this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] the_trash_man@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Every generation alive has microplastics in them

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

And literally nothing came of it, this whole thing is fear mongering and political theater.

[–] SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

and probably will for at least a few generations unless we can do some major filtering of all mediums

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Except that microplastics have been a major problematic thing since basically plastic become a popular thing, we just didn't know it yet back then. It's not like millenials invented plastic or popularized its use.

[–] bollybing@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The amount of it in our environment has been ever increasing though. There's more of it in the oceans, the soil, the rivers, the plants. The whole food chain and ecosystems are contaminated more than ever before.

[–] Patches@ttrpg.network 2 points 2 days ago

At what point does it become macroplastic? kiloplastic for the Europeans.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 43 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Bold of you to think that the microplastic is going to go away after one generation...

[–] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Who said that? Lead poisoning is still rampant in some communities.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I think the question is, why are you bringing up millennials when the issue of microplastics did not start with them, nor will it end with them.

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[–] psoul@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Can someone tell me what microplastics do to the body? I’m almost too afraid to ask at this point.

[–] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's the neat thing: nobody can. It's incredibly hard to devise a study that can show anything about it. There is no way to get a human without microplastics in them to get a control group, and by this point as far as I know there is no plausible theory to get a specific study.
Everyone kinda suspects that it can't be good for you, simultaneously there is zero actual evidence that something is ever happening. We don't know, and that's very frustrating.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 6 points 2 days ago

It seems like they'd be fairly inert. Although that's certainly no guarantee that they're not really bad for you. Much like inert gas, the danger could well be them replacing or getting in the way of something else.

[–] maximumbird@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Veritasium has a video about it on YouTube.

It’s very informative and may just give you the fix you’re looking for

https://youtu.be/SC2eSujzrUY

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 days ago

IIRC the one thing we are sure of is that they don't break down, nor do they get out. So you better hope they don't do anything bad on top of that

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[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 120 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Millennials? More like GenX. We’ve been eating out of microwaved tupperware since the sixties.

[–] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago (9 children)

So have the millennials who were breast fed.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago

Mmmm, tasty math.

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[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It looks like the cumulative total of plastics produced by the 80's was around 2-3 ~~trillion~~ billion tons, whereas now it's probably more like 20-30B.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/exports/global-plastics-production.png

[–] bathing_in_bismuth@sh.itjust.works 87 points 3 days ago (21 children)

Yeah and also for Gen X, Gen Z, Gen Alpha. We all still alive and everybody gets microplastic in their balls and brains. Its for all ages

[–] b3an@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Right? Haha 😂 Oh did we suddenly clean up the entire Earth from free roaming microplastics?

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[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 38 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The pipes in the US still contain plenty of lead. Also, Covid brain damage. Tons of it.

[–] blujan@sopuli.xyz 12 points 2 days ago

Most lead intoxication in boomers comes from leaded gasoline, lead in other presentations is less bio-available

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 76 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Honestly I don't think we're socially responsible enough to end something like lead poisoning these days.

[–] etherphon@midwest.social 57 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Imagine trying to stop the hole in the ozone today. We'd have people spraying CFCs in the air just to spite the effort.

[–] MrMcGasion@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago

As someone just old enough to remember, we did have that with CFCs. Might not have been super mainstream, and nobody who would have done it out of spite really had the disposable income to actually do it.

I grew up in a Fundamentalist Christian "cult" and I remember the adults around me "joking" about it all the time. I remember a Missionary to northern Canada visiting our church (in rural America) to try to raise support talking about the temperatures and joking that it's so cold that he wanted to stand outside with an aerosol can in each hand to try to bring on some global warming, and that getting a laugh from the congregation. You might think that maybe it was a "harmless" joke that maybe as a child I didn't pick up on the sarcasm, but there were absolutely adults there who fully believed that there was nothing humans could do to damage the earth, because God takes care of it. "And how dare the government and these evolutionists try to tell us how to live."

[–] rem26_art@fedia.io 42 points 3 days ago (3 children)

for the past few months ive started to think we're like a couple years away from putting lead back in the gasoline

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 22 points 3 days ago

Trump deregulating gas and paint to put lead back in both would be so unsurprising it won't even garner a reaction from me.

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[–] Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 days ago

Someone will call not wanting lead poisoning woke and that will be that.

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[–] RonnieB@lemmy.world 67 points 3 days ago

Nah, because every future generation will have it too.

[–] Wilco@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Boomers had/have microplastics and lead poisoning. This is not a conspiracy, it is just a fact.

[–] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 6 points 2 days ago

Did someone say it was a conspiracy?

[–] morto@piefed.social 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Everyone has microplastics, even newborn babies, and we have no sign of decrease in its use.

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[–] KarlHungus42@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago

Luckily, for the younger generations, we'll probably just get cancer instead of becoming massive malleable assholes

[–] Aetherion@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Don't forget the nanoplastics! These are even more hazardous!

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

Don't forget about PFAS!

[–] Iceman@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I wonder what our neurosises will be.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Depression, I would say. Same as how boomers are labeled as uncaring and sociopathic because of lead.

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[–] MrFinnbean@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Bah. I dont care about lead, microplastics or even covid.

Chernobyl and mad cow-disease are my jam.

[–] SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Boomers also have them, or do you think they intentionally target millennials?

[–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My dad's car ran on 4 star right up until the mid 90s. I was exposed to plenty lead in my formative years as well as micro plastics.

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[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 26 points 3 days ago (10 children)

Microplastics cause neurological damage and anti social violent behavior?

[–] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 28 points 3 days ago (5 children)

We don't know about the longer term consequences yet, just like we didn't about lead.

Not saying it's a definite but I wouldn't be surprised.

[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 40 points 3 days ago (5 children)

No, people knew lead was poisonous even back near Roman days. Though just like how humans constantly do stupid things for some benefit, they kept using it as a sweetener for ages.

Also mercury in relation to, "as mad as a hatter". It's just mercury was very good for the job.

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[–] thegr8goldfish@startrek.website 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'm crazy. Mark My Words. In 20 years, we'll have so many microbes capable of consuming plastic people will be bitching about their packages not being able to effectively protect their goods from spoiling. The goldfish has spoken.

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