Ask Lemmy

Pregame. Dive bars

what do you think makes social media so addictive? it's one of the few things people can afford

Hah, let me turn this around - what do you do for fun without a whole city to explore? Hike, swim in the creek/at the beach, BBQ with friends? Same here, we just do the first two in public places (parks, pools or community beach, etc)

Just chiming in as someone not in a big city, I'm pretty sure we're more than 2% of Lemmy. But I have lived in a few big cities, and living outside the city is way worse. I have to drive to do anything. There are some free parks I can drive to, but that's about it. You can't even go for a walk or a bike ride without driving somewhere first. There is no old town to walk around.

Also for example, if you live in a big city you pay more for housing but jobs pay higher and you actually have the option of not owning a car. So you don't have to sit in traffic and pay insane parking prices everywhere you go. My one complaint about the city is that food prices are crazy.

Walk or bike everywhere if possible. Go down any side path that looks safe, explore, poke around, find the interesting things. Go to tourist spots and photobomb people. Pick your nose right outside the window of an incredibly expensive restaurant. Talk with strangers while waiting for stuff (but read the room obviously) they'll know about stuff to do you never would have thought of. Get engaged in the punk community they're always doing free things and dirt cheap concerts. Find local musicians in a genre you like that aren't popular outside regionally and see where they do a lot of smaller concerts, hang out at those places. Walk around community gardens. See what buildings you can get into and figure out if the roofs are accessible. Throw bricks at cops. Volunteer, a lot of times this is as simple as handing out food that someone else already made and you get to meet people and feel like you're bettering your area. Seriously walk and bike everywhere if you can and be open to taking detours you'll find so much stuff you'd never have found in a car

Cities want to be explored. They have so much to offer but you need to find it. Sometimes you can stumble into things, sometimes you have to know the right person, sometimes you specifically seek something out so you poke around related things until you work your way there. Keep an open mind and reserve some time whenever you can to just explore. The best stuff will show up eventually even if it takes a couple years

In my experience in Seattle, the people with money pretended to have the most fun. The punks, the poor people, they actually had the most fun. When people don't have money to throw at impulse happiness they put a lot more work into building a life and community that can stand on its own. This includes mental well being such as finding ways to have fun

Also mushrooms are a cheap way to have the time of your life for 6-8 hours

I would argue that cities have more free activities than towns, by far. Cost of living is higher but so are wages.

Also, I don't understand why living in a huge home is required to stay in. Certainly isn't for me.

Library and park?

I spend a lot of time taking photos. There are apps that tell you what plants are. I also contribute to an app called StreetComplete which is like Pokemon Go but for filling out open source map data.

You didn’t name a single thing that you’re being charged to do……

What do you do outside of a city for free that you can’t do in a city for free?

When you live in a big city you learn where you can spend time on the cheap. Look for libraries, beaches, parks.

If you find the right Cafe/bar/tavern, be kind and tip well a couple times and they won't get sore if you nurse a pint while grinding out the last hundred pages of Dune.

Someone else already said "library and park". That's essentially right, but there's more.

My city does movies in the park all summer. There's a similar music in the park set of events. Both free.

We have pretty good biking trails (just don't try to commute by bike!).

Most of my friends are homeowners. We don't all host the same amount, but we regularly get together at each others' houses.

There's a free zoo and a free art museum here. Other museums charge for admission, but the tickets are decently cheap.

We have some sports in the area, but our teams aren't very trendy. I'm not sure what the pricing is like tbh.

There's a lot of live music at some of the bars in the area. I don't do a lot of this myself, but I think the cover was pretty minimal last time I went to one.

(OK, yes some of these things do cost money, but they're not super spendy if you have any sort of budget)

I go to the park, visit friends, join clubs, do volunteer activities, play with pets, visit garden centers (just to look), walk along the river, etc.

I mean, there are more options to spend money on. But it's not like you're obligated to exercise those options.

If you live out on a farm in North Dakota, and there isn't much by way of eateries near by, you probably don't eat out much. You don't have to eat out in a city, either. Just more options for it.

Fully free assuming you have some level of equipment:

• Attend the local parkrun for a free 5k race
• Go for a walk in the park/forest, of which my city has a plethora
• Go for a walk in Old Town
• If in summer, go for a swim in the lakes
• Take a long bike ride
• If during winter, go ice skating
• Work out at an outdoor gym

Pretty cheap activities:

• Take one of the public transit boats out to the archipelago
• Take the train somewhere
• Check out a museum

Cities have a lot of free things like parks or such and even activities. Like they had weekly dancing in summer in parks in the evening or yoga in the morning. In addition in my city you could get passes to museums and zoos and such from the library for free if you are a resident. Oooh. The libraries are incredible to. Often there are groups that do interesting things to and universities are a good place to find some interesting things.

