Faux Life: Things That Happen On TV But Not In Reality

[DrSpaceman73]

I think I probably speak for all introverts as well, texting is much preferred to talking on the phone. 

It's not quite so bad now that you know who is calling, unlike the old days where you just answer and lord knows who might be on the other end!

But still.....texting is better. 

[Cinnabon]

21 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I think I probably speak for all introverts as well, texting is much preferred to talking on the phone. 

It's not quite so bad now that you know who is calling, unlike the old days where you just answer and lord knows who might be on the other end!

But still.....texting is better. 

Not all introverts. I used to be able to talk to friends for hours on the phone. Not scary like speaking in front of a crowd or even at a party. I could talk on the phone while laying on my bed, in the safety and privacy of my own home. But I’m recent years, I’ve also done a lot more texting. 

[Zella]

My brother is an introvert who would rather talk on the phone, but he also has dyslexia, and I think it makes texting less desirable to him. I know when I hit him with a wall of text--I'm also an introvert--he will get frustrated with me and ask for verbal clarification because it is harder for him to process than hearing someone talk. But most of the fellow introverts I know would 10 to 1 rather text. I have friends I haven't spoken to in person or by phone for years, but we still carry on rather lively text conversations, including but not limited to quoting entire movies back and forth to each other. LOL 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Zella

[Cobalt Stargazer]

6 hours ago, possibilities said:

In my head, someone is screaming "You'll ruin your eyes!"

Mom?

[possibilities]

Introvert who prefers email to texts.

[Shannon L.]

I'm an introvert who hates talking on the phone, so I don't mind texting too much.  However, if what I expect to be only a couple of texts is turning into a conversation, I'll call the person and say "It's easier to talk."

Back when texting was becoming popular a friend of mine explained it perfectly when someone asked why it was becoming a thing:  "It's a way to be both social and anti-social at the same time".  Basically, you can check in with someone with a lower possibility of it turning into a long conversation that you're not in the mood for.

[Mabinogia]

2 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Back when texting was becoming popular a friend of mine explained it perfectly when someone asked why it was becoming a thing:  "It's a way to be both social and anti-social at the same time".  Basically, you can check in with someone with a lower possibility of it turning into a long conversation that you're not in the mood for.

Love that, and it is exactly why I prefer texting to talking. I honestly have no clue what my call ring tone is as I have my phone on silent about 99% of the time. I use my phone first for photos. It takes better pictures than my actual camera, second for games. It's a note pad (I have the Samsung Note with the little pen because I'd rather write than type on a phone) an alarm clock and I use it to get the weather. 

And once a week I have to take a call from my mum. I dread it when I see the screen light up and know I'm now going to have to talk to someone for some unknown length of time. UGH

[Bastet]

6 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I think I probably speak for all introverts as well, texting is much preferred to talking on the phone. 

I'm an introvert who almost never texts, but I do prefer email to talking on the phone for short exchanges and for work stuff.  But an actual chat with a friend (if she doesn't live close enough to come over for drinks and chat in person, which is now the case with two of my three closest friends ☹️)?  For that, it's a phone call.   

[Annber03]

4 hours ago, possibilities said:

Introvert who prefers email to texts.

Same. I'm just not much for texting - I don't like using abbreviations if I can help it, and I just keep feeling compelled to type in full sentences :p. E-mail makes it a lot easier to properly communicate in that regard. 

[Browncoat]

I text in full sentences with proper spelling and punctuation.  

[Mabinogia]

36 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I text in full sentences with proper spelling and punctuation.  

Same. I don't understand half the abbreviations that are used. I just find texting the quickest and simplist way to say something quick. If I wait to see the person I'll have forgotten what I was going to say and I don't talk on the phone if there is any possible way of avoiding it. I have a really hard time paying attention to someone talking if I can't also see them. Can't do audiobooks, can't listen to podcasts for the same reason.

