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Gen X has hit 'that stage' of life and is not handling it very well

We are NOT prepared for Salt-n-Pepa to replace Michael McDonald in the waiting room at the doctor's office, thankyouverymuch.

The Holderness Family/Facebook

Gen X is eating dinner earlier and earlier. It's happening.

The thing about Gen X being in our 40s and 50s now is that we were never supposed to get "old." Like, we're the cool, aloof grunge generation of young tech geniuses. Most of the giants that everyone uses every day—Google, Amazon, YouTube—came from Gen X. Our generation is both "Friends" and "The Office." We are, like, relevant, dammit.

And also, our backs hurt, we need reading glasses, our kids are in college and how in the name of Jennifer Aniston's skincare regimen did we get here?

It's weird to reach the stage when there's no doubt that you aren't young anymore. Not that Gen X is old—50 is the new 30, you know—but we're definitely not young. And it seems like every day there's something new that comes along to shove that fact right in our faces. When did hair start growing out of that spot? Why do I suddenly hate driving at night? Why is this restaurant so loud? Does that skin on my arm look…crepey?

As they so often do, Penn and Kim Holderness from The Holderness Family have captured the Gen X existential crisis in a video that has us both nodding a long and laughing out loud. Salt-n-Pepa in the waiting room at the doctor's office? Uh, no. That's a line we are not ready to cross yet. Nirvana being played on the Classic Rock station? Nope, not prepared for that, either.

Watch:

Hoo boy, the denial is real, isn't it? We grew up on "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, for goodness sake, and it's starting to feel like we made a wrong choice a chapter or two back and suddenly landed our entire generation in a time warp. This isn't real, is it? Thirty years ago was the 1970s. That's just a Gen X fact. So what if we've lived long enough for our high school fashions to go out of style and then back into style and then back out of style again?

Seriously, though, we can either lament our age and stage in life or we can laugh about it, and people are grateful to the Holdernesses for assisting with the latter. Gen X fans are also thrilled to see their own experiences being validated, because at this point, we've all had that moment in the grocery store or the waiting room when one of our jams came on and we immediately went into a panic.

"They were playing The Cure in the grocery store and I almost started crying," wrote one commenter. "I mean, how 'alternative' can you be if you're being played in Krogers? You guys are great! Thanks for making us laugh."

"I couldn’t believe it when I heard Bohemian Rhapsody being played in Walmart," shared another. "That was edgy in my day."

"I know!!! Bon Jovi at the grocery store!!! That was my clue in!!" added another.

"Long live Gen Xers! We have to be strong!! We can get through this together!! #NKOTBmeetsAARP" wrote on commenter.You can find more from the Holderness Family on their Facebook page, their podcast and their website, theholdernessfamily.com.


This article originally appeared in January.

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Humor

People share the most hilariously out-of-touch advice given for saving money

'If you think gas is too expensive, just buy an electric car.'

Photo by Andre Taissin on Unsplash

People share out-of-touch money advice.

People have all sorts of advice on saving, and when doling it out, money experts often overlook those living paycheck to paycheck. I saw one of these experts on television recently saying people should have three separate savings accounts for their home expenses—one each for appliances, furniture and home repairs. These in addition to your emergency savings fund and likely your regular savings account. The advice, while acceptable for some, is comical for the rest of us. For even more hilarious money advice, people on Reddit came up with some doozies.

Reddit user u/Salazard260 posed the question "What's the most comically out of touch 'advice' you've been given by someone wealthier?" Most of the responses were eyebrow-raising, and if you've ever been poor—whether it be working poor or below poverty line poor—the advice was hilarious. User blezmalfoy said they were told, "That I need to buy several apartments and rent them out. Unfortunately, he did not tell me where to get money to buy several apartments." You do have to wonder, where does one simply get money to buy multiple apartments? Maybe the money tree our parents told us didn't exist is actually in a forest of other money trees and we just don't know it.

Remember the controversy several years ago when a financial advisor told millennials to stop buying coffees and avocado toast in order to afford purchasing a home? This approach may work for some people who might save a couple hundred dollars by the end of the year, but it's hardly enough to make a downpayment on a new house. It makes you wonder how much this person thinks lattes cost.

