Slightly off topic, but I would welcome an .onion of .i2p link as an alternative mirror for lemmy.ml.

If the configuration isn’t too difficult, it would allow users of tor or i2p to browse with more anonymity.

I’m certainly more of an exception than a rule regarding those types of relationships, but I use a personal website instead of any social media to publish my projects (I also refer to it when applying to jobs) and frankly don’t give a damn about any childhood friends.

But I can see why, this approach may already be too “radical” for many people.

you’re interested maintaining some sort of connection with them but you don’t have their phone number

Well I’m not an expert on any form of relationships, but why not simply ask for the number?

So, which crypto did they use?

Having to work while being in school is not ideal, but also not uncommon. Lots of people (me included) have done it successfully, so it’s absolutely possible with the right strategy.

If you already have problems with your mental health, this should be a priority. Make absolutely sure you are fit for uni, before starting! Otherwise the additional stress of the course load can have a big toll on your overall health and make you drop out. Seek counseling before attending.

The problem with multitasking (for a computer as well as for a human) is context switching. Constantly having to change between tasks (e.g. studying/work) costs a lot of mental resources, because you basically always have to focus anew on the current situation. So try to work and save the money during the lecture breaks and vacations, to focus solely on studying during the semesters.

Depending on your program, you might choose which classes to take for your degree. Find out exactly what classes are available and how they will be graded. In my experience classes that have final exams in the end of the semester are harder compared to those requiring the submission of a paper/essay or (group) projects. Exams always stressed the hell out of me, because no matter how good you were during the semester, the last few weeks always boil down to cramming books for different courses while the task of writing papers or doing projects can be distributed over a longer timespan. Choose the classes by the easiest grading methods, not so much by their topics.

That is highly dependent on your University / program. I went to a German Uni where you can often show Professors your transcript of classes and they can acknowledge them for the program.

It helped that both Masters were at the same department and many courses / Professors overlapped.

One was in general Comp Sci., the other focused on Statistics and Data Science, which was a brand new (basically unknown) field at the time. Good thing was, I was able to transfer more than half my credits to this program, so I only had to do the few math/statistics focused ones (and a second thesis).

I went for Comp Sci. (B.Sc, two M.Sc. and a PhD). The most important part ist finding your own personal learning type. Theres a distinction between those who learn best listening to lectures, reading textbooks, explaining a topic to others, etc. Start by finding what suits you best.

Here are the things that helped me most (after years of trial and error):

• Going to all appointed lectures and exercises (treating Uni like a job, basically)
• Actually doing the assignments of my Prof gave me
• Avoiding my Laptop/Tablet/Smartphone at Uni. I uses a thin notebook for each lecture and wrote my notes with a pen (more focus on class)
• Using flashcards (I wrote them by hand, but there are software alternatives) for topics, that require a lot of fact memorization
• Making friends with fellow students to help explaining topics to each other and share notes

In which context?

My best guess is actually some form of Peter-Pan-syndrome.

There‘s this certain sweet spot in ways of class/income (middle class), socialization (predominantly western) and age (mostly the generation born in the 00s). Those people experienced very little fundamental struggle growing up, but are now „adults“ who have to be responsible for themselves in seemingly dire times. Thus, in a lack of good ways of dealing with the current situation, the develop this unhealthy coping mechanism by obsessing over pop culture.

Because the world in their movies/shows/games/anime/etc. is ordered, clearly black-vs-white and eventually the „good guys“ will remain victorious.

Most people aren‘t even prepared for when the power is out more than an hour, let alone an actual happening on a national level…

Now, if only a fraction of all FOSS users would also contribute to projects… Imagine what would be possible!

I feel like there’s a lot to unpack here. This impending sense of doom can be a very powerful emotion and has the nasty property of distorting our sense of reality so it can present itself as an objective state of the world/truth.

We all have certain emotional biases depending on our environment (like the social media, discussed in OP), the people we interact with the most, how we were raised, our genetics of course and probably a dozen other factors. All this things influence our perception of the world, none of them are objectively true. Looking at the same situation, from another perspective, could paint a completely different picture which is just as valid.

I completely agree with you on focusing on the causes, not on the effects. This is something that is done way too little, these days. But how we deal with the causes we found, is now entirely dependent on our perception of the world. Many people feel helpless/depressed when opposed to “big” abstract ideas like you listed: Capitalism, Fascism, Climate Change [we need to differ between the term itself and the concrete effects], etc., because they perceive them as ubiquitous and omnipresent. But taking “a step back”, putting these things in another (maybe historic) perspective or breaking them down into small solvable problems, can help to form practical solutions, even when they are on a small scale, and escape this emotion of helplessness.

On a side note: My father was a historian with the early 20th century as his field of interest. Growing up, he often read to me from his textbooks, showed me the pictures from that time and visited with me museums and historic places all over Europe. All the hardships from just a hundred years ago, the wars, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, the political uncertainty, are completely incomprehensible in our modern times. I often try to compare our problems today with the problems people had back then and I wouldn’t trade.

A lot of people seem very pessimistic about the future in general, because they are bombarded with negative posts, news, messages, etc. 24/7. This is imho one of the most devastating effects modern technology (i.e. internet, smartphones, social media) has on our culture today. This technology is so effective, because it exploits the fundamental mechanism of our psychology and neurology. Until we collectively decide to reduce the use of those technologies (some would even say we destroy them completely) and start opposing this trend, we will always be negatively affected by them.

This short video may be relevant in this context: Why social media preys on negativity

Here’s the thing:

We don’t live in the end times, with the doomsday clock just about to hit twelve! In fact, we may even never lived in better times, depending which metric you apply, and we still have much better times ahead, if we don’t dwell too much on negativity, but keep our optimism and start working towards a better future.