The one thing I do that I never see on television (bringing this kind of back on topic) is not answer the phone if I don't know who it is. I hate when two characters are talking and one of them gets a call and they do that "hold on, I have to take this". No, no you don't have to stop one conversation to have another with someone who isn't even there. Whoever it is can leave a message. 

I also hate when characters have their phones on vibrate. That noise puts my teeth on edge. 

[Cinnabon]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

Same. I'm just not much for texting - I don't like using abbreviations if I can help it, and I just keep feeling compelled to type in full sentences :p. E-mail makes it a lot easier to properly communicate in that regard. 

Text speak is a scourge on humanity. 

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

I text in full sentences with proper spelling and punctuation.  

Same. It’s really not hard to do, especially with autocorrect. 

[OtterMommy]

Hey all!  This is just a gentle nudge to get us back on topic for things that happen on television (and not in real life).  We do have a small talk thread for non-TV related chat.  Thanks!

[Anduin]

You know how in TV and movies, people sit at right-angles when they're sharing a table? To better get both of them in the shot? Turns out my dad likes to do that. He said it was because his ears aren't good. Being closer, he can hear people better. That's fair enough, but it still amuses me. :)

[Moose135]

1 hour ago, Anduin said:

You know how in TV and movies, people sit at right-angles when they're sharing a table? To better get both of them in the shot? Turns out my dad likes to do that.

GF and I will do that sometimes, depending on how the tables are set up. If it's a noisy restaurant, it's easier to hear one another, and it can allow us both to be closer to the wall and away from the path of passing servers and customers.

[Anduin]

13 minutes ago, Moose135 said:

GF and I will do that sometimes, depending on how the tables are set up. If it's a noisy restaurant, it's easier to hear one another, and it can allow us both to be closer to the wall and away from the path of passing servers and customers.

Well, there you have it. There's some truth in the trope after all!

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Anduin said:

You know how in TV and movies, people sit at right-angles when they're sharing a table? To better get both of them in the shot? Turns out my dad likes to do that. He said it was because his ears aren't good. Being closer, he can hear people better. That's fair enough, but it still amuses me. :)

I do that if it's a table/booth better suited to four than two, but it's just two of us -- it's easier that way to hear, to share the appetizer, etc.  That's how the few of those with whom I regularly dine situate themselves, too, so it's not just me.

[Anduin]

17 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I do that if it's a table/booth better suited to four than two, but it's just two of us -- it's easier that way to hear, to share the appetizer, etc.  That's how the few of those with whom I regularly dine situate themselves, too, so it's not just me.

Huh. More common than I thought. No bad thing, but a little surprising.

[isalicat]

On 7/27/2022 at 12:37 PM, possibilities said:

Introvert who prefers email to texts.

I'm an extrovert who prefers emails to both text and actual phone conversations! I like to be able to go back and re-read what I have written and correct any grammatical or spelling issues or rephrase to communicate more effectively. Texting is just too tiresome on those little tiny screens and talking to people on the phone always has that element of whether I really need to be doing something else when they called (I rarely call people - all my friends know I'll reach out via email first). So, in terms of the topic...I love parties (the more the merrier!) and seeing people in person...and I never see anyone like me on TV ever anymore.

[DoctorAtomic]

If I'm with a friend, I'll do the right angle seating because I know they won't mind overlapping personal space. I actually prefer the tables that are higher up and have the tall chairs because I tend to like standing. I only really go out to eat that's work related so we'll be talking about that. So maybe that's why. 

[Shannon L.]

Two partners love each other in spite of completely different upbringings (think NYC vs. a small southern town), yet when one brings the other home to visit the family, they find it necessary to immediately thrust the person they just met into some kind of wild event involving numerous other family members and friends,  instead of taking it quiet and easy and getting to know that person.

[Danielg342]

7 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

think NYC vs. a small southern town)

...and in these cases, it's almost always the New Yorker/Chicagoan/Angelino visiting the "quirky small town" the love interest is from. You never really see it done the other way.

