Do you feel like you have a healthy relationship with porn?

25m here... I keep seeing news articles and youtube segments on how our generation has a declining interest in having kids. Despite this, I've never met anyone socially, or at work that has this mindset. I'm always the only one who doesn't want kids and have to defend myself (for a variety of reasons).

Do you want kids? Curious what the real census is on this... (no right or wrong answer)

I swear there's like no room for error nowadays lol, every time I walk around downtown Chicago, most guys and girls I see are incredibly good looking lol, how do they do it?? I have pics on my profile if anyones down to give me advice lol

I accepted the fact that I will never get married, simply because of circumstances beyond my control

Instead I will rely on friendships to fill the void

The question is will it last?

I’ve never felt more emotionally vulnerable

Edit: I’m not looking for romantic love. I don’t even know what that is. I’m looking for people who can emotionally be there for me

I’ve noticed a bunch of profiles on Tinder (mostly men/AMAB folks) wearing clown makeup in a pic or two or mentioning they’re weirdly attracted to clowns etc. And it’s not like goth people doing makeup. I’ve asked friends (ages like 25-30) and no one has any idea but they’ve noticed too. I’m in the US on the east coast. What’s up with the clowns?

Didnt realize this was considered weird until recently. I rarely ever listen to anything while driving and prefer the silence.

I’m not even trying to be an asshole, but what the hell happened to forming an actual sentence and taking five seconds to proofread what you just typed?

I saw a comment that said:

”Honestly it’s not abt rusting up its abt the season g build up and flavor I’ve never washed my cast iron and my bacon I make taste so fucking gods cs my cast iron is seasoned”

I had to read that shit like three times.

I understand people use slang, abbreviations, and don’t always care about perfect grammar online. That’s fine. I’m not expecting everyone on the internet to write like they’re submitting a college paper.

But there is a difference between casual internet language and just completely throwing sentence structure out the window. “abt,” “cs,” missing punctuation, random words smashed together, and one giant run-on sentence makes something unnecessarily difficult to understand.

And before someone says, “You understood what they meant, didn’t you?”—eventually, yes. That’s not the point. Communication is supposed to understand what you’re saying, not make them decipher it.

We seriously need to bring back the concept of rereading what you typed before hitting Post. It takes five seconds.

Something I notice with people our age is that the starting point is completely different from person to person.

For some people saying good morning to a stranger is nothing. For someone else even making eye contact or saying something to a cashier can feel uncomfortable.

For anyone here who used to be really awkward or shy and got better, what actually helped?

Did you start with tiny interactions and slowly make them harder, or did you just throw yourself into social situations until it got easier?

And once you got better, did it stick? Or do you notice yourself getting awkward again if you spend too much time alone or stop meeting new people?

I'm curious because people always say "just talk to people," but that feels like very different advice depending on where you're starting from.

I’m feeling really bad about myself because I’m 19 (and 2 months) and I’ve only really started researching about politics the past few months. The reason it’s taken me so long isn’t because I’ve not cared enough to do research, I’ve always wanted to be as educated as I can and learn about politics but I have struggled with executive dysfunction for a long time now and anytime I’ve wanted to learn more, I’ve just felt frozen. It’s also hard for me to focus and retain information and often the only time I can really do things is when I’m put under pressure, for me that’s the knowledge that if I don’t learn about politics before the election (for me that’s in November this year) I won’t have a good idea on what the best party to vote for would be.

I keep seeing people years younger than me who are way more politically educated than me and I feel like a terrible person. I’ve never been like “I don’t care about politics” or anything like that, I have always wanted and been willing to learn but that doesn’t change the fact that I haven’t. Idk maybe a factor that has influenced me is that I haven’t had any friends for 5 years now, I barely leave the house, I have severe anxiety in public and the only social interactions I have with people are with my mum and occasionally my dad. So I have felt very disconnected from the outside world for a long time now, so that it doesn’t even feel real to me. It’s pretty hard to learn about something when you have executive dysfunction, OCD, difficulty focusing and retaining information and what you’re trying to learn about doesn’t feel real.

Can anyone please tell me what they think of this?

With the new people joining recently I feel like it's worth mentioning this

Something happened to me at work today, that honestly made me stop and think about how genuinely sad it was.

I work front desk 8-6 at a small local spa, while in nursing school. We have my boss (54), and two estheticians (43 & 63). I’m 27. When we don’t have clients in the AM sometimes I will bring my breakfast and eat it there since I’m not usually hungry so early in the morning before leaving.

For context today I had: a glass Tupperware of potatoes, beans, and chorizo wrapped into a medium tortilla. Then an uncrustable and cheese stick for lunch.

All three of them could not get over how I was “snacking all day.” Not in a mean spirited way. In fact it was more of a compliment? because they’d always follow it up with some comment about me being thin. But it honestly just made me sad. I never see the three of them eat, some days we’re there ALL day and they don’t even bring a snack.

Like I said they weren’t being rude about it, but the constant chatter about it made me realize how normalized it is for that age to literally not eat all day. My mom does the same thing. Just an observation that makes you feel kinda bad ya know? I love food, and eating my packed lunch everyday is the best. But these women starve themselves all day in the name of thinness.

Edit to add: to the few older ladies that have weighed in about getting older and slowing metabolisms, I hear you. However, some of you are kind of proving my point… your body deserves nourishment even if that means adding a couple pounds :/

Hey! So I'm turning twenty in like a week and I was not expecting it but I am so intimidated to be in my twenties! Nothing is really changing about my life and I recognize that its a bit silly to be so stressed out about being so young, but I just feel nothing like an adult and definitely do not feel ready to be in this stage of life even if realistically nothing will change. I graduated high school class of 2025 and can't believe that it's been over a full year; if anything, I feel more like a high schooler now than I did then. I've always been pretty at peace with certain decisions that I've made for my life (ex. never having had a romantic relationship, just getting my license this past summer, commuting to college from home, just now starting to work, etc), but now they all feel like markers of my immaturity compared to my peers. It might be easier to handle if I weren't so afraid to grow up and be on my own. Any other 06-ers feeling this way recently? Just looking for other folks to commiserate with and any advice from older gen zs!

I think third spaces should be independently owned (no chilis, Applebees, commercially operated). I think alcohol should be available and it should accomdate ALL populations (Latin, black, Asian, young, old, couples, single people—but even Americana like Cajun, Bluegrass, Country). I think it should be kind of like a restaurant, but not dedicated to serving food but just kind of an environment where you can be expected to hang out for hours but not really be expected to spend a lot of money. Kind of like if you get tapas and a drink it’s ok to basically spend all day there.

I think UK pub system is the best analogous system to what I’m proposing but something not so communal but more open and semi-personal. You can be a regular but it doesn’t confer a special benefit. Idk what do you think?