18 daysI tell people I don’t use social media at all but I’m actually on the Fediverse.
- AskewLord@piefed.socialEnglish18 days
unless you’re branding your posts here with your real name and trying to monetize it, you’re not really using social media in the way most folks mean it in 2026.
social media is when it’s tied to your real life identity and your body, it’s not anonymous posting on forums or message boards, which lemmy is more in the vein of.
I don’t think anyone would regard my posts on forums and old.reddit.com as social media. if i had used reddit as a promotional tool for like my instagram business or as part of a personal brand I’m proving, yeah that would be very different.
IME real social media people are those who have basically internalized the concept of self branding and see their lives as entirely performative for their audience, whether that be internet strangers or their real life friend group.
- 18 days
This has honestly become a pet peeve of mine. At this point anything that has an internet connection is being called social media.
My sibling in sin, you are using this medium to socialise.
- 17 days
Forums, chat rooms, irc, email and other forms of communication existed way before facebook and it were not labeled social media. Social media is its own beast. I would not categorize Reddit and like platforms as social media.
Similarly in terms of words, I saw an article ranking fast food places and basically listed every brand chain restaurant as fast food. Terms should have meaning.
Words can be invented after the thing they describe. “Social media” was invented when normies started using it, long after nerds started using media to socialise.
- 17 days
Of course. I’m sure many more words will keep being invented for concepts. Social media to me is more about being a real persona with identity and connecting with people and having followers. It’s also designed to keep you on. Most of the fediverse is about anonymity and we don’t have enough content for doom scrolling.
That’s a stereotype, not a definition. Normies think of social media that way because the don’t understand forums. And they’ve taught you to think like them.
- AskewLord@piefed.socialEnglish17 days
Yeah. To me social media is specifically visual platforms where you are selling a personality.
but let’s not mistake ourselves, the majority of internet use is social media use and has been for a decade. and it’s predominantly accessed via mobile devices, not computers.
- 17 days
Exactly. The fun part of social media is(/was) finding people you know IRL and having an extra way to interact. The fun part of internet forums is finding people you didn’t know before and learning new stuff.
- shittydwarf@piefed.caEnglish18 days
As a kid I was too afraid to go down the stairs to the bathroom at night, so I peed in the humidifier instead
- shittydwarf@piefed.caEnglish17 days
It took them ages to figure out where the pee smell was coming from
- 18 days
I caused ~$100k damage to my middle school.
I am going to fuzz some of the details for obvious reasons, but when I was in 8th grade, I was dealing with a chaotic home life and had just moved for the 3rd time in 8 years across the country. I hated the school and didn’t really have friends so developed some destructive habits.
Our physical education teacher was a lazy, creepy, moron who would force us to run laps for an hour which let him sit in his office. He’d berate kids and give them mean racist nicknames and if you refused he would give you an F for your midpoint report which meant you couldn’t participate in any other sport or extracurricular activity the school sponsored. The class was half the grade at a time so it was over a hundred kids including the disabled kids and sometimes would just leave us unsupervised for an hour. At one point he crudely encouraged on two kids with downs syndrome make out, which they did while he watched and laughed and made fun of them. Just an evil spiteful man.
So before and after class we had 15 minutes to get ready so I would go around the locker room and find anything that would fit in a toilet and flush it. Towels, clothes, backpacks, food, pencils, paper - all of it in the toilet. They had insane flush power so would violently suck it all down and I thought it was just funny. I did it off and on for a month.
One day we heard gym was cancelled and then the school was cancelled the next day because of a facilities issue. Apparently the gym flooded pretty badly. We had to start having gym outside. Then after a couple weeks we had a school wide assembly and the superintendent was there and explained that a group of people had been flushing stuff down the toilet and they had to do a massive, emergency plumbing project that cost them $100k+. They were super mad and told us they already knew almost everyone who did it but if you come forward you won’t get expelled. Yeah, sure.
Anyway, I had no friends and no one knew I was doing it so I just didn’t say anything and got away with it. Also, a few years later the gym teacher was fired allegedly for some sexual misconduct issue.- farmgineer@nord.pubEnglish17 days
Sounds like my history teacher. He gave us all murderer, criminal, serial killer, etc. nicknames
I will probably get downvoted for this but anyway; I cheated half my university years, 2 of the 4 years. This was in the Coronapandemic.
What contributed to my decision back then;
- Professors that did not want to actually teach.
- Online classes that were a disaster.
- Was not allows to ask questions in online classes but only in physical ones… But there were no physical classes at that point.
- 18 days
“If the university won’t take itself seriously, I won’t take it seriously either.” Sounds fair to me.
- 17 days
The College I went to was horrible. In final years our entire syllabus and PPTs AI generated shit. I technically passed them without studying, but what was even the point of what I did? To delay unemployment?
- 18 days
My stance has always been that It’s only cheating if you didn’t learn. If you can apply what you were supposed to learn then you were just using your resources wisely.
- 18 days
I teach at uni. sorry to hear that. Did you try to get the problems fixed, even if not successfully? Did you still try to learn and understand the material? If so, i won’t blame you.
It’s tough because on this side, the overhead and also the cheating exploded with COVID and with ai. We need more people to improve classes but there is no money and everyone is over capacity. My class grew from 25 to 150 students within 3 years and there is no help.