[janie jones]

17 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Two partners love each other in spite of completely different upbringings (think NYC vs. a small southern town), yet when one brings the other home to visit the family, they find it necessary to immediately thrust the person they just met into some kind of wild event involving numerous other family members and friends,  instead of taking it quiet and easy and getting to know that person.

Ha, the first time my husband met any of my family was at my dad's retirement party. Everyone was there.

[Bastet]

19 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Two partners love each other in spite of completely different upbringings (think NYC vs. a small southern town), yet when one brings the other home to visit the family, they find it necessary to immediately thrust the person they just met into some kind of wild event involving numerous other family members and friends,  instead of taking it quiet and easy and getting to know that person.

This was probably what happened to my parents.  They lived in L.A., but my dad was from an Oklahoma town the size of a gnat's ass.  After they got engaged, they did the "meet the family" trip, and my dad's family is enormous, especially since everyone else got married young and shit out a bunch of kids.  Only one other sibling had left the state, and several of them hadn't even left the town, so I'm sure pretty much everyone came over.  I can't believe she (an only child, so not at all used to this madness) still married him -- probably because they lived far away.

[Zella]

I've never seen any of those shows top one of my neighbor's stories. His wife is from a very well-to-do family in Michigan. He is from the local holler here in Arkansas that other rednecks talk shit about. They met when he was in the Army. The first time he took her home, his brother ate squirrel brains in front of her, and she ran out of the house. He's still surprised 50+ years later that she agreed to marry him after that incident. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Zella

[Bastet]

7 minutes ago, Zella said:

I've never seen any of those shows top one of my neighbor's stories. His wife is from a very well-to-do family in Michigan. He is from the local holler here in Arkansas that other rednecks talk shit about. They met when he was in the Army. The first time he took her home, his brother ate squirrel brains in front of her, and she ran out of the house. He's still surprised 50+ years later that she agreed to marry him after that incident. 

This makes me wish Designing Women had done a companion episode to the one where Charlene (from a big family in the Ozarks) went to meet Bill's old money mom and aunt in Virginia -- one where he met the whole gang in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.  That's one show that would have done it right (since Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is from Poplar Bluff herself).

[Mabinogia]

27 minutes ago, Zella said:

The first time he took her home, his brother ate squirrel brains in front of her, and she ran out of the house. He's still surprised 50+ years later that she agreed to marry him after that incident. 

and that's how you know it's love. lol If that didn't end the relationship, I'm not sure anything could. 

[Hiyo]

I think if he, not just the brother, ate squirrel brains, that might have ended the relationship…

[Danielg342]

8 hours ago, Zella said:

The first time he took her home, his brother ate squirrel brains in front of her, and she ran out of the house. He's still surprised 50+ years later that she agreed to marry him after that incident. 

The question now is, what would have happened if, instead, she had joined in? o_0

[merylinkid]

Most of these tropes "faux things" whatever have SOME basis in reality.  Well except for the tv always being turned on to just what you need but that's a time thing.   The problem is Hollywood dials it up to 11.   You can't just go visit the family and have someone eat squirrel brains.   You visit and its the Squirrel Brains Festival.   If you express anything other than absolute adoration for this dish you are considered "snooty" and "stuck up" and think you are "too good for our decent, honest family."   Then wacky hijinks ensue while  you try to fit in.   Mud is usually involved.

[Bort]

1 hour ago, merylinkid said:

Most of these tropes "faux things" whatever have SOME basis in reality.  Well except for the tv always being turned on to just what you need but that's a time thing.   The problem is Hollywood dials it up to 11.   You can't just go visit the family and have someone eat squirrel brains.   You visit and its the Squirrel Brains Festival.   If you express anything other than absolute adoration for this dish you are considered "snooty" and "stuck up" and think you are "too good for our decent, honest family."   Then wacky hijinks ensue while  you try to fit in.   Mud is usually involved.

