It feels like all the joy I used to feel from being an enthusiast has been completely voided as computing has become the modern vector for fascism and surveillance. I find myself recoiling from all online spaces, even independent and open source ones that I’d loved and supported in the past.
It’s been an exceptionally strange impulse to go from having an elaborate online presence to now feeling like the only acceptable way to engage with the network is to have as minimal of an online footprint as possible.
This especially hurts when it feels like an issue of skilling, where I know how to do certain tasks with computers, but have to teach myself for the first time the analogue alternatives that my parents and their parents likely already knew well.
How have you chosen to deal with it? Do you find yourself moving away from computing and the internet, despite formerly loving it as a hobby? Have you replaced things that computers used to do for you with analogue replacements?
I’m curious how other people are experiencing this.
Make your shit work for you again. Learn to self-host and embrace open source.
This is exactly what I did. Part of it is reminding ourselves the old Net didn’t update just by scrolling and every website wasn’t filled with infinite people engaging. It’s slow.
this…this is what did it for me.
How have you chosen to deal with it?
Moving back to analog wherever I could, re-learn and re-use the old ways as much as possible. And also taking back control, and ownership, over my tech.
I’ve been using a computer since the early 80s and have been online regularly probably somewhere around the late 80s, first through BBS. Luckily for me, while I was self-learning that new computer and digital stuff, I was also taught the classic ‘analog’ ways of doing things. Things like writing longhand, or using snail mail. So, the moment I realized I could not trust nor agree with techs, I started:
- Using physical and/or low-tech objects wherever and whenever I can.
- I got rid of all streaming and subs, an always growing, always less privacy friendly (and more expensive) list of services and apps.
- After years mostly reading ebooks, I moved back to reading actual print books, and using physical media for music and movies (discs).
- Relying less on a computer on my everyday life. Doing math in my head instead of needing that high-tech crutch that is a calculator. Using an actual dictionary to lookup for a definition (a paper dictionary does not track what word I’m checking, like no print book is reporting back what I’m actually reading), Stopped relying on a spellchecker (aka, improve my writing skills and also learn to be fine with doing as few mistakes as I can even more so in foreign languages like English). Small things like that.
- Use older tech (more repairable, sustainable, less connected) wherever I can. See, I recently purchased a 90s digital voice recorder that uses good old AA batteries (that last for months, plural), that requires no Internet connection to operate and no subscription either (so there is no tracking going on, no constant updates or security threats, and there is no ads). Sure, it doesn’t have the latest and greatest AI summarizing tool but… I don’t care. And I certainly don’t want AI to feast on my own voice, nor on my most personal notes, doing god knows what with them.
- Use Free Libre software instead of the most widely known proprietary ones. Apps and tools that respect my privacy and my rights as a user.
After 40+ years being an Apple user, a few years ago I fully switched to GNU/LInux and to Libre software. My only regret? I should have switched years earlier. - Last but certainly not least, I barely use my phone at all. On mine, there is only a handful of apps I need to have access to (finance/security/pro stuff). There is nothing personal, not even ebooks or music, and certainly no social or games. The phone is the least trustworthy of all the ‘digital’ device I own, so it’s the one I use the less.
Self hosting, trying to get progressively more serious about privacy and security.
I’ve gotten into the Amateur Radio, you need a license to transmit but you gain access to a lot of cool stuff. The Ham bands are a non-commercalized space where experimentation and the sharing of technical knowledge are highly esteemed. There’s no ISP or hidden tech bro to moderate the experience, your limits are your skill, equipment, and the privileges of your license. On High Frequencies there are propagation effects that cause your signal to travel thousands of miles enabling the potential for worldwide communications given proper conditions.
I have thought about this also. Especially when it comes to mobile technology. For most of my career I have been an advocate of mobile technology like smartphones, I have recommended it, I have set it up for people, and now I look at the world and honestly wonder if we wouldn’t be a better place without smartphones.
Thing is, we are iron mongers. We build tools. We give people tools. “It is not the tool that determines its work, it is the mind mind of the man who holds the tool that does.” (-Brannon LaBoeuf).
