So I have a widget in my phone’s home screen tracking the days I have lived so far, to remind me of the time I have, and not to waste it.
I was sitting in the school dining hall, glancing at my phone to check the time and my friend remarked how it is weird that I’m counting the days I’m living.
I didn’t say anything but I’m confused about how is it weird.
We are 15~16 y/o.
It’s objectively weird in the sense that most people don’t do that.
What? Most people celebrate birthdays. How is that not essentially the same thing? lol
Most people have hair on their heads. If someone had feathers on their head instead, that’d be weird, even if it were essentially the same thing in principle.
It is essentially the same thing, but that is the cultural box that we’ve created where it’s normal to keep track of your lifespan. A Death Note style reminder has not been deemed socially acceptable.
You’re 15-16 years old.
At that age, it’s normal for you and your peers to make dismissive judgements about each other’s behavior as you sort out your own ways of existing in the world.
What “weird” means here is, “this makes me uncomfortable so I reject it.” Similarly, if they’d said it was “cool” it would mean, “this intrigues me and I might like to try it in my life.”
In both cases they project their personal reaction as if it’s the universal judgement of society. And because at this age the opinion of one’s peers is an important part of one’s self-esteem, you’ve taken it as a social judgement rather than a personal one, and come to Lemmy to see if there’s social support for your side.
Personally, I can only say, there’s no harm in it. If it’s weird at all, it’s good weird, like most weird is.
I would look at that number differently on different days. Sometimes I might interpret it as a reminder to get shit done. Today I might think, “You have survived these many days, you can survive today.” Although at my age, the number of days is gonna run out of room on the screen… (Edit: it’s only 23,449 days. Heck, I can do more than that!)
You do you, hon.
Once you live a few decades, years rush by no matter what. Do what makes you happy.
(Ps i do think its weird but who gives a shit what random internet person thinks, you do you)
The only thing you can really do is have new experiences.
For too many people the decades look the same. No wonder time flies when you do the same thing day in day out because you don’t remember anything about them.
Memories make time seem long.
Meh. Doesn’t hurt anyone so no one should give a shit.
My grandpa used to do this way before smartphones, I remember his 30.000 days birthday when I was a kid.
I did this for a while in anticipation of my 10,000 Days birthday. I took that day off work and did nothing but play games, chill on the deck, drink beer, smoked a bit of weed and spun Tool’s “10,000 Days” album after smashing a pizza down my gullet for supper.
It was a great day.
I thought “that sounds cool” until I realised I’ve past that mark by 800 days 🤪
That’s long enough
How many years is that, roughly 30? I should try something like it but with a bigger number
29ish? I can’t remember anymore.
27 or so.
Everyone does it. Every year of so we gather everyone we know together to commemorate.
4,000 weeks. 750k hours. That’s what the average human gets.
This is how I keep count.
When you tell specific numbers, the human life feels short.
If you use the actuary life tables for your expected lifespan, you can have a true mid-life crisis when you turn 39 or 41 depending if your male or female.
Or if you’re the age of one of the presidential candidates you’ll know what it feels like to have under 10 years of life expectancy remaining.
Anyway, I do think it’s weird. You have plenty of time to waste at your age. It would be a misuse of your youth to try and allocate your time wisely.
I don’t know why your friend doesn’t like it. Ask your friend why they don’t like it.
Odd is fine, weird is fine, if you find it useful embrace it
I’d rather be weird than normal.
A little bit. Most people just count the years.
I’ve found the number of the days feels much more than the years, and has greater impact, even though it’s all equivalent.
Whatever works for you man. Screw what anyone thinks about what you do. Do your thing. Nothing really matters all that much, except how you feel about yourself.
I do the same but I use years instead.
that sounds stressful and depressing