Oh no, it would all culminate into a Squirrel Brains Food Fight. Can’t not have the food fight!

[DoctorAtomic]

4 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Most of these tropes "faux things" whatever have SOME basis in reality.  Well except for the tv always being turned on to just what you need but that's a time thing.   The problem is Hollywood dials it up to 11.   You can't just go visit the family and have someone eat squirrel brains.   You visit and its the Squirrel Brains Festival.   If you express anything other than absolute adoration for this dish you are considered "snooty" and "stuck up" and think you are "too good for our decent, honest family."   Then wacky hijinks ensue while  you try to fit in.   Mud is usually involved.

Not only do you have to visit the festival, but you get shoved into the booth that's serving them, and all the squirrels get loose. Then the hijinks ensue and you endear yourself to the family. Covered in mud. 

Cliches are cliche, but are rooted in truth too. That's kind of the fun of sending up the tropes here for me. 

[Shannon L.]

I'm watching an episode of Criminal Minds and, during a car chase scene,  I'm reminded that most car chase scenes on TV involve everyone weaving in and out of traffic. It's been my experience that most people really do pull over when they hear sirens.

[Mabinogia]

11 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Well except for the tv always being turned on to just what you need but that's a time thing. 

That's one thing that happens on tv but not reality that I would find useful. I seem to have a knack of turning on the tv just as a show is ending, or the news seconds after the weather report (which is really the only thing in the news I want to hear), or I just miss my favorite bit of a movie/show I've seen a million times. 

[Bastet]

11 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Well except for the tv always being turned on to just what you need but that's a time thing.

I doubt anyone is dumb enough to write it now, but even back when there were only three broadcast networks, it was ridiculous how many times one character called another and said "Turn on the news!" without specifying a channel.

[Anduin]

35 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I'm watching an episode of Criminal Minds and, during a car chase scene,  I'm reminded that most car chase scenes on TV involve everyone weaving in and out of traffic. It's been my experience that most people really do pull over when they hear sirens.

Furthermore, emergency drivers always floor it. In real life, I normally see them drive slower than the maximum. Probably because real people's lives are on the line and they have to compensate for the real world, and don't want to crash.

[Shannon L.]

Here's another one from the last scene of this CM episode that I see all the time:  People trying to feed a baby who is either sleeping, or awake, but quiet and content. 

[Mabinogia]

29 minutes ago, Anduin said:

Furthermore, emergency drivers always floor it. In real life, I normally see them drive slower than the maximum.

And there's always room for the cars to pull over and let an ambulance through. I work in a city (not even a major one like NYC or LA) and those poor ambulance drivers usually have to inch their way through the traffic not because the folks in front of them are jerks but because there is just literally nowhere for them to go to get out of the ambulance's way. 

[Danielg342]

7 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Not only do you have to visit the festival, but you get shoved into the booth that's serving them, and all the squirrels get loose.

The reason why being that, once inside that booth, you are required to kill a live squirrel and you just can't do it. The peer pressure gets to you, but, because it only accentuates your own discomfort and anxieties, instead of plunging the knife in the poor squirrel's heart, you accidentally cut the latch to the cage holding the other live squirrels, causing them to escape.

Afterward, the townspeople and your LI's family claim you, the "city snob", freed the squirrels on purpose, and they still believe it no matter how many times you express your genuine remorse.

Then there's the car ride home, where your LI reassures you that they know you really meant no harm. Your LI then tells you that their family, at least, will eventually come around and accept you for who you are, and even if they don't, your LI tells you they still love you. You both decide you won't visit the town for quite some time anyway and agree to never speak of this day ever again.

***roll credits***

[Anduin]

10 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

And there's always room for the cars to pull over and let an ambulance through. I work in a city (not even a major one like NYC or LA) and those poor ambulance drivers usually have to inch their way through the traffic not because the folks in front of them are jerks but because there is just literally nowhere for them to go to get out of the ambulance's way. 

