Libb

All you say is correct but I’m not sure to understand the link with the op question, which was what can poor people can do better than rich ones? Just in case, it’s a real question: I think I can read English quiet well but I may have missed something here.

I don’t understand why this matters that much

Maybe because some apps will only work on certain phones (say on iOS or Android) and maybe because depending the phone you are using maybe someone could suggested another solution than switch app? ;)

I don’t think money, or the lack of, defines anyone’s ability to do (or to be) better as a person.

Spend less time online, do less digital activities.

I do more IRL, in-person, activities. Any kind of activity most of us somehow forget we used to do well before Internet and digital was a thing can still be done without the Internet and without a computer of any kind.

In-persons is intimidating but it also helps keep away the armies of online trolls and haters that online thrive to hurt other people. Provided one behaves like a decent human being, it’s very rare people IRL will hate on anyone for goofing up or for not agreeing with them. It’s ok.

I also do as much as I can the analog way, without anything digital. It helps. Be it to write or sketch, or do stuff with my hands. Heck, even me using a paper agenda instead my phone will regularly trigger surprised/interested questions from people that otherwise would probably never have talked with me to begin with ;)

Thx, once again.

To be clear, I was half trolling (half only) with my rhetorical question but reading your comment I would not be surprised to realize we agree on a lot of things.

What truly worries me is the speed and the extend at which so many anti-eu parties have become politically meaningful.

I mean, I don’t care at all if they’re being funded by a foreign country but I do care to realize our own population is now that gullible and clueless as to believe their shit. I mean, do people have never read a history book?
I also don’t mind those parties existing, people are more than welcome to have their own ideas and to try to convince others to support them, even when I consider those ideas not the best ever. But them becoming a legit political force means they’re convincing enough of us to support their ideas, which should be the real issue. Imagine a flat-earther becoming to new head of a major science department: their silly ideas is not the issue, it’s how they managed to get to that post that should worry all of us.

Meanwhile, we have so few legit political leaders standing for the EU that are able to convince anyone. That’s not good.

Exactly like I worry to see illiteracy and hostility towards culture in general become the new normal among younger generations in the EU, too. Nothing good can come out of that trend, only more hate and more violence. Here again, it could help if people would read a history book, once in a while… but for that younger people should be taught how to properly read and then how to use what’s written in a book.

As for the EU membership, I’m one to think there should be a tiered EU memberships. Doing so, we would be able to welcome more new members quicker and then we could give time to all parties to get to know one another better and get used to living together and, well, get enough time to make sure we can all agree on some fundamental values and principles… like that should be the case in any lasting union (says I, after almost 30 years and counting with my spouse). The sad thing is that this tiered thing exists already but, unsurprisingly, only for the monetary aspect of the Union. It’s so… easy to hate on the EU sometimes, no wonder many won’t refrain of doing so.

Since brexit leaving the EU hasn’t looked like a very attractive option but still there is a lot of discussion on whether the EU should be smaller (e.g. having borders controlled by each individual member-state) or bigger (e.g. having a single combined army).

Brexit… The morning I heard the news, it was so… I was… I just could not believe that thing really happened and that any politicians could be that incompetent and dishonest and willing to screw their own people so badly. To me, that Brexit campaign was but a scam devised so they would be allowed to redistribute power between the various groups but it never meant to end as an actual exit out of the EU. Obviously, I was wrong.

Whether we like or not, whether we think there is a reason to worry or not, the huge political shifts we’ve recently been witnessing coupled with the constant and ever growing hysteria in the media and with the fast growing illiteracy in the population, all things we now seem to consider the new normal, those should decide a lot of that for ourselves.

There are people happy about what it is becoming*

Thx for helping me improve my lacking English. Much appreciated (I mean, really ;)

The EU is not a finished project :)

Are you sure about that?

I mean, looking at who people are actually voting for (here again, an existential grammar doubt if you don’t mind me asking: should I instead say ‘who they voted for’ or ‘who they vote for’ as it’s an ongoing and repetitive action but also an already finished task since, obviously, we can count their votes?) Back to what I was saying: people are voting not for the EU and have been voting not for the EU more and more openly. And to me votes is the only data worth considering when discussing politics, not what people may say out loud. Their vote is them being honest with themselves, not trying to look good.

Like with our dear US-friends swearing they hate on Trump and on his politics but still have elected the dude twice.

Should we think Trump is really just that, a sad accident that happened twice (almost) in a row in the history of the USA, or wouldn’t it be safer to consider the possibility that, maybe, a majority of the US population is indeed supporting what they voted for twice and that they want their country to become exactly what it is becoming? And they want their leaders to treat the rest of the world like they’re doing?

As a fervent EU proponent myself, I wish to see some meaningful election giving me hope we still have some common future as a Union, and not just because we share some common borders.

I suppose you’re asking if I’m French? Yes. And, yes, it’s a French operator (Bouygues Mobile)

The European Union could help safeguard those borders.

