Highlighting this post I feel exemplifies the spirit of the community.
this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
347 points (99.4% liked)
You Should Know
45993 readers
463 users here now
YSK - for all the things that can make your life easier!
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with YSK.
All posts must begin with YSK. If you're a Mastodon user, then include YSK after @youshouldknow. This is a community to share tips and tricks that will help you improve your life.
Rule 2- Your post body text must include the reason "Why" YSK:
**In your post's text body, you must include the reason "Why" YSK: It’s helpful for readability, and informs readers about the importance of the content. **
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-YSK posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-YSK posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
If you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- The majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Rule 11- Posts must actually be true: Disiniformation, trolling, and being misleading will not be tolerated. Repeated or egregious attempts will earn you a ban. This also applies to filing reports: If you continually file false reports YOU WILL BE BANNED! We can see who reports what, and shenanigans will not be tolerated. We are not here to ban people who said something you don't like.
If you file a report, include what specific rule is being violated and how.
Partnered Communities:
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
Credits
Our icon(masterpiece) was made by @clen15!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Also, use a stick or a rope to get them out of the water. They might drown you if you jump in. If you tie a rope into a loop so they can grab on, make sure it's a static knot or you're throwing them a noose. If you have to jump in, once you grab them, you have to swim side ways with your feet deep in the water and them on your side facing out of the water. This is more for lakes/ pools. Learned most of that in the Boyscouts back in the day.
Extremely important, thanks.
What about the recommendation that, if one does approach them directly, one should do so with a leg rather than an arm?
I've only ever seen this one: 
of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult
These kinds of statistic are harrowing, if you think about them a bit longer. Hundreds of children will fight for their lives only meters away from their parents trying to get their attention, and die.
Drowning 100% looks like drowning. The problem is that people dont know what drowning looks like. Including myself.
Going to repeat Glemek because you've received a shocking number of upvotes.
The point is that people who haven't seen someone drown, may not know what drowning looks like, with the exception of media depictions.
The title and headline communicate the point effectively which draws out the semantics sadists such as yourself.
The point is that people who haven’t seen someone drown, may not know what drowning looks like, ~~with the exception of media depictions.~~
There, fixed that for you.
Drowning does not look like the splashing depictions in media. So that's not an exception. Because that's not what drowning looks like.
Way to prove the headline communicates it effectively when you just made that exact mistake.
I didn't make a mistake. I understood the intent. You decided it was a mistake because you like playing with semantics. You're a semantichist (hah! See what I did there?)
They chose a headline that catches attention, and it bothered you enough to warrant your attention too. Effective. Communication. The words that were chosen had the intended effect.
Drowning (actual) doesn't look like drowning (common cultural depictions)
load more comments
(7 replies)
Many years ago we were having a pool party. My wife and our adult niece were standing on the steps of the pool, so I walked over to say hi. Looked down and there was our niece's toddler daughter standing on the lower step, head totally submerged, just looking up at me through the water. Words wouldn't even come out - I just reached in, grabbed her arm, and pulled her up out of the water. When I started to reach between them, my wife and niece looked at me like I was being a jerk or something, then both got wide-eyed when they saw the girl come up out of the water. She had been standing on the same step as them, but accidentally stepped off to the lower and they didn't notice. Terrifying.
That is absolutely terrifying. Good instincts on your part. I'm assuming/hoping she was okay?
Totally fine - she didn't even seem phased at the time - wasn't crying or anything - was wondering why her mom was holding her and crying.
I'm relieved to hear that. I'm thinking back about the times where I might have missed something like that. Not a comfortable thought. Thanks for the reply!
Some people have more or less. I happen to have a LOT of it, at least in the context I work (inpatient psychiatry, violence deescalation). I've also noticed it occasionally happen at other times like one time my foot had the brake pedal flat on the floor for a full half second before I was able to consciously recognize the deer eyes on the side of the road. Sometimes the feeling just hits and I have to trust it or else.
From seeing which of my coworkers have or don't have it here's some observations. It's partially innate / genetic, but very much affected by especially childhood environment (but other significant life experiences can sometimes strengthen it, few things actually weaken it but trauma can certainly make it more erratic). Overall, the kids who had to learn to hide for whatever reason as a kid have the strongest sense of it.
That said, the one important thing you can do to strengthen and more importantly tune that sense is to think about it and think about why you got that feeling. Even if you're out of the immediate situation walk it back in your head. When you visualize it can you (mentally) point to a physical spot on the person or thing? You might realize you saw their fists clench or that you didn't like their facial expression or that you saw them glance at the knife block. Was there a specific point in time you felt your adrenaline spike? Was everything fine but you got nervous when they mentioned going to a party? And the last question I like to ask is what was the worst case scenario you were picturing? When they talked about going to the party did you suddenly think about them drinking again?
