The Haven Exchange

Technology and Happiness - Haven Exchange #64

• Gamer's Haven Network • Season 1 • Episode 64

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Are we less happy in this age of technology? That is the question of the week! Sit down with us as we explore the fundamentals of happiness and how it can be impacted by all of the technologies surrounding us. 

Do you think we would be happier without technology? Let us know! 

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Genesis:

Welcome to The Haven exchange podcast number 64. We have a brand new episode for you this week, dive in as we discussed the fundamentals of happiness, and how we can be affected by all the advancements in technology, and really ask the question, are we less happy in this age of technology? But first, spread the word. Be sure to tell your friends, family and colleagues about the amazing podcasts you listen to every week, that haven exchange, I promise only a minimal amount of judgment could come from that. All right, turn those frowns upside down for technology. This is Haven exchange number 64. Technology and happiness. This is the Haven exchange? The What is your most used emoji or your most used emoji?

Rick:

Said the it's definitely the crying laughing

Genesis:

like the sideways tilted one or like the straight on one. Straight on

Rick:

one. Yeah. The straight on one for sure. And then maybe the next best would probably be the thinking face where he's got like his his hand over his chin. And like I use that one so much, dude.

Sage:

I thought it would have been the poop emoji.

Rick:

Nah, nah, nah, I use the thinking and the laughing because we're the eggplant. Oh, no, you don't I don't I don't really send the eggplant.

Genesis:

You know, as a news pool because of how much he does in his daily routine to get rid of it. He's not trying to have that on his phone

Rick:

either. Right. Plus, with the eggplant. I don't use the eggplant because I don't slide into anybody's DMS. So like, there's no reason for me to use that. Although, although the key might be I think I might start sliding into DMS because

Genesis:

have you ever been at a plant?

Rick:

I have not. No. Of course. I don't know. Yeah. No.

Sage:

Plan. Param Param is

Genesis:

good. It makes it doesn't even taste like it's a vegetable. It actually kind of tastes meaty. No, yeah. Yeah, like a thick meaty eggplant.

Rick:

Oh. Just making sure. Yeah.

Genesis:

I feel like say Do you don't use emojis? Right?

Sage:

No, not at all. Yeah,

Genesis:

I don't think so.

Sage:

I'm more of a more of a gift person.

Genesis:

Not even on like your first cell phone. And emojis were like, first introduced in your life?

Sage:

I mean, maybe a smiley face here. There. That's about it.

Genesis:

Yeah, that was the case. Because your basic

Sage:

gift is so much better.

Rick:

Yes, yes, definitely. A GIF is definitely used a lot to like, I mean, I won't go into detail of what gifts I use frequently.

Genesis:

At the library. I do

Sage:

it. And then memes because you know I go if I can't find a meme, I'll create it real fast.

Rick:

Hilarious. I don't think I've ever actually created to me.

Genesis:

That sounds saying we're like devolving back to like hieroglyphs and pictograms and shit. And our communication style.

Sage:

What was her name? Kat Dennings on to Berg girls. She was like Twitter's dumb and Instagram as for Twitter, I mean people who can't read

Genesis:

that's pretty much the case. Oh, oh, yeah, you can't be muting yourself. That fan is gonna create some inconsistency.

Rick:

Okay, yeah, let me let me turn that off because that that's definitely gonna be

Genesis:

like we know when you dipped out.

Sage:

Oh, wonder what just happened there.

Genesis:

I know like I can hear everything now.

Rick:

Oh my goodness. It is off. So now when I go mute

Genesis:

which happens often because he's got to go look at Twitter and check Facebook and not pay attention.

Rick:

That's not true. I have told the recording I have told you for the last dozen or so podcasts. I put the phone face down. I'm muted. All windows are closed except for this recording. And I'm in dude. I'm dialed in you're locked in I'm locked in I do here it is all and I still have one year free because you know I have to listen out for the girls. But other than that

Genesis:

oh, that might because I got a new headphones and they have the noise canceling functionality really and it's the first time I've ever experienced like true noise canceling functionality built into the headphones and it was tripping me out at first because it fucking feels like you're in the sensory deprivation tank or something but I did notice on here there's the settings for transparency so you can dial it to where it'll allow some noises to come through and it made me think of U bolt and like why don't you guys just do something like that

Rick:

first of all what brand

Genesis:

steel series oh that's fucking brand is great

Rick:

series is Red

Sage:

Steel series two so watch them out

Rick:

I you know I have had I've used to budget I get it

Genesis:

no not hang on it

Rick:

no I've used to steal series and I hated both of them

Sage:

that's because you're still series were to empty pinto bean cans and string

Rick:

oh my god so like like the ones on mute first of all how effing DARE YOU Second of all, the ones that I use right now are Corsair headphones. I was thinking about going to what's that other high Eisenhower? Is that how you say it? I never heard of that. I

Sage:

have no clue which Tama Yeah, it's

Rick:

like a one so when I worked at BestBuy there was a audio headset brand that was in the Magnolia department like a high end mic no I worked there for like a year

Genesis:

don't You don't want to say that when you just like are getting him on your team?

Sage:

Yeah, but I can get I can look them in shake.

Rick:

I gotta look up. strange way to Sennheiser Sennheiser is the name of it. Sennheiser Yeah, S E and bombs awfully. No, no, it was very German. Definitely German. I know this dude. A total German. Mr. 1945. Over here. Was that mean? That is definitely you. I don't have anything against a certain group of people.

Genesis:

I don't either. Are you? Sure? I love everybody.

Rick:

I think Nick Kroll and Christopher Lambert save and I hate them. What was the other dude and driver? I think I think

Genesis:

Star Wars guy.

Sage:

I don't see how you can hate Christopher Lambert. He's a he's a treasure.

Genesis:

Got no problem with his abilities and acting talent. It's all just about his face. And faith. Now

Sage:

I'm just getting to that.

Genesis:

Thomas Jane.

Sage:

They're pretty much fucking twins.

Rick:

They do look just like the dude from his faces.

Genesis:

Fine. Looks exactly like Chris. Something different. You

Rick:

could definitely

Genesis:

I could do from missed. Yeah, that's

Sage:

a different. I miss you. Okay.

Rick:

I saw the best by the way. No, you didn't. I did. I did.

Genesis:

Did you watch it recently?

Rick:

No, no, I saw it a couple years ago on VHS. No,

Genesis:

this motherfucker is lying. Listen, you literally just told us within those two years that you watch the ending on YouTube?

Rick:

For the missed? Yeah. Oh, no. I told wait. I saw the ending because it was spoiled for me on is a looper. Maybe there's like a YouTube channel where they were talking about like the best endings or whatever

Sage:

that is honestly, one of the best endings.

Rick:

Like, I could see why it's in some people's lists from Best endings or whatever. But no, I find out if I actually saw the movie. And it was

Sage:

the ending was so good that Stephen Stephen King who wrote the book was like, yeah, the ending is better than my book.

Genesis:

That wasn't the thing that was in the actual book.

Rick:

Okay, I want you to to sit here and just think about that. Think about your favorite people in the world. And just imagine yourself in that exact same scenario. How would you feel if you just did that to them? Because I don't want to spoil it for whoever may be listening and didn't see it. But how was

Genesis:

not that many of us out there. So are you think we're good?

Rick:

Listeners, if you haven't seen it, you could blame genesis for the first one for you.

Sage:

But honestly, if they haven't seen it, it's on them at this point.

Rick:

I mean, that's true. That's true, because it was no way I was gonna avoid it as long as I did. You know, to be fair I wasn't avoiding it. I just never cared. Right? But just imagine just that, you know, you're sitting in the car you just shot Marley in the face while I was gonna say your mom, but then I was like nah, that's a little dark. I don't want to

Genesis:

piss off. I mean considering the scenario in the actual movie it might as well have been my mom, you know? I mean, I don't think you you want your two kids in that car?

Rick:

Yeah, dude, I would have just even if the military would have ran I would have shot myself like I just know I'm living with the most

Sage:

fucked up part about the ending though. The funny part is he just did that and then the one chick who they didn't want to help at the very beginning to find her kid is on the on the truck all safe holder kid looking like yeah

Genesis:

yeah, right. I wouldn't have went out like that I would have been like fuck this let's just I'll take my chances with the monsters got to have hope man. He like lost all hope in the span of like what 24 hours they didn't really give it the old college try

Sage:

that's what happened the second anybody starts saying anything about religion. They gotta go first.

Genesis:

spiraled out of control

Rick:

I guess I could see sage being like our Lord and who all right

Sage:

the crowd don't agree me I'm gonna kill them and they gotta go.

Genesis:

Anyways, my

Rick:

word

Sage:

start proms

Genesis:

Welcome to The Haven exchange podcast. My name is Genesis one of the hosts here bringing you weekly content and new topics. Built around shenanigans deep thoughts, exchange of conversations and Rick Oh, who are you guys? For anybody new tuning in?

Rick:

is me. Rick, the best member of the show?

Genesis:

Yep. Fan calls came in. It's true.

Rick:

Fan Favorite fan favorite.

Sage:

Wait, there was a poll? Oh, yeah.

Rick:

All it was on patreon.com/the Haven exchange. You all should go over there and vote right now.

Sage:

Well, they like three votes. Did you win?

Genesis:

was one vote and I traced the IP bed in Rick's location.

Rick:

It was it was it wasn't my location.

Sage:

Wasn't with my neighbors wasn't because we believe that was what happened. So you know, somebody votes?

Rick:

Yeah, people felt bad. Or like, let's give this sack of shit. Some sort of a win. You know?

Genesis:

I'm pretty sure they're all on our side, especially after the movie quote, challenge.

Rick:

Oh, 100% Ah ha 100% Are they on your site where they're just look this guy. He hasn't seen all these classic movies, what a piece of shit.

Genesis:

So we want to create this thing with our audience a sense of Oh, I could easily swap out with Rick and be the CO hosts. And then once we put job application opportunities out there for new co hosts once we ultimately fire you, then it's going to be easy to find a new coach to fill the spot.

Rick:

You know, I'm calling my union rep.

Genesis:

Yeah, me

Rick:

I mean, moving on.

Sage:

So yes, so the

Genesis:

topic we have this week is an interesting one. And it's going to be around how old is too old to have sleepovers at your parents house?

Rick:

We did wait hold on fuck you. First of all. Wait, did you did you introduce Did you ever introduce a sh and you know it's not asleep. Okay. All right. Okay, I had to work and so I you know, get a

Sage:

slumber party.

Genesis:

You know, machine make your snacks while you lay in bed.

Rick:

You know first of all it's not a bad I make a fort on the floor using the the cushions from the couch.

Sage:

I want to know is please tell me that you at least had one rubber ducky and a GI Joe in the bath that you were for you

Rick:

know I did not have a rubber ducky but I did have the Metal Gear five prosthetic arm. And then I also usually carry like well thanks to Genesis here I have a Kojima t shirt now.

Genesis:

Yeah and a winter statue

Rick:

right and Anna which is that part is

Sage:

100% believe that you have that prosthetic arm which you

Genesis:

cuddles well it gives a nice and warm inside.

Rick:

Yeah, yeah, keep it keeps me nice and warm. Now say she's

Genesis:

like that episode where Marshall goes back home or like after his dad passed away. And he just reverts back to like his. Oh yeah.

Rick:

Yeah, all I hear is haters. I hear Hayden and excuse me. My mom didn't throw a brick at me, or

Genesis:

I don't know. I'm just saying it's a little weird. That's all. Yeah, you're a weirdo.

