I still use Fb because of the groups/pages there.

There are mentorship and professional groups there that aren’t available elsewhere.

Plus, the local groups for my town/state provide crucial information about weather, taxes, traffic, river safety, etc. In general, it’s a good source of knowledge.

I hate that I’m giving up privacy, but there are also no other social media networks that can compete. I can’t message/Signal my closest 5,000 neighbors to find out which local/free berry patch is ready for picking. But, there’s a fb group for that.

I also have ringing in my ears and took care of them same as you.

I have perfect hearing according to the typical “can you hear this beep” test - which is infuriating when dealing with my tinnitus. The ENTs said the same as yours did (nothing is wrong)- it took going to a specialist who fits people for hearing aids before they did an extended range hearing test and helped narrow down the range that my tinnitus is affecting.

With the new doctor, we figured out that my tinnitus is caused by the other medications that I’m on. They did research on it and found certain classes of meds increase tinnitus more than others.

Working with my other doctors, we changed some of the medications to try and see if that would help my tinnitus. I also noticed that if I don’t take my allergy meds (Zyrtec) then I have less tinnitus that day. If I do need to take it, then I get elevated tinnitus, more pain in my ears, almost can’t hear, etc. for the next 2-3 days.

As an aside, wearing hearing aids helps for two reasons.

A) if you get the right ones, they have a setting that equates to “white noise” so your brain focuses on that and helps drown out the ringing. There are a couple options for what your white noise could be - actual white noise, beach waves, rain falling.

B) this has been proven to re-teach your brain that it doesn’t need to create the ringing in your ears. Ringing in the ears is ultimately the brain trying to compensate for something - and this is teaching the brain to stop doing that. Meaning, the tinnitus gets better over time.

Note - the fancier hearing aids are blue tooth compatible, so you can use them to listen to music from your phone

Hopefully some of this helps!

Europe (Germany specifically) has their own problems with carriers though.

When you notify them that you’re cancelling your service, you still have to pay for 3 MORE full months of service after that. Even if you’re in the military and ordered to move. That’s a long time.

This 3 month period mandatory cancellation notice doesn’t change even if you’ve been with them for 2+ years.

For US carriers, once you’ve been with them more than the initial 2 years, you are pretty much able to cancel whenever.

So everyone knows… the new Apple Card lets you do 0% financing on the iPhone. (You also get 3% cash back for buying from the Apple Store.)

So you can buy an unlocked iPhone and pay for it in installments.

Now there is no need to buy from the carriers, have a locked phone, or pay full price up front.

Source: Me, paying ~$68/month for the unlocked iPhone 15 Pro. Also, I do a carrier’s prepaid plan because I’ve been bested by contracts before.

Edit: Going through all the suggestions now - thank you! I hadn’t heard of these before. I appreciate it!

Agreed, my sibling is superficial. They see muscular males as authority figures (for learned reasons I won’t get into) which is a problem when Rogan (+guests) is spouting nonsense.

That’s why I’m trying to find similar content that they’ll enjoy, and help break old habits. They are capable of growth and improvement.