Public parks, hanging at a friend's pad, just walking around, campfire on the beach, house parties, bike trails, free days at museums, free public concerts, block parties, political rallies, people watching

Are you having trouble picturing this because you've never been poor, or because you've never lived in the city?

Not going places they charge you money for.

You can go to a park, or spent a lovely afternoon at home, cook your own meals and clean your own clothes.

In my small country town where I live. I am miles from anything there is lovely parks that are free but I have to drive there. Anything I want to do at home I have to buy. In the city where I work my job gives me puppy days, baseball events, free massages etc etc. In walking distance from work and if I were to live in the luxury apartments near by I had a beer garden(free to hang out or relatively cheap to enter like 5$ a wrist band) in the beer garden we had corn hole and lots of bar games free to use. I have a riverwalk, an art museum, a real cheap dinosaur museum, and tons of public parks with movie events and local stargazing clubs etc also more pickup sports games since more people. In the city there is tons of 3rd places that let you hang out for an hour or more for less than $20 with tons of people.

At home it costs me 5$ in gas to drive anywhere and 15 mins to get to the closest thing and will cost me the same $20 in my rural town to hang out in my 3rd place with 0 young people or just the same 5 locals. If I have a hangout at home with stuff I purchased all my friends live 30 + mins away if I made plans to fit their schedule. My local parks are neat if I wanted to walk or do things solo or had a local friend group but that is lots of planning and no one is using the facilities normally. I think 1 local park has a movie night for Halloween once a year

Essentially the city has everything rural does in amenities but just more of them closer together so there is more free things and with more people there is more possible random fun if you are outgoing. Vs rural you have to plan your fun, travel further and have less access to more of everything. But if you have everything at your house and are more of introvert it is a bit better. One of the reasons Why people like to retire to the suburbs is they have access to alot of the city things they like but have just enough room to have all the things they want at home

Stay inside and drink alone in the basement. Why would you leave the housing you paid an arm and a leg for?

Really gotta get full use of that rent payment.

Anime, series, internet, comics, manga, and ofc music. Some casual games and literature, sometimes.

Also helps having a hobby like music production or 3D modeling, this is, all done on the computer ofc, outside of the computer there's no world, just a neverending roads and buildings and cars and stores and more of the same.

Crack. The trick is you forget you spent the money in the first place.

When I was younger I spent everything I earned on having fun, drinking heavily, sex and drugs and techno and all that good stuff. Now I'm older, I put it in a savings account and spend my free time reading, playing computer games, and gardening.

While not free, I find a membership or two to be advantageous. There’s usually member swaps where you can get in another local location for free for a month. When we go on vacations our first stop is always a grocery store, and I usually try to get an extended stay hotel with a kitchen. Saves on eating out because we’ll pack for lunch and make dinner. We have an amusement park pass that works with other locations so parking and admission is included. Our museum membership works for hundreds of other out of state museums so we visit science and children’s museums included. Vacations are still expensive of course but this reduces costs significantly.

Other than that things like parks, beaches, library events. Meet up with friends at someone’s house.

I spend a lot of time in my workshop. It's not free but upcycling materials into something new is infinitely satisfying and often saves money.

There's lots of free public spaces in my area. But it's also just as easy to stay home in a big city.

I'm an Uber nerd andI learn to pirate content. Yes you still need an internet connection and a computer or phone but I can spend days trying to figure out how to install Graphene on my old phone or do something fun or crazy for my home assistant.

Btw, I'm not poor. I just enjoy doing these things.

Thrifting can cost money if you buy things, but walking around is free. Bigger city = more thrift stores.

Similarly, I love walking having access to ethnic grocery stores. Spices are cheaper, you have access to organ meats, etc… that are also cheaper. It’s fun to walk into a Filipino or Korean grocery store, do a little research and try to cook something with ingredients I’ve never tried before.

My tiny apartment is on a busy street so it’s also fun to do a little people watching. If I walk to the gas station to get a soda ( <10 minutes) I get to see a ton of activity any time of day.

Festivals are pretty frequent and fun to walk around even if I don’t spend anything. I live near a university as well so there’s always stuff going on.

I’ve lived in a rural area before and couldn’t stand it. Absolutely nothing to do other than go walk around Walmart.

Walk around the city or hit up a park. Also sometimes friends host get togethers