Rick:

What do we call because I don't want to call her by the last name but what did we call your mom? Because I know my mom. Yeah, I don't want to say mama then last name. CALLER HI, your first name I feel disrespectful you know call you know

Sage:

user you can feel disrespectful for what this fucker did LED.

Genesis:

Whatever.

Rick:

Oh, kicking around the group chat

Sage:

or in the group chat to begin with.

Rick:

Yeah, what kind of monster ads is Mondo group chat. And then immediately once are kicked out of it. Well,

Genesis:

sage said your mom. And so I brought her into the picture. Just you know, let her have a voice in the conversation done this before, haven't you all the time to move with sage. I want you to stand up to your claims. Mom making you dinner at night and waking up next to you the next day. I just need to get clarification from her side of the story.

Sage:

Did I not say the exact same thing when she was in the party? Yes.

Rick:

Right. So I mean, I don't know if it's gonna work for you. And you should know by now shit. Like that doesn't work on sage. You know, he's gonna immediately just repeat

Genesis:

it one of these days. He's gonna say some extra. And it's gonna bite him in the air. So I gotta keep trying.

Rick:

Oh, man. I don't think that's ever gonna work for you.

Genesis:

We'll see. Here's hope. And

Sage:

then he couldn't even figure out the party because he wouldn't even a day and a half.

Genesis:

That one was awkward. Yeah, like, but

Rick:

how did that work? Because you've done this before where you? Can't you've kicked her out.

Sage:

I think it

Genesis:

might have been the other chat. Yeah. Okay. And then I was like, oopsies

Rick:

the end and I was gone from that chat for like half the day and I just come back and I'm reading everything like this asshole.

Genesis:

You see how technology is just making me unhappy? to segue into our actual topic of are we less happy in the age of technology? And this is something that kind of I've been thinking about now that I've been especially moved to permanent work from home, surrounded constantly by technology, the home work and in front of the computer day in day out. Are you okay? Do I phone off?

Rick:

No, no, no, no, no. When you were talking about, you know, permanent work from home, and you were you said you were gonna be around or you been around technology or something like that. Yeah. You were gonna say you pause when you said I've been around and I was gonna say to many black people.

Genesis:

I pale fill in the blank.

Rick:

Yeah, I panic, but then I thought it in my head and it still made me laugh. And I didn't mute quick enough.

Genesis:

This motherfucker is so weird.

Sage:

That was not worth sharing with the class.

Rick:

Like, well, he said, Are you okay? And it just I was just gonna keep going. But then he you know?

Genesis:

Yeah, but you all right. I meant to mute it. But

Rick:

then I just didn't reach

Sage:

the ball rolling because this is this makes no sense. Right? Can we blame

Rick:

DSP edit all that

Genesis:

out professionalism here, fellas. Yeah, okay. So are we less happy in this age of technology is the topic that we're talking about today. But, you know, before we get into that, and start breaking that down, I want to hear what you guys think, as far as your own personal definition of happiness, because I think that's something that makes it kind of hard to maybe do any sort of statistical analysis of what is the world like now in terms of happiness, because everybody has their own version of happiness. So what do you guys think happiness means and what is your form of happiness?

Sage:

Say tells you I can't answer that question. Because you're not happy. I've never been able to answer that question. Right? Because you're not happy or even during Thanksgiving. Like my family goes around. They're like, Oh, everybody go around and talk about like, something you're thankful thankful for. And I always try to opt out like now I'm out.

Genesis:

Thankfulness is different from happiness, right?

Sage:

If you're thankful for it, You're probably happy for it.

Rick:

But you don't give the generic answer of just like, oh, you know, I'm thankful for my family, blah, blah, blah.

Genesis:

Don't even known. That's awesome.

Rick:

No, you have to, like you have to lie.

Genesis:

I appreciate the honesty, though. Well, do you?

Rick:

If you're sitting at a table for Thanksgiving, and your mom goes, You know what, I'm not really thankful for anything as her son, you're not going to feel like damn Alright, like, you're not even

Sage:

if I'm being honest, I would say I'm happiest when I'm alone. But I'm realizing that that's turning me into somewhat of a monster.

Genesis:

Sure. Well, that's what I was gonna ask. Because if you know, there's an absence of happiness, then you should then know what it takes to be happy? Or is that still an unknown?

Sage:

Well, no, it's not even that. It's the fact that when you're alone, you know, you become okay with you, and all your little quirks and everything, like you really learn a lot about yourself. But then you learn and start to want to put up with less and less bullshit. So you become a monster, I get to the point that you're not really sure you want to be around other people. Like I'm perfectly content and notes in North Korea on my couch watching anime all day, and not speaking to a soul.

Genesis:

Sure, that would be happiness. And when there's different types of happiness, you know, there's some forms of happiness where it's just like, pleasure driven, where it's just, here's the next thing to hit my desires. Or there's there's happiness in, you know, helping others being a good person that can create some happiness, you know, for individuals. But like being alone, that's you're depriving yourself essentially from any outside input. Like, that's it? Yeah, I would say the same. But is that actual or you just haven't found the thing that makes you happy?

Sage:

No one has actually I legit love being alone. Yeah.

Genesis:

With technology.

Sage:

With technology, I mean, my TV's on is that,

Genesis:

yeah, that does count. And so maybe there's some things that, you know, I wanted to bring up throughout this episode that you might find interesting in terms of that time, but

Sage:

it's because even when I am alone, let's say I wanted to talk to somebody. I don't have to physically be in their presence.

Genesis:

Right. So there's this, there's almost a positive that does come. So there, maybe technology is creating happiness for you.

Sage:

I wouldn't think that too deep into it. But okay, continue. So right, what about you?

Rick:

I think I'm pretty happy with technology. For me, because

Genesis:

when I go back a little bit, just to begin to find happiness for yourself.

Rick:

I'm having a really bad deja vu right now. I feel like we've done this before, for some reason,

Genesis:

glitch in the Matrix, maybe.

Rick:

Shit, really bad deja vu. But for me, first of all, it does not take a whole lot for me to be happy, right? I'm not someone who asked for a whole lot of things. I think I could make the argument that I didn't really understand true happiness until probably when I had my first daughter. And even then, because I mean, you know, I'm happy. She's here. I'm happy that both of them are alive. Yeah, but I also deal with a ton of anxiety because they're here. And I'm so afraid of the outside world for them. But as far as me being happy, it doesn't take a lot. Like, I mean, that's good, right? Yeah. I mean, I think I'm pretty content. I mean, I always want for things to be better, of course. But I think overall, I think I'm a pretty happy person.

Genesis:

Does that mean with your the birth of your children, though? Does that mean you'll never achieve? Unless you had another kid? None level of happiness?

Sage:

Hmm.

Rick:

No, I think when I say that, I don't think I experienced happiness. Because I think you could apply that to love too. I remember liking someone, but I'm not sure if it was just because of the physical aspect of it. Or if it was because of just like, oh, I actually really want to be around this person, you know. But as soon as I have my first thought I like oh shit. Like, pure justice with it. Yeah, like speaking technology and our favorite emojis. My dad was texting me earlier today because my mom's birthday is tomorrow. And we were thinking about getting her an iPad. And at the end of the call rotation he signs off with. Okay, have a nice day. And he sent the emoji face with all the hearts around it. I was like what the fuck is wrong with this guy? Why would I even call them always like what's wrong with dad? Is he okay? And I even told my mom like I think I'm broken with love because of her. Like we don't

Genesis:

want you guys are all laying in the bed together watching like Saturday morning cartoons.

Rick:

Please don't say that. That sounds so weird. On all different level like, is the creepy? Yeah. Have you ever done

Genesis:

as a kid?

Rick:

When you were in town last year, you ain't do that. Yeah. Okay, I'm not to add somebody back to the group chat and ask Hey,

Genesis:

you're the one that's like every other week. I'm going to spend the night at my parents house. Almost 40

Rick:

That's the first of all again, how effing dare you. But every other weekend, I that was one time I have spent the night at my mom's house one time. I don't even do that, actually. But I think about it. I told you I didn't even go I was supposed to spend the night. But I ended up saying you know fuck, I'm just gonna go.

Sage:

Validation right now. Now my

Rick:

sister's house. I spent the night at my sister's house twice this year. But that was because I was watching my nieces with my girls. They're having a little sleepover. No, I mean, I was the adult watching the kids. So yeah, we're gonna leave and go back home while they stay over there by themselves.

Genesis:

Oh, okay. Anyways,

Rick:

first of all, yes. When I when I spend the night over there. Yes, we do have hot cocoa and we watch movies. So again, son of a bitch validation that you didn't have hot cocoa.

Sage:

I mean, not at all

Rick:

sorry, I'll go make some hot cocoa we're done.

Sage:

No, no, I'm not jealous that I didn't have okay without the hot cocoa

Genesis:

I don't like sugar and tasty things. You don't know that's sage.

Rick:

Oh, that sounds like you man thought that was you

Genesis:

was a bad impression

Sage:

I don't I will give you the whole I don't like sugar. I can't give you that. Oh my tasty things because I cook so I'm Latin of string he

Rick:

does cook his own meals. Yes, maybe So smoking. Every burger

Sage:

Now that's some technology that's pissing me off right now. Yeah. Good luck piece of shit.

Genesis:

Something natives have been doing for millennia. I mean, I came to me here's this isn't working.

Sage:

I can do it the old fashioned way but it's 2022 what I look like

Genesis:

smoker lists

Sage:

no we got yeah have electricity and Wi Fi and Bluetooth and shit like that where I don't have sit there and manage tips. Like it's fucking 1963 years. Yeah,

Rick:

he's like motherfucker. I'm not bear grill. I'm not going to be outside in the wilderness smoking and cooking my shit. That's what

Genesis:

I'm mad about that too. means no camping trips when I when I come back to Illinois. Here we go. Yeah, at least I would say no the hell were you going to camp with I will find somebody to go camping with me. Yeah, we might not be YouTube fools.

Rick:

No. Kids so the girls friend was talking about they were going camping this weekend and asked if we wanted to go like Oh fuck I look like sitting out there with the bears and the coyotes and the worms finding his way up my Nam good man, was it

Sage:

I've said it like 30 times before I defy you to find the episode when animals attack that a black person's in a dog is not a part of the attack. Challenge accepted

Rick:

or go to any of those like Netflix or National Geographic shows where it's like Naked and Afraid or people you don't see a single black person doing it we

Sage:

googled it right now and he looked up oh last people who were last seen hiking or some none of them will be like

Genesis:

forcing you to pioneer then be the first vigorously go I just want to know what the search term when Google was for that so

Rick:

list of people missing while camping. And I just clicked images and oh, look at this white people, white people, white people. Five white more white people.

Genesis:

Yeah. All right. Let me do my own Google search. Clearly Oh,

Rick:

wait, hold on, hold on. Hold on. We got a couple of maybe some they might be Indian way. But weren't those non Indians? Were they call it something? No. Native American? Well, no, they were also Yeah,

Sage:

indigenous people,

Rick:

indigenous people, indigenous people. But like,

Genesis:

alright, so sage never found it, like, upsetting that you can't find happiness.

Sage:

I don't know why you keep circling back to me. You were talking about yourself right now, sir.

Genesis:

Well, I'm just, you know, I'm running the show here on this one. But it's really if you want to know as far as what I think happiness is or definition of happiness. I mean, it's, it's a forward flowing river, like it's hard to really nail down. There's, there's many thing I think that's exactly my point of why it's so hard to really create any sort of analytics around, are we happier now than we were as a people 10 years ago, or even right now, we just displayed what are the differences in our definitions of happiness? You know, Rick, finding joy in the birth of his children, or you the lack of, but generally speaking, you know, there's,

Sage:

like, there's a difference between happiness training, finding true true happiness is probably like what Rick said, breakfast kids. But there are, I feel like more people are blissful than actually truly happy.