Even if that moment seemed like a huge overreaction from your brain (and maybe it was!) but the human brain is a very powerful prediction engine and even if it was ultimately an overreaction / catastrophizing it's worth examining what caused your brain to have a reaction at all because even if maybe it wasn't worth all that maybe it's still something you should still act on just in a more controlled manner.
Very interesting and credible. I recognise the hypervigilance part, and it sounds like there's some practice/training as well as "instinct" in there too.
I can confirm this - I have nearly drowned a few times, and it felt like I couldn't move. The natural reactions just took over me, and to be honest felt quite counterproductive. Until I was helped, I felt completely frozen, only moved by the water, until someone helped me, it was terrifying.
One of the worst parts was because I had got water in my lungs, even as I was helped above the water, I tried to breathe, but I simply couldnt. I thought I was going to die and I couldnt communicate it because, like the article says, breathing first, speaking second. It took what felt like multiple minutes but was probably like 10-20 seconds before I could actually breathe.
I'm very grateful for those who have saved me, and I clearly haven't learned my lesson because I still love being in water :P
I watched a kid nearly drown in waist deep water. To this day I have no idea what happened, but it looked like he was floating, then flopping around playfully, then going back to floating. I was standing on the shore just getting my feet wet (this was a "beach" outside Toronto) and I was just kind of watching him because his behavior seemed off somehow. After one of his "flops" he started a face down float, which he's done a few times, but this time it kept going.
I had been counting in my head without even realizing it and we were up to about 60s when I started looking around. Had anyone else noticed? His mom came over and started calling to him. Ok, she's in control. Another 30s pass and his mother is getting panicked. Fuck, I'm fully clothed, an hour from home, should I dive in? Something is definitely wrong. Someone do something... I turn around and start yelling as well.
Finally someone drags him, limp, from barely 3 feet of water. WTF. People are giving him CPR and I check his pulse between breaths... Fuck. I can't find a pulse. Then he rockets a half gallon of water from his lungs and sits up. Finally some lifeguards show up.
I'd completely froze in the moment. I sensed something was off and didn't do anything. Thank God the kid survived, but I think about it way too much...
A crisis is, by definition, abnormal. Please don't kick yourself for not acting as quickly or as perfectly as you want to in hindsight. I've been there before too, and the threshold for "this really is happening, I have to act" isn't always clear...
Surely you learned something, and wouldn't be drowning for the exact same reason next time?
I too want to know exactly how this happens “a few times” wtf.
Happened to me twice. Both times due to cold shock and I couldn't move. For some reason people like to lie about water temperature, "jump in, it's not too cold"
A Username like that and still drowning that's impressive mate,
I can't swim very well so I just stay out haha
load more comments
(1 replies)
Great share. I've taken different levels of first aid multiple times, including one where we had to watch real clinical death so we knew not to stop CPR when it looked like someone was "waking up." Death doesn't look like death either.
I remember this interactive game/video where you can try it out yourself
Yeh, it's an http site. So any browsers that require https will block/warn.
But also, holy hell is it obvious once you realise.
Arms up, then swipe down out to the sides, and repeat. Like frantically trying to fly.
As SOON as they are in trouble, it's arms flailing in that pattern. Like, look for white splashing water and assess if it's playing or panic.
A few you can tell who it is gonna be because they flip off their donut. And a few you can tell cause they are trying to swim but are looking up and aren't keeping their mouth above the water (I clicked on one of these to be told "it's fine" only for them to start thrashing and get rescued when I resumed the video)
I think, from the article, they will not always flail arms that much
Yes, sometimes they just sink.
load more comments
(4 replies)
When I was a kid at some church event at a local kids camp I noticed a kid that jumped from the (very low) diving board wasn't coming up. I had no idea what drowning actually liked like. I yelled to the lifeguard but jumped in anyway. The lifeguard saved the kid before I got over, but a chaperone noticed and sent a letter home to my parents saying they should be proud. I learned that day that cartoons aren't so real
Wonderful article. A long anecdote to introduce the topic and then a paywall before you reach the useful information of what the fuck drowning DOES look like.
See the archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20260523203542/https://slate.com/technology/2013/06/rescuing-drowning-children-how-to-know-when-someone-is-in-trouble-in-the-water.html
Also, it seems like the paywall is just on the client-side, and (at least in my case) just uBlock origin removes it
uBO did not remove it for me when I was reading the latest capture on archive.org
What the fuck is this shit?
How to spot a drowning website.
Article is behind a paywall on mobile.
view more: next ›