Is this supposed to be satire? How is print media owned by massive conglomerates, flip phones with no OSS firmware, handwritten letters delivered by a literal middleman, avoiding the middlemen??
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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When ceiling fans and AC units requires an account, yeah, something's wrong.
I see a few comments about self hosting stuff to escape the clutches of big tech, and while all that is effective to a high degree, it is beyond the abilities of the general populace.
Besides, I am also of the opinion that not everything has to be digital or smart.
I relish writing and receiving letters, it is tangible and indicates commitment. Fortunately, postal system isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I like reading newspapers and it was sad to see all shops in my neighbourhood stop selling them during or after COVID. It was equally sad to see a lot of magazines not survive that period.
I miss my old TV that was simpler to use and started quicker than my newer smart TV. It does not matter if I disconnect the latter from the internet, it takes its time to load up. Besides, I don’t see any perceivable difference in picture quality from the distance I watch from.
Older laptops, though heavier, were more repairable. In certain aspects, they are better than modern ones: more tactile keyboard, nicer screen ratio (4:3). Of course, the newer laptops decimate the old ones when it comes to performance and screen quality but that is just technology progressing.
I could keep going on with a plethora of product categories. But across all my points, I wish some companies could continue offering such products, at least to a customer base that is willing to pay more just to support the existence of those products.
I was with you until 4:3. You should be locked up.
On a more serious note: Framework laptops. More repairable than the laptops of yore, minus the soldered CPUs which seem unavoidable in laptops now.
Did you read it till the end?
What a fantastic post, thank you for linking it!
Seriously though, I do think that it's interesting that this comic and that essay seem to take up opposite positions*, but in each case they attract more contrary comments than ones that agree. I suppose no matter what you post, any given person is more likely to comment on it if it pisses them off than if it confirms their beliefs. It's a good thing Lemmy doesn't reward engagement, or else we'd be up to our eyeballs in ragebait, eh?
*Unless you read the whole thing instead of bouncing off the first paragraph.
on the other hand, there is generally not much to discuss if you have an agreeing position. right?
Sure, but where are the comments disagreeing with the disagree-ers? It's all attack, no defense.
fair point, but to get there you must go to the comments to begin with, which I believe might be less likely you do when you don't have something to say.
Pre computerized cars is going to be pretty hard. We'll run out of old beaters eventually.
They're also less safe and efficient. They're fun, but objectively worse cars to run nowadays that parts can also be hard to come by.
I think the issue people have with "tech" is that much of the software and devices sold take up too much space and do things people don't want them to do, without offering choice, configurability, and options for full control
This is what I see whenever I see an apple device. There's very little control that the user can exert that Apple hasn't blessed to be something within your control.
All computers are general purpose logic machines and they're intentionally making them not do things that they absolutely could otherwise do, just because.
Not saying iPhones are bad, or that Mac's are bad.... I've just noticed that if you do things in a way that is compatible with how Apple thinks you should do them, then Apple works very well for you. If you have foolish notions to do things differently (or, "think different"... If you will), then you're going to have a bad time.
If you use homebrew you can install all kinds of things on a mac. So, you get the power of a Unix-based machine with the nice eye-candy, ease of use, rock solid drivers, etc. of an Apple device.
But, the phones are another matter. Those things are so locked down it's ridiculous. We really need competition in the mobile phone OS market.
I am now using lineage which is fine but still way too restrictive for my tastes. I tried using linux(postmarketos) as I am fine with a lot of inconveniences but was unable to make or take calls, which is kind of a hard line. There should just be an android based phone os which is degoogled and rooted by default, but really the problem lies with the hardware, I think. There need to be more phones with open firmware to make an alternative os really possible.
I am and probably always will be a tech enthusiast, but as time goes on I find myself more and more looking for old technology to avoid planned obsolescence, anti-repair bs, telemetry & tracking, lack of consideration for quality of life....
This is not how things were supposed to be. But this is how things will be if we don't do something about oligarchs and certain CEOs.
It is really weird, isn’t it. I’ve always been a major enthusiast for Tech. Always wanted to get in on VR when it was first evolving, as I could see how else could use VR. I bought oneof the first iPods cause I messed with one and realized it was a game changer for what we had at that time. Now, I find myself cautioning people on the use of AI and home automation. I feel like I’m turning into a Luddite.
Don't be ashamed of being a Luddite. The Luddites were actually fighting for a righteous cause.
Too true, just didn’t think I’d be following their lead…
Technology can develop in various directions. This is exactly what it looks like when technology is developed for consumerism. Buy more now, it doesn't need to last, stimulate the economy. Rent what you can, everything else as a service.
I've been wanting to convert my life to "off grid tech". I have a nest camera i bought in 2016. So it's pre Google. Starting about 6 months ago, Google told me unless I allow them full 24/7 access to the cam then I can't use it. A product i bought almost a decade ago is useless unless I let them spy on me. Fuck you Google.
So anyways, off grid tech. Home surveillance on my own local server protected with physical data and VPN. No more streaming, pirate everything with local server. No more Google or Amazon anything. Music? Mp3. Email? No Gmail, maybe Proton or something. I'll do all banking through home desktop through VPN. Etc, etc.
I hope to have all these things achieved by 2030
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We don't need to go back to handwritten mail, FOSS is the way to go.
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I get the idea, but I am kinda stuck on the letter writing bit. They do know that the post getting delivered is kinda built on middlemen right?
Also, food delivery has always involved middlemen. Instead of food delivered through an app, it was food delivered after a phone call. But, it was a human middleman delivery driver doing the delivery.
Yeah middlemen have been a part of almost all commerce from the start, every store, every trade and most services are in some way middlemen. I think the comic's message is good but is attributing the terrible actions of llm to middlemen in error.
Usually those middlemen don't open up your mail, read what you wrote, then serve you ads based on that.
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Everything you do relies on some middlemen, it’s just about cutting out layers.
You won’t grow your own food, but you can buy it from a farmer, instead of a store who bought it from a franchise center who bought it from a supply network who bought it from a risk management futures buyer who bought it from a farming company who bought it from a farm.
We're techy enough nerds to know there's another way to be free of billionaire influence while still keeping some resemblance of modern communication: self-hosting.
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That’s exactly what is so nice about FOSS based systems. You can use technology but without the tech bros and the corporate enshittification.
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