Whatever happened to just talking to each other? I'm glued to my devices all day every day, yet even I ignore the phone during holiday family gatherings.

Nobody's forcing you to go; if you prefer be on the internet rather than interacting with your family, please just stay home.

Edit: Downvotes be damned, I stand by what I said. If this asocial shut-in who hasn't had a friend since 2014 (because people annoy me) can come out of my shell a few times a year, and spend some time with the people I grew up, so can you. No excuses.

One day they will all be dead or estranged, and you will regret not looking up from your phone for two hours to spend quality time with them when they were alive and in your life, as you die alone in your nursing home (assuming you're rich enough to afford assisted living, that is). Don't say you aren't warned.

[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 24 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Most people feel obligated to at least pretend they like their family.

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Don't worry, you'll eventually get over your feelings of obligations towards others before you reach 40. Life becomes a lot less stressful once you stop giving a fuck about being a people-pleaser.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 6 points 3 days ago

For me, i felt like that also when I was 35. I didnt want my family to be in my life since I didnt feel good around them.

Now at 50, I have again connected to some of them. Because you get back to those feelings that life is not endless and you start to think about that you will one day not be here anymore. And its nicer if that happens when you have made peace with at least some of those people.

Tldr, age made me think different at different stages. Maybe it happens for others as well. :)

[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 4 points 3 days ago

It changes one kind of stress for another in a lot of cases. If you annoy everyone you come into contact with, you end up alone, which isn't great for your mental health, and turns every interaction into an annoyance, so you end up stressed by the necessity of interacting with people you don't want to interact with. There is no escape from humanity when you are human.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago

Sounds like the network people at my company. They are asking us to spend more time in the office, but they don't provide enough desks, they don't provide working wired LAN and they only provide semi-working Wifi. All with proxies that don't work and filters that don't let me access the webapp I am supposed to maintain, which is blocked for "being a commercial website". Thanks, I know, I have to program that crap.