Does that absolve me of all responsibility? No not a chance. But it does offer s or a suggested path forward.
The harm that comes from computing for the most part, IMHO, doesn’t come from users. It comes from people who exploit the users and users who don’t realize they are being exploited. Meta, TikTok, Snap, Google, etc. these are the guys causing the problem.
So as technologists, we have an opportunity to change course. To show those who rely on us ways to use technology without being exploited. Yeah I realized to some degree it’s a drop in the ocean, trying to piss up a rope but there are little victories to be had.
In short, be the change.
For every bad thing there are good things.
Linux starting to go mainstream and duel boot is 90% not required anymore.
I know a kid that uses a local AI model to help him write. Where he couldn’t barely communicate before.
For every social media site there are places like this or the tildeverse that let people communicate and build relationships.
For every tech bro there is a kid that doesn’t feel like they belong anywhere making friends online that he finally clicks with. There is me helping some person in a chat room on IRC fix a Linux issue that I don’t know and will never meet and get nothing from just because its nice and fun to help people.
Duel boot - is that why Microsoft keeps erasing the Linux partition. Didn’t realize it was a contest.
(Excuse me, know what you meant and not usually the spelling police, but this made me laugh)
No worries I’m keeping it misspelled as it is indeed funny
Compute to battle the evils.
Make open source tools to remove dependency on corporate spyware.
Create smaller low power AI assistants to make the giants redundant.
Create websites that inform rather than misdirect and out-market the evil ones.
Not proposing it’s easy or even realistic, but it’s the same battle that always was.
A friend of mine asked me why I put forth so much work into protecting my privacy when my best efforts still amount to a leaky seive. I’ll never forget my reply - “Just because I’m losing doesn’t mean the fight isn’t worthwhile … if we give up, the open internet dies with [my generation]. For me, success is keeping the idea alive to be rediscovered by the next generation. If I don’t do it, what hope do they have?”
That’s like saying you don’t like shooting targets because there are wars in the world. Or your love of flying your drone has gone because drones are used in war. Keep things in perspective.
Make new hobby gym. All health. No evil.
My parents got a new car and they thought I’d be impressed that it has an iPad for a dashboard and knows who’s driving by using your phone.
And 20 years ago that would have been cool. But now? Now all I see is data harvesting, bad UI, and expensive repairs that must be done at the stealership.
Tech used to be something fun and new, that gave you freedoms and abilities you never thought were possible. But now it’s just another way for companies to ship expensive crap and exploit us. I’d much rather have my dumb car that makes fart noises and won’t even shift without my help.
One thing I did like is that the interior door handles are well-made and easily accessible.
“Stealership”
Ima be… uhh… leasing that. Thanks.
For 36 months with no money down at our spring savings event!
“bad UI”
Especially that one!!!
There are certain things that should be buttons that don’t move. The hazard flashers, for instance.
They should not be an icon on the “dashboard” that goes away when you’re trying to change the temperature.
Honestly, working on and around the infotainment systems in modern cars is not as bad as I thought it would be. It just takes a different set of skills and knowledge than car guys are used to. I recently added android auto to my 10 year old car, which involved adding a circuit board that goes between the existing screen and it’s OEM circuit board.
Retrofitting infotainment on your terms is entirely different from dealing with it preinstalled in a new car. For example, I’m betting yours doesn’t have an unskippable popup warning about paying attention to the road that you have to dismiss every time you turn on the car. Or telemetry that rats out your driving behavior to the manufacturer and/or the insurance company and/or law enforcement. Or other sorts of adware or malware.
And considering that you had to add it to begin with, it definitely doesn’t disable the entire car if you try to remove it or otherwise neuter the hostile misfeatures.
Especially when the software required to reprogram the modules costs thousands of dollars, if it’s even available at all.
Oh we have a Volvo S60 and it has a screen but the map app is so bad that we put our phone there while driving, but every time you go into reverse you can’t see the back driving camera. How does your retrofitted system teal with stuff like that?
Perfectly. The setup retains all stock functions.
