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[Hide] (69.3KB, 680x548) Reverse >>248298 (OP)
I'm going to give the same advice everyone took before 2007 or so when suddenly shit like MySpace and Facebook got people to become retarded plus some more tips:
Internet habits:
1. NEVER post your personal information on the internet.
2. Always assume strangers on the internet are liars.
3. Some bored fucker can and will assemble all the personal life shit you have written in your social media or forum posts to narrow down your location, school, and identity at some point or another, so shut the fuck up about your personal life on the internet. Private conversations should be kept private. The internet does not lack for psychos and will soon not lack for AIs that will carefully assemble all the information you ever posted into a profile of your person either. Take this shit seriously.
4. The internet is forever. Once you have regrets, it's too late. Anything you put out there can and WILL come back to haunt you in 10 years' time if at all possible. That includes nudes, it includes confessions of misdemeanors that a bored police officer may one day find and try to charge you over, and it includes stupid shit you did that one night in high school or college that you are now getting asked about 10 years later at your job interview.
Computer habits:
1. Desktop computers are still more cost-effective than laptops, and they are more upgradeable too. Learn to build your own PC, it will do you good. We live in an age of computers. And on building computers:
a. The latest and greatest models of computer hardware are usually for suckers. Don't be afraid to use last-gen, or even second-hand.
b. Do your research and invest in a quality power supply. A good power supply can be the difference between your computer running great for 10 years (mine is 12 years old and still doing great for everything including gaming with a single graphics card upgrade) and everything going to shit in 4 years because your shitty PSU has been wearing out all the electrical components in your PC with its shitty AC (Alternating Current) to DC (Direct Current) power conversion.
c. Sometimes a worse model has better overclocking performance and becomes very price-effective with a little upgrade. But buying used works wonders for cost-effective purchasing too.
d. Big computer fans are much quieter than small ones, because a small fan has to spin way the fuck faster to move as much air. Also, no one gives a fuck about autism regarding negative fan pressure vs positive pressure. The performance is actually equal so just do whatever makes computer dust more manageable.
e. Buy thermal paste. Stock thermal paste is poor quality but the good thermal paste is still cheap and will make a real dent in how hot your CPU runs and therefore how much the fan needs to spin and how smoothly you can keep your PC running.
2. Do not buy printers from HP. Yes, you will need a printer for school. HP is overpriced, obnoxious to install, throws bullshit premature warnings to make you buy more ink/toner/whatever, and tries to give you hell for buying cheap ink from elsewhere. Do your research on what kind of printer is cheap, easy, and reliable that doesn't try to stop you from buying much cheaper printer ink from other companies. You'll be better off for it.
3. Learn Linux or UNIX and start using it. Like, learn it properly (as in learning the shell, being able to compile and install software, and edit text configuration settings). You can install it onto a USB stick these days and boot off of that at first as you learn the operating system. Everyone knows Windows is an insufferable mess and it has privacy, performance, and consent issues to boot. Nowadays you can play Windows games on Linux pretty well anyhow by using Valve's Steam or installing WINE. Bite the bullet, learn Linux, and enjoy a computer that actually does what you want instead of making you do what it wants. The learning curve is real but so is the peace of mind of not having to deal with Microsoft's bullshit once you've actually gotten comfortable with Linux. It does pretty much everything you need anyway.
4. Learn how to program computers and automate tasks. This is the computer age. You're better off if you know how to make the computer do what you want the way you want it instead of having to do stuff by hand all the time. >>>/tech/ can probably help.
Cellphone habits:
1. Install Brave browser on your phone. It's pretty much the only free browser that has adblock (including blocking cookie consent notices) and privacy features without including some demented bullshit, especially for iPhones. Browsing on your phone is so much less painful with that thing.
