Culture

Family

Nature

Science

Subscribe

‘Adults’ are honestly confused by these 15 things the younger generations are into

Why do they love to record themselves crying?

By

Tod Perry

By

Upworthy Staff

gen z, gen alpha, generations
Photo credit: via Anna Shvets/Pexels – Teens staring at a pink phone.

Every generation is different from the one that came before. It makes sense. Every group grows up in different economic, cultural, and technological circumstances, so of course they’re going to have different tastes and values. It’s also natural for younger generations to rebel against their parents and create their own unique identities.

However, these days, with the rapid changes in technology and culture spurned on by the internet, for some older people (Baby Boomers, Gen X), the younger generations (Millenials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha) are downright confusing. Further, Gen Z and Gen Alpha were raised during the pandemic, the #MeToo movement, and the murder of George Floyd, which have had an enormous impact on how they see the world.

To help the older folks who may be confused by “kids these days” feel less alone, a Redditor named 5h0gKur4C4ndl posed a question to the AskReddit subforum, “What is something about the newer generations that you can’t seem to understand?” A lot of the responses were centered around the younger generations’ relationship to technology.

The older generations also seem concerned that younger kids are a lot more prudish than their parents and should learn how to lighten up and have some fun — a big role reversal from previous generational wars.

Here are 15 things about the younger generations that older people don’t understand.

​1. Recording yourself crying

“THIS IS THE ONE. I do not know how intense your desire for external validation has to be for you to be in the midst of crying and think ‘Lights, camera, action baby let’s make sure as many people see this as possible.’” — Thrillmouse

“People who record themselves crying are already weird but posting it on the internet is weirder. imagine clicking ‘post’ to every social media they have. do they seriously not look at what they’re posting online?” — TryContent4093

2. Poor grammar

“The emails I get from my students aged 18-25 are such a mess of incoherent garbage, I can’t tell if they are lazy or if it’s an actual literacy issue. And I’m barely older than they are so if this is a generational gap, it happened quickly!” — NefariousSalmander

“It’s a block of text with no capitalization or punctuation. Imagine receiving 6 consecutive one-line texts at once. If you can figure out where the periods should go then you can make sense of it, but it’s all texting abbreviations and slang. Something like, ‘yo mr y u slow fixin my grade I trned in the lab last class my dad gonna take my phone lmk.’” — Ceesa

3. Learned helplessness

“I’m a middle school teacher. My kids will routinely claim they can’t do anything and then shut down and do nothing. And then… It’s easy and they do it. So basically it’s the degree of learned helplessness. They know to ask when I go over, but if there are twenty kids and I get to them last, they will do nothing (no phones, nothing!) for twenty minutes and act surprised I’m irritated they didn’t grab a damn pencil from the freeeee pencils on my desk. And then act surprised they’re behind on the assignment!” — Scarletuba

4. The internet is forever

“The lack of understanding that things put on the internet are public forever.” — Leading_Screen_4216

5. No self-confidence

“37-year-old attending college for the first time here. They have negative confidence. They barely speak above a mumble, especially when answering a question from the teacher. Most of them would rather die than talk to someone they’re interested in. It’s like 90% of them are cripplingly introverted.” — Intelligent-Mud1437

6. They need attention

“We were saying what we would do if we won the big lottery jackpot. The new 22-year-old hire said he’d become an influencer. Can you imagine winning a billion at 22 and that’s what you would do? Not start a business, travel the world, charity, sports, property… Learn something… but become an influencer… with a billion dollars. I mean, like, he’s gonna hire a marketing company to fabricate interest in his social media? He’s gonna spend money on stupid things to make people cringe or rage comment? With a billion dollars.” — Covercall

7. Put your phone down

“Why do you want to watch 100% of a concert, that you paid good money for, through your phone lens?” — LeluWater

“I was yesterday in a Linkin Park cover band concert, a fuckin blast. There was that one guy, that spent every song recording HIS FACE ‘singing’ along. Not the band, his face. Please wake me up in 1995.” — pls_tell_me

8. Phone at the movies

“Why do they go to the movies only to scroll through their phone the entire time?” — IAmASurgeonDoctorHan

“My wife does this. Not at the theater, but we’ll be watching a movie or TV show, and she’ll be glued to her phone. Then when she looks up she doesn’t get what’s going on and we have to pause while I explain what just happened and why.” — Project2R

9. Paranoia

“I’m in my forties and I manage a small group of people who are in their 20s to early thirties. What I notice most is how anxious and fearful they seem to be. Everyone is out to get them. I often get approached by subordinates who want me to do something about a colleague who is doing them wrong in some way. After I gather more information, it almost always is a case of poor assumption about someone else’s intentions, coupled with a desire to jump to the worst-case scenario. If I ask them a series of probing questions about other possible interpretations they often admit they didn’t consider those possibilities.” — Reasonable_Human55

10. Putting on heirs

“I don’t understand why most of them want to look rich with expensive s**t and most of them act like they run businesses or something.They take pictures with cars that are not theirs for example. Dude chill, you’re 16.” — Honest_Math7760

