The text instead of talk is pretty situational from what I see. Young people still will gleeflully hang with open mic on discord with their friends. One on one phone calls are certainly more rare, but I know my kid spends more time talking on discord than I ever spent talking on the phone growing up (sharing the house phone). I don’t know if anyone is particularly excited about video conferences, certainly in my adult life video-capable meetings are the order of the day, but the cameras are generally off. It’s way more convenient than the meeting calls of old.

From what I’ve seen while they are playing ‘music videos’, it’s frequently just in the background and they aren’t watching it, it’s just a convenient way of getting the audio since youtube has it all and is the most convenient interface. There were more radio stations than MTV/VH-1, so it wasn’t as convenient to just let MTV/VH1 be your audio back then as it is for youtube to be your music.

feels upset at being heartbroken

Here’s where the word “upset” having multiple meanings can be a problem.

If he is upset, as in sad and/or confused, ok, that’s a reasonably expected reaction.

If he is upset as in angry about being turned down, then he’s being pretty entitled and has criticism coming.

In terms of things having gone too far, it’s simple enough. We are connected all the time and we can find al sorts of echo chambers and be in contact with that circle 24/7 using online engagement where we can just turn off/ban anyone that we don’t feel like dealing with. This fosters a strange mix of overthinking things, contagious pessimism, and isolationist behavior. People need more balance with more real life interaction.

That’s not true! That’s impossible!

Don’t forget the revelation that USAID was looking into Starlink in a critical way…

I think that really underestimates how corruption would work. Tesla might make a show of a “government edition” software loadout, whether because they had to or even as theater to pretend they catered to government requirements when in actuality it’s largely the same but maybe with some branding.

In terms of pricing, I’m sure that any actually “bulletproof” vehicles cost plenty. Which is why even departments like the DHS have largely unarmored fleets. Tesla wouldn’t meet those standards, but the marketing might be sufficient to serve as a bullet point over the current non-armored vehicles they use.

The MAGA crowd mostly needs to give their truck gender-affirming care by giving them truck nuts.

Wow, old comment.

1099 is income, not a deduction.

I would rather have 50,000,000,000bps

Sounds like having any 1099 is ‘too complicated’. So anyone with any sort of savings account that managed to get $10 of interest over a year… So if you have like a thousand dollars in a boring old savings account you are ‘too complicated’.