This thread is really bringing me attention back to prioritise my tech-life, digital minimalism, trying to read more, being more productive and a whole lot more besides. I found myself constantly with a set of earphones in, listening to podcasts constantly, in fear of missing what’s happening in the world. It’s driving me crazy. I need to re-evaluate my life, what’s important to me and where I want to be. I have spent a great deal of time practicing privacy and security but not a lot of time on minimalism. As a result I have predominantly being using a Pixel with GrapheneOS but always on it, all day long! Perhaps time for a detox from 1st December until 2024 to see how it goes. Time for the sim to enter the Mudita Pure once more…
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As a Gen Z I am offended lmao 
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I’d apologise to the tree regardless! Trees are our friends 
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As much as I’d like to mock (and do mock) these things, I think we need to recognise also that Gen Z has a much harder time learning this. They grew-up in reverse: screens, then no screens. We, on the other hand, had no screens, then screens: and even I (as a mid-millennial) had to re-learn what it was like to live without screens.
We should recognise the absurdity of the situation; but we should also support anyone who is now seeing the light!
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As a Gen Z I have a question for the older people… how often do you smile at people when walking past them… Some people just stare at me while i give a low effort smile (no teeth) and it’s embarassing. I get about a 30% smile back success rate … I have recently developed a mental algorithm to decide who to smile at - older women, people with large dogs (not small dogs), middle aged joggers etc. Maybe the inkos guy can develop an app to help me out with this problem if he has the free time. Thanks.
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A bit of a psychological question, and likely dependent on whether you are in the core city or out on the land.
Useful to remember that a lot of people have lived in fear over the last several years - anyone you have contact with might make you sick or worse. Hopefully society will recover from that suppression.
The amount of crime in society does not help either. A higher level of fear about strangers. Hopefully that will also get ironed out.
The wife smiles at most everyone, and has well over a 50% hit rate on return smiles and greetings. She makes the effort and gets the emotional reward.
I am not much of a smiler, but I do dump out lots of positive energy at the local grocery, where we go every day. Remarkable the positive response to the positive energy.
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I don’t want to be rude, but why do you need to smile at strangers?
I have a digital addiction and would love to reclaim my time or focus, but I sure as hell don’t want strangers to be smiling at me for no apparent reason…
I am just curious and trying to understand.
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I live in Poland and we don’t smile to strangers by default at all. While hiking in recreational/tourist areas however, we do exchange “good mornings” with one another. In the recent years not everyone responds but it’s their issue, not mine.
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Because in ireland you are seen as antisocial if you dont by certain groups of people. It is a cultural thing i guess
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Definitely a cultural thing. I live in Germany now, and commute to Poland a lot. Germans consider where I live (Berlin) as not only filthy but also the most rude place in the country, but it is so much more smiling than Warsaw in Poland that people are suspicious of me in Warsaw. Like as if I was some salesman trying to make them give up their money.
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Well, maybe.
After 12h of working with people, I really prefer if strangers just keep to themselves and not try to engage my attention in any way.
Might be a personal thing as well 
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I often try to smile at strangers if I can get their eye, even say hey! It depends where you live. But if we all keep trying to make eye contact and smiling or saying hi, we’ll live in a much better world and rebuild physical community and solidarity. Being anti-social is killing us all. A smile or a hi can make someone’s day, including yours! (To be clear, this isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with solitude: we need it. But solitude without being aware of or in connection with others leads to isolation and loneliness.)
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I don’t feel isolated or lonely. And smiling or engaging strangers don’t make my day, it generaly feels like invading my “space”.
Plus it looks creepy… where I live people are always looking for a hidden motive for every action 
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I’m sorry about that. But you don’t have to accept that ideology. I’d encourage you to do the opposite and set a new trend! Change the reality.
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I think this is totally valid to smile and talk while on the go in a local community - district, village, part of town.
There’s too many people in a city to engage with each one. Also, we tend to assume everyone may have some internal monologue going so why would I distract anyone from this.
In Poland, our trust has been abused too many times for the last couple generations and by that I also mean very close interactions. I think the biggest impact was soviet social engineering to atomize societies, where for example neighbors could snitch on their neighbors even if genuinely friendly the other day. Or when police or municipal bureaucracy is trying to find whatever they can on you to be a pain in the ass just for the hell of it, because abuse of power sounds like fun. This happens even nowadays lol.
There’s too many daily struggles to always will to smile at people, and nobody likes faking a smile when you don’t have to. Thus, it’s rather common to just keep that basic courtesy to bypassers (“hi”, “good morning”) when hiking or in closed public spaces. Strong local community and regular meetings with like-minded people should satisfy one’s need for social bonds.
I do see recently more and more friendly small talks between strangers around or in an elevator/train or smiles when entering some restaurant, but that feels enough. I love cracking a joke to a cashier/waiter too but walking across the street and showing my teeth to everyone would be too much. I’ve been to the US few times and while they are famous for smile and friendly conversations, I remember lots of the latter but not smiles from bypassers.
IMO we are molded for smile and high-trust but for most of the history we also have been living in small communities with strong connections, withstanding rainy days together.
Sorry for going on a tangent, I’m an overthinker…
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Thanks buiosu. That’s a great point about post-soviet Poland and the fragmentation and distrust that was present at the time (and, it sounds like, still there a little). I get the problems that can cause.
I also don’t want to make it sound like I think everyone should walk around smiling all the time - that’s clearly not possible and a recipe for exhaustion.
My only point on this really (and it sounds like we agree) is that if you feel like you can smile or say hi or have a conversation, it’s good to do so. This is the only way we will defeat the atomisation that’s occurred in all places, whether it’s due to political distrust or social media and smartphones putting everyone in their own private bubble.
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Fully agreed!
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