I Miss When Instagram Was About Photos

This is going to sound like the kind of complaint that starts with “back in my day,” so let’s just get that out of the way.

Those who know me know I don’t love change, especially when the old thing worked just fine.

There was a time when Instagram felt simple. You posted a photo. People who followed you actually saw it. If they liked it, they tapped like. Everyone went about their day.

No pressure to perform. No expectation to entertain. No need to turn dinner into a short-form action movie.

That version of Instagram was why I joined over twelve years ago.

What Canada Should Learn From Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban

Australia is about to run a bold social experiment: a national social media ban for anyone under 16. It’s the kind of policy that sounds clean and decisive in a government announcement and instantly chaotic the moment it meets real families, real teenagers, and real technology.

For the record, I’m not opposed to a world with far less social media. If someone pulled the plug tomorrow, I don’t think civilization would crumble. In fact, it might improve. But this specific approach raises a pile of questions that no one seems ready for.

Parents Did Stuff Before AI: A Reminder That We Weren’t Always Helpless

There’s a strange narrative floating around these days that modern parents would crumble without AI, apps, or a device telling them what to do next. It’s as if daily life used to be impossible before we could fire off a prompt like “make me a meal plan that doesn’t involve cilantro.”

The truth is both simpler and funnier: parents used to do absolutely everything without any of this technology. Life wasn’t smoother, but it still worked. Kids got raised, jobs got found, dinners got made, and somehow everyone survived using tools like paper, memory, and pure improvisation.

Can you tell I am getting close to being an old man on the porch?? (Please don’t look at the photo on my homepage)

Tech helps. AI is handy. But parents were never helpless. Here’s a look back at how things actually got done before ChatGPT, before smartphones, and even before the internet.

Quick reference guide: Cooking temperatures for perfectly grilled meats

Achieving the perfect doneness for your favourite meats is an art, and mastering the right cooking temperatures is the key. I swear I Google this information every time I cook or grill chicken, beef or pork. Whether you’re firing up the grill or using your oven, having a quick reference guide can make a world of difference. In this post, I will quickly break down the recommended cooking temperatures for various meats, ensuring your next meal is cooked to perfection. I also won’t bore you with some story ahead of time as I know you are here for the straight goods.

New TV Shows Premiering in December 2025

A new month, and the last of the new TV show releases for 2,025, ready to sabotage whatever tiny amount of free time you have left. December knows you have a lot of holiday plans, and that’s why it’s pretty slim pickings for shows worth your time. But you are here to be entertained, so here’s what I’ll be watching as 2025 wraps up.

When Will 6-7 Actually End?

If you’ve spent more than five minutes around a pre-teen or teenager lately, or dared to open TikTok without body armour, you’ve probably encountered the unstoppable force known as 6-7. At this point, it feels less like a meme and more like a gas leak slowly filling the house. You don’t see it at first. Then suddenly your kid is muttering “six-seven” while pouring cereal, entire classrooms are chanting it like it’s the national anthem, and some poor teacher is Googling “how to manage children possessed by numbers.”

The real question for those of us in the trenches is simple: when does this actually stop? As a dad who has survived the dab era, the flossing era, the Skibidi Toilet era, and whatever the hell was going on with “griddy” for three years too long, I’ve earned the right to ask.