Did you try to get the problems fixed, even if not successfully?
Yeah. Tried to explain that since we did not have any physical classes, that it meant we would not be able to ask anything then. Professor did not respond and I remember many classmates back then just wrote things like ‘‘What is with this person?’’ and ‘‘I’m out bye’’ etc (mind you, it was Coronapandemic so everything was online and done through either chat system or voice chat and many just typed).
Did you still try to learn and understand the material?
Definitely! So what I did was study all the material as much as I could and made summaries of it within a Word document and used that Word document on my phone through the exams. Though, we also had a lot of group chats through WhatsApp and shared everything. When I think back about it, it seems unreal of what happened. Cheating the system was immensely easy even when we had to use our camera’s and show the room we did the exams in (both classes and the exams were online).
It’s tough because on this side, the overhead and also the cheating exploded with COVID and with ai.
So, yeah. I agree with that, really. I had some great professors as well and they had it really tough, which was notable. Cheating in Coronapandemic times was bound to happen. However, the way the University handled things just made things worse and made even the people who never thought about cheating, cheating. In my entire study path/ academic career, I never thought I do cheat. I always had this ‘‘honor, dignity and proud’’ kind of mindset because I originally came from practical school (children who could not or did not want to study) and climbed my way up. Yet here I was full blown cheating at some point.
We need more people to improve classes but there is no money and everyone is over capacity.
Governments just need to stop cutting funds of schools/ universities and give professors the salary they deserve.
- 18 days
damn that was really a waste of money :(
i doubt anyone’s gonna downvote lol
- 18 days
University teachers are a joke and a disgrace to the pedagogic community. Kuddos to you for making it through uni!
- nailingjello@piefed.zipEnglish18 days
I’m pretty sure that’s illegal in 49 states, so I hope you were in Montana at the time.
- 18 days
I draw porn sometimes. No one I know will ever see it and those who do won’t ever know I did it
- 18 days
Why are the dicks always circumcised and the houses all colonials?
Robert California
- 18 days
I voted for the right wing party once.
In my defense I had just turned 18 and had no idea what I was doing.
I literally worked as a high-level conservative political hack for years. I grew up hyper-religious and hyper-sheltered. I thought I was doing something good, believe it or not. I still wouldn’t blame anyone for cursing me over it. I hate me for it, too.
- 17 days
I voted for the repubs once in 2004. I still thought that whole fiscally conservative lie was actually a thing. Little did I know, it was just a lie to not spend money on social problems and just spend money on rich people and corporate interests.
We live and learn.
- 17 days
I refused to let my parents visit me for my 40th birthday.
The legitimate reason as that Dad is disabled and the journey is too long
The reason I gave was that I still wasn’t over calling them out over favouritism when I stayed with them over Christmas.
The actual reason is that even before Christmas I had decided I would celebrate the big 40 by hiring an escort to finally lose my virginity.
- 17 days
You know, I did. Escorts are so good at emotional labour, and I was pretty down. She absolutely made my day.
- Staff@piefed.worldEnglish17 days
What’s the difference between legitimate reason and actual reason? Aren’t those two secret reasons that you kept from your parents?
- 17 days
A legitimate reason is one not based on my own emotions, but on concern for my dad. (And to be clear, the bus journey really is a long, gruelling slog when you’re able-bodied. Dad shouldn’t be doing it).
The actual reason is why I genuinely didn’t want to see them.
- Pratai@piefed.caEnglish18 days
I quit paying taxes when trump was elected. No representation? Cool. You’re not getting a fucking dime from me.
- 17 days
I don’t mean to be that guy, but have u not bought any fuel or groceries? It’s REALLY hard to not pay taxes! Or have u just stopped paying income tax?
- 17 days
Also not paying taxes is incredibly dumb. You don’t want to mess with the IRS (or for other countries, the appropriate agency). Even the Joker doesn’t mess with the IRS.
- Pratai@piefed.caEnglish17 days
They can come get me if they feel they need to. But I won’t pay a dime to support treason.
- 17 days
However, the IRS has backed off of Scientology because they scared the IRS.Edit: Upon further investigation, there was a lot of back and forth that led to them getting tax exempt status. I think Leah Remini’s show said something, or I had read it somewhere, that the church engaged in some scary shit that got the IRS to go easier on them eventually. I didn’t look hard enough to find any sources, hence my strikeout.
- 18 days
I stole so much candy from a candy factory when I was about twelve that I had candy for a whole year. 🍬
- 18 days
Okay okay. The only thing I truly hide from some people is the fact that I enjoy a little spliff here and there (more here than there tbh 🙃). I don’t need to give some older family members aneurysms, lol.
- AskewLord@piefed.socialEnglish18 days
I’ve told people that I hated my father since I was like toddler. Nobody ever believed me. They just lecture me that I don’t really mean that.
Not really a secret I guess, but it’s just something that people refuse to believe because I guess it goes against their ‘family is always love’ nonsense.
Also I did a lot of vandalism when I was a pre-teen. not really a secret either, but folks who find this out about me get really offended and upset, i think because they think I’m some uptight straight-laced person, mostly because I don’t drink or do drugs for awhile now. I did do a lot of booze and drugs from 16-20 though.