Screenshot from Reddit

The Lending Club reported that in June 2022, 61% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, and the Census Bureau states that 11.4% of Americans were living in poverty in 2020. People in these two categories don't have any room to save for a rainy day when they're focused on surviving until payday, so the advice given from people far removed from the poverty line can seem a little tone deaf.

In the Reddit thread, a commenter explained advice given to them when they complained of gas prices. "If you think gas is too expensive, just buy an electric car." They lamented, "If I'm unable to pay $50 for a tank of gas, I'm certainly not going to be able to buy a new car, whether it's electric or not."

Another user was told, "Start putting money away for retirement now asap!!" To which the commenter responded, "my brother in christ i cant even put money away for Christmas presents."

Screenshot from Reddit

The one that takes the cake is a commenter who revealed his college roommate said, “When your parents send you your allowance each month, just set a thousand aside each time.” I bet this commenter never thought to do that. Also, how much are wealthy people sending their kids to college with? The way prices are right now, my children will be sent off to college with a box of ramen and a crisp $5 bill.

The thread is full of real-life experience and responses that will make you chuckle, especially if you grew up less wealthy or are currently poor. Starting a business and buying rental property costs money, as does paying off all of your debt to free up money to save. It would seem that most people understand that concept and yet it appears to be lost if you're reading the encounters on Reddit.

Just know, if you truly want to save money, quit your job and take a six-month sabbatical to wait for the perfect idea to come to you. I'm kidding. Don't do that.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Guy turns dating advice on its head with 34 heartfelt 'playa moves' for single men

Excellent advice for men that actually works.

BlanksheetPlaya/TikTok

A relatively unknown creator on TikTok has been making waves recently.

Known as "Blanksheet Playa," the creator from Vancouver has been dishing out tips for men for the past couple of months: Tips for dating, self-confidence, health, fitness, you name it.

He recently went mega viral in an untagged post on X, so I had to track him down and see his videos for myself.

I was not disappointed by what I found.

The advice is — what he calls "Playa Moves" — is not what you'd expect.

In one of Blanksheet Playa's most popular videos, he gives words of encouragement for guys who are nervous when talking to girls.

"Playa move. If you are nervous when speaking to a female, communicate that to her. By saying this out loud, it will automatically calm your nerves. And if she is a good person, she will provide comfort. This will, in turn, relax you even further and allow the best of your personality to shine through."

And then he hits his signature sign off. "Real playa shit."

@blanksheet.playa

Playa move number seventeen.

Here's another 'playa move' from the man himself. "Respect women at all times."

Respect is, according to Blanksheet, the key distinction between a player and a playa.

"Players deceive, undermine and lie to women to get into bed with them. Playas use our ability in a positive way, to have mutually respecting and honest relationships with women."


@blanksheet.playa

Playa move number six.

Here are a few other certified 'Playa Moves' to improve your dating life and self-confidence:

To date, he's offered 34 Playa Moves. Here are a few of my favorites.

  • Get serious about wearing condoms (good advice for Gen Z men who refuse to do this)
  • Go down on your women (the oral sex gap is real, and due for a shakeup)
  • Receive all hate with love (just a good way to make the world a better place)

(Not all the tips are a homerun. Like "Never read," and "Hide your emotions" — come on, playa.)

The Playa Moves are resonating with guys and girls everywhere.

"so many men don't realize that just being authentic and kind will take you further than any kind of bravado ever will," one commenter wrote.

"i was waiting for a punchline,' wrote another about the bait-and-switch set up to the videos, "and then by the end i didn’t want a punchline"

"Wow, I expected a joke but that was solid advice," added another.

I've come across enough terrible Gen Z dating advice on TikTok to know the good stuff when I see it.

Most of it has to do with trying to become someone you're not, whether it's reshaping your mouth and eyebrows with creams and daily stretches, or talking less to appear more mysterious.

