiation.
In this case the work of consuming the worst flavour is postponed in favour of all participant’s greater enjoyment of earlier scoops, rather than endured as a necessary part of every scoop.
Also scooping across the flavours spreads the chocolate across everything.
Also chocolate doesn’t belong in icecream, it belongs in bars.
…
Why yes, chocolate is my least fav! How did you guess?
Thank goodness we got rid of the strawberry flavored first. The sacrifice of those people will not be in vain: I will remember them as I enjoy the good flavors
I’ll take your chocolate since you hate it so much.
But if everyone has different favorites why should I take some of a flavor that I like less and is someone else’s favorite?
I prefer Strawberry, my wife prefers Chocolate, and we both enjoy vanilla with Syrups. There is no reason for me to deprive my wife of some of the chocolate when I don’t enjoy it as much.
This is so true. The most basic every day test to judge your character
Stealing…Saving this
Going to concerts. It’s too loud and it’s crowded, I just don’t see the appeal.
And while we’re at it, dancing. It’s unnatural, I tell you!
I’m not a fan of dancing. Love going to my local symphony concerts though. Never crowded; there’s no moshing at an orchestral concert. You get your seat and you sit in it, and you clap when the piece is done.
Plus the music’s just so much better.
There’s something about going to an event with like-minded people, listening to a band you like live with (often, not always) optimized sound for the space, and 99% of folks uninhibitably jamming out and having a good time.
I can definitely see how the experience would be unappealing to some folks, though. And I should note I’m more of a gig goer than concert attendee - so sound optimization is hit or miss, and the jamming out % is lower. Still fun, still not everyone’s cup of tea.
Edit: Idle thought that came up reading this back: what is music, for you - as in, what is your relationship to it? Where does music live in your world? Is it something that comes out of a machine to fill silence in your space or block out noise? Is it something produced by humans, of which MP3s/FLACS/CDs/Vinyl/radio waves etc. are just imprints/simulacrum for wider dissemination?
Basically, is it an activity, or a product at its core? Not really expecting anyone to answer (though they can), just a reflection I personally found interesting. Many acceptable answers.
A happy-ish medium is a well-captured live performance or jam. Alive 2007 (Daft Punk) is a pretty good example of how that can be a thing, for me at least.
Music is so hecken different to everyone, talking about it feels odd. Even sound feels/sounds different to a lot of folks, in enjoyable (soft music for a nice vibe, or a loud af chest-rumbling show) and not-fun-at-all (jarring or unwanted sounds, near-total silence for some) ways.
But yeah, I tend to crave the decibels, because I still have the ability to hear, and must not value it lol… Skull rattling is better to me than unevenly-mixed-in-room jamming, but both can be great in different ways. A fun, more personal experience is nice, but I need sensory overload to recover from, or it’s almost not worth the outing.
Going to concerts. It’s too loud and it’s crowded,
I go to seated events and wear loudness-reducing earplugs, so that solves both issues. If it’s a standing-only concert, I stay at the side areas to avoid the crowd. As for the appeal, I just want see the artist perform the songs I like live. I listen to technical music so it’s awesome to see musical skill up close.
You must be fun at parties.
Don’t know, never been :P
People who stay with abusive partners the first time they are abused
Wanting expensive designer clothes/accessories.
One, I hate spending money. Two, I’d worry about ruining them too much to ever want to wear/use them. Three, they just generally aren’t comfortable.
Amen. My only high-value items I pay a ton for are electronics. The only time I pay more than 20-30USD for a shirt is if it’s from an independent artist.
Handshaking. We’ve both touched our crotch recently, let’s not
I support this. Let’s just fuck instead.
I was hoping that would go away when covid stuck around. People still want to shake hands!
shakes head
I put out my fist when someone tries to shake my hand.
They shake your fist anyway
I hope you’ve washed your hand since the last time you’ve touched down there.