2. Get a VPN (yes, a paid one, like ProtonVPN, or ask >>>/tech/ - it's not that expensive) and install it on your cellphone because a lot of bullshit tracking comes from websites spotting you connecting from different IP addresses with the same phone and building a profile of your movement habits and which locations you frequent and also because sometimes the wireless network your phone just connected to is actually unsafe and someone is wiretapping all your internet traffic (a VPN ensures your traffic is encrypted until it reaches the VPN - at which point the VPN will send out the same, less encrypted traffic your computer originally would've sent in order to resolve the network traffic) hoping to steal your identity or shit.
3. If you're buying a smartphone, try to shop for a smartphone that you can jailbreak easily and preferably replace the OS with something better that lets you make the smartphone computer do what you want instead of you having to do what it wants.
4. Don't knock the appeal of old-fashioned non-smart phones.
5. Fun fact: Even if you deactivate GPS, the cellphone company can still track your location just by measuring how far you are from each cellphone tower in the area and triangulating your position. But it will prevent other shit from tracking you, since the cellphone company isn't in the habit of sharing that data with Google, Apple, or Samsung, which is a big reason why smartphones have GPS (the other reason is you don't get cellphone coverage everywhere you can get GPS).
Tech shit habits:
1. Never connect a device (like a car, refrigerator, or TV) to the internet unless it absolutely needs it. Also, Samsung TVs often come with hidden microphones to wiretap your living room conversations (even while the TV pretends to be off), so I would sooner recommend using a separate device to handle streaming than directly connecting the TV to the internet.
2. Computers in your everything is usually overrated, overpriced garbage. Most of the time if it's a "smart" device you're paying more money for a worse product. Do your research and buy something that just does what it's supposed to instead of charging you an arm and a leg for a functionality you can probably copy with a little bit of programming and some kind of digital electrical switch for less than half the money.
Education:
1. Do NOT "study what you like." Look up whatever options that bring in the money and find one that you can make your peace with and make that your major. Make whatever you like into a minor or second major. A useless degree is for rich idiots with too much money who will never have to worry about getting a real job.
2. (American advice) No one gives a fuck about SATs or high school GPAs if you do community college with a 4.0 grade point average.
3. The secret to a 4.0 is to basically learn nothing in class and learn everything before and outside of class.
4. Trades are a real and serious alternative to universities for employment and there's much more to trades than manual labor. There are all kinds of careers in officework, computerwork, engineering, architecture, accounting, whatever that trade school will also prepare you for. Don't knock it if you just want to get a good job.
5. Do not rely on school to prepare you for the world. It doesn't (well, trade school does a better job of this). As Mark Twain once said, "I never let school get in the way of my education." You need to educate yourself on the life skills you'll need for adulthood. There are resources and organizations that will help you, but you have to find them and visit them to get the help you need. Good luck.
6. Do not overrely on LLM shit like ChatGPT to do your learning. ChatGPT hallucinates all the time. The library exists. Fucking use it. Learn to do proper reading and actual research. You will be much better off for it, in life, if you do more of your own learning and thinking instead of just resorting to uncritically embracing whatever the LLM tells you.
Student loans and money problems:
1. When in doubt, do community college for 2 years before you try 4 years with student loans. Community college is cheap as fuck, can get you into the best universities when you fucked up high school, and is also underrated as fuck.
2. Learn to budget carefully and avoid overspending on unnecessary trash. Try to get your ass debt-free as quick as you can, but also make sure to always have some money set aside for a bad month or two. Careful budgeting is a MAJOR LIFE SKILL that people don't get taught and you should very seriously study it, look up lessons for it, and apply them in your day-to-day life. It will do you a world of good.
3. Apply for government student loans and all kinds of financial assistance before you try student loans from the bank. You'd be amazed how much you can bring the cost down if you actually fucking try.
4. Look up what's tax deductible. A lot of things are tax deductible for education, including up to $300 for buying a computer (if your school requires it, which it probably does), as well as miscellaneous school supplies (pencils, paper, etc.). Get a box, even a shoe box, and throw all your receipts in it for tax season and see what's deductible when it's time to file your taxes.