Genesis:

That's yeah, sure, that's a good way to put it. We, that's blissfulness would be the culmination of many things contributing to your overall happiness. And I think that's, that's kind of the point, I'm getting to like, we have this baseline of happiness, right? We all have that. And yours might just be lower, or yours might actually be higher, then, you know, Rick, our eyes baseline of happiness. I don't stray too far from my baseline. But you it might be more of an adventure for you to get to your baseline and you tend to live below it.

Sage:

I want to be a billionaire. That makes me truly happy. What? Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, people who sit there and say that, Oh, money doesn't make you happy, where people who've always have fucking money,

Rick:

right? They've never, they've never understood what it that's like to be broke.

Genesis:

I'm glad you brought that up. Because there's a couple things, particularly with technology, but I think that will actually listen to the point that you just made. And diving into technology a little bit more here now. But like hedonic adaptation is this notion where we can have things that make us happy, but then we very quickly returned back to our baseline of happiness. So like buying something new, you get happy in that moment, but you're just as quick to return to your baseline. So then we have to keep buying more stuff. And that's, you know, part of the technology, we have to get the new TV right, then we get happy. How truly happy are you with that new TV before you get over it?

Sage:

See, when I say money, I don't think about materialistic things. When I say money, let's say I want to be billionaire, because that would afford me the freedom to do whatever the fuck I want. It's not about buying things. It's about not having to worry about paying bills, being able to just pick up and go to fucking Thailand or some shit if I feel like it not having to wake up every morning and go to work to make somebody else rich.

Genesis:

Yeah, but again, you know, that's hedonism, right? That's numbing things.

Sage:

No, I'm not getting you're not really getting things because I can keep the exact same things I get now be a billionaire. I wouldn't have to buy anything special. I could just pay all my fucking um, yeah, I mean, I probably would. But that's not where I would get my news from. The happiness would come from the fact that for me, the sky's the limit. I can do whatever they want, and not have to worry about anything.

Genesis:

When's the last vacation you've been on? When I was 30? Well, the Dominican you went to the Dominican. No, no, no.

Sage:

That's two years ago. I went to Nashville Nashville two years

Genesis:

ago. Okay, so now let me ask you when you went to Nashville, that was probably time right. Yeah. How soon when you got back did that sort of wear off?

Sage:

I still want to go back

Genesis:

Yeah, but like but the joy of that experience.

Sage:

I still want to go back and if I could afford it, I would have bought a timeshare there so then I can go whenever I feel like

Genesis:

it. Yeah, no, that's that makes sense. But I'm what I'm saying like the How long did the happiness of that trip last? Just when you got back though,

Sage:

it lasted a while it lasted a very long time. And whenever I think about it, it comes back because it was a great trip. It could have been it could have been even better had I had more money to where I could have really bought out of control. Dangerous man that had to come back and worry about oh, rent, car note. Fucking food all this other stupid shit. I'm telling it's the Money takes so much stress off your shoulders, the people. When people sit there and say, Oh, money ruin my life. That's because you don't know how to manage your fucking money. And you became a millionaire and decided, You know what? I'm gonna buy two jets. Why? Why are you gonna buy one jet? Let's talk about this.

Genesis:

So looking at most lottery winners, and they go bankrupt.

Sage:

Yeah, they go bankrupt because they were killed themselves or go bankrupt, kill themselves or get killed because you know, their family members get greedy. And they always want money or they're trying to help everybody. If I won the fucking lotto. Y'all win even though y'all just be like, y'all put me on milk carton, right? What the fuck? I was afraid. I will send y'all fucking a post message a couple months down the line. Like Yeah, I'm good living life.

Genesis:

I think what that's like, if you take become a billionaire, sure you alleviate some of the problems that you have in your day to day now in this life scenario, like normal Joe Schmoe problem,

Sage:

could you have as a billionaire, that money couldn't fix? Anyone?

Genesis:

Well, how? Wow, kind of give me a minute. Because I share this those same negatives of life, right, like paying bills, and, you know, having to budget certain things. You know, like, I still like it would be hard for me to come up with those but

Sage:

who like this money. So money is so strong. Matthew Johnson had HIV, he got it no more.

Genesis:

But, then, but then what you're all you're saying is that to be happy is to have money. And I don't think that is the case, though. That's the world we live in, sir. It makes it can make certain parts better, but it's not.

Sage:

You can be blissful. But you're being blissfully ignorant. So you're in your own right, you're happy, but you have those moments to where shit gets real. You're like, fuck, like, I wish this wasn't like this, or I wish I had to do this or, you know, I gotta pick up another fucking shift. Or this, oh, you got to sit there and look at your bills and be like, alright, which 1am I not gonna pay. So much stress is off your shoulders. Look how young rich people look. And it's not because of plastic surgery. It's because Thank God, you have to worry about stress free life.

Genesis:

So then, so then you do know what you need to do to become happy for you

Sage:

to join Bruno Mars want to be a billionaire.

Genesis:

But that right, because you said you know, you just want to be alone. And that's where your true happiness is. But if you had a ton of money, then you might be able to identify some new forms of happiness, or at least in what you perceive to be your ideal baseline of happiness.

Sage:

How does talk to technology had turned into my happiness?

Genesis:

Well, because it's kind of a curveball, because you don't have happiness. So I get to explore that just a little bit. And I'm sure people want to know that a little bit about me. All right, well, let's just come on to a podcast and explore our personality. But bringing it back to technology, though, okay, so then Do you guys believe that we are less happy due to technology? Or not? Or do you think we're happier?

Sage:

Thank you. So flip. Yes, it's 5050.

Rick:

Yeah, 5050, for sure. We can communicate with people at a new place. With no real effort, you can FaceTime you got a social media, you have all this stuff, right? Where you can communicate with people that you may not see ever again. But you can still see them in some way.

Sage:

Then technology using that same coin? Right? Technology is there to show you how much better other people are doing or how much more fun other people are doing. And you end up looking inside at yourself and realize, man, maybe you ain't doing enough with your life. Maybe you're not getting fun, and you end up getting the press, because it's the ultimate FOMO.

Rick:

Yeah, I I used to think this would have been maybe seven, eight years ago or something like that. I remember when I genuinely thought in my relationship at the time that the relationship wasn't working or going anywhere because she wasn't parading me on social media. You know, and then I stopped and thought about like, wait a minute, no, this. This is actually a pretty good relationship. I'm just so warped on other people's relationships on social Media, people's fixation need that same thing

Sage:

people fixation with that blows my fucking mind, I don't understand the need to put every aspect of your life online. Makes no sense to me. Everybody doesn't need to know what I'm doing at all points in time.

Genesis:

Well, it's pretty easy to explain though, because you post something you get near instinct, generally gratification, you know, from people around you or people, unknown strangers, people, giving you that instant support for what you're doing. Even though they could be backstabbing, you as far as like just saying, just shit that they know you want to hear, but you're still getting something out of that conversation either way, so it doesn't really matter. It's just seamless. And

Sage:

I put it in reality. I put it like that if I wanted gratification for something I was doing. All my closest friends are gonna know. Because there, those are the only people's opinions I'm really gonna care about. I don't really don't really care about some person who I knew in high school like, Oh, you're doing great. Like, I haven't talked to you in 20 years. I don't give a shit.

Genesis:

Yeah, well, the three of us we kind of grew up before that was sort of indoctrinated into us to go about getting social gratification via social media and stuff like that. We've learned to develop that elsewhere. But the new generation coming up, and that I mean, people from our generation, obviously, still get it to get into it. But you know, the three of us we're not, we're not all that big on social media. And I mean, Rick gets into his little Twitter battles, but that's a different story.

Sage:

I mean, I'm there for the smoke, because that's fun.

Rick:

When I get on Twitter, I'm just, I'm primarily looking at people posting shit. And I'll just see, like current events and all that. But I, I don't know if I've ever said this on the podcast before. But you know, every year, it's usually around September, but I do the same annual 30 Day purge where like, I'll delete all social media off my phone, and just completely escaping. Everybody should do that. Yeah, I know, I'm definitely thinking about upping that to a few more months throughout the year, because I feel better when that 30 That 30 days,

Sage:

see what I'll do. I'll just be scrolling through like Facebook or Twitter or something like that. And then somebody say something controversial. And then I take a beat, and I'm like, Oh, I got something I want to say about this, then I think about like, I don't really want to waste the next 30 minutes to an hour in my life arguing back and forth with this person.

Genesis:

And a lot of times, that pulls people in to do exactly that wasting time, which is I think gonna lead to unhappiness. There's there's nothing positive coming out of that you can either ruminate or you can problem solve, right? Or just avoid true and a lot of people want to ruminate in into the conversation, which gives the original poster the gratification that they were looking for, because they startled somebody.

Sage:

Yeah. And then there's people who post things. Like I might post something on your wall, or Derrick or whatever. And it's something that only we would get or anybody in our close circle would get. But somebody who knows me but doesn't know me like that, they will read that post. And they'll be like, Oh, well, this racist piece of shit. Or this fucking massage and if you should, not knowing that I'm fucking joking, right? Case in point, one of my really good friends. Not a bad bone in his body. This motherfucker he's the reason I don't change my fucking Facebook profile picture for what? Okay, every time I do this motherfucker, right so god damn store he did a soul proper one year, it was hilarious. But this ass over my birthday this year, wrote, we wrote this on my wall. And I'm pretty sure some people took it the wrong way. I swear every year when it's your birthday? I go Nah, he's trolling us is never on the second. which let's be honest, something you would do. So today's your birthday or different day. I don't know anymore. But happy birthday. Hope the Hennessy is plentiful. The black and milds are burning hot. The Kool Aid is cold. The chicken is crisp, and the acids are fat with those watermelons as sweet as possible. Now he's white. Putting that on my

Genesis:

on my wall. Okay, like where's the

Sage:

wrong person reading that would be like What the actual fuck?

Genesis:

Yeah. And I mean, like Facebook, I think is a little bit more personal. It's generally made up and composed of your groups, your circles, so I think you can get away with that a little bit more. But like if you if that was to happen on Twitter, you best believe somebody's gonna fucking outrage on a comment like that. And that's the thing it was like it's creating this sort of net neutral experience that there's no way you can really sustain happiness from something like that. If you have a person that puts also tweet that says, oh, somebody told me I looked ugly today. And you have to think like, Okay, first of all, what is your reasoning for posting? Is this to garner attention or anything like that? Or maybe it truly did happen. But something like that on Twitter, somebody's gonna get a ton of replies and saying, oh, no, you're beautiful, you know, and, and that's, it's gonna make you feel really good, right? So it's gonna make you want to continue to post something like that.

Rick:

Well, guys who do it? Well, this one guy in particular, I don't think he listens to this podcast, I don't think he'll know I'm talking about. But there's one guy in particular, where every time he posts something on Facebook, it's always the same. Putting himself down, in a way where it's like, everyone who's reading it knows that him putting himself down is just to get attention. Because this guy, he's like an electrician, he makes really good money. When all day you see him talking about, um, somebody's broke dusty song or something like that.

Sage:

There's somebody on my feed, who does that all the fucking time, he used to work with us at GameStop. I'm not gonna say his name. But this motherfucker, I'm like, Dude, you're constantly posted about how your life sucks, and how everything could be better. And like, all this time you're wasting posting, you could be trying to make a change, I get it, you were dealt a fucked up hand, doesn't mean that's the hand you got to keep. Yeah, but

Genesis:

it's harder to make the actual change, then to just get some 10 seconds of gratification from somebody telling you something nice. So we get addicted to that

Sage:

you got porn for that you can get gratification, their

Genesis:

sexual gratification is different from like validation of your peers,

Sage:

no gratification, releases endorphins in your body and actually helped make you feel better. And if you're sick, it actually helps you get back get healthier. That's true.