“Because they are indoctrinated by social media that tells them they are a failed human if they don’t become a multi-millionaire entrepreneur.” — Outrageous_Glove_467

11. The new Puritans

“This weird new Puritan wave they are riding on. We struggled for generations to free ourselves from oppressive dogmas, and now they are all-in on the whole: ‘if you like anything even remotely non-wholesome, you should be arrested and burn in hell.’ … Constantly calling for bans on anything that upsets them, instead of learning how to avoid the things that upset them.” — SleepyCera

“The prudishness is so weird to me. Hearing young people talk about body counts’ and how you should be married with kids by the age of 25, or you’re past your prime is absolutely insane. Even my Christian grandparents weren’t as sexually conservative as this generation. The complete demonization of partying, drinking, and going out is weird too—like I can see being traumatized by fentanyl and the general lack of safety around drugs, but I did most of my socializing as a young person by going to concerts and nightlife events and meeting people, and they seem to just…not do anything social?” — Counterboudd

12. Can’t handle stress

“The absolute lack of capacity to deal with any emotional stress or upheaval without turning into a gibbering mess. …I had someone messing around in a lecture, playing with their phone and being disruptive. I stopped the lecture and told them to put it away and pay attention or leave. They looked SHOCKED to have been called out and sat there quietly for the next 10-15 minutes until suddenly going all ‘deer in the headlights’ when asked a question in relation to the topic and then running the full length of the lecture hall and out the room. I was informed the following day that the student had went to counseling services to complain that I had ‘put unreasonable pressure on him by asking him questions in class, and set off his anxiety.’” — Indiana_Harris

13. White socks with sneakers

“How pulling up white socks with sneakers was the most unfashionable middle-aged American dad clothing in the entire world. To being fashionable.” — Awkward_Moments

“Socks with sandals too. And mustaches. Kids today think dressing like a dorky dad thirty years ago is cool. I laugh at them all the time.” — IDigRollingRockBeer

14. Watching video games

“Why they’d rather watch someone else play a video game than play it themselves. That was a punishment when I was a kid, not entertainment.” — DeadDevilMonkey

15. External stimulation

“Will never understand the constant need for external stimulation. I’m quite happy just to ponder my own thoughts. I love flying, because it gives me several hours to think on shit without distraction. Ask young people to put down their phone? It’s as if you asked them to chop off their left hand.” — Midnight_Poet

This article originally appeared last year.

Add to Google News

Tags

More for You

  • At 19, Jewel turned down a million-dollar record deal. Decades later, she says it was the best decision she ever made.
    Photo credit: Jennifer Stoddart – Jewel performing at The Theatre in Coquitlam, British Columbia in 2008.
    ,

    At 19, Jewel turned down a million-dollar record deal. Decades later, she says it was the best decision she ever made.

    Jewel turned down a million-dollar signing bonus while living out of her car. She went to the library first to understand why she had to.

    Tim Mercer

    Before Jewel sold 30 million albums and earned four Grammy nominations, she was sleeping in her car in San Diego. She hadn’t chosen the situation romantically — she’d been fired after refusing her boss’s sexual advances, lost her paycheck, and couldn’t make rent. Then the car was stolen, leaving her fully homeless. She was 19.

    It was in the middle of all of this that the music industry came looking for her.

    Jewel had found a coffee shop that was going out of business and struck a deal with the owner: she’d bring people in, and she’d keep the door money. She started playing five-hour sets of original material on Thursday nights. Four people became twelve, became twenty, became fifty. A bootleg recording ended up on the radio. Record labels started showing up.

    A bidding war broke out. The biggest offer on the table included a $1 million signing bonus.

    She said no.

    Before making that decision, she did something practical and slightly remarkable: she went to the library and read a book about the music business. What she learned changed everything. “I learned that you owe that money back,” she explained in an interview on ABC’s No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis. “If my record wasn’t successful within a year, I would have been dropped. I would have ended up homeless again. I would have had to make a record that was guaranteed to be a hit, which I didn’t know how to do. I was a folk singer at the height of grunge.”

    In other words: the million dollars wasn’t a gift. It was a loan with conditions attached, and the conditions were essentially designed for her to fail.

    She recently revisited the decision in a conversation with entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie, posted March 30. In it she described the guiding principle she had formed for herself, even without words for it at the time. “I made myself a promise that my number one job in life would be to learn. I called it being a ‘happy whole human,’ not a human full of holes.” She wanted to be an artist more than she wanted to be famous — and she’d learned enough about the industry to know those weren’t the same thing.

    “Do I want to be famous and rich, or do I want to be an artist?” she told ABC. “I used that as my road map.”

    Instead of taking the advance, she negotiated a deal structured around the back end — one that gave her room to build a fan base slowly and stay true to her music. Her debut album, Pieces of You, came out in 1995. It eventually sold more than 12 million copies in the United States alone.

    She has since become a bestselling author, a producer, and an advocate for mental health and emotional resilience. Her motto, which she’s repeated across decades of interviews: “Hardwood grows slowly.”

    “If you can emotionally connect with a human being and cause them to emotionally invest with you, you have something,” she said. “Then you just have to go about it the old-fashioned way.”

