this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2026
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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:

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I think it was a bit of a sleight of hand to make it about time. Because time is quantifiable. You can give 5 minutes of your time but I figure most people can attest that has little to do with how much actual attention you're giving. And it's attention that we crave. That's what social media is built upon. When you really love and enjoy something or someone, you're thinking of it, even if you're not actively engaged with it. And on the other hand, if you give something attention for long enough, you do start to develop some kind of an attachment on it ( which easily becomes unhealthy too, like doom scrolling ).

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[–] noretus@crazypeople.online 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, I don't think so. You can be physically present somewhere while your attention is in whatever is going on in your head. Though I grant you that in that case you're not doing either very well.

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Then you aren’t giving them your time

Get it?

[–] dvoraqs@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"Seat time" is literally what you are giving them in that situation. You can say that it's not "time" but I can say that it is because there is nuance and we are doing many things at same time. Being present physically, mentally, paying attention to your surroundings, putting in effort, etc, can in many ways be counted separately. Who's to say if your way of accounting for time is the "correct" one or whether somebody else's is?

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world -4 points 1 week ago

Sure but then you are the one specifically saying it’s “seat” time which is an overt signal it’s not “real” time

If you just said an unqualified time it’s rightfully assumed to be your legitimate attention

[–] noretus@crazypeople.online 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Eh, I see what you mean but I think in this culture and point in time, it's useful for human well-being to see them as separate things. Like I said, conflating them is a sleight of hand. Because the reality is that you can book 1h for a meeting and then be totally mentally absent from it. People think that you're committed in the meeting, you're giving it your time as can be measured. You are not actually giving your time to the meeting but due to being physically present, you're also not using your time (and attention) freely on what you really want to. So you're doing a sleight of hand possibly on yourself and people observing you in the meeting.

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world -2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The sleight of hand is being committed by you and your work-culture problem

Tbh this sounds like a kinda personal issue you have with work and working too much or having a shitty job or something and it’s somehow morphing into a linguistic dispute instead when it shouldn’t be

[–] dvoraqs@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are you a boss at work of some kind? Maybe your perspective is tied up with some problem you have with your work culture. People are just complicating things when this is actually just so simple, right?

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

I’m actually your boss and very disappointed

[–] bsit@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Lots of psychoanalysis in this thread.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] bsit@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

No, but it seems unusually aggressive for very little reason.

[–] noretus@crazypeople.online 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I wrote very broadly (on purpose). Never defined the nature of the meeting. What your mind says about me has little to do with my life.

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You’re the one who wrote a paragraph about how work meetings suck lol

[–] noretus@crazypeople.online 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world -2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You wrote an entire paragraph literally describing work meetings being a waste of time and somehow don’t even realize it?

I think i now understand why the phrase was so confusing to you

[–] noretus@crazypeople.online 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Quite frankly it's somewhat disturbing that you take a fairly neutral description of an unspecified event as "writing an entire paragraph about how work meetings suck". You are overlaying a hell of a thought framework of your own onto the text I wrote and then telling me I'm the one with a problem. Ironic really, since you started off saying the world is illiterate.

[–] moakley@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Then why are they still paying me for it?

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

They don’t have the ai technology implanted into your brain yet to only clock moments actually spent working