Genesis:

And you're also gonna get the dopamine rush from general like nice niceties from strangers or otherwise.

Sage:

Somebody kind of nice to me, I don't trust them.

Genesis:

Well, you're a different breed. You're we already found out you're a monster.

Sage:

Everybody wants something. And I came up with this theory a long time ago that people don't accept it. But it's the honest truth. Everybody is using everybody. Whether you want to admit it or not. Everybody's your friend for a reason?

Genesis:

Well, no, I think you haven't used a little bit because yes, that is true, I think. But the problem with that just that open statement like that, though, is the context in which that's being pursued to use somebody sometimes

Sage:

doesn't have to be a bad way. But you're still using somebody. Yeah. But it

Genesis:

was their intention is their intent to use somebody. I don't think everybody's always intent on using somebody.

Sage:

Let's, let's say I was a super depressed person. And it mean, you met, and I knew people around you made me feel less depressed. So I actively went out on weight to hang out around you. That's me using you for my own goal. Yes. It's no detriment to you, but I'm still using it.

Genesis:

But it's also not maniacal in in intent.

Sage:

Nobody, just because it doesn't matter what because I say using does not mean it has to be maniacal.

Genesis:

Right. But I want to yeah, by the way, I took that staple when he just said it was

Sage:

like everybody else. Like I said, everybody thinks that no, that's not like them like No, everybody's using everybody. It's just it's, it's the truth. It doesn't have to be for anything bad. You're 100% using people.

Genesis:

But we Yeah, but we rely on each other as humans like. It's just in our nature to do that.

Sage:

Well, Rick's not human, so

Genesis:

what's the problem. But you can also say the same that with technology, we become so reliant on it, for happiness, that it is pulling away from the happiness we got from each other.

Sage:

We come back, we become reliant on technology for way more than happiness. Literally. If a giant EMP hit and knocked out all electrical devices, we wouldn't know what the fuck to do. I mean, maybe some of the factors themself. But for the most part, we know whether the next day people wouldn't be able to some people wouldn't be able to eat some people wouldn't be able to sleep. Sure,

Genesis:

but but we'd like we just talked about what social media like most of I'm trying to think of a technology that maybe there isn't but there's the pros and cons tend to cancel each other out, remain in our baseline. So there's no real happiness gain and a lot of these things. So like yeah, social media is great because we can connect with people. But then there's also the negatives of that, you know, you can get bullied canceled or All people can connect with people. Yeah, the internet is great we can learn anything we can have anything answered in 10 seconds less than 10 seconds number encyclopedias

Sage:

or in Carter

Genesis:

only had a three well

Sage:

thank you had to buy him by the letter was

Genesis:

my you get you can get a for free but the restaurant call you cost you $100 A letter?

Sage:

And then by the time you get them they were probably outdated.

Genesis:

I had created, all right,

Sage:

like, how can technology information has become almost a new currency. And it moves so fucking fast that there's no paper that we're able to keep up with it. But at the same time, because of that. I feel like as a society, we might have regressed a little because let's look at the whole Black Lives Matter movement. If you really look at it, I feel like progress. And black community was actually going pretty good. From the mid 90s. And up, then social media hit. And all these pictures from places that Yeah, we didn't know what's going on. I mean, there's always gonna be bad eggs, no matter what. We didn't know what's going on. But now we know what's going on. So they got to talk about it. And then you get people who never grew up in that situation of a different race, who like oh, well, this guy was doing his job. Now this is causing fucking tension. And now we're slowly going back and people are getting forced to pick sides.

Rick:

Right? I definitely agree where social media has kind of made it where they kind of halted progress in it to an extent, right? Because on one hand, you've got people who didn't have a voice 20 years ago, or 25 years ago, now have a voice. And it allows people to say whatever they want. And by doing that, you now have people who, you know, they may have just been like, oh, no, everything's fine. You know, let's just continue to make things better for people. But then when social media hit, you now have people like Ben Shapiro, where their whole livelihood is basically debunking police brutality and shit like that, right? And it's halting the conversation, because of him, and other people like him saying shit like that right? Now. So on one hand, it allows people to really, truly have freedom of speech to an extent, right? Like you can get on whatever platform you want. And for the most part, you can say whatever you want. Now, that platform can choose whether or not to let you say that or kick you off and just kind of say, No, we don't want that here. But for the most part, everyone has a voice now. And I think humans are not designed to have that much input from other people like that.

Sage:

Everybody don't deserve a voice. Let's be real.

Genesis:

No, but we're not even. We're not even given a fighting chance against it, though. It's, it's been dictated by news media outlets, corporations, and, and the loudest voices,

Sage:

maybe in the mainstream, but people who got real strong beliefs, there's sites, there's threads, there's places where they can go and really talk about it with other like minded people.

Genesis:

Yeah, again, though, you have to put that work in. It's not. It's not though. Yes, but that's what's easier when your phone is automatically pushing you an article based on an algorithm of your previous search histories. To just read that versus to go in the extra step and read an article, either opposing it or just from other sources.

Sage:

Let's talk about something for a second, you get news alert news alerts on your phone? Well, I have

Genesis:

articles that get pushed to me. Yeah, I don't have any.

Rick:

It's like Apple news spotlight or whatever.

Sage:

Yeah, they're not gonna shut off. I don't want to see anything in the news.

Genesis:

We got to identify that you're the outlier here. You see this every day with everybody you interact with? You're not the same as everybody. And that's what I want to talk about those because, yes, it's easy for you to say like, Yes, I can go to this, this niche website that can give me what I believe to be the truth in what's actually going on but not everybody's doing that.

Sage:

Well, it's not even about what I believe to be the truth is the fact that just like like they used to say back in the 96 sales today, it's it's violence and despair is what sales you turn on any new station is null is never anything good.

Genesis:

If you mean to tell me that creates happiness.

Sage:

No. I don't want that. Watch the news. I don't get alert. The only alerts I get are Amber Alerts and those are forced upon me.

Genesis:

Yeah, and technology has created. And let's take like social social issues off the table for a second. And just like general natural disasters like you could wake up one day hear about a tornado that hit Kansas, the earthquake that hit you know, in the Middle East or something that tsunami that's fine all within the span of two hours, and you expect to be happy. Or another shooting that just happened or this and that like all within 24 hours, you're getting bombarded with nothing but bad news.

Sage:

See the here's thing No, I'm, I'm not happy that I am grateful, because it could have been me.

Genesis:

That side of it for having gratefulness, like,

Sage:

Man, I'd be like, Man, I fucked up hope they are right out here my gold toilet

Genesis:

after being a billionaire and hope my money again, that's I don't see how it's another, you know, pro and con thing, they cancel each other out. And that's what I'm seeing is a lot of these like technologies that we can claim to bring happiness. But then there's also the negative side of it. And I guess you could say that about anything, but

Sage:

we do it to ourselves because we have the option to just not look at it. Just like boondock said, The Great. The great Riley, I believe said this. She saw this coming, she stayed. I saw this coming. I moved, when does personal accountability come into effect here.

Rick:

No personal accountability. I mean, that concept has been thrown out of the fucking window. Like I was just talking about the whole, they were adding Deadpool one and two and Logan to Disney plus. And there's like a parent's rights group that's like, really upset that Disney did that. And it's like people will do everything. But parent their children, like it's everyone else's fault, right? Like their parental options. They're all these things that you can prevent your child from seeing this shame. And it's like, if you're not going to do the work necessary to protect your child, then it's nobody's fault. But your own. I guess that civil

Genesis:

can be responsibility put on the other side, though, doesn't all have to be personal accountability. No, especially when you're living in a world especially in America, where you're living in a world where that's the world, that's the reality you're living in where you where you get trapped into these things. For this aspect,

Sage:

Disney was kind enough to be like, alright, you know, we're gonna put some more mature content on here now that you know, we got Fox and Marvel and shit. So when they signed in, they get the option like, Hey, if you don't want kids watching this, check this box. And this will only show up when you put in your code to watch things. They didn't want to do that.

Rick:

Yeah, yeah, you don't have to, you don't have to tell the child to code. And you can. If the child comes to you and says, Hey, I'm trying to watch this, and then don't just give them the code like actually get up, go look at what they're trying to watch. And if you don't approve it, don't approve it. And your kids probably going to start crying. They're gonna be upset, but like, all the fuck so what if you claim you want to protect your child from this, then that's just something you have to deal with.

Genesis:

So you would be okay if they put some torture porn videos on Disney plus,

Rick:

if they own the company, if they if they own the company, and yes, because I, between me and the girls Mom, we are careful with what they look at. Right? We try our best to prevent them from saying shit like that. And yeah, everything that they have is locked down. There's nothing in here that there isn't some sort of a passcode to

Sage:

it. If we're keeping a straight buck. All these parents flipping out over Disney putting like Daredevil and shit on there. What they really need to do is watch their kids Crunchyroll subscription. And cartoons don't mean it's cartoons. Right? Kids

Rick:

you know, I understand their kids. They may not know certain innuendos and all that but a lot of Disney movies have some really sexually shit. Nobody.

Sage:

Original VHS case for

Genesis:

Little Mermaid Little Mermaid

Rick:

had a fucking beginning. Yeah. Like, nobody bats and I mean, they you know, people complain about it. Sure. But like, for some reason, it's always like the cool shit that parents want to go after and be like, No, that's not good for children like Well, that's what these ratings are for.

Sage:

I'm firm believer of fucking kids.

Rick:

I am as well for everyone else's kids except my own. I mean, if you're listening to this and you have a kid I mean your kids cool too. But

Sage:

if you listen to you'd like to watch? Yeah, just don't watch debate. Because you don't want to. Yeah, gotta

Rick:

watch that. Yeah.

Sage:

I mean, yeah, with technology, like, you know, Disney, for instance, they go above and beyond, but people, the older generation only know the Disney like Aladdin and stuff like that don't understand that they are a most time faceted company now. So of course, they're gonna have all these different things that they bring in, they just got this new platform to put it on. So why would they not put it on there? They went the extra mile to take all their stuff off every other platform and consolidate it for you. And now you're complaining because oh, well, I don't want my kid watching this. Well, it was on Netflix. Did you work at Netflix?

Genesis:

That's what I'm talking about the pros and cons of the technology that are there, they're cancelling each other out. We're wasting time arguing about what content should or shouldn't be allowed on Disney, you know, like there's these groups out there that are making it a point to that that's their topic of the day they they want to attack, you know, right now. And instead of like thinking of other ways to make people happier, in a broad sense, you know, they think they're doing the right thing, creating sort of a censored Disney for their children, which would make them happy, but they're not considering the freedoms and the what that could maybe snowball into as far as censorship. I don't even remember the net censorship, but it was that from was that Clinton, Rick? That was signing that it was that Obama? No, I think that was Obama

Sage:

net neutrality. Yeah. Oh,

Rick:

net neutrality. Yay. I think it was Obama. Or was it?

Sage:

Trump? No, no, that wasn't Trump. That was

Rick:

it was like at the one day like 2016. So yeah, I guess, Obama them.

Sage:

And that was it. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz Yeah,

Genesis:

I got close. That clock got close to beans will censoring our internet?