    Keep Reading →
  • Investigative journalist reveals the simple way you can protect your  phone from getting hacked
    Photo credit: Daily Show/Youtube, Canva – Journalist Ronan Farrow explains how turning off your phone each night can protect you from getting hacked
    , , ,

    Investigative journalist reveals the simple way you can protect your  phone from getting hacked

    His simple tip can offer protection in a time of less-than-stellar privacy regulations.

    Heather Wake

    Upworthy Staff

    There are just so many ways for important information held on your phone to be swiped—from subscription based apps that secretly send private customer data to Facebook to fake accounts that get your friends to invest in some kind of fake crypto.

    And of course—this is more than a modern day inconvenience. It poses real threats to democracy and global human rights, which is why so many are calling for more regulations and safeguards. Of course, as with most regulations, change isn’t coming fast. Which isn’t good news, considering how rapidly technology evolves.

    However, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Ronan Farrow has an incredibly simple tip for preventing our phones from being hacked: Turn them off more often.

    Why Ronan Farrow says we should all be ‘freaking out’

    While appearing on the Daily Show to promote his new documentary, Surveilled, Farrow told host Desi Lydic that we as a society should be “freaking out” more about the lack of government restraints about spyware technology, saying that it could turn the country “into an Orwellian surveillance state,” affecting anyone who uses a device, essentially—not just political dissidents.

    But, as Farrow noted, turning your phone off and on every day is an easy way to protect yourself, since most current forms of spyware “will be foiled by a reboot.” And even if you aren’t, say, a journalist or a political activist (i.e. common targets for malware), you’re thwarting apps from monitoring your activity or collecting your data. And better still, you’re making it more difficult for hackers to steal information from your phone. Privacy protection aside, it’s a great way of just keeping your device healthy. Basically, it seems like the age-old solution for virtually all tech issues still holds up.

    More easy steps you can take right now

    ronan farrow, surveilled max, documentary, privacy, journalism, daily show, spyware, malware
    Remembering to turn it off…that’s a different challenge altogether. Photo credit: Canva

    There are a few other things worth turning off now and then, such as bluetooth and location devices when you’re not using them, according to the NSA. In addition, Farrow also suggested keeping devices updated, and perhaps most important of all, actually writing to your representative about the issue.

    However, when it comes to wrapping devices in tinfoil as a makeshift Faraday cage…that might not be the best use of one’s aluminum.

    “Experts vary on exactly how effective that approach is,” Farrow told Lydic, just before quipping, “we need better policies. Not just better tinfoil.”

    The documentary that started it all

    Expanding on Farrow’s 2022 New Yorker investagative exposé on the notorious spyware Pegasus, Surveilled, which is available to stream on Max, delves into the multibillion-dollar industry of commercial spyware and its potential threats, making it evidently clear that this is not an issue for the elite few, or one to ignore until the future.

    On a (slightly) brighter note, Farrow debuted another new work in 2025, this time a true crime investigative podcast, titled Not a Very Good Murderer, which he himself narrates. Find it on Audible.

    This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

    Keep Reading →
  • Passenger on 274-day cruise is surprised to learn the one word you can’t say on the ship
    Photo credit: via Mattew Barra/Pexels – There's one word you can't say on a cruise ship.
    ,

    Passenger on 274-day cruise is surprised to learn the one word you can’t say on the ship

    “It’s like saying ‘Macbeth’ in a theater.”

    Tod Perry

    Upworthy Staff

    There are some things you just don’t say. You don’t yell out “bomb!” on an airplane, make jokes about carrying weapons while going through security, or, as Michael Scott from The Office knows, loudly proclaim that a boat you’re currently on is sinking.

    Those are all pretty obvious examples, but sometimes etiquette and decorum are a little more subtle. If you’re not experienced in the ways of the venue you’re in, you might not know all the unspoken rules. And you might find out the hard way. Cruise ships, for example, have their own very specific set of rules and regulations that guests should abide by.

    On December 10, 2023, Royal Caribbean’s Serenade to the Seas set sail on the Ultimate World Cruise—a 274-day global trek that visited 11 world wonders and over 60 countries.

    This incredible trip covered the Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Mediterranean and Europe with a ticket price that ranged from $53,999 to $117,599 per passenger.

    With such a unique and incredible offering, it’s understandable that Royal Caribbean wanted to invite plenty of influencers to help them get the word out.

    The TikToker who accidentally broke the biggest rule at sea

    Aboard the Serenade to the Seas was TikToker Marc Sebastian, who has amassed over 2.5 million followers, documented his experience throughout the journey. In one video with over 5 million views, he revealed what he’s learned over his first few weeks aboard the ship; the biggest was the one word you’re not allowed to say.

    “So here’s [what] I’ve learned about cruising since I’ve spent 18 nights on this floating retirement home with a Cheesecake Factory attached. First, number one, you’re not supposed to talk about the Titanic,” he says in the clip.

    Titanic! It’s the ultimate taboo when you’re on a giant ship traversing the ocean. Even after all these years, it’s still too soon to make even lighthearted comparisons or jokes.