Since we/The EU will be soon buying even more US weapons, I seriously doubt that.

What was once a region of the world populated with so many smart and bright people has now become the proud land of the dumb. The EU is like a headless chicken running around. And it seems rather happy about what it has become, I’m afraid to say so.

And, yeah, I used to use one like that.

That would be the first step in claiming back what once was ours ;)

As a EU/French I vehemently oppose that idea unless we get to see the Canadian mounted police to parade here on the Champs Elysée, this next 14th July :p

Anyone have any advice?

• Ask them for their number, and see how it goes? Worst case, they will say ‘no’, end of the story. Maybe the will ask why you don’t have IG and that will be the start of an interesting conversation.
• Try to meet different kind of people? I mean it seriously. I know a lot of people around me who have IG/Facebook/X and so on but at the same time none of them make it a requirement to use it.
• Use a second phone/number for that crap content only? I barely use my ‘real’ phone (I have nothing installed on it beside what I’m required to use) still I do own a second phone just so I can easily share a number with all the services and various craps that ask for one. It’s a phone I never answer to, despite it being constantly harassed by callers. And that peace of mind (my real number is almost spam free) only costs me the 2€/month (plus the phone, I purchased used). You should be able to do something similar for social networks: have a second phone without anything personal on it, just with IG.
• Accept that you’re doomed to use IG because it’s with those ‘IG people’ and no others you want to spend your time with? I like to spend time with people reading books, it’s kinda expected we indeed read books. Would I not like to read, I would not spend as much time with them.

A pencil (edit: less than 1 dollar most of the time)

How would he live or what would he do in life? More importantly, what should be done with him to make him useful or at least neutral rather than being a negative on the society?

Are you a tool, or an object yourself? Can I throw you away because you’re broken, or because a newer version of yourself has been released, or because I don’t like the way you age?

Probably not because, at least in your own eyes, you don’t consider yourself a tool or an object. You’re not something, right?

Why is that? Because you’re a person. You’re a human being.

Well, good for you and, also, nice to meet you my dear fellow human being.

The thing is that with or without skill, we all are human beings too. We’re persons, we’re not tools at the disposal of some ‘owner’ who is free to break it and throw it away when not needed.

Given that, one realize that the fact of being alive is not about being ‘employable’ or ‘useful’. It never was. Believers would say it’s a miracle or a gift, I’m not a believer myself but I kinda understand that idea: it’s… so much more than all we can understand.

Sure, each of us may need to be able to get food and shelter, true that, but then your question instantly stops being about ‘what should we do with unemployable people’ to become the, imho, much more interesting ‘why is that civil society (aka, all of us) is allowing a handful of its own members, the billionaires and corporations, to decide they have the right to destroy the way society works for all of us and to render a lot of us unable to earn their living, just so that handful of billionaires and corporations can make more money? And why is that we should not object to their decision?’

Now, since I answered your question, allow me to ask you mine.

Why do you think people should be categorized by their ‘usefulness’? And, if we were to accept your premise (which I obviously don’t want to), would you happen to consider yourself one of those ‘useful’ that would still deserve a place in that new AI and robotic-powered society?

edit: typos + my usual poor English

Are we supposed to shed a tear? The only thing I’m looking for is some alternative to my iPhone, even very basic and very feature-limited, preferably made in the EU, that would let me ditch that last piece of Apple tech I own… while still being able to easily access the banking and security apps I do need.

Have you had your health checked recently? If there is nothing wrong, maybe you’re like me: I was getting bald at a relatively young age and then my hair started greying out.

Instead of fighting it, I decided to assume it and make it simpler to live with for me. I shaved myhead and have not looked back since then ;)

Easy: destroying the world out of sheer stupidity and greed.

Writing things down, using the pen and paper I always carry with me. Doing so, I don’t try to make literature or to sound smart, I just write things down as they come. Later on I’ll read them back, that’s quick, and decide if they’re worth using or if I strike them out and forget about them.

• It frees the mind (no need to waste brain power to remember stuff)
• It helps brainstorming freely, even by oneself
• It helps remember stuff I would otherwise don’t remember
• It helps mixing ideas I may not even consider mixing together

I would not be able to work as efficiently without the simple but so powerful pen and paper.

Like the others: jam.

No worries, I just wanted to make sure there was not some mistake. Here is my edited reply:

Two things:

1. why can’t a teen not sleep? At his age, the body needs to sleep because its constantly growing and changing. That would be the first thing I would try to understand and fix. And if it is something the kid is not willing to discuss with his parents, which is ok too, maybe with someone else they can trust.
2. if you have discussed with your son and there is no ambiguity between you I would just make sure that you sleep under separated sheets or whatever (he is not a little baby anymore and the body of a teen boy can react in ways neither you or him would be willing to see happen), provided you made it clear this should not become a habit because sleeping with mom may not be the best way to develop good sleeping habits.

Hope this helps.

(end of the edited reply)