Rick:

Well, no, no, no, because I thought net neutrality. I mean, I could be absolutely wrong here. And this is just like a five minute research of net neutrality and what it was, I don't think it was censoring internet. I think it was about throttling download speeds or something like that for website like, basically, they were trying to have like an even flow of internet to everyone, like every website, every domain have equal access to equal amount of speed. But like,

Sage:

for some reason, I don't think that's what it was at all. No, it

Genesis:

was that. But it also built into all of that was basically the allowance of like major corporations to control what content was going to be on the internet, like you wouldn't have Joe Schmo wouldn't have the capabilities to upload a new website kind of thing.

Sage:

Essentially, and I know you haven't seen this movie, but it essentially, what would happen had that one corporation got a hold of the thing and Ready Player One, right? Yeah. Because remember, they it was no ads, and they were like, Oh, well, we're gonna take over. And we say we can fill up the screen with at least 70% with ads before it causes seizures. I'm like, what? Like, what? Oh, why is that your benchmark?

Genesis:

Also read please go watch. Ready Player One. Solid Snake Senate?

Rick:

I bet. And Gerald? Gerald who? foggers? Gerald

Sage:

Rivia. Yeah.

Rick:

That's not his name. So that? Oh, no. Sure, sure. But I remember hearing something about net neutrality. And the whole thing was, I remember listening to a video that was saying net neutrality is a good thing, because it'll it allows, like websites that actually could use that bandwidth would actually have access to it. Whereas you would slow down the speeds of some websites that actually use the traffic for in favor of some website that gets one click a day or some shit like that. You know, I mean, like, it would kind of even things out, which sounds good. I mean, everything should be fair across the board. But I think people need to also understand that not everything is equal. This website, were on recording, this does not get the same traffic as Facebook. So do you think it should have the same you know what I mean?

Genesis:

I don't I have to look deeper into my assumption was that built into it was going to mean that basically, major corporations were going to have control of the internet. And so right you would have to go through right because the guy went I don't know what the word was it didn't get signed into place or whatever. Well,

Sage:

Fox News had controls in the internet.

Rick:

That's funny. Yeah, it would just be fucking Bible study and try and rattle on. Mike's right. Biden fall for bikes and Trump rallies all day. But, you know, it's one of those things where we've talked about this before, where people have like this selective outrage when it comes to everything. People don't think realize how much information Tik Tok gathers from people. Right? I don't know if you've

Genesis:

looked at this at all, either. And it's not our country that has that information.

Rick:

No, it's not our country at all right? And it's the amount of shit that you sign over to tick tock when you agree to do you know, to download and use their app is insane. I'll post the link in the chat here. When we're done recording for you guys, listen for yourself, but the amount of information that they gather from you, and I mean, just millions of people use this app. And I guarantee you the same people that complain about net neutrality. Just have no idea what Tiktok getting from them.

Sage:

Here's my question to kind of counteract that. Do you not think that they already have that information?

Rick:

Oh, no. No, they

Genesis:

have it right now. Trump was trying to stop.

Sage:

No, no, no, I'm saying even without tic tac?

Rick:

No, no, no, yeah. If they want that information, they'll get it. They'll find some way to get it. But I think

Sage:

I mean, let's be real, everything damn near everything is made in China.

Rick:

Right. I told my mom not too long ago where, because I was over there helping with something. And she I noticed she had a piece of tape over her camera. And so I was like, wait a minute, don't you have ticked on? She's like, Yeah, I'm like, all the shit you're trying to hide from that camera. They have it on tick. Like you've literally agreed for them to have this data on Tiktok. You got to keep that same energy across the board. go full throttle, you know, put on the tinfoil hat. Go fool. go off the grid. And

Genesis:

you can request what information is out there about you. And I remember, I think it was a YouTube video. I watched this lady. She had requested this information from a bunch of different companies. And she got back like fucking, and it was two foot thick of paperwork of all the information they had on her and it was like, This is me. And there's piles and piles of paperwork. It's ridiculous.

Sage:

No, it's probably just her in America.

Genesis:

Right? Exactly.

Sage:

She either had a fucking Samsung or iPhone. Okay made here. Who you put all your information there.

Rick:

Who was the big there was a big cell phone manufacturer? A couple years ago that was Huawei. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Where they were like they were. That's fucking hilarious. No, they, they were like, straight up part of the Chinese government. Although, I mean, that's, you know, every company that's big enough is part of the Chinese government. That didn't really count. But I think they flat out denied that Huawei shit out in here, because they were like, This state is straight up spying on American citizens,

Sage:

because who's gonna press him? Like, no, we're not. We approve you. We approve you doing? No, you don't?

Genesis:

Yeah, let's see even more stuff that causes unhappiness to like just the threat of cyber terrorism's identity theft, all the new wave of crimes that come out of the technology we have now, I guess that's part of the natural evolution. But I don't think the thing I'm saying is trying to say like we should do away with technology, but I think we're using the tools wrong. That's I think my main point that I'm trying to reach here in that we're not seeing much gain in happiness, because a lot of times these things cancel each other out. Or in just our consumerist nature where you want to buy the next new thing. And then that happiness like I said, with that is that your happiness goes away very quick. You buy a new couch it's how long does that last before you're over it or before that happiness wears away from that purchase?

Sage:

I'm not at I've never been happy buying a piece of furniture

Genesis:

no new phone. I mean, I got this new couch I

Rick:

was pretty happy about Yeah, I was about to say how long because I was happy when I bought my first couch from my first apartment. I was very much for it like yeah, this my would

Sage:

have been I wouldn't accept it. I would have accepted you have when you bought your first house or your first apartment, okay? That because the happiness furniture to go inside of it. No, I'm okay.

Rick:

I understand where you're coming from though, because I definitely get it because there's some people that I know that I'm close with where they're excited about everything that they get. Whereas I'm like, Dude, it's just

Genesis:

like I'm definitely addicted to shopping. So like any new purchase gets me excited. Yeah, I know that about you.

Rick:

Yeah, I'm definitely,

Sage:

that's your form of, you know, seeing the outside world.

Rick:

Well, what do they call a retail therapy?

Genesis:

But Rick, I guess Yeah, cuz you could probably relate then because how soon after you buy the new thing? Does that happiness? Go? You just bought the steam deck, right? Yeah. Is that happiness still there? I know, it's still fairly recent, but

Rick:

it will, you know, and honestly, when I buy any new technology, most of the time, the happiness wears off within like a day, maybe two, the only time where the happiness has stayed when I got the first Xbox 360. I mean, I was fucking in love with that thing for like, a month.

Sage:

See? And that's what I would say. I would say, as far as retail therapy goes, the way that you're phrasing it. I will say video games would be the only thing for me. And I think most of us would agree with that, because we're all super hyped and happy for the the new game that comes out. And we're planning we're planning, but then the second, some new and shiny is out, we've kind of forget about that.

Rick:

Oh, yeah. And you both know how bad I am with that.

Genesis:

And the problem is, it doesn't it's a spike, right? If you're thinking about it on like a graph of happiness, and you have your baseline of happiness, and you make that purchase the new shiny game, you get a spike. But that doesn't contribute to raising the baseline at all. It just you just peak. And then you go back to your baseline. And the studies have shown that we actually go back super fast to where there's no real benefit in your overall happiness, your overall happiness over your entire lifespan. It doesn't contribute much to anything. Oh, no,

Sage:

I think I think Elder marine raised baseline a lot.

Genesis:

Are you gonna say when it was over with and you're like, Damn, that's I'm never going to experience that. And again,

Sage:

yeah, because I, I can honestly say I got amazing joy out of Elden ring, revenue Village. And I'm just trying to think of the recent games. I think really just those two recently, like games I really just thoroughly enjoyed and really made me happy to play every game momentarily.

Genesis:

Media I think can probably last a little longer. Your new phone, you got your fold phone. Do you still open that thing up and like, God damn, this feels so good that I got it's just like data center day, one purchase of it.

Sage:

Hey, I just found out it's a beast, it fell out of a moving car getting.

Genesis:

The fucker was aerodynamic. It was like it turned into a drone. One of the other things I wanted to talk about as far as how technology can lead to unhappiness is and this is something I've been actually looking into fairly recently, because it's something that happens with me. And I'm curious what happens to you guys, but I'll start just by saying sleep deprivation when it comes to technology. Do you guys find yourself in the day, sort of rabbit holing on YouTube or scrolling tic tac or Facebook? Way past your bedtime?

Rick:

Oh, dude, one of my biggest problems is, I think we talked about it before in another episode, where I'll randomly wake up at 3am every day. If nine out of 10 times when I wake up at 3am. I roll over, I will grab my phone and I will just I don't know, either either YouTube or Twitter and

Sage:

a lot of strange behavior you inadvertently trained yourself

Rick:

to do Oh, yeah, like I could stop for sure. I mean, I don't think it's something that I necessarily have to do. Because I'm starting to realize that, you know, the older I'm getting, the more sleep I need to get. And 10 years ago, I can handle working off of four hours asleep now. Jesus man, like I'm wiped by two or three o'clock.

Genesis:

Yeah, but are you forcing yourself to stay awake to interact with whatever thing

Rick:

do right? That's the difference? No, I'm not forcing myself to stay awake. I just happen to wake up and look at it.

Sage:

And say and again, I'm on the other end of the spectrum. Because I can't sleep without a TV

Rick:

on or I can't sleep with the TV on either. i Sorry, I can't sleep without a TV on.

Genesis:

So then says do you run into like, oh, just one more episode. And then I'll go to sleep or just one more and then then you kind of get locked in?

Sage:

No, because I know it's 3am I know me which is why I don't watch anime after a certain time. And if I'm whatever I put on TV, that's why I've watched bones and and Castle in elementary so many times because I can just roll over and I can hear it and I already know what's going on. It just silences The demons gives my brain some swag. Asleep. Because otherwise, that through grade school in high school, my parents would let me sleep with the TV on. And I had insomnia. I could never go to sleep before five, six in the morning. And it was fucking annoying. I could not figure out why. Then I just started trying to sleep the TV on and start getting the best sleep I've ever had. I was like, Well, I guess this is it.

Genesis:

Yeah, I was saying for me when I'm like, Okay, I'm not constantly, especially as a kid, I was afraid I was gonna accidentally sell my soul to the devil. And so like I needed the TV.

Sage:

Like, what? You're not just gonna gloss over that?

Rick:

Yeah,

Genesis:

I was afraid that the devil was gonna steal my soul accident, like I was accidentally gonna say yes. And then he was gonna steal my soul.

Sage:

I mean, why was he there? He's everywhere. According to the religions.

Genesis:

I know that's a real fear of mine.

Rick:

I have the same thing. Not the selling my soul to the devil hold the vote. That's about but I think for me, it's more aligned with sages thought of like, we've talked about this before where I have really good hearing. And when I'm laying down in the bed at night, and it's pitch black, I hear everything I'm talking. I hear shit crawling around, like I hear shit. Across the street. I hear everything. And because I'm dialed into that sound, it sounds like no, not not that but it sounds like it's much closer than it probably is. So it kind of amps me up a little bit more so.

Sage:

Well, yeah, cuz that's a form of deprivation. You know, you're sitting in a pure black room, you're essentially losing one of your senses. So your other senses are compensating? Like, have you ever been laying there in bed? And you got your TV on and you like man shit loud fuck and you roll over and it's only like two.

Rick:

Now, speaking of what you said about the TV at for me, it's the same three shows because the same thing if I go to lay down and watch a show, right now, I'm gonna be like one more. One more. One more for me. It's always either. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Seinfeld, or what's the the league?

Sage:

See? I can't watch it. They have to be at least an hour long beach.