    @marcsebastianf

    someone get whoopi on the line girl i have some goss for her #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise #titanic

    ♬ original sound – Marc Sebastian

    “Who knew that? I didn’t,” Sebastian said. “I brought it up to an entire room of people having lunch that our ship is only 100 feet longer than the Titanic – when I tell you that utensils dropped. Waiters gasped. It’s dead silent.”

    The room went completely silent

    Sebastian was flabbergasted. “It wasn’t in the… handbook,” he joked. “Not that I read the handbook, clearly.”

    After the unexpected reaction, his cruise friend told him, “You’re not allowed to talk about the Titanic.” It makes sense.

    Who wants to be reminded of the tragedy that killed around 1,500 people while sinking one of the most impressive engineering feats of the era? More experienced cruisers chimed in that they were familiar with the unique piece of etiquette.

    “When I went on a cruise, my mom told me saying Titanic was equivalent to screaming ‘bomb’ at an airport,” Mikayla wrote in the comments.

    “It’s like saying Macbeth in a theatre, it’s an unspoken rule” another commenter added.

    “I’m sorry you’re telling me you had a Harry Potter like experience saying Voldemort at Hogwarts but it was the titanic on a modern day cruise I’m cryingggg” joked another.

    Later in the video covering little known cruise facts, Sebastian admits he was surprised to learn that cruise ships have godmothers and that the pools are filled with seawater.

    So, did he end up staying for all 274 days?

    In an update from June of 2024, Sebastian explains that he only stayed on the cruise for 18 nights. He was not booked to stay throughout the entire voyage, and for him, that was a relief.

    He initially jokes that he was kicked off the boat for saving a penguin that had jumped aboard. But in the end, he admits he was more than happy to deboard early.

    “I walked off that ship not a happy man,” he said, saying the ship was overstimulating and stressful. In another video, he films as the ship navigates the Drake Passage, one of the most notoriously dangerous and choppy stretches of water in the world. It looks stressful indeed, to say the least.

    Cruising isn’t for everyone, let alone for 274 days straight! But now Sebastian knows the golden rule for his next cruise.

    This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

    Keep Reading →
  • ‘Wicked’ author reveals subtle clue in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that Glinda and Elphaba were friends
    Photo credit: Public domain – Gregory Maguire was inspired by a line in the original 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz."
    ,

    ‘Wicked’ author reveals subtle clue in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that Glinda and Elphaba were friends

    “I fell down onto the ground laughing at the thought that they had gone to college together.”

    Annie Reneau

    Upworthy Staff

    Have you ever watched a movie or read a book or listened to a piece of music and wondered, “How did they come up with that idea?” The creative process is so enigmatic even artists themselves don’t always know where their ideas come from, so It’s a treat when we get to hear the genesis of a brilliant idea straight from the horse’s mouth. It’s often not what you would expect!

    If you’ve watched Wicked and wondered where the idea for the friendship between Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) and Glinda (the Good Witch) came from, the author of the book has shared the precise moment it came to him.

    The many iterations of Wicked

    The hit movie Wicked is based on the 20-year-old hit stage musical, which is based on the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West written by Gregory Maguire. It says a lot about how powerful the story is that it has succeeded in so many different mediums and continued to find new audiences that connect with it.

    While the musical is a simplified version of the 1995 book, the basic storyline—the origins of the two witches from “The Wizard of Oz”—lies at the heart of both. In an interview with BBC, Maguire explained how Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship popped into his head.

    The moment of inspiration that started it all

    Maguire was visiting Beatrix Potter’s farm in Cumbria, England (Potter was an author and illustrator who created Peter Rabbit) and thinking about “The Wizard of Oz,” which he had loved as a child and thought could be an interesting basis for a story about evil.

    “I thought ‘alright, what do we know about ‘The Wizard of Oz’ from our memories,’” he said. “We have the house falling on the witch. What do we know about that witch? All we know about that witch is that she has feet. So I began to think about Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West…

    “There is one scene in the 1939 film where Billie Burke [Glinda] comes down looking all pink and fluffy, and Margaret Hamilton [The Wicked Witch] is all crawed and crabbed and she says something like, ‘I might have known you’d be behind this, Glinda!’ This was my memory, and I thought, now why is she using Glinda’s first name? They have known each other. Maybe they’ve known each other for a long time. Maybe they went to college together. And I fell down onto the ground in the Lake District laughing at the thought that they had gone to college together.”

    Sometimes it’s the crazy idea that works the best

    Maguire must have thought the idea of Glinda and The Wicked Witch attending college together was absurd at the time. What a kooky idea! But he pursued it nonetheless and, well, the rest is history.

    In “Wicked,” Glinda and the Wicked Witch, Elphaba, meet as students at Shiz University, a school of wizardry. They get placed as roommates, loathe each other at first, but eventually become best friends. The story grows a lot more complicated from there (and the novel goes darker than the stage play), but it’s the character development of the two witches and their relationship with one another that force us to examine our ideas about good and evil.

    Watch his explanation and inspiration here:

    Why the Wicked Witch specifically?

    Maguire also shared with the Denver Center for Performing Arts what had inspired him to use the “Wizard of Oz” characters in the first place.