I once saw a fire truck drive on the wrong side of the road for a stretch, before swinging back to the proper side. Whatever works.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I know this does sometimes happen in real life so no offense if this applies to you. But the idea that when you work with people you stay friends with them forever and ever.  I see this among fans too…wondering why they never heard “what happened to (character)” and “they should mention them.” I do find it possible to stay friends with coworkers and have heard of it happening, but more often what happens is someone leaves a job and they just go their own way. It’s perfectly normal to not keep in touch with people you worked with five years ago or have those friendships fall by the wayside once you no longer have a job in common. And not many people constantly spend time talking about coworkers who left unless they did something egregious on their way out.

The last department I worked in had 10+ people leave in the span of a year or so, including one manager who had worked for the company for over 10 years. She agreed to be a reference for me so I did talk to her for that but like…yes we liked her as a boss but no we don’t talk about her (or anyone else who left) or try to get the scoop on what she’s up to.

[Bastet]

I am still friends with three people I worked with more than 25 years ago; we got along great in the office, regularly socialized outside of it, and continue to get together a couple of times a year.  With all other jobs, though, yeah, I have a few people I still keep touch with via email occasionally, and that's it.

[Zella]

Most of my friendships have been formed through work, but I don't stay in contact with a lot of people from each job. In fact, I always looked forward to leaving in a way because it was an easy, polite way to not deal with certain people ever again.

That being said, the ones I do stay in touch with are people I socialized with outside of work, anyway, and our current contact can range from actually meeting up for lunch to email/text. Otherwise, most of what I see or know about former coworkers is from social media, and for a lot of them, I've not talked to them since I left or they left. 

[janie jones]

I have a couple people I've worked with for nearly 20 years, and we each are in touch with some of the same former coworkers but also different former coworkers via social media. So I'd say every month or so, I have a conversation like "Did you see that so-and-so did blah blah?" Sometimes those conversations include "Do you remember so-and-so" and/or "I have absolutely no idea who that is."

But if they made a show about our lives, I think that would be a boring thing to include!

[Mabinogia]

19 hours ago, Zella said:

Most of my friendships have been formed through work, but I don't stay in contact with a lot of people from each job. In fact, I always looked forward to leaving in a way because it was an easy, polite way to not deal with certain people ever again.

I think we might be the same person. LOL

I've been laid off a couple of times and both were devastating because I loved the jobs/companies, however, it softened the blow when I remembered that I'd never have to see some of those people again as long as I live. 

[Zella]

29 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

I think we might be the same person. LOL

I've been laid off a couple of times and both were devastating because I loved the jobs/companies, however, it softened the blow when I remembered that I'd never have to see some of those people again as long as I live. 

LOL I believe we are in fact long lost twins!

But yeah it was the same for me in that actually leaving the people I liked was kind of hard for me because that is largely my social circle. (Even my friends from college are largely people I also worked with at work-study jobs.) And it's part of why I make an effort to stay in touch with the people I liked. 

But knowing that I never had to suffer through the other folks was a cause for celebration. 

One of those people actually once called me out on it. Are you going to miss us even a little? "Nope!" That wasn't the entire truth because there were people I would miss. She was not on the list, though. 

Edited August 22, 2022 by Zella

[possibilities]

Heists on TV are always accompanied by jaunty music.

[Mabinogia]

17 hours ago, possibilities said:

Heists on TV are always accompanied by jaunty music.

Yours aren't? What, do you heist in silence? What is wrong with you? I've got a whole heist playlist which....oh, I've said too much. Forget I said anything. I don't have heist music, um, I mean, I don't pull heists. Heists, IRL, aren't nearly as fun as TV makes them look, so I've been told. 😉

[DoctorAtomic]

I tend to lean towards more schwanky than jaunty on the heist. 

[Danielg342]

My heists are always accompanied by operatic symphonic metal music. Makes them seem more grand than they actually are. 😀