This a real good read, thx a lot for sharing. I agree with a lot of what is written.
One remark:
Instead of reverting to the technologies of the past or forgoing modern conveniences entirely, consumers should demand durable, functional, and privacy-respecting products. The solution is not to give up on innovation, but to reform the role technological advancements serve in the marketplace.
I’m one of those who prefer moving back to old (low) tech and even back to analog at least for as long as I have no way to be sure of what is next going to hit the high-tech fan which, I think we can all agree, is unlikely to not be shit. A shittiest shit than the previous one.
The funny thing is that I don’t even think I’m losing out on much, if anything. Analog works great for me, as do low-tech and old tech too.
What do I lose by not using Netflix, Hulu, or whatever streaming platform anymore? There are barely any shows I want to watch over there and since I already have plenty available on discs that I want to watch, missing those rare online gems won’t be the end of the world.
Spotify or Apple Music? I own a lifelong and carefully selected collection of CDs that slowly evolved with me. There is no shitty algorithm trying to force feed whatever someone decided I should be listening to, or someone rising the subscription price out of the blue because reasons and what could I do to oppose it? On the long turn, they’re also much cheaper than sub: I still listen to this very day to one of the very first CD I ever purchased with my own money as a teen (Mozart’s Requiem, Yeah I was that kind of teen… like I’m that kind of adult ;) some 45+ years ago. That is 540+ months worth of monthly subscription for the price of a single disc, I will let anyone do the math against whatever streaming they’re using had they wanted to listen to the same song for as long)
(BTW, if someone was to start buying CDs today, they can be found for real cheap on the used market.)
Smart watch? No thx. I wear one of the two mechanical watches I own. They do one thing only (telling the time, and none of them does not even have the day). One of them has been doing it for much longer than I have been alive (one was given to me, used, by grandfather when I was a teen and I’m now nearing my 60s). Those watches need no battery, no software updates and never crashes. And nope, they are not some fancy luxury jewels either. I have no idea the price of the oldest one but knowing my granddad it was reasonable and the more recent one is a true Chinese model (not a cheap knock off of some Western brand) that cost a lot less than the cheapest Apple Watch.
I use pen and paper for writing, for similar reasons, plus its privacy (plus, it’s dirt cheap), and I like it ;)
Heck, out of privacy concerns and the lack of real ownership, I’ve even given up on reading ebooks even though I know how to remove most DRM and have been reading ebooks for decades. Why? With a print book there is no hack required, I fully own it (which I can also buy used, or resell, or give to friends if I fancy doing so), no one can ‘delete’ it from my bookshelves, nor can anyone edit it (in order to fit whatever is considered the good way of thinking/speaking that day). I need no app (no updates, no subscription, no internet access) to read it either… helping me further protect my privacy.
I have no allergy to tech, don’t get me wrong. I’ve been using computers since the early 80s and I have no desire to quite using my Linux box, but I will do my best to make it as less invasive as possible, and as less smart too.
I will disagree with this:
The first step is giving consumers more control over products and their implementations.
The real first step, imho, is to (re)educate people to value certain fundamental principles more than anything else (even convenience). Like, why privacy matters probably more than anything else in a free democratic society, or why informing oneself should not mean seeking validation/confirmation of one’s own biases, or why it’s ok to not always agree among ourselves… without any need to murder anyone. Then those people will demand that control back.
But for that to happen we, as the adults in the room, will first need to (re)discover what educating was supposed to mean, what’s its purpose. Which, based on what I can witness going on in too many Western educative systems, seems very unlikely to happen.
Also, this remains to be demonstrated:
These are behaviors we’ve attached to the technology and are not inherent to the technology itself.
So far, all I can experiment myself is how high-tech do work as a destructive/dividing power in our society. Even Libre/Free projects can act like that. And how this power works as a self-amplifying engine, making it worse than it was with each new iteration.
There are some alternative, yes, but one needs to admit that they aren’t popular, people don’t want to jump ship and use ‘better’ tech, they can’t be bothered with changing habits. They want convenience (and Likes, shit like that). Hence my previous remark: we first need to re-educated people, ourselves.
Android/IOS —> GrapheneOS/LineageOS
App Store —> F-Droid
Laptop —> Framework
Phone —> Fairphone
I agree with what we want, but I’m not gonna demand it from any profit driven company. We need to build it ourselves.
Not saying there aren’t any companies doing things properly, but in the end, they have to decide between more profits (cutting corners, selling data, etc) and making user friendly, durable products. The systems we live in are not designed for the latter - they have to go as well.