    “I was living in London in the early 1990’s during the start of the Gulf War. I was interested to see how my own blood temperature chilled at reading a headline in the usually cautious British newspaper, the Times of London: ‘Sadaam Hussein: The New Hitler?’ I caught myself ready to have a fully formed political opinion about the Gulf War and the necessity of action against Sadaam Hussein on the basis of how that headline made me feel. The use of the word Hitler – what a word! What it evokes! When a few months later several young schoolboys kidnapped and killed a toddler, the British press paid much attention to the nature of the crime. I became interested in the nature of evil, and whether one really could be born bad,” he said.

    “I considered briefly writing a novel about Hitler but discarded the notion due to my general discomfort with the reality of those times,” he continued. “But when I realized that nobody had ever written about the second most evil character in our collective American subconscious, the Wicked Witch of the West, I thought I had experienced a small moment of inspiration. Everybody in America knows who the Wicked Witch of the West is, but nobody really knows anything about her. There is more to her than meets the eye.”

    What the story is really about

    Authors and artists, and their ideas, help hold a mirror up to humanity for us to see and reflect on who we are, and “Wicked” is one of those stories that makes us take a hard look at what we’re seeing in that mirror. Thanks, Gregory Maguire, for launching us on a collective journey that not only entertains but has the potential to change how we see one another.

    The second Wicked film, For Good, hit theaters in November 2025 and is now streaming on Peacock.

    This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

    Keep Reading →
  • Retired teachers in their 30s live on cruise ships full-time for a little over $10K a year
    Photo credit: via Matthew Barra/Pexels – A cruise ship could be your home for a way lower price than you'd expect.
    ,

    Retired teachers in their 30s live on cruise ships full-time for a little over $10K a year

    “It sounds mad, but the numbers made sense.”

    Tod Perry

    Upworthy Staff

    You know that feeling toward the end of a great vacation when you stop and think: I wish I could stay here forever. It might be an all-inclusive resort, a secluded beach, or a fun-filled cruise on the high seas that you just don’t want to leave. Of course, for most people, it’s a fantasy. You can’t just quit your job and live a permanent vacation. But what if you could?

    Giving it all up and retiring to live on a cruise ship at 32 seems like a lifestyle choice only available to the ultra-wealthy. However, two financially savvy retired school teachers from Tennessee have managed to do just that, spending under $10,000 for the first eight months at sea.

    Falling in love with cruises

    Monica Brzoska, 32, and Jorell Conley, 36, met in 2015 while teaching in Memphis, Tennessee. The following year, they booked a week-long cruise to Mexico, Belize, and Grand Cayman. After that, they were hooked on cruising together.

    Eight years later, in March 2023, they booked a week-long Caribbean cruise and had the time of their lives. When it was over, instead of returning home to Memphis, they had a wild idea: Why not continue to book consecutive cruises? So, they did just that.

    Monica was inspired to start living the life she always wanted after her father fell ill and her mother told her: “Don’t wait for retirement. Follow your dreams.”

    How They Made the Numbers Work

    The couple crunched the numbers and found that if they chose the cheapest cabins and used the deals and promotions they’d received from Carnival Cruises, they could book the first 8 months for just under $10,000.

    That’s not per month. That’s the total, coming out to around $1250 per month. Not a bad deal whatsoever. Plus, the more cruises they book, the more perks and deals they get.

    “It sounds mad, but the numbers made sense. Accommodation, food and entertainment would be included – we’d only need spending money,” Brzoska “And because we’d been on so many Carnival cruises, we’d earned access to some amazing offers.”

    Hopping from ship to ship isn’t difficult for the couple because many disembark from the same ports. But they sometimes have to fly when they can’t walk to the next ocean liner.

    Cruising toward retirement

    The couple then quit their jobs, sold their possessions, and started a new life on the high seas. They rent out their 3-bedroom home in Memphis to maintain steady cash flow. The average 3-bedroom home in the area rents somewhere between $1200 to $1900 a month.

    Over the first year of their new life, the couple completed 36 consecutive cruises.

    They have already visited countless destinations across the globe, but they can’t choose a favorite. “For a cultural experience, we loved Japan,” Brzoska told a Carnival Cruise director on Instagram. The couple also loved Greece for its “history” and Iceland because it was the “closest to being on Mars.”

    More recently, they’ve spent time in Amsterdam, the UK, Germany, Belgium, and more. What an amazing adventure.

    One of the most incredible benefits of living on a cruise ship is that so many things are taken care of for you. The couple never has to cook any meals, do any laundry, or drive. Every night, there is something to do, whether it’s checking out a comedy show or enjoying drinks and dancing in the nightclub. Plus, there are always new friends to meet on board with every new cruise.

    Plus, on cruises, just about all the costs are covered, so you rarely have to open your wallet. It’s a stress-free, all-inclusive lifestyle. Brzoska says that when you remove the everyday stresses from life, it’s great for your marriage. “Without the daily stresses of life, we rarely argued, but always told each other if we needed space or more time together,” she said.