Rick:

Oh, see? I didn't play and I'm out.

Genesis:

I'm half hour ones. And you got to listen to the fucking theme opener and all that.

Sage:

And then the only three or four and then it shuts off like yeah, you're watching me, right?

Rick:

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has the most obnoxious intro song ever. And like, Dude, I do my dad. This probably was 10 years ago. My dad was sleeping upstairs. And he's a truck driver and I had it's always sunny on this man with almost kicked my door down because I had the valium on like four. But the the damn intro is so loud. They really need to fix the levels lytchett Like you'll have it on for where they're talking. And it's super quiet. But the intro is all like 1000 like, bro, who the fuck edits this? Like? Where's the balance on that? What are you

Genesis:

doing? Right, exactly.

Sage:

Only show I tried to watch that's in my rope. Well used to be in my rotation. Not used to I tried to get into my rotation was a scorpion. I don't know if you ever watched the show

Genesis:

before. Never watch. I know. It's a hacker show.

Sage:

Yeah, dude, it's so octane driven. I can't even sit there and with my eyes closed and back turn to even though I know what's going on. Like I noticing some coolest fuck is about to happen. I need to turn around and look at this initial

Genesis:

head uncharacteristically way too good looking people and I'm like, I'm not watching this dumb shit. Right? They all look pretty.

Rick:

Like you to have attractive to be this smart.

Genesis:

Well, not. Yeah. Not too smart. Because they were hack look. And then you know, I'm pretty smart. Well, no,

Rick:

but they were hackers. Right? I mean, yeah, hackers.

Sage:

It is possible, supposedly, based on a real person. I looked up the real person. They bumped up his IQ for the show. Yeah, Walter O'Brien

Genesis:

so, so well, just sleep deprivation. So we're actually on average, as people were getting around two hours less sleep than per night on average than we did 40 years ago, 30 years ago, 20 years ago, but our need for sleep hasn't diminished. So we're actually we're on average, across the board. We're losing more sleep than we actually did, which I'm sure you can imagine can lead to additional physical problems or even psychological to the interesting thing that I found because I will stay up later than I should you know a lot of times and I lose a lot of sleep because all either scrolling tic tac and you get lost in that or I'm rabbit holing on YouTube, and then you like, oh, I'll just let me just watch this one more video. And then it's fucking for him. And like, what the fuck happened?

Sage:

Don't lie up on page 75 of Pornhub.

Genesis:

I will need to get that far. It's usually page one. All right.

Sage:

No, I've already seen that midget porn.

Genesis:

It's little porn. Yeah. It's little

Rick:

people poor.

Sage:

I don't want to know search history.

Genesis:

No, you don't. So now there's this new term that they've coined up and they're they're doing studies on this, that actually seems to make a lot of sense, at least for my circumstance. So it sounds like you guys might not really fall into the same trap that I do. But it's called Revenge. Bed time, procrastination. You guys heard of that? At all?

Sage:

No, no, but I think I have a rebuttal for this once you say what you're about to say,

Genesis:

okay. So generally speaking, what that means is going to bed later than intended, while nothing external is accountable for doing so it's basically you going bad later due to your own account, and what they're kind of finding in this. And it's this new phenomenon that they're seeing, especially built on to technology, because the technology is what's keeping us awake. But also contributing factors like work from home, where we lose a certain sense of control in our day to day lives. Like during the day, we go to work, we're in less control of our own freedoms. And so we take revenge on the day, by staying up later when we have our own time to have that freedom. So you try to grasp on to as many minutes as you can late at night, and you end up fucking yourself over essentially, because now you're just deprived the next day of the sleep that you needed. So I thought that was really interesting, because I'm like, that totally explains it. You know, like, I'm sitting in front of the computer every day without much change. And I'm taking revenge on the day, because that's my time for freedom. So I don't want it to end. And I keep going and keep going.

Sage:

That's fair. That makes sense to me. But then I guess this isn't really rebuttal. But for me, I forget what it was. It was a long as time ago, I think it was like 17 or something I was reading a study. And they prove that if you can get through one REM cycle asleep, which is normally roughly about two hours, maybe three hours, your body, it's you can get up and work eight to 810 hours perfectly fine and not be tired. So that's I tried to get more than that. But honestly, that's around what I get on an app on a nightly basis.

Genesis:

Yeah, and the thing is, though, that people are different, though. So it doesn't work for everybody. But

Sage:

what I tend to do is because I know sometimes I can't fall asleep, and I'm just there. I'll make up for it on the weekends. So I was asleep. 1012 hours on the

Genesis:

weekend street. You bank it right.

Sage:

And then the MB couldn't

Genesis:

think they said like the VINCI you'd like he would sleep 15 minutes every other hour or something like that. And that's what he would. You know, there was no crazy downtime, but I know the REM sleep is pretty important. That's where dreams happen. Which is probably why you don't dream sage.

Sage:

Yeah, okay. Somebody do it.

Rick:

If Yeah, it's possible.

Genesis:

Isn't there an episode of Seinfeld? Rick, where Kramer? Is sleep schedule like that? Yeah,

Rick:

he had a mental alarm clock, I think where he was like waking himself up using his mental alarm clock. I don't think there was anything about dreams though.

Genesis:

Dreams, but like sleeping one, one hour every couple hours or only three hours. Every couple of days. I thought he did

Rick:

something like, you know, actually, that does kind of sound familiar.

Sage:

I mean, it works. But yeah, like yesterday, though, like the night before, I was only able to get two hours of sleep. And for the first time, in maybe 15 years. I had a headache. And it was because I was actually tired. I didn't know what it was. So I was like, fuck, let me go to sleep. And then I woke up and it was like I said, I don't get headaches. So that was weird.

Genesis:

Sleep is good. We need sleep. So if you can imagine all the stimulus that we can get from rabbit holing on tic tac and YouTube and all that I mixed with, you know, that being our personal freedom for some of us, like myself at the end of the day, you know, and then we're sleep deprived, which is going to lead to a lot of health issues, mental and physical. So it's, again, technology is hitting an avenue of unhappiness. And that's it.

Sage:

Well, if you can't sleep, you can always drink a nightcap, Scott or night cat for a reason.

Genesis:

That's true.

Rick:

Oh, I definitely learned that very recently. Well, yeah, you did. I mean, I asked you guys straight up like, hey, does this mean on my alcoholic? Like, I don't know if I should be doing this? Is this like step one into a meeting or

Sage:

that's the thing like if you're only having like one, maximum two drinks before you go to bed. Not only I feel like that's fine. Yeah, and it's actually good for you. Well, if you're fucking drinking half a bottle before you go to bed every night, we'll write

Rick:

right not not only am I having one cup, but the alcohol contents in that one cup. It's like you're drinking back and calm down. It's like, it's like, I'll pour the bottle is like dribble. And then that's it. Like it's literally less than like 1% alcohol

Genesis:

of yours, man. You can hear it that precise. Thought you were tired

Unknown:

of alcohol. Yeah.

Sage:

I woke up is like, almost a full cup of 100 and some proof bourbon.

Genesis:

No. Yeah. That might be a little excessive for a nightcap.

Sage:

Not to meet a fuck out.

Genesis:

That's that's, that's going above the like health benefits.

Sage:

How was that? How's that any different than me taking drugs to go to sleep? These nine people who rely on Tylenol pm every night to go sleep?

Genesis:

Yeah, no. Shouldn't do that either.

Sage:

I mean, that's what it was great for.

Genesis:

It will mean. That doesn't mean Hey,

Sage:

yeah, we'll take melatonin and go sleep.

Genesis:

That's what isn't melatonin and natural substance.

Sage:

You still overdose on the natural assessment? Well,

Genesis:

yeah, I mean, that's the rule of thumb, like, too much of anything is bad. Right? technology and how it interrupts or interacts with, you know, even just the relationships with around us your personal relationships. You know, we create with this technology out of these technologies is it removes focus from maybe things that are more important, like your relationship or, you know, not not necessarily like, boyfriend, girlfriend, but just your relationship with you know, other humans. We lose focus, and lose, you know, maybe the attention that's needed for those technologies and be beneficial

Sage:

technologies. 100% made me a demon in that aspect. Yeah, cuz I remember loving to talk on the phone. Then texting came out. Right now if you call me I want to strangle you. I said it before I was talking to Danny about another logo. I feel like if you call me you're holding me hostage. There is nothing that important that you can send them a text unless you're on a deathbed. Do not pick up the phone and down.

Rick:

That is funny. Yeah, no, I, I don't know if I'm the same. I usually like to talk on the phone. It just, it depends on what I'm doing. You lay on your stomach and kick your feet up. Oh, my God. Yeah. For

Genesis:

you, but how often are you doing it? So that's the thing, though, because we'll all right, that, you know, there's research that shows that, you know, in order to like, experience, true happiness or feelings of joy, it requires a focused attention to do that. And if you have all these outside things, you know, like that quick dopamine hit to watch tic tac or answer a text message or send a message or buy something on Amazon, all these all these fucking things that are taking you away from focusing your attention on something that actually matters, or that can contribute to your overall happiness, which could be love, compassion, just general relationship, you know, all that stuff? You know, we're losing out on the focused attention on the things that matter.

Sage:

Yes, and yes and no. 100% what you're saying? But have you ever experienced the joy of shopping while you were drunk? And I don't mean like in person. I mean, like Amazon shopping when you're drunk, and I don't mean just call me tipsy. I mean, drunk.

Genesis:

I don't think I've ever done that. But I feel like I remember you doing Did you buy like a new washing machine or

Sage:

buy so much shit when I'm drunk? And it's great because I forget about it the next day. So then three, four days later, I get packages. And I'm like, oh, what dropped me think I need it. Oh, this is great.

Genesis:

Oh, so it's always worked out.

Sage:

Great. You're looking out for me.

Genesis:

What's good? Yeah, it's like you're your own personal algorithm when you're drunk. You just know All

Sage:

right, that's great drunk drunk. You always got you. Like, you've been going back and forth about getting a graphics card for four months. Now. You get a hammer when I order it and in your head you're still thinking the next couple days, man, I should probably get this. I should probably get this. Then it shows up like that I get this.

Genesis:

Me I just buy everybody video games when I get drunk. And then I'm like, fuck. That instant just for one hour again, place when $100 on you guys holes.

Rick:

Cheese. Well, we gotta be assholes.

Genesis:

Well, I really want me to

Sage:

go into that. Yeah, no response. No,

Genesis:

I've got a lot. I've got a lot of things that helped me with that argument. Now.

Rick:

I wonder if they'll treat me better at Nerd adulti? If you bring them up? They need to start and do they have a Patreon they need just add me to that ship. But no, um, that's fine.

Genesis:

But does do you think that makes sense, though, as far as like, if we're constantly being interrupted in our tension is being pulled in so many different ways? Does that mean we cannot experience true happiness? Or even like love? In that sense? Does love go away?

Sage:

I'm gonna say no, because like you said, Everybody's different. Some people thrive off of chaos, they enjoy the chaos. Like they enjoy the fact that, oh, they can't just focus on one thing, they have to be working on three different things at that same time for them to really to, for them to really, truly feel fulfilled and whatnot.

Genesis:

But what kind of person would be compatible with a person like that, then?

Sage:

Somebody who, like if you have a person who's like that, the other person has to be somebody who's not who is single, single minded and focused, but they have to understand the type person that they're with. It's asking a lot, and it's just No, not really, it's just a relationship. Like, give and take. You can't go in like if you know, this person is XYZ, you come in knowing that and then you're like, alright, well, we're gonna have to change this. I'm like, Well, why did you even bother coming in?

