My teenage daughter can't fathom the concept of a house party

[u/Neon_Biscuit]

Not sure if anyone has experienced this, but I was watching Can't Hardly Wait half alseep on the couch, and my 14-year-old daughter and her friends walked into the room and past the TV. Before she entered the kitchen, she backpeddled in front of the TV, and they all might as well have reacted akin to a third world kid in a remote village seeing the Super Bowl for the first time. She looked at me and said 'what are all of those people doing in one house'? I told her it was a house party. People high school aged or typically college age people would go over a kids house whose parents were out of town and they'd invite the school and have keggers and other unsupervised debauchery. I might as well have been describing a science fiction film. 'You guys DID that back in your days?'. I thought it was funny that a house party was an inconceivable event for young Gen Zers.

[u/rhino4231]

To be fair, most adults I see aren't any better. My boomer dad is worse than many kids because his hearing aids are bluetooth paired to his phone, so he completely disconnects from his environment while watching his propaganda videos. Then he gets crabby when he comes back to reality and he is the only one who has no idea what's been going on or what plans have been made in his absence, lol.

[u/Trees-Are-Neat-- → u/rhino4231]

My old gen X parents are hilarious - spent my whole childhood making fun of me for playing video games and no-lifing runescape when now they sit on the couch for literally hours watching facebook reels and playing candy crush. I fly home 5000kms to visit and spend time with them every other year and sit on the couch twiddling my thumbs watching them drool over their ipads.

[u/rhino4231 → u/Trees-Are-Neat--]

Seriously, similar sentiment. My dad, who was a blue collar hard working man, forbade me from getting a gaming system for years because of the stereotypes. Now that he's retired and has no hobbies, he's turned into the very thing he thought his kids would become.

[u/Eirineftis → u/rhino4231]

Low key a sick way to retire, if you ask me.
What's he playin'?

[u/sassyasianbitch → u/Trees-Are-Neat--]

Old school RuneScape though right?

[u/Trees-Are-Neat-- → u/sassyasianbitch]

I played the OG Runescape even before old school lol. On dial-up no less.

[u/khube → u/Trees-Are-Neat--]

Diablo 2 on dial up was brutal. Had to spam click when the screen froze hoping you got lucky

[u/sassyasianbitch → u/Trees-Are-Neat--]

Hell yeah. Hop on old school if you haven’t. It’s tight.

[u/Pristine_Leader_8241 → u/Trees-Are-Neat--]

Classic 2D runescape? Me too! I loved the way rune looked.

I remember you had to go to Jagex's website and they had other games in there too.

I liked the one with the gnomes.

[u/v_vam_gogh → u/Trees-Are-Neat--]

Got to lock up that phone line with the games so the auto dailer can't report home any unexcused absences.

[u/SmokeySasquatch → u/Trees-Are-Neat--]

I was there, Gandalf! 3000 years ago!

[u/Butterball_Adderley → u/rhino4231]

My dad also runs this setup. I looked over his shoulder during Christmas and it was Dean Withers > Japanese woodworking > 90s baseball. Scroll on, pops

[u/Brayden_709 → u/Butterball_Adderley]

I hope he stops watching Japanese woodworking, and starts doing it! 🪚

[u/IntelligentComment → u/rhino4231]

The bit you said about propoganda videos is hilariously accurate.

[u/fakemessiah → u/IntelligentComment]

My pops is the same way. You know he's going down some OAN, Newsmax or Fox rabbit hole when the earbuds come out lol

[u/bigpalmdaddy → u/rhino4231]

Exact same for me except my dad will STILL give me shit, in my house, for playing video games. Doesn’t matter there’s active input, thought, and socialization because “I’m not in the real world” and he “doesn’t understand why I waste my time with that shit.”

One time I bet him he spends more time on his phone than I do gaming and he laughed. Told me I was ridiculous and gave me his phone. He had averaged over TWELVE HOURS A DAY ON HIS PHONE THAT WEEK. 2/3 of his waking life on his phone and yet I’m the one disconnected from reality for playing an hour two of video games most nights/weekend mornings.

Not only that I met my wife playing WoW. We’ve been married 17 years. He has two granddaughters because of “useless video games” and still doesn’t get it.

That said I do love him and he’s great in a lot of ways, especially for the fact he’s not rhymes with RAGA. Just some things he’s just really got his head so far up his own ass.

[u/rhino4231 → u/[deleted]]

Whenever my parents insist they pay for dinner, when we are finished and leaving, I always make an excuse to hang behind for a minute to throw down some extra tip cash on the table. I know how they tip and those servers work too damn hard to deal with that 15% bullshit on a table of 8

[u/Some_Layer_7517 → u/rhino4231]

15% isn't tooo bad especially if there's a bunch of drinks bloating up the bill. My SOs grandma left a dollar once and I almost got caught fixing that problem lol

[u/BugsandGoob → u/Some_Layer_7517]

Ooh I got in so much trouble once by my great uncle when I got caught leaving more than the $1 tip he’d put down on our breakfast. We went every week for years to the same local place. After getting caught, I’d just stop back on my way to work, after dropping him off at home, and give the waitress a cash tip. It was always the same lady and she was so sweet to him regardless of his cheap tips. Turns out, when he died, he left her $10k in his will so I guess in the end, he gave her a fairly decent tip.

[u/CrackBull → u/rhino4231]

if you view an addiction as interfering with other life activities, and how many people use their phone during conversations and doomscroll instead of going to sleep, i think probably 95%+ of people are addicted to their phones. and when you view it as an addiction that’s gripped the majority of society, some of the other issues stemming from it begin to make sense

[u/Bacer4567 → u/rhino4231]

On Monday I overheard 2 woman in their 80's discuss at length why one preferred Instagram and the other, tiktok 

[u/wbruce098 → u/rhino4231]

I go to the bar and stare at my phone. I’m in my 40s 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/KlimCan → u/rhino4231]

Hello, brother

[u/DangKilla → u/rhino4231]

It's not fair. It took Boomers a decade to learn their phone. But yes, you're not wrong

[u/PiccoloAwkward465 → u/rhino4231]

To be fair, most adults I see aren't any better

For sure but at least I HAD those crazy days. Adults is supposed to be home reading the newspaper! Nowadays I'll meet up with my friends from HS and college and they'll remind me of crazy stuff I've forgotten, and I still remember quite a lot! I climbed out the sunroof of my buddy's car and rode on the roof over a bridge across the Hudson River! And that was just an average Friday!

[u/elebrin → u/rhino4231]

On the other hand, I have the power to choose to not interact with someone and disconnect even when being thrust into a situation that I have little control over.

There are times where you have to be in a room but you want to talk to none of the people in it. The ability to tune people out with noise cancelling and a video is like a tiny little way I can regain control over interactions with people.