    They are not the only ones

    Brzoska and Conley were one of the first high-profile couples to get attention, followers, and media coverage for the permanent cruising lifestyle, but they’re definitely not the only ones. It’s an especially popular choice for retired adults and seniors, who find it cheaper and way more fun than living in a retirement community or nursing home. It’s also a great choice for people who can work remotely and flexibly, or who own their own digital-nomad-friendly businesses.

    The couple also makes sure to have one date night a week, during which they dress up and have a nice meal together.

    The couple has been cruising full-time for more than two years, logging 106+ cruises and visiting over 45 countries as of this and counting. Absolutely unreal.

    Most people may be unable to give it all up and live their lives hopping from ocean liner to ocean liner. But there’s a great lesson in the story of Brzoska and Conley: You never know how much time you have left, so don’t wait for retirement to live the life of your dreams.

    This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

    Keep Reading →
  • 15 pop song ‘oopsies’ that were kept in recordings, turning mistakes into iconic moments
    Photo credit: Public domain images – The Beatles and David Bowie
    ,

    15 pop song ‘oopsies’ that were kept in recordings, turning mistakes into iconic moments

    Who knew there were so many “happy accidents” in famous songs?

    Annie Reneau

    “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents,” Bob Ross assured us. In the case of over a dozen popular songs, mistakes didn’t just turn out to be happy accidents, but ultimately became iconic moments in music.

    Musician and teacher David Hartley compiled 15 examples of mistakes in well-known songs that you can’t unhear once you know about them. Most will be familiar to pop music fans, who may or may not know that they were actually unintentional.

    Hartley’s video goes into the details of these 15 song elements that weren’t supposed to be there:

    1. The alarm clock ringing in The Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’

    Hartley shares that The Beatles had an alarm clock placed on the piano to keep track of time in the studio. It just happened to go off while they were recording the bars that separate the two sections of the song, and the ringing couldn’t be removed afterward. It fit perfectly with the “Woke up, fell out of bed” lyrics, however, so it seemed intentional.

    2. Elvis Presley laughing while singing “Are You Lonesome Tonight”

    While performing his hit “Are You Lonesome Tonight” live in Las Vegas in 1969, Elvis saw a bald man in the audience lose his toupee. The singer spontaneously changed the line “Do you gaze at your doorstep and wish I was there?” to “Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair?” He laughed at his own hilarity and kept chuckling through the rest of the song. The recording made it onto one of his live albums.

    3. The ‘I know, I know, I know, I know…’ section of ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’

    “In 1971, Bill Withers was recording his debut album, which included the song ‘Ain’t No Sunshine,’” says Hartley. “When he got to the bridge section in the middle, he realized that he hadn’t written any lyrics, so he just repeated ‘I know’ 26 times.” Other musicians encouraged him to keep it, and the song became a huge hit.

    4. The phone ringing at the end of David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’

    “Unfortunately, right by the side of the piano, there was a toilet, and in that toilet was a public phone,” explained sound engineer Ken Scott. “Someone got a wrong number and called in halfway through that great take, and we had to stop it, and Ronaldo was cursing and swearing about it.” They didn’t realize until they put the whole song together that the ring and Ronaldo’s voice had made it in.

    5. That one-off piano chord that kicks off Elton John’s ‘Bennie and the Jets’

    When Elton sat down to record the song, he played the opening chord on its own on a whim. Producer Gus Dudgeon thought it sounded like something a pianist would do warming up for a live performance, so they decided to make the song sound like a live performance, even though it wasn’t, adding in crowd sound recordings.

    6. Two unintentional sounds in the segue into Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’

    Pink Floyd did something unusual in between songs on the album Wish You Were Here. In the segue into the title track, they inserted radio sounds that were actually recorded while the band was scrolling through stations in lead guitarist David Gilmour’s car.

    “We can hear a brief section from Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony and an extract from a radio play that to this day nobody knows what it is,” says Hartley. A cough from Gilmour also slipped in, which resulted in an urban legend that the recording prompted him to quit smoking. (He has said he was never a smoker.)

    7. Steely Dan’s drummer’s uncharacteristic mistake with the sticks that fit the song perfectly

    Steely Dan is apparently known for being meticulous about their recordings, so the fact that an unintentional click of drummer Steve Gadd’s drumsticks made it into the studio recording of “Aja” is quite remarkable. The timing of the click made it sound seamless, though, so why redo it?

    8. A bad piano chord in the intro to ‘Roxanne’ and the laughter that followed

    “The timing and the way it resolves to the G minor chord that they’re playing makes it sound like it was intentional,” says Hartley. “But as Sting explains, it happened by pure accident.” There was an open piano next to him and he leaned on it to rest and accidentally played that chord, which made him laugh.

    9. The gated reverb drum sound that was accidentally created on Peter Gabriel’s song, ‘Intruder’

    Hartley says the iconic ’80s drum sound, where the drumbeat sounds big and echoey and then cuts off abruptly, was created accidentally by Steve Lillywhite, Hugh Padgham, and Phil Collins when recording “Intruder.” Phil Collins ended up showcasing the gated reverb drum in “In the Air Tonight” the following year.

    10. Two different lyrics sung at the same time in The Who’s ‘Eminence’

    “For the first line of the first chorus, Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry sing something slightly different,” Hartley shares. “One of them sings ‘behind an eminence front’ and the other sings ‘it’s an eminence front,’ meaning they are one syllable out from each other.” The mistake was initially left in the recording, but was corrected years later.

