Ask Lemmy

Computing itself is fine. I can still do most everything I used to do on my PC pre-popular internet. I have essentially no cloud services on my PC.

However, the internet itself is a dumpster fire. It always was, except you had to deliberately looking for those places and they tended to be isolated back in the day.

Of course monetization destroyed the internet with corporations doing everything possible to carve it up and shove their ads and billionaire-controlled media slant in front of you, and their engagement-bait feeding of lies and giving a platform to controversy and stupidity on social media.

Most all of the good spaces are gone. Very few exist in anything remotely close to their original form, they’ve been corporatized, disappeared, or swallowed up by places like Reddit.

I feel this. I used to find computers and the promises of the internet exciting. Then things slowly turned into what they are now, and these days I often can only see everything computer as a layer of bullshit that has been put on top of the real world to keep us in a trance and not engage with reality anymore. But a lot of good things came from being connected as well. Maybe it's like growing up and finding out a beloved parent was after all slightly abusive. And then see them decline in old age and have their worse traits worsened even more.

Another image that comes to my mind frequently is that of the internet as the haunted shopping mall: It was once a shiny place, everyone went there, it was all the rage. Now most of the shops are boarded up, the few that are left seem rather dodgy, and the only visitors seem to be a bunch of drug addicts hanging out at the bottom of the out-of-service escalators.

Currently I'm a bit lost trying to return to my analog hobbies. I draw, I paint, I play music, I scratch the donkeys. I often don't have the energy I wish I had to do things other than sit at a screen. Takes time to get used to it again I guess.

If someone picks up a chair and hits a person with it, is the chair now evil? Should you avoid using chairs because of the potential hurt they can cause? Computers are the same.

Focus on the positive and don’t dwell on the negative. Play games, tinker with hardware and open-source software. Get off platforms like Reddit/Lemmy where negativity is much more pervasive.

Of course, if you find yourself “recoiling from all online spaces” then consider alternative hobbies that give you the same level of satisfaction.

I don't have any friends or any other hobbies. Financial situation is not so good rn and so even if I wanted to, don't really feel like spending money for hobby or something.

I don't really know what others definition of "computing" is but if it's just about having an Internet addiction, then it's something I've had for as long as I can remember. I didn't have friends in elementary school but I had access to the Internet while at school and other spaces.

It's all just coping for me. Without the Internet, I'd probably become the next Luigi or something.

Any tool can be used for good or for evil. Try not to get sucked into the doom spiral, there are plenty of FOSS and adjacent projects making the world a better place.

I've been online for like, too long to see it decay and rot into the form it has been turned into. My only regret is that I didn't embrace the early days or the first 15 years I was online for. Tack on 15 more years and I got to watch, albeit slowly, the corrosion take form.

Everywhere I've been to is either gone or transformed into a shallow representation of its former self. Everyone I know and knew are growing up and the times we had can't be replicated anymore or enjoyed similarly. Features are being shoved in that nobody asked for but everyone uses without question. Optimization has taken a back seat, where everything breaks down in a moment's notice as we're given empty promises and apologies for it.

The spirit of community has fallen to tribalism and hivemindedness where simply being nuanced is just simply unacceptable anymore. It's like you MUST pick a side, you MUST say the right opinions, you MUST express yourself justly or you're whatever the side thinks you are. There is no room for critical thinking.

And every other day, I ask myself "what the fuck am I even doing anymore?" when it comes to being online. I'm just coming online for no other reason than just to check things and waste clicks. Because I'm not enjoying my time anywhere without being constantly reminded about the things I've watched the internet become for so long.

There was someone I knew, that when her gaming PC broke down 2 years ago, she decided that it was it for her. She wasn't tech savvy, she wasn't glued to the net or computers as much. She'll use something until it breaks before she decides whether to continue. And when that computer died, she shrugged and decided to move on living as simple as she can be.

I don't think I'll go that route when my PC dies, I'll still have a use for it. But if the internet becomes too expensive or it just plainly isn't serving its purpose to me as it once did completely, I'll probably consider it a good run well-lived.

I grew up as a computer nerd kid in the 90s with my first computer being a 386 DX 66mhz off brand IBM PC clone with 8mb ram.

I was put on this earth to do computer stuff no doubt about it. I was the first on my block with dialup. I was the first on my block with DSL. I was the first kid on my block with cable internet. Taught myself C when I was 15 and and a software engineer professionally over a decade without any college education.

With that being said, what we call “AI” (LLMs) completely exhausts me and I have absolutely no interest about AI garbage. I am depressed because AI exists to cheapen literally everything I have a passion for.

When I was young I always wanted to be at the head of technology and always stay up to date with it I’d read books and news daily. Always had a genuine passion for it, but I can’t stand it now.

I just stay stuck in the 90s and play old consoles like PlayStation and N64. That gives me comfort and I know there’s no AI slop in those games.

I went into welding.

Make your shit work for you again. Learn to self-host and embrace open source.

Leaving IT. Gardening. Trading pc nerdery for soil science nerdage.

I am experiencing the exact same thing, but in my mind it's a disillusionment not with tech itself but with tech products.

I have my Linux PC set up so that I can use it on the couch at home while hanging out with my family. I have a smart phone, but I consciously try to use it as little as possible.

Now instead of following the details of the next generation of phones/consoles/GPUs/AIs, I like to tinker with existing technology that I haven't learned yet. And since I work on computer stuff at work all day, I try to spend my time at home doing analog stuff based in the real world, ideally outdoors even if that means my own yard.

We should built our own internet, with blackjack and hookers!

I'm getting more involved in that I'm discovering more open source projects that I can support.

Open source really gives me hope. Instead of a profit motive, communities form and work together out of passion and dedication to a project or idea.

That's really invigorating to me. And, in many ways, can often be a big fuck you to our capitalist overlords. I'm working on presentations and such to teach my friends and spread the word about various projects and better op sec to make it all the harder to harvest our data.

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.

im not sure how i will / am dealing with it, but i know its not great

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.

Like many have said here : open source is one way to cure your technodepression. Little project are happy to get you involved. I have helped many project without being a dev.

I used to be a thief, as a hobby, but I feel way less guilty about it nowadays.

I see how long I can go without my phone.

I was looking for a tech positive outlook and found solarpunk for myself. Since then I've learned a lot that doesn't have to do with tech, but also on the topic of how technology can empower people. It helps I was already an environmentalist before.

I started looking a lot more into contributing to open source projects. I started looking into decentralized networks like lora radios. I self host a lot more. Got rid of Google on my phone...

Biggest issue is the job. With my attitude change my well paid corporate tech job has become soul sucking.

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.

I think it’s still safe to nerd out on Linux and codeberg and games. So I’ve gone there and don’t bother with Facebook or any of those social services. I’ve never found them that enticing anyways. It always felt like a trap and a disengenuous way to engage others.

Agree with a lot of other sentiment : build more offline life. I think it’s the way we gotta go. I mostly see people on rl too rather than text online if the distance permits it

I am lucky that I got a job that is, if not doing good, at least not doing something evil. And I get to play with cool hardware. Not something practicable for everyone, I know. But those jobs are out there.

Besides, I have met many people with similar feelings recently. You are not alone. I don't know how to find those people where you live. But for instance, there are many people helping worthwhile causes with the tech side.

Personally, I might have to use two phones in the future, kind of like how I saw some do in China. One for the official, mandated bullshit, and one for personal things, with an operating system that does not snitch on every action I take.

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)

I bike more.

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.