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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Not to assume, but just in case you don’t follow the joke, can appreciate the aha moment if you have had it already, and don’t mind an internet stranger overexplaining…

    There is/was a popular meme term “me irl” (often stylized as me_irl), which is a shortening of the phrase “this is literally me IRL”. It spun off into many related terms and subreddits (gay_irl for queer memes, ich_iel for German/Germany memes, pony_irl for My Little Pony memes, etc). anime_irl is a continuation of that trend, but also has the deeper pun of being readable as aniME_IRL.

    It’s all very heady and clever, naturally












  • I want to add to this. I’m not a psychologist, but I have heard a couple times about the term “third place”. It’s this concept that most people have a “place where they live”, a “place where they work”, and then a “place where they socialize”. It has been theorized that the modern working-age population is having trouble with stress and mental health in large part due to the dearth of “third places”.

    The “third place” can be, for example, a restaurant or bar that you frequent (think the pub from the TV show Cheers), a book club, a sports club, or, crucially, a church or place of worship.

    For Christianity at least, knowing that you were going to see and socialize with the same group of people (who share at least 1 major interest in common with you) every Sunday is apparently quite good for mental health. So, although I am no proponent of certain Western religions in general, I do think their decline has contributed to some of the mental health crises. How much? I cannot say.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place