    11. Billy Joel fumbling a lyric and laughing in ‘You’re Only Human’

    People familiar with the song may remember when Joel seems to stutter, “S-s-sometimes that’s all it takes” and then laughs. That was a genuine stumbling mistake, but it fit so well with the song’s theme and other lines (like “it’s alright, you’re supposed to make mistakes”) he was convinced to leave it in.

    12. Perfectionist Prince allowing a track recording oopsie to remain

    During the recording of the song “Forever in My Life,” the tape was misaligned by one bar while recording the final track, which made the backing vocal preempt the lead vocal. Prince ultimately liked the effect, so he left it that way.

    13. The ‘Where do we go now’ lyrics at the end of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’

    “It was suggested that at the end of the song, after the guitar solo, they add a breakdown to finish the song,” Hartley explains. “But when it came to recording, lead singer Axel Rose didn’t have any lyrics, and he didn’t know where the song would end up. So the line, ‘Where do we go now?’ is a genuine question to his bandmates.”

    14. Christina Aguilera’s ‘Don’t look at me’ line in ‘Beautiful’

    Hartley shares that the recording of “Beautiful” was actually just supposed to be a demo vocal, and you can hear various imperfections in it if you listen closely with headphones. And the spoken line, “Don’t look at me,” was a real instruction to her friend just before she started singing.

    15. The extra ‘My life is brilliant’ at the beginning of James Blunt’s ‘You’re Beautiful’

    Blunt simply came in too early with the opening lyric, so he ended up repeating the line. They could have easily taken it out, but decided to leave it.

    Mistakes or happy accidents, it’s fun to see how unintentional oopsies can turn into iconic moments when you decide to roll with it.

    You can follow David Hartley on YouTube for more interesting music content.

    Keep Reading →
  • The Bee Gees’ 1973 acoustic performance of ‘Run to Me’ perfectly showcases their amazing harmonies
    Photo credit: via MIdnight Special/YouTube – The Bee Gees singing "Run to Me."
    ,

    The Bee Gees’ 1973 acoustic performance of ‘Run to Me’ perfectly showcases their amazing harmonies

    No one harmonizes quite like family.

    Tod Perry

    On June 22, 1973, the Bee Gees, brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, appeared on the TV show The Midnight Special and, throughout the 90-minute broadcast, showcased their humor, soul, and incredible harmonies. But, by far, the highlight of the night was a performance of their recent hit, “Run to Me,” off their 1972 release, To Whom It May Concern.

    The Midnight Special was a late-night music and variety show that ran on NBC for nine years (1972-1981). Along with “Run to Me,” on this episode, the Bee Gees played their 1968 hit “I Gotta Get a Message to You,” sang a duet with Wilson Pickett of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” and performed a medley which included, “Morning of My Life,” “Holiday,” “Let There Be Love,” and “My World.”

    The Bee Gees’ incredible ‘Run to Me’ performance

    Their performance of “Run to Me” is incredible because with the stripped-down, acoustic-guitar-only arrangement, you can really hear their amazing harmonies—especially when Robin and Maurice hop in on the chorus.

    “‘Run to Me’ was one of those songs that all three of us sang. It was never really written for one person. ‘I’ll sing the verses. You sing the chorus because they are much higher,’ Gibb recalled, as if speaking with his brothers. “Robin’s voice was much higher than mine … See, it wasn’t like a group. It was a family. And so, whoever wanted to sing, sang.”

    The origins of ‘Run to Me’

    “We wrote [Run to Me] at our manager Robert Stigwood’s house in Beverly Hills. He was a great visionary and championed our beliefs and chemistry as brothers. Lyrically, this song chronicles the wishes of a man who longs to be noticed by a broken-hearted girl,” Robin recalled.

    Even though the Bee Gees appear at the top of their game in the performance, it was a transitional point for the band. “Run to Me” would be their last significant hit for three years, until they transitioned into a more soulful, disco sound, with their 1975 hit “Jive Talkin’.” This would launch the band into superstardom, peaking with 1977’s Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack which featured three number one singles from the album contributed by the Bee Gees—”How Deep Is Your Love”, “Stayin’ Alive,” and “Night Fever.” The brothers also penned “If I Can’t Have You,” which became a number-one hit for Yvonne Elliman.

    Sadly, Maurice Gibb would pass away in 2003 and Robin in 2012. But “Run to Me” got a second life in 2021 when Barry re-recorded it with country singer Brandi Carlile for his solo album, Greenfields. Greenfields features reworked versions of his Bee Gees hits, sung with country collaborators, including Dolly Parton, Jason Isbell, and Miranda Lambert. 

    This new version of “Run to Me” features a similar vocal arrangement to the original, with Carlile filling in for the late Robin.

    Earlier this year, Barry spoke with Upworthy about his love for Bob Dylan and his opposition to the Vietnam War. You can read it here. 

    Here is the entire June 22, 1973, broadcast of The Midnight Special.

