u/kekakomori

Hi! I have been living abroad for almost three years now, in a small picturesque village in southern Germany. I find it difficult to make close friends here, as many people come only for a short time and then leave again as tourists. I keep in touch with my old friends, do some part-time work, and study a little online. Because of this, I spend hours at the computer or on my phone, which makes me feel a little discouraged. I really love paper letters, and in general I am trying to move towards a simpler, slower-paced life.

From the outside, I may seem introverted and rather reserved, perhaps even a little mysterious, but in close conversation I can talk for a long time and with great pleasure. I am interested in discovering the world and learning new things about art, culture, and cinema. Sometimes I feel that I read too much news, but I cannot quite tear myself away from it, partly because I want to live through this moment together with society. Later, all of this will become part of history. I started becoming interested in history a couple of years ago, and since then I have been filling in the gaps in my knowledge with great curiosity.

I spent several years of my life back in my home country studying neurophysiology, although that is all in the past now. I would be happy to talk about all sorts of things — I have both the time and the desire to write. I am interested in both long and short letters, sad and funny ones, whether perfectly written or not. I can correspond in Russian, in intermediate English, and in still rather weak German.

Hi! I have been living abroad for almost three years now, in a small picturesque village in southern Germany. I find it difficult to make close friends here, as many people come only for a short time and then leave again as tourists. I keep in touch with my old friends, do some part-time work, and study a little online. Because of this, I spend hours at the computer or on my phone, which makes me feel a little discouraged. I really love paper letters, and in general I am trying to move towards a simpler, slower-paced life.

From the outside, I may seem introverted and rather reserved, perhaps even a little mysterious, but in close conversation I can talk for a long time and with great pleasure. I am interested in discovering the world and learning new things about art, culture, and cinema. Sometimes I feel that I read too much news, but I cannot quite tear myself away from it, partly because I want to live through this moment together with society. Later, all of this will become part of history. I started becoming interested in history a couple of years ago, and since then I have been filling in the gaps in my knowledge with great curiosity.

I spent several years of my life back in my home country studying neurophysiology, although that is all in the past now. I would be happy to talk about all sorts of things — I have both the time and the desire to write. I am interested in both long and short letters, sad and funny ones, whether perfectly written or not. I can correspond in Russian, in intermediate English, and in still rather weak German.

I never thought being an introvert can cause a problem.

Now, I have a big drama at home because of it. For this summer me and my husband moved to his parent's house. That's was a huge mistake. His mother is extraverted. Every time I leave the room or pass by, she clings to me with her meaningless and endless conversations. I can't stand listening to the same stories about people I barely know for the tenth time. I can't sit on the cool first floor with everybody and read a book or do my studies. I'm sitting in the hot attic, enduring the heat, and even when I don't go out, she still comes into the room, naturally without knocking. I'm already giving the briefest possible answer, "Uh-huh," to her stream of conversations, but she doesn't seem to care and continues. Stories are never interesting, it is just a try to exchange the emotions (for me it feels like sucking out all of my energy). When I am crawling back to my corner I feel exhausted and cannot be productive and my projects are in a stagnation. A couple of days ago, I didn't go out to dinner, and she started a fight and started crying (not the first time, me and my husband already explained we need some privacy) Why is it so hard to sit and talk with them? Like, really?? To be honest, at first it wasn't directed against her, I just wanted to be alone. But after two months, I already hate her. Her obsession and unwillingness to understand is simply disrespectful.

Father-in-law doesn't pester me with endless questions, although as an elderly man he has a tendency to repeat stories. I don't know what happened, but once my mother-in-law complained that after they got married, he didn't speak to her for three weeks. At first, I thought he treated her badly, but now I understand him so well...

Anyway we move to our house in a couple of weeks and I am already thinking how to cut off all the contacts. Unfortunately it doesn't seem possible. Because it is family.

Hello everybody!

As part of my effort to reduce my screen time, I read books and subscribe to magazines. Still, having access to a limited amount of current video content is important to me at the moment because it helps me feel less isolated. Anyway, I’m considering leaving YouTube, even though I cannot think of any adequate alternative. I would even prefer to just watch local television, but the sheer amount of advertising puts me off.

Today I noticed that even when you open your Subscriptions page, YouTube no longer lets you sort videos chronologically the way it used to. Instead, it now uses partly algorithmic sorting.

YouTube’s official explanation is that it wants to show us the most relevant videos from our “favorite channels.” In other words, YouTube has decided that even in the Subscriptions section, I apparently need yet another recommendation feed.

I am already tired of installing third-party extensions, for example to remove Shorts, creating custom filters, and constantly trying to fix the interface. Everything breaks again whenever the site is updated.

So my question is: how do you deal with these changes? What do you use to stay in touch with a society?

P.S. Staying on this kind of platform is important to me because, at the moment, I do not have friends, a job, or family nearby. I am an immigrant living in a village, and the internet is essentially my main social environment. Completely giving it up only makes my mental health worse.

Thanks for answering in advance!

Dear Discord, I wrote you, but you still ain't callin'...
How can I connect with a support? No answer. I'm trying to regain access to my Nitro account, but I need help from tech support. Money is being debited from my account without any problems, but no one wants to answer my requests. I even registered on their tech support website and am writing there, which is absurd. My queries are automatically marked as "solved". Answer me, Discord, please.