Here's a dude advocating for people to be the best version of their authentic selves, and to be open and honest in their communications. If people don't like you as you are? Blanksheet says that's cool, there are plenty of fish in the sea.

Even better, he's doing it in a funny way, which helps the message spread even farther.

Keep it up, playa. This is the advice guys really need right now.

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Health

Viral OCD checklist with 'improvements' is hilarious — but there's more to the story

OCD is a lot more than just "wanting things neat." But the checklist is still funny.

zenxii_/Reddit

The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale

A user on Reddit recently posted an OCD symptom checklist given to them by a doctor. It's called the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and it includes dozens of symptoms and behaviors that can be associated with OCD. It's a helpful diagnostic tool that can help identify whether a person has OCD and how severe it might be.

However, after taking a closer look at the sheet, the OP just had to chuckle.

There's something deliciously ironic about the OCD checklist being absolutely riddled with spelling and formatting mistakes.

The original poster took it upon themselves to use their superpowers of neatness and exactitude to make a few... corrections.

"Behold the cruel checklist my doctor gave me to help identify my specific flavor of OCD. It had room for improvement," they wrote.

Note all the corrections made in red pen.

There are a lot of them!

zenxii_/Reddit

Of particular interest is the category called "Obsession with need for symmetry for exactness."

A section which, ironically, is not indented in the same way as the other category headings!

A few other errors on the sheet include:

  • Extra spaces between words
  • Poor line alignment
  • Missing and inconsistent punctuation
  • Inconsistent bolding and italicization
The document's formatting is so bad, you almost wonder if it was designed that way on purpose.

Users on Reddit got a lot of laughs out of the corrected checklist, to the tune of over 31,000 upvotes.

Of course, OCD is rarely about just "wanting things neat."

person washing hands in sink Photo by Curology on Unsplash

OCD has become a buzzword we throw around casually to describe anyone who is rigid in their thinking about certain things, or excessively tidy or clean.

("Sorry, I'm a little bit OCD about how I organize my desk.")

In reality, that's a stereotype that doesn't even begin to tell the whole story. "Exactness and symmetry" is just one of several categories on the Y-BOCS.

OCD is also characterized by these obsessions and compulsions becoming so intrusive they interfere with day to day life.

Other users in the thread chimed in with what OCD really looks like for them:

"I spent several years driving 10 minutes out of my way on a daily commute because I was afraid that if I drove over this specific bridge I was going to yeet myself off it. I had no intent to kill myself I was just terrified I was gonna do it," wrote one.

"I had an intrusive thought about stabbing the girl next to me in Spanish class with a pencil and I’m now I’m afraid to touch pencils so I can’t take notes," said another.

Another regularly worries about things like "staying awake all night because there might be a spider in my bedroom, and the spider will have babies on its back, and the babies will hatch and crawl into my mouth while I'm sleeping, and I'll suffocate and die. And then I'll go to the hell I don't believe in, because I killed the spiders."

Needless to say, people with OCD often get annoyed by the "neatness" trope which oversimplifies their disease.

However, the original poster took the criticism in stride. They're early on in their own diagnosis and discovery phase and just wanted to have a laugh to lighten the mood.

"I’m still new to my diagnosis and self-discovery within the lens of having OCD, so stepping on others’ toes or downplaying the condition was not intentional," the poster wrote. "My own OCD is not as simple as my edited page would suggest, I just posted this rather tongue-in-cheek. This page caused me some mild distress, but I also thought it hilarious that a checklist for OCD would be so rife with errors."

"My own condition is debilitating on a daily basis and doesn’t even encompass what the form made it look to be, but I didn’t quite feel the need to explain my medical journey."

It's important to have a sense of humor when things get tough. Gallows humor is the idea of using laughter to protect yourself from the stress and anxiety of a scary of even life-threatening situation. It's not everyone's style, but it's a legitimately effective coping mechanism.

As long as we can all agree that, yes, OCD is a lot more than just getting aggravated by typos — it's OK to chuckle at the sloppy medical form and OP's hilarious mark-ups. In fact, if we look past the corrections and actually read the form, we'll come away knowing way more about OCD than we did before!

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