A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
Being out of contact is underrated these days.
Used to be, on a flight or a train, and in many other scenarios, you weren't expected to work or be contactable. It was time to sit with your thoughts, read something fun, sleep, or converse quietly with someone next to you, often a stranger. That was GOOD, not bad.
What I really miss is the distinction between texting and instant messenging. I LOVED chatting on AIM when I was teenager. When you wanted to talk you signed on and when you were done, you just signed off. Now anyone anywhere can pop up in your pocket at any moment, demanding attention. Worse is that a good portion of people consider it rude to not answer a text immediately or even still, consider a day or 2 to be unreasonably long. Yeah, I might be checking my phone, but that doesn't mean I'm available to talk to you at this exact moment for any myriad of reasons, including that maybe I just don't feel like it. I started treating texts more like email and it has helped so much.
One can still be out of contact by simply not responding. A mobile devices can be disconnected from the network easier than a house with multiple lan lines, just turn it off.
While you are absolutely correct, it's the fact that most people don't make this choice and it has shifted societal expectations.
I encourage everyone to disconnect as much as possible. Enjoy the wonderful things technology offers us, and equally enjoy breaking free from the chains it introduces.
Agree with you there. I used to just tell people owl was traveling and couldn’t respond. But it’s still pretty amazing that it’s possible now.
Me, on a plane: sits
The person next to me: so you're disabled eh? Tell me all about it so I can explain to you how it's the government's fault, and then indirectly blame you for not working with partial blindness, one good arm and leg
Or
The person next to me: I couldn't help but notice the stickers on your luggage and laptop, with the gay flag and the paw prints, I can help you find Jesus again
Or
The people awaiting boarding when I hug and kiss my partner[1] goodbye and cry: is he, uh, you know, is your friend not coming with you?
Me: stewardess, I'm gonna need a new seat
[1]
He's technically my master and not my partner, but try explaining that to like 300 boomers
Yeah, sure, 'good'...
You picked the wrong line of work.
As a machinist, I'm not expected to work anywhere that's not in front of a lathe or mill.
Let us know if it asks for your uneaten peanuts or tries to show you pictures of it’s vacation.
As a matter of fact, they do not.
The lathe is from pre 1989 Hungarian People's Republic though. It'd probably have some cool stories at the very least.
It will tell you about Grandma’s Töltött Káposzta.
150 years ago, you being on a plane wouldve been unthinkable, let alone instantaneous international communication
Seriously I was astonished hearing our teenagers complaining the plane wifi "sucks" because they had bad ping at fortnite. Like seriously think about it 1 second ungrateful brats.
Didn't have internet when I was in Guangzhou all the way until my family left China 2010
I still don't know if it was even a thing in my area or if it was just because of money issues.
The idea of an airplane itself would he quite a stretch in 1876 considering the Wright brothers made their famous flight in 1903.
But instantaneous communication? They had telegraph at that time.
I can get real-time death threats from some kid from Australia while sitting in Europe, it's truly a great time to be alive
150 years? That would have been damned near impossible 25 years ago, or at least prohibitively expensive for a civilian to just do off the cuff.
I picked a longer timeframe because I knew people would have focused on non-civilian communication being possible.
~~Ventrilo was cool too~~
Edit: replied to the wrong comment.
I remember calling someone in another country was super expensive but you could predial some super long numbers which made it cheaper somehow
Early Chinese immigrants to the US had to write letters to get physically carried across the pacific ocean... which took like months I think. I don't think a telegraph cable even exist across the ocean back then.
Now I can just video chat my aunts in China in HD in real time... (tbh I haven't really talked to them since I left when I was 8, I only ever like briefly say a few words when mom was calling)
So bizzare to be born in this time period...
Like I could just summon any information on a glass thingy whenever I get curious
I can literally get to know someome 1400kms away and be a buddy with, and can do this with whoever i want in the world in about seconds if i just feel to, that's crazy shit if ya ask me
Hey you
BE MY FRIEND¹
HI HI HI
OMG THIS IS CRAZY
THIS IS JUST ELEMENTAL WITCHCRAFT
This message isn't real
You're just hallucinating electrons
Lol
¹Just kidding... unless... 🥺👉👈
Dear wizard, i , axolotl magnificus, indeed want to be your friemd if you feel to
Lol so um... like... how do we do this? do we just click the button on the diplomacy menu and then... like.. chill for the next 30 turns? (Civ Reference)
You didn't give dates but there were definitely telegraph cables crossing the oceans prior to 1900's
Were regular people able to send communication or was it just political/military/business communication?
I was once skyping from Germany with my friend who was deep in some South American jungle and my brother somewhere in an African rain forest.
And I had to tell them my line was about to drop because I was entering my town.
And I had to tell them my line was about to drop because I was entering my town.
In NYC subways, my parents would make phone calls on the D-line while it's above ground, then once it was about to enter 36 street (upbound direction), they'd be like "about to enter the tunnels, call again when have time" and sometimes they'd keep talking until the signal actually gets cut off.
The most memorable part was the manhattan bridge. They'd get the phone ready and the once they see daylight (or sometimez the night lights, if it's 6PM), they'd press call and talk for the entire duration of the bridge crossing. Like I remember once I was with my mom and we were heading home, and the subway got the the bridge segment, and mom called home to my older brother to tell him to start cooking the rice with the rice cooker so it'd be ready when we got home.
SO NOSTALGIC
I've not been on a plane in a few years, and the idea that we have wifi on the plane seems weird
For a while now I've had a theory that there is a positive correlation between our emotional intelligence and our expanding ability to communicate.
I often find myself texting onboard an intercontinental flight, and in the other end is a coworker onboard a ship, so that we can plan the days ahead.
Back in 98, dad managed to reach me on board an intercoastal flight (bos to LAX) from a small sailboat heading to the bahamas. He was on a VHF and hailed a passing cruise ship. Their radio OP had i think a shortwave, and was radio buddies with some ATC guys in the Midwest. He reached out, and one of them went on the air asking if anyone in his airspace was flying BOS to LAX with an unacompanied minor. My plane responded, a stewardess came and got me, and I was able to talk to my dad for a few minutes before we went out of that tower's VHF range (I guess)
GMDSS has a system and procedure for routing phonecalls over VHF. It's expensive as hell, and the conversation happens over open frequencies, but it works for those times when there's an emergency. Works all over the world where there's maritime VHF comms and the GMDSS convention is in effect.
A coworker of mine got a scare once while we were doing a seismic survey far off the coast of Brazil. A message was passed down from the bridge that he had to come up and phone home ASAP. Cases like these rarely happens unless there's a family emergency such as death and whatnot.
Well, we were all concerned for him, but when he came out to the backdeck, he was laughing at the entire ordeal. Turned out his dad had come across a really good offer for a quad bike, and needed to know if he should order it for him.
You think that's crazy, how about the fact that we have the tech to record and remotely view the conversation you two had from anywhere in the world. Computers, man...