Genesis:

I think we need to do another whole other topic on love. Because I think there's definitely a lot to explore there. Because what you're describing is like opposites attract, right. And it's not

Sage:

opposite of track as far as so you just need it's a yin and yang, you need somebody to bring you to bring you in.

Genesis:

Yeah, but I feel like that can lead to resentment. If there's not full understanding,

Sage:

it should have been full understanding out the gate. That's why That's why I'm a firm believer of not meeting my representative, you get me from day one. Sure, sure. You shouldn't be understanding right out the gate. Like, this is me, this is what I like to do.

Genesis:

Like, I think I can die. I think that's okay, but over repeated.

Sage:

And that's what I'm saying. Like, as we as we get older and grow together, I can dial back on some of those, I'm still gonna do, but I can dial back on I'm sure they'll accommodate for you. Just like you can understand that when I need to do XYZ. I just need to do it. And just let me be Yeah.

Genesis:

And I mean, like, I don't think you need to be completely 100% similar and every like, I think there should be, you know, sort of this growth together

Sage:

is actually like a tic tac. I was watching the other day. This dude's in the garage, working on his car. And his wife comes in, she's like, I'm not we're married. I think you should sell the car so we could spend more time together. And a guy come from underneath the car, who's like, You're starting to sound like my ex wife right now. And she was like, I didn't know you were married before he was like, I wasn't I was dying. laughing.

Rick:

You know what? I'm starting to think if we do another topic based on love. I'm wondering if I could slip in some would you rather than there, you know, in a love episode. Yeah. I think I got a few BurlON right now.

Genesis:

I think you should save those for episode. 100.

Rick:

All right. You're gonna give me another Would You Rather?

Genesis:

Oh, there's absolutely going to be a part three. Yeah, those are kind of like iconic milestone episodes.

Rick:

Oh, man. The Reckoning. The Reckoning.

Genesis:

The Reckoning? Yeah. I was just gonna say I don't know if I get a sense from you guys. If you believe that. We are less happy in this age of technology, though. Sounds like you guys might think that. No, we're actually we're not less happy. We're happy if not happier with technology.

Sage:

We're complacent at best.

Rick:

Yeah, I definitely agree with it being 5050. I think technology has made things better in a lot of ways. But I also think it's made things a lot worse. There are people that really should not have a voice. I know that sounds a little fascist.

Genesis:

It's only one very small part of technology though.

Rick:

Oh, Altru Right, right. I think it's in the same vein as this might be rough, but it's in the same vein as toxic masculinity, right? Well, I think there are far better things that have been given to humanity with technology. But there's also a fair amount of bad things to like things and we probably should not have. So in

Genesis:

that response, then what do you think we need to do to ensure that we can go in a positive direction with technology versus one that creates unhappiness as we continue to go on or even just complacency? Because we want to just don't want anything to inhibit? Happiness,

Sage:

the status quo is gonna stay the same. It's literally until the next big thing comes out. And when I say big thing, I mean big like when the internet first hit it, the status quo is gonna stay the exact same.

Genesis:

Like, if I'm asking what, what can people do, given what we have now? I mean, Sage's, you're pretty good at avoiding a lot of the negativity that comes out of technology. So like, what's your advice to people to not get locked into the unhappiness that technology could bring?

Sage:

Just be selfish? Stop giving a fuck about everybody else? And focus on yourself? Because no, I don't think I agree with that. Yeah. How can you expect to truly be happy? If you can't even be happy by yourself?

Rick:

You know,

Sage:

if you have to look for outside sources to make you happy, then you need to take a step back and look inside.

Genesis:

I don't know if selfishness needs to be the only quality though.

Sage:

Yeah, you have to be. You have to be selfish. Everybody claims to be selfish, but nobody's actually selfish because they care too much about what other people think about getting that like, or making sure they look good net picture for somebody or

Genesis:

someone no, that sounds like selfishness to me.

Sage:

Fuck off. No, I mean, it is but you're still doing it for to gratitude for early. Like if you want to look good, look good for yourself. Like who get it, but I think

Genesis:

there's a nugget of wisdom wrapped in that third, but there's some polishing needs to be done

Sage:

copying, copying, confident and being selfish. That's what I do.

Genesis:

See, you have this weird way stage of using very negative terminology to produce something positive. So it's very troubling and challenging to really discern what you're getting at. And I think I kind of understand it. But I think that's where you want to work on.

Sage:

No, I'm okay. Yeah,

Genesis:

you're perfect specimen.

Sage:

No, I have my own flaws. But I know my flaws because I spent enough time by myself to understand what I like and don't like, because I was selfish enough to be like, You know what, fuck this. Yeah, I need to learn how to be happy with just me.

Genesis:

I don't know, I feel like, if I lived in a society where everybody was all selfish, I wouldn't be able to trust anybody. And I need to trust people.

Sage:

See, and that's the thing, you're selfish until you reach that point. Once you reach that point to where you know what you like, what you don't like what you are willing to put up with, and are what really makes you tick, as, as a person. Once you get that down, then you can go out into the world. And if you want to care about somebody, you can, if you want to help people, you can you can do whatever you want, but it still won't impact on your inner on your happiness, because you know what you need?

Genesis:

Sure. And I think most people do that. They just do it spread out over the time spread out through the other.

Sage:

No. Bullshit. Most people go on Facebook, like, Hey, I'm about to clear out my friends list if you make the cut. Sorry. I mean, congratulations, if you didn't fuck you pay right or or not to come at Rick. But people do that to like, Hey, I'm disappearing for social media 30 days, or for a year? Just Just do it. Don't know. Now I didn't need it. Oh, no, just

Rick:

I agree with you. Because that's my philosophy on everything, essentially, where I'm not gonna announce how I'm doing it. The only thing I actually announced is the social media hiatus because the first time I did it, I deleted the app. And then I came back 30 days later, and there was I had a few messages from people that were like, Yo, what the fuck why Why aren't you responding? Why aren't you in? And I mean,

Sage:

you can use that as a social experiment, though to do you think about if you just disappear for office or social media, the people who really care about you are going to find a way to get in contact with you.

Rick:

Yeah, and now I've actually toyed with the idea of deleting Facebook altogether, or because now all it really has become it's just me looking at memes and sharing pictures of the girls specifically for family. But like 99% of the people on my Facebook friends, I will never message them. I will never Oh yeah, I'll like whenever I come across. If I come across something. A lot of people are interesting. To me, but a lot of people on my Facebook or any social media, I were never going to talk. I'm

Sage:

never I'm there strictly for the means. I think that for me that just kind of carried over because like, I never got wrapped up into the whole reality TV hype either. I always thought that shit was stupid and dumb and boring to me.

Genesis:

I don't need some reality TV.

Sage:

I don't give a fuck what's going on in your life? That does not affect me one bit.

Rick:

I think I liked reality TV. It was a very short lived time period. And I think I was just into like real world for like a super I think when they came to Chicago.

Sage:

I've never I can honestly say I've never watched an episode of railroad Yeah, the only reality TV I was at baby and I call it reality TV. But our fucking like competition for like singing and America's Got Talent. Oh, watch that just because I like to see fucking cool shit.

Rick:

America's Got Talent is pretty decent, though. Like, I've seen that. But I wouldn't

Genesis:

consider that reality TV although it I mean, it is kind of in the same bubble, but very different than general reality TV.

Rick:

Right? Right. To me, those shows are okay, but I haven't followed America's got our American Idol since like the first or second season maybe American Idol. And that completely died off but so

Sage:

he got canceled and then brought back for some reason. Yeah, but every generation has that show because you think about it before American Idol. There was Star Search right now and then now that American Idol kind of fell off. AGT took over. So yeah, what's gonna be in the next show?

Rick:

Why did I keep trying? Yeah, I thought the Mask Singer was kind of taken off a little bit. But that didn't really matter.

Sage:

Singer was cool. The actually I watched it, but I knew who the fucking singer was the first season. It was so goddamn obvious. I knew who the singer was because I heard his voice and like, yeah, of course. How do you not know who the fuck this is? Although,

Genesis:

that shows the perfect hook because it's like you only really care about what's under the mask. And so then you're stuck watching the fucking 45 minutes, you get to that point, if anything

Sage:

to show that I thought was good. Granted, I haven't watched a single episode yet. It was kind of like the masked singer. But instead of it being a masked singer, the entire person was virtual. Oh, so they were just offstage somewhere just singing that song. And I felt like that would be better for people who are scared who have stage fright or something like that. Like it, you're not actually on stage. Right? And you can let your real talent go and see how people really feel about you.

Genesis:

Yeah, so making people better. Did you have any advice? Or no? Are we done

Rick:

advice to make people better? Or happier?

Genesis:

To make people happier? And how we utilize technology? You said, a good thing you said was going on? A social media blackout period or something like that?

Rick:

Yeah, I mean, I think the same with everything. Moderation. Don't go overboard with it. Don't wake up every waking minute on social media. The last girl that I was talking to one of the main reasons why we stopped talking was every time I was over there, she just had her face buried in her phone. You know, like, right, like, we get to talk, I can have a conversation. I like to talk to people I like to get to know people. But I didn't come over here to just hear tech talks and shit all day. So like, chill out. Well, that's, you know, that's later. But like interact with people like actually engage with other humans outside of the devices.

Sage:

You know what annoys me more than anything? Like when you're out to eat? Then you look over and you see like maybe maybe it's their first date or second date or something like that. And the girls like oh, when the food comes out don't even have to take a picture page

Rick:

that's never happened to me.

Genesis:

I didn't know is

Sage:

you like why why why? I don't like I said before I sent him I do not understand his fascination of having to put every facet of your life online for everybody to see.

Genesis:

Find out just right here give me so hard I don't know.

Sage:

It's like why do I care what you're like, oh, this meal was so good. Let me take a picture of it. But how do you know what's good? You can eat it Yeah. She could be fucking trash.

Genesis:

It's funny because you said it wasn't even like

Sage:

you know just when I when I see it.

Genesis:

It's like just you're seeing it. Other people should so you're trying to not take interest in somebody else's life yet you kind of are because you're drawn in by the annoyance the pet peeve that you already have some fucking strangers on what they're doing with their life. Surprise you're not into reality TV based off of that

Sage:

because that would Just given knowing

Genesis:

exactly. Oh, I think those are some good points. I mean, there's a certain sense. It's something I'm trying to work on is, you know, just being

Sage:

me like, why take the picture though she may make it. What the fuck she and cookie changing shit. But if you if you were the chef, I get it. You made a creation. That's your art. That makes sense.

Genesis:

Yeah, but are the cameras on our phones now make these pictures look so pretty.

Sage:

Alright, I'm done. I'm done. Yeah.

Genesis:

I think you've just got to be mindful of what you're doing. It's easy to spin out of control with two hours of binge tick tacking, or YouTube rabbit holing? Or getting your attention pulled away in so many different directions. And you just have to be in the moment in the present and see is what you're doing. Is this productive? What am I gaining out of this? Is there anything that can contribute to my overall level of happiness from the current thing that I'm doing? And I think with that sort of understanding, you might be able to identify some areas of improvement.

Sage:

Yeah. Which leads me to, and I want you guys to really think about this. And this might hit a little bit closer to home for Rick. Oh, God. Because I broached this topic last night, when an ex Xbox party. And again, in Rick's case, you don't have to imagine but imagine you had a daughter. Okay? Imagine had a daughter in this day and age? Would you be mad at her if she decided instead of going to 10 or 12 years of school to wherever to be a doctor, go into debt? And then finally start making 100 1000s of dollars? A year after what let's say 15 years total? Something like that? Would you be prefer her to do that? Well, I even prefer because I know what the answer is going to be. But how would you feel? But if she weighed the options, instead of doing that, she decided, You know what, I can be over here be a fucking whore on only fans or something, not actually, not actually fucking anybody else, but just showing my body off and all this stuff, and make a couple 100,000 a month and not be in debt. For me. So I mean, it's the sound is as much as as shitty as it sounds. It's a solid business move. Right?