5. Your first few years during and after college are unironically the best years to start living out of a van or residential vehicle, if you can't live with your parents. Buying a RV (they do monthly payments) is easiest for a cheap residence that has all the amenities you require with minimal fuss, but a van is even cheaper and you can actually drive it and park anywhere. Just make sure you buy reliable stuff and avoid setting up your furniture and appliances in a way that cleaning it up or fixing something will become a nightmare and make sure your van is presentable on the outside so no one gives you shit for trying to park somewhere nice. Also, do not try living out of a normal car that isn't a van or RV. You will need your own personal space and in a lot of areas, cops harass people sleeping in cars like it's their sworn duty. The money you save on rent will do you a world of good when you want to be debt-free and put savings towards buying a home, unless you wound up spending it like an idiot or parked your vehicle at ridiculously expensive locations (don't do that).
Diet & health:
1. Learn to cook. This is an essential life skill, motherfucker. Bad eating habits will make you sleepier, weaker, fatter, sicker, dumber, and stress-prone. I'm not joking. Good food beats bad food and there is a ton of stuff ways to eat healthily without spending big just by eating some fucking lettuce and onions and meat instead of loads of bread, cereal, instant ramen, and pizza. You don't need to cook advanced chef meals. Just cook some proper, healthy food.
2. Sugary drinks (including fruit juices) will generally make you fatter, unhealthier, and more prone to diabetes. Learn to embrace the power of drinking water, you fat fuck.
3. Look after your ability to get some quality fucking sleep. Otherwise, you will also get sleepier, weaker, fatter, sicker, dumber, and stress-prone.
4. Get >>>/fit/. Doing basic exercise will do you a world of good for your physical and even mental health. It turns out being healthier and having more energy helps you with thinking and concentrating as much as it does with physical labor.
5. There are a lot of cancers you can avoid just by having minimal body fat.
6. Meditation practice (avoid the new age spiritual mumbo jumbo) works wonders for reducing day-to-day stress and improving your memory recall and attention span.
7. If you have health insurance, fucking use it and do some health check-ups and dental visits so you can catch problems early instead of crying later.
8. You will not grow a third set of teeth, so you had better look after your teeth and brush properly. Once your teeth develop issues, it's way the fuck easier for their condition to deteriorate into something awful.
9. Clean and change your bedsheets (especially your pillow case) frequently. Turns out you're marinating in the same body oils and germs and whatnot every night if and this will undo a lot of the hygiene benefits of good showering and washing your hair and whatnot.
10. Loud music damages your hearing. Don't fucking do that. Save up money and buy like a $200 headset of god-tier, beautiful sound quality that lasts and you will never feel the need to crank up volume to hear the music better like you do with those $40 headsets you keep replacing. Trust me, you will be happier this way, even if you aren't an audiophile.
Life advice:
1. Enjoy your youth while it lasts. Don't be afraid to push yourself and have an adventure.
2. Learn social skills. It will do you a world of good, both in your personal happiness and your ability to network a professional life. One of the best ways to do that is to go out and meet people.
3. Learn to tell apart real friends, who will have your back when shit's hitting the fan, from fair weather friends, who will abandon you the moment it gets inconvenient for them. Don't deceive yourself that your nicest friends must be your best friends. Sometimes, they're your fakest friends. Sincerity and strength of character matters more than social niceties and the ability to speak pleasant words if you're looking for true friends.
4. Playing games where you have to carefully read who is lying (like mafia, Among Us, or poker) can do you a world of good with your bullshit detection skills. Having bullshit detection skills is great and will help you weed out fake people from genuine people.
5. Consider getting a hobby you can learn and grow from, whether it's reading, carpentry, sewing (this is a useful life skill, motherfucker - it makes your clothes last), fitness, hiking, or doing Mark Rober shit, and try to meet new people who will give you new ideas doing it.
6. Avoid buying "stretch pants" or pants that have any amount of elastine in them. Those things rip apart too easily, practically by design (it's called "planned obsolescence"), so you'll have to buy new ones. Get 100% (not 99.8%) cotton or whatever fabrics instead.