This is just going to be a quick little post because that was the original intent of the (Almost) Daily Distraction. I get on a roll for a week or two with these things, then I overthink one and they go away for a couple of months. That's got to stop. I want to put a thought into the universe, write a few stream-of-consciousness paragraphs about it, and wrap it up. We can all pick a time in the near future to meet for goulash then go our separate ways.
Right now, I've got positivity and affirmation weariness on my mind.
All of the generations that have come after the Boomers — X, Millennials, and Z — like to bag on us and blame us for so many things. They're wrong about almost all of them, of course, and I casually dismiss all of their whining. One thing that I am most grateful for as a late Boomer is that I dodged the participation trophy crap. Boomers and early Gen Xers grew up in an America where our feelings were rarely, if ever, prioritized. Adding to the ambience of it all, I went to Catholic schools when they still had real nuns.
I didn't even know I had feelings.
The need for constant positive reinforcement and rewards for just showing up began with the late Gen X crowd and metastasized like an emotional societal cancer after that. Now almost everything I do online or with an app has some sort of "Rah-rah!" component to it. It is beyond out of hand. I'm visiting my sister in Ann Arbor right now. School just started again and there are still yard signs all over the place celebrating high school grads from last spring. Almost four million kids graduate from high school every year in this country, many of them paste-eaters. Give the validation a rest.
My dad celebrated my graduation from high school by telling me to be at work on Monday morning at the store we owned. My validation that summer came in the form of a paycheck every two weeks. Much better than a yard sign.
I use a lot of apps for a pretty wide variety of things like, foreign language study, prayer and Bible study, and fitness. They're all trying to give me virtual high fives during the day. Sometimes I wish that Duolingo had a groin I could kick. I was recently looking at an interesting fitness app that promised "a supportive community," which was a deal-breaker for me. Community is mostly icky. I immediately posted this on X:
I don't need a supportive community. For anything.
— SFK (@stephenkruiser) August 25, 2025
The only apps that aren't telling me I'm killing it are my finance apps. They're realistic and know that I could be doing much, much better. In fact, I kind of wish that whenever I make a deposit in online savings or my IRA the app would respond with, "Is that all?" That's real motivation for a Catholic school kid from back in the day.
I'm writing this late on a Monday night, so I'm probably a bit more curmudgeonly than usual. I may not be as anti-positive reinforcement in the light of day tomorrow.
Duolingo still better watch out, though.
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