Rick:

And that's what I was gonna say. I mean, it's probably gonna surprise a lot of people with my answer, but I think for me, because I don't want to rule my children with an iron fist. Because I know if you do that, it just pushes them to do whatever it is that they're trying to do more and probably a lot worse, and probably a lot on safer. For me personally, as long as she's being careful, and this is what she wants to do. Now, where I'm going to step in and be like, Nah, fuck you. That's not happening is if like, if she's hooking on the street or some shit like that. Now are pulling out or something like that, you know, but like, pictures, only fans and all that, like, I'm cool with that. As long as you're doing it safely. And if it's making you tons of money, I know one thing No, I better get some.

Sage:

Because, you know, case in point wasn't a bad baby. Second, she turned 18 She started a fucking only fans. Oh, yeah. Barbie or whatever. Yeah, in one night. She had a million dollars.

Rick:

Yeah, people were on her dude. I mean, as soon as she went live with that only fan she made a couple mil right so

Sage:

far. Yeah, that's all I'm like. So like, it's as shitty as it sounds. It's a solid business move like you could, and not somebody because it really only goes for women. But if you are a highly attractive woman with decent assets, and you can market yourself, well, only fans, you could start at 19 or retire and retire by like 25 and not have to work the rest of your life.

Rick:

Do. I was just about to say it's definitely not only females, because I don't know if you knew this, but tiger has an only fans. This motherfucker makes $7.7 million every month on all the fans. Holy shit. Yeah. And I think it's just him doing behind the scenes of his life and music. I don't even think he's actually fucking people.

Sage:

But that's the world that we live in. Because it's technology. You can get away with shit like that you can literally either do what Tiger is doing or deal with some of these other girls are doing and start at 20 retire at 25 and be sent the rest of your life.

Genesis:

However, the reality is that not everybody that's going out there is gonna make $7 million a month.

Sage:

Not everybody won't. Everybody won't. I

Genesis:

would not let my daughter do that. You're not going to have those assets that you're marketing right now when you're 70.

Sage:

Yeah, you won't, but you won't need them at that point because you've made some Much Money in Your 20s By the time you're 70 you're good.

Genesis:

Too risky. You don't know. If you go to college to be a doctor, you're more likely to be set up for success than taking your chances doing an only fansite.

Sage:

True, but let's say you had a daughter and she did both her first year of med school, she's going to med school. And also she like you know what, I need some money on the side I'm in debt. Let me start only fans. In that one month, she has to pay 50,000 or whatever to the med school. But in that same month, she made 150,000 for southern feet pictures only fans. person that you know actually stay in school.

Genesis:

Yeah, I wouldn't want that for my daughter. No,

Sage:

I wouldn't want it either. But it's a it's a reality that we're living in. It's an actual job that pays well.

Genesis:

Can Yeah, potential.

Sage:

I mean, you gotta, you gotta have the authority, you gotta go ahead and let her know. Like, look. I know, I always say you're beautiful. But what you're trying to be real with you right now.

Genesis:

It's the same thing. Like if they said I want to quit my job and be a full time streamer. The ads are the same exact, if not very similar, to reach and any sort of like sustainable success. No, not necessarily.

Sage:

Yeah. As being a streamer versus as being only fans person, only for and I'm only speaking as far as women go right now. As being a successful streamer is a lot harder than being successful. Only fancy stuff. You have to come up with you have to come up with so much more content you have to be you know, you have to talk to people you have to be very engaging. For only thing is, you just got to be hot.

Genesis:

No, but the problem that you're missing out on though, there's no discoverability on only fans versus content creation as a YouTuber streamer. Yeah, that's

Sage:

why Instagram comes in. Yeah. Again, another another website where you just got to be hot. You don't have to have any other discernible talent other than the fact that you're hot.

Genesis:

You can just kind of look okay, or food pictures

Sage:

show. But it was just something I was thinking about last night. And I was like, Oh, let me see what y'all think about that. Yeah.

Genesis:

appreciate the question. Well, weird, especially for Rick. That could become a very real real reality for him.

Sage:

The reality for any of us. I mean, that's what I asked the question this is an actual thing now that we well he's

Genesis:

closer because he already hit the milestone of having the daughter so well. Do two of them at last so his chances double

Rick:

I struggle with it on a daily where I think about these things. Yeah. Do I keep I don't want to go the Mormon route of hiding my children from the world yesterday. Belts. Yeah, like, I don't want to do that. Because again, I know, way, way, way too many women where they were sheltered as children and they're now they're just the worst kind of people where they are just out doing everything they possibly can.

Sage:

For the same was the saying in the church is always depreciate the preachers, kids who is the worse? Oh, do?

Rick:

Oh, um, what's that? Marian Catholic high school out there in Chicago Heights? Yeah, it's a Catholic school and all this kind of dunk. The biggest coke fiends are in that school. Like, I remember so many kids in there, we're talking about y'all, I gotta blow you want to do? Whoa, this is they paint public schools as such a bad place. But if you go to those Catholic schools,

Sage:

do the want money to hide it?

Rick:

Right? They have money to hide it and people aren't looking at them

Genesis:

like that. How does that explain the Amish? When they go on the road Springer. So when Amish kids, you know they hit a certain age, they're allowed to go out to the world and explore,

Sage:

to decide if they really want the Amish life or not. Right. And

Genesis:

it's like a highest percent, like 80 90% of them come back.

Rick:

You know what, I think a lot of those cases when you show actually, if anything, this kind of proves my point about how you don't want to shelter them too much. Because if you show to them too much from things when you finally let them out a little bit, they go to the extreme almost every time and then they get put in a situation where they get hurt really badly. Or they've see something horrific. That's like alright, shit. Let me see.

Sage:

I don't see. I think it's different though. Because what he's saying is what he's saying is when they go out on their offspring, almost all in return and don't decide to stay in technology. Right. And the reason the reason a part of you and the reason I think that happens because they don't see it. So they didn't grow up. I'm being tempted by it their entire life with their parents saying, Oh, no, you can't do that you won't do that. But they were grown up sheltered in this community, this tight knit community with no social media, none of that. And then they were like out here, go out, see if you liked this. And it's probably all 100% foreign to him, to where they're like, Yeah, this feels weird. I don't want to do this. I'm out. Whereas you have, like, you have like religious kids who they can see it. They know other kids their age are doing this. And they see those kids having fun, but they can't do it. So now it's just 18 years of FOMO coming out at one time.

Genesis:

Go can blow jobs. Oh,

Rick:

my God. Yeah, I mean, no, I think you're right with that. Because I think a majority of them, because they haven't been exposed to it. They're like, and I'm not really interested in. But then you do have those select few that are like, oh, man, I'm going to New York, and I'm going crazy. And then they almost always get into some shit that they really shouldn't have been getting into.

Sage:

Can you imagine being Amish going out to see the world on Rumspringa for the first time, and immediately getting a codec addiction?

Rick:

Yeah, like, like, you're now like, shooting porn

Sage:

or something. And and now you don't even know how to bounce back from that or where to go from help, because you were never introduced to that part of society to know that they have systems in place that can help you. So there's just

Genesis:

no question, though. They're happier. Do you think the Amish would live happier lives than we do?

Sage:

I would say they live more. I wouldn't say happy, I'll say more fulfilled. Yeah, because everything that they do is for a purpose.

Rick:

Great, right? I would probably say, Yeah, I think they're a little happier only because I don't think they see all the awful shit that goes on in the world. All they know is what's in their little bubble, which a part of me kind of envies that a little bit. I wish I didn't know about the phone calls going on in Syria.

Sage:

Although, although, I do think that they lying though.

Rick:

You think someone's about

Sage:

to cause a pandemic happen? I hear none about no mass Amish tonight. Like, how did they hear about it? You know?

Rick:

Well, I mean, wait. Okay, so if there's no

Sage:

no electricity whatsoever, right? I didn't hear anything about a whole town of Amish people dying from COVID. Didn't hear.

Rick:

Yeah, but I mean, but if an Amish person dies, like, do they track something like that?

Sage:

Like, do they? I feel like if somebody stumbled across a town of like, 2025 people dead? That'd be in the news.

Genesis:

I don't know what they do with their data, actually. Yeah, like they have their own cemeteries on their farms or

Rick:

one thing. I'm thinking more of like checklists and stuff. When someone dies, do they put on their death certificate that they were Mormon? How would we know Amish? Are Amish? Right? Sorry? How would we?

Genesis:

Even those Mormons

Sage:

sit how we know that they were Amish? Yeah, like how like, because it would be it wouldn't just be them. It'd be the whole town. If one person was sick, everybody be sick. And then somebody who's not Amish would be the one fucking.

Rick:

But think about the Amish and think about what COVID was attacking. I mean, it wasn't that many young people that were dying from this not saying all Amish people are young, but like, I'm sure there were some Amish people that died from COVID. But the young like I don't think it was at least one of them.

Sage:

But that leaves my question again. How did they know what it was? Or to even combat it? At that point?

Genesis:

May I see ACCESS test sweep through Amish and Mennonite communities during COVID endemic

Rick:

ages probably didn't make national news because they were like who focus? Or

Sage:

or it's all propaganda and they just tried to keep the lie alive. What what of Amish people are like the white what kinda they want everybody think they don't have technology. You crossed that level and they like get like spaceships and shit.

Genesis:

Alright, with that? Close, we're going into Amish conspiracy theory, something I've never even heard of before. We'll save that for another day. Amish conspiracy theories. Great. You haven't heard it all, folks. So make sure you tune in next week because you never know.

Sage:

You're gonna be thinking about it now.

Rick:

What's with that? Yeah. You never know. You never know.

Genesis:

Okay, guys, anything else you want to talk about before we close it out?

Sage:

Oh, no, I'm good. Somebody's never gonna play. You take students. So I'm good. Well,

Genesis:

that's true. Well,

Rick:

that's not true. That's not true. I'll play it at some point. But I did want to continue that conversation we were having earlier

Genesis:

Let me at least get the Can I just close it first? Now I gotta hover the button Don't give me that evil Gremlin laugh. We all know we all know what you're doing. What am I doing? I'm just setting up. Figure out. You said some. Okay, go ahead. That's is that slander or libel? One of those two. No, wait for tuning in. Let's do another episode of The Haven exchange. Be sure to tune in next week for a brand new topic, brand new episode, one less hosts where we get together exchange our thoughts, even though you may be reluctant to dive deep into some of the caverns of these fellows brains. Whoa, I am doing the Lord's work by pulling those that nuggets out for you. Well, so thank you. And Rick, what did you want to say?

Rick:

You're just gonna hit the button. You might want to go ahead. Yeah, one of these days, you're gonna let me get it out. And I'm gonna let the people know what kind of masih

Genesis:

Oh said we can only have one monster amongst the CO hosting

Rick:

panel. Yeah. And that was what led to that you said something about the Jews or what was it? You said something? You know, we'll talk about it later.

Genesis:

I said it's fascinating how similar the Jewish faith and Muslim faith and Christian faith is how similar they are. It's kind of fascinating that these three distinct groups have similar origin stories. You know, that's all I was saying.

Sage:

I somehow I don't think that's what you said. No, it's not what he

Rick:

says. He says. This is the Haven

Sage:

exchange.

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