Ask Lemmy

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 use to love playing video games. When MMOS hit I was all for it. It would be like play D&D all the time with your friends. I just wanted to hang with my friends but the min/maxers hit and then the constant grind. I quit caring.

I'm dealing with it by spending my time around you fellows. It feels like the old days of the internet over here, back when it was just us nerds. Honestly though? I feel like I'm going to end up one of those Amish like hermits, living in the woods and swearing off technology. Especially when the surveillance becomes suffocating.

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

Self hosting, trying to get progressively more serious about privacy and security.

I've gotten into 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'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.

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.

They way I see it, computers are tools. They can just as easily be used for good as evil.

If people were going around smashing vehicles with hammers, we would (hopefully) work on better law enforcement than ban hammers. Same sort of thing with computers, we need standards and regulations.

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

Make new hobby gym. All health. No evil.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Q: "How have you dealt with this?"

A: Poorly.

It feels like all the joy I used to feel from being [human] has been completely voided as [humanity] has become the modern vector for fascism and surveillance. I find myself recoiling from all [human] spaces, even [safe, supportive] ones that I'd loved and supported in the past.

I'm not trying to poke fun at you, but I found that we can really apply what you said there to a lot of other aspects of life and it wouldn't sound too crazy these days.

Tools are tools. The car brings you from point A to point B. That point B can be your home where you feel safe, or right into some person to hurt or even kill them. The kitchen knife lets you cut your veges, but you can also cut off someone else's finger. But do we say we should stop using these tools because of how badly other people are using them?

What you're tired of is people being irresponsible, people wanting to act with impunity, to gain dangerous powers, to threaten others, to satisfy only themselves, be it sadistic, sexual, egotistic, self-compensation, or whatever. The problem lies in certain groups of people, not the tool. Why are we fussing over the tool when it's the people that we need to deal with? Sure, we can argue that the tool makes doing the harm easier, and yes we should try to find ways to build better, safer tools, or control who gets to use the tools, but it never removes people's abilities to do harm through other means. Not having the Internet and technology just means that these harms are more localized and muted. A tree fell in the forest and no one was there to hear it, but it also means no one knows if someone's actually there and they're hurt because of it.

I got into an outdoors hobby. Healthier for me anyway.

knowledge is power. I've grown to really hate technology, but being knowledgeable about it has helped me to stay safer in the dystopia. buy a phone with an unlockable bootloader and install a custom ROM. code your own apps, I learned java within the span of 3 days to make my own WebView apps of mobile sites instead of making a Google account or using the play store. people who have never been into tech can't do this kind of stuff. you're smart about the digital footprint though, I've been minimizing where I can since 2024 because I saw the writing on the wall even back then.