I got it from these guys: https://www.gtacarkits.com/
I really want to gut my car’s infotainment system. I’m just worried about the resale value and whether or not part of this shit is somehow critical to the vehicle now.
Not like there’s any useful manuals on this shit out there. And the manufacturer is incentivized to actively thwart my efforts.
This is exactly how I feel right now.
I turned my hobby into a career and now I fucking hate it. Soulless evil billionaires turned it into a fucking dystopia machine. I really can’t see any exit from this other than changing my entire field. But, no other field I could work into would pay my mortgage and enable me to afford food.
I have always looked at computing as a form of power and control.
On the other hand I like to play PC games. I enjoy exploring and learning how to play and how to win. I don’t see anything negative or power hungry about it.
As a career IT professional I had all the joy of computers sucked out of me. I stopped enjoying creating firewalls out of old PCs or trying new Linux distros. I don’t want to self host anything except files and a media server.
Computing was never as great as it is now. Never before did we have so much free open source software at such a high level of quality to use and tinker with. Never before was it this easy to find help for the most obscure problems. Never before was playing on Linux a viable option.
But online and offline social networking really got enshittified a lot. 3rd spaces online like offline are fully commercialized. Online, everything is remembered and if it can be used against you, it will be used against you either by the government or some rando just because they can.
But you can use a VPN and as many pseudonyms as you need to properly separate your community-specific personas. And if you live in a city of religious fanatics, the internet also is a great to find like-minded people. There are communities for everything.Cut it down, your computer is not a source of evil. Especially if its a second or third hand buy. People think life is about control, its not. Life is full of things that we cannot control, can only influence, or can only really observe on an individual scale. Now what really helps is activism. Get out with a group of people to affect change. Put more good into the world than evil and your hobbies matter a little less (given they are benign)
What’s interesting and I think is tied into that “people think life is about control” is that I am deeply convinced that the tech barons learned to hate democracy because administering computers and networks is not democratic in nature at all. An admin always has access and controls for everything, nobody votes an admin into position. Hell, we’ve seen numerous Fediverse sites come and go because being an admin is actually a huge task, especially if you’re handling it on your own. Even with that power diffused among multiple administrators, it can often be difficult escape the hierarchical nature of how computers are designed at their core.
As you point out, this isn’t evil, this is a type of tool. Like all tools, it can be used for good or ill, to build or to destroy. Currently we are being overrun with people who want to use it to control everyone else. They certainly think life is about control, and it’s part of why they are so deeply unhappy.
It’s also why the open source world is so fucking precious. The Cathedral versus the Bazaar. The bazaar style of development is such a massive deal because we could extrapolate this kind of governance to other parts of society. I worry deeply for a potential schism in the open source community when Linus Torvalds stops developing from old age or disease or just dying randomly in a car crash.
Open Source is that good that computers are being used for. Outside the corporate funded open source, there’s so many tiny little open source projects for almost anything imaginable, all shared freely so others can bear the fruits as well.
Tech barons have never administered computer.
Just all the evil that’s making you feel that way it can’t do the cool stuff it used to is no longer liberatory takes lots of work to stay safe in high school I was a shit head black hat I have to be way trickier and know more than I ever was or did then as a grey hat now to just search and write my smut anonymously its tedious and bad
I feel the same way sometimes. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
- Self hosting as much of my digital footprint as possible, with federated technologies and Foss at the forefront
- Focusing my computer time on my own hobbies and curiosities, just tinkering with the computer, or contributing to open source projects
- Volunteering to help with conferences where I can, and attending hacker and hardware conferences. I have a nice little international group of friends and confidants thanks to that. It helps me to connect with people in person.
Same here. I have been moving everything I can to self hosted FOSS, contributing to FOSS projects, and rehabbing old hardware. It’s been fun, I’ve met people from around the world and I’m getting tools I like to be even better.
Locally, I’m working with the library to start Linux days, where we help fix old computers and move them to Linux. There’s been a lot of interest due to Win11.
This.
If something is a vector for evil, it’s crucial that we invest good in it. And with tech it’s doable and quite enjoyable i’d say.