Depends on the bathroom
nahhh I just lick my hands clean
But what if I want to touch your crotch?
Eating bugs.
That’s not a human behavior imo
I guess it depends on how you define human, and bugs.
Insects have been, and continue to be, part of the homo sapien diet for millennia.
However, there’s a pretty strong argument that choosing to cause less suffering by not eating animals is a more human approach.
I was about to say, doesn’t the FDA have a maximum allowed amount of cockroach per jar of peanut butter?
I think intent would count for a lot here.
Eating bugs.
Unless they’re wet bugs. Then it’s fine dining. /s
Seriously, people retch at the idea of chomping down on a cricket, a “clean” bug, but then get all excited about eating shrimp, which is like a sea Cockroach.
Insisting to spend your attention on exactly 1 (one) significant other.
I can’t imagine being monogamous.
I’ve never understood why everyone has their phone out recording at large public events. Surely someone is going to post a video of the event and you don’t need to be recording it
I recently went to a live event at night and I noticed how many people didn’t take the time to wipe their lens to avoid giant streaks in the image.
I have a theory that social media makes it hard to put time into just about anything that you might consider art. You get a constant feed of the best quality art that the internet has to offer, so when you do take the extra minute or two to figure out your settings, wipe their lens, and actually try and take a good picture, the chance of taking a good picture is still pretty low because phones still just aren’t that good at taking pictures.
I brought my DSLR to the event and even with the much larger lens, getting enough light was pretty tough. The few pictures I did take on my phone just didn’t really have a good sense of scale due to the lens’s fixed focal length. Don’t even get me started on aspect ratio.
If you spend those few extra minutes and it still doesn’t look like what your friends are posting to their social media because they’re loading it with filters, why not join the crowd and do exactly that. Put in zero effort and let the filter fill in the gap of making it look interesting, even if it doesn’t look good.
What you did do is show all your friends that you did something interesting, which a few hundred to ten thousand or so people might see that for a couple of second before scrolling into the next 400 things they’ll see that day in their feed.
I prefer to live special moments with my own eyes instead of staring at a phone screen the entire time.
Usually when I record something like a band playing, I point the camera and then watch the stage with my eyes. I also make sure the camera is not visible to anyone behind me, because that’s annoying.
Same, I put my phone at chin level so I’m not blocking the person behind me. I also record only 1 minute max, just as a memento that I was there at that show.
People want to share their own perspective. And everyone thinks that maybe their video will end up being the one everyone else watches.
The worst is when it’s a highly televised event (e.g. fireworks), so it’s already being recorded in 4k by pros, drones, etc.
Nobody will ever watch your crappy phone recording, including you.
Because I’m not paying $15 for access to the “professional cinematic experience” (aka access to their DRM-infested meh edited cut), or recording it on TV laced with ads and annoying people who love to hear their own opinions every 60 seconds. It’s the same reason people sneak food into movie theaters or steal music. Fucking the man.
My secret is just sneaking the movies directly onto my hard drive and watching snuggled up in bed. This one weird tip has saved me tens of thousands!
I realized this a while ago. I was always watching the event through a camera lens, and like you said, it was rarely worth the effort.
Now I’m more likely to forget to take any photos.
A group of humans need to pass through a doorway with two doors. The leading human opens one of the doors and passes through the doorway. The next human follows them through the open doorway, and so does the next, and the one after them. The humans bunch up around the one open door, funneling themselves through it rather than opening the other door right beside it.
Then I, the smartest and best of humans, make use of my divine and otherworldly gifts to open the other door that was right there the WHOLE TIME. Truly I am a gift upon the world. Someone should give me chocolates.
Sometimes that door is locked and not everyone wants to bother with checking
was leaving an event somewhere once, don’t remember what/where, but everyone was holding the door for the next person so it didn’t slam on them, very slow progression. I finally got up to it and kicked down the stopper. people can be very unobservant or dumb, sometimes both.