    Keep Reading →
  • Watch a 10-year-old Sabrina Carpenter cover The Beatles “Come Together” for Miley Cyrus
    Photo credit: Red Carpet Report/Flickr & Wikimedia Commons – Sabrina Carpenter and The Beatles.
    ,

    Watch a 10-year-old Sabrina Carpenter cover The Beatles “Come Together” for Miley Cyrus

    She performed the Michael Jackson cover version.

    Cecily Knobler

    Sabrina Carpenter seems to have been born on stage. There’s a clear ease with which she performs, often adding a cheeky layer of humor to her incredibly strong singing voice. It gives her that extra bit of magic that entertainers so often seek. So it’s not surprising that, when she was just 10 years old, she commanded performances.

    In an Instagram clip making the rounds, we see her slaying “Come Together” by The Beatles. With total confidence, she punches every word of the John Lennon/Paul McCartney masterpiece, even daring to switch up a few notes. “He got feet down below his knees,” she croons, pretending, like many of us do, to know what it means.

    The year was 2009, and Miley Cyrus had an online fan club called MileyWorld. Cyrus and her team held auditions for a show called “Are You a Superstar?” (also known as “Be a Star”), in which Carpenter auditioned. The clip notes that Carpenter’s fabulous performances didn’t go unnoticed: “She ended up placing third out of around 7,000 participants.” (Then-16-year-old Amy Colalella ultimately won the grand prize.)

    The clip’s commenters—and there are many—seem truly impressed. A few note that she’s actually singing the Michael Jackson cover of the hit tune. This prompts some to argue over which version they prefer.

    One commenter points out the meteoric rise Carpenter has taken: “15 years later, Sabrina became the second artist in history after the Beatles to have her first three songs land in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time.”

    Another commenter believes Lennon would be proud, writing, “John would be smiling. A star is born. Love it. Stays true to the melody, but adds her style and flair. Good one Sabrina.”

    Carpenter tackled other songs throughout the contest, including Cyrus’ “Hoedown Throwdown” and “The Climb.” She also brilliantly covered Christina Aguilera’s “Makes Me Wanna Pray.”

    She even got to meet her Hannah Montana hero at a concert. According to a 2009 news story in The Morning Call:

    “Sabrina Carpenter was in the front row for Miley’s ‘Wonder Tour’ stop at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. She had a close view of Cyrus flying above the audience and riding a motorcycle. ‘I was kind of starstruck,’ Sabrina says. ‘It was a really awesome experience.’”

    Sixteen years later, in 2025, Carpenter got the chance to pose with Cyrus at the Grammys. Kayleigh Roberts, a writer for Marie Claire, explained just how significant the moment was:

    “Whoever said ‘never meet your heroes’ clearly wouldn’t have understood Sabrina Carpenter’s undying fangirl love for Miley Cyrus.

    The fact that the ‘Espresso’ singer’s intense appreciation for Cyrus dates wayyy back to when she was just 10 years old is common knowledge on social media, where a photo of a young, fedora-clad Carpenter proudly posing with her idol has been making the rounds for years. So, when the singers crossed paths again at the 2025 Grammy Awards and posed for a modern recreation of the now-famous photo, fans were most definitely here for it.”

    It’s once again proof that there’s room in this game for everyone, especially those with extraordinary talent. There’s no doubt that musical geniuses like The Beatles and Jackson helped pave the way for new artists like Cyrus and Carpenter to shine. And they will undoubtedly do the same for future up-and-comers not yet born.

    Keep Reading →
relationships, red flags, toxic relationships, dating, mental health
Skills

People who got out of toxic relationships share the red flag they wish they’d taken seriously from the start

twins, twin-to-twin transfusion, pregnancy, premature birth, parenting
Moms

Doctors thought the smaller twin was struggling in the womb. She was perfectly fine. She had been saving her sister.

NASA, Artemis II, space photography, stars, Moon
Science

Why don’t space photos ever show stars? NASA’s explanation is simpler than you’d think and a photo from Artemis II proves it.

kidney cancer, cancer, medical, diagnosis, health
Health

His mysterious toe pain lasted five years. The scan that finally caught it gave him four days to live.

cockatiel singing, pet birds, Earth Wind and Fire, viral pet video, September song
Pets

Women’s pet cockatiel proudly belting out ‘September’ by Earth, Wind & Fire has people rolling

Get stories worth sharing delivered to your inbox.

Advertisement

Featured

All Featured Stories →
baby names, funny initials, viral TikTok, parenting advice, name fails
Family

Woman with unfortunate initials warning parents to think things through before naming their kids

Tod Perry & Upworthy Staff
hospice care, signs of dying, Julie McFadden, end of life, palliative care
Health

Can you tell someone will die months before it happens? A hospice nurse shares the clues.

Tod Perry & Upworthy Staff
veterans, job search, Sacramento, kindness, community
Uncategorized

A Vietnam veteran stood on street corners handing out resumes for six years. One woman saw him and changed his life within 24 hours.

Tim Mercer
neighbor dispute, revenge, Reddit, gas theft, ProRevenge
Family

His neighbor kept stealing gas from his backyard. His two-part revenge ended with a police arrest.

Tim Mercer