Spent a morning out on the town on my day off, and everyone is just fucking buried in their phones 24/7. This realization was so absurd to me

Of course I’m not exempt from this shit, but no wonder people are having so much trouble making friends and creating meaningful relationships in this day and age. So fucking bleak

  • Riffraffintheroom [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    People werent chatting up strangers before smartphones. In the 2000s it was exactly as awkward as it is now to start a conversation with a stranger unprompted. Unless you were both smoking.

    • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      The only sad thing about people not smoking cigs anymore is you don’t get the great chats that come from people asking to bum a smoke/you bumming a smoke off a stranger. Cigarette chat is easily the best part of being a smoker.

      • MerryChristmas [any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Cigarettes were an easy way to tell people “I don’t give a shit about the things that you’re supposed to give a shit about.” When you saw someone smoking a cigarette, you knew you could talk politics or religion or any number of contentious topics with them. It didn’t mean it would be a good conversation, but the invitation was always there.

        Wow, I just realized I hate vaping.

        • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Also, disposable vapes are more addictive than cigs. They give WAY more nicotine per hit. Actually used them to push through opiate withdrawal because the nicotine in those was so powerful it’d push through the withdrawal in its entirety. You can realistically only smoke 4-5 cigs a day. You can’t take 4-5 hits off a vape in a dag

          • MerryChristmas [any]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Are you still on the vapes? I picked up smoking again a few years back due to work stress and I made the switch pretty quickly, but I really want to just be done with these things.

            • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              I’m not. I actually went backwards, from vapes to cigarettes. If you’re going to vape, pick up your own system, tank and juice. The shitty disposable vapes will make you a nic fiend like nothing else. I can’t stand how bad they make the cravings. I can run out of money for smokes and go a day or two without smoking. But when I was on those disposable vapes, it was like hard drug cravings, it was so bad.

      • DayOfDoom [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        You also don’t get beat up when handing them a Popeye candy cigarette anymore though. So maybe one thing’s improved in this painful, candy-hating world.

        • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Move to Bay Area/LA/Vancouver and it’s the exact same with joints except you have to offer to share instead of bumming off others

          • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Weed is like that anywhere it’s legal. But stoned chats are far less grounded than cig buzzed chats. The unpleasant weed chats I’ve had are far more unpleasant than the worst cig chats I’ve had. Smoke cigs, you talk about family and what brings you to whatever area you’re at. Maybe a few minor work stresses, but nothing crazy. Weed will make people too comfortable in a strangers company

            • MerryChristmas [any]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              The main problem with weed chats is that you get stoned and start to worry about when it’s okay to leave the conversation. With a cigarette, the conversation ends in five minutes or you light up another one. It’s a nice little snack versus a Sunday dinner.

      • combat_brandonism [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        the last cig chat I got was a drunk cis liberal interrogating me about my gender and refusing to take the hint that I wouldn’t go home with them, that I was going to finish my smoke and go back into my apartment to be with my partner

        shit sucked