Technology

Tutorials

Some Thoughts on Technology

I hate technology. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration -- I'm cautious about the use of some technologies and their effects on how I interact with the world as well as how it affects my psyche. Digital technologies and their wide use in various societies around the world present many issues relating to subjects such as privacy to mental health.

What My Smartphone is Like

Maybe you're wondering what my setup is like. A common thing to discuss when talking about technology and mental health is the smartphone, and for good reason. My smartphone is a Google Pixel phone running GrapheneOS without Google services and it has all the basic applications on it. The only applications that I have added are the Accrescent software store, the IronFox web browser, the Molly client for Signal, and Organic Maps. This is all I really need to get by in life. Other things like email are accessed on my desktop computer.

The smartphone way to be zen.

A funny observation some have made is that I am someone who has a degree in the computing field, so I must be "all in" on digital technology and must love using it thinking it's drastically improving everybody's lives without question. The truth is, I don't! Sure, we can access a myriad of information to learn about almost anything we wish and we can communicate almost instantly with many people, but we find ourselves in a system that seeks to use the created digital infrastructure to conduct psychological experiments on us, spy on us, push hyper-consumerist crap and waste so much of our precious time.

In a lot of ways I think we've past a point in which technology can bring much more of an improvement to our lives. The new creations tend to have use asking "how is this going to screw up the human race more?". Think of LLMs such as ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and others like it. Companies seem hellbent on replacing humans with this utter nonsense. I ask something like ChatGPT questions about how to do something with OpenGL shaders and it literally makes everything up. What is it good for then? Well, it's great for scammers to get better at social engineering, great for lazy webmasters to create SEO-pleasing trash and it helps accelerate the reality that the Dead Internet Theory presents with way more bots inserting themselves into human conversations (assuming they are even human)! Wonderful!

I've never seen a greater example of AI chipping away at an online service like YouTube. I've heard that Facebook and Instagram are pretty bad, but I don't use (get used by) those platforms. Anyway, back to YouTube, the site that seems to enshittify more every day. You go to search for something such as "Windows XP" and you get 4 rows of "shorts" -- mostly AI trash or some video that was made by someone who downed several cans of energy drinks (kidney stone juice) at 03:04 in the morning. All this is to say that these platforms have algorithms which persuade so many people to pump out as much "content" as possible and to grab your attention before you click off.

Social Media and the Smartphone: The Great Social Experiment of Our Time

I'm someone who deleted most of their social media in 2019. I was pretty much left with Discord, which isn't exactly the same as Facebook, Twitter, and such, but I think it comes close considering its scale and its functionality. I did delete the account several years later and came back, only to be banned a couple of years later for "hateful content and disinformation".

Anyway, I absolutely despise so-called "social media" because it turns people into these sort of NPCs that at every single moment of boredom, they get their smartphone out and start scrolling. It's literally their character idle animation. What's so bad about spending so many of your hours scrolling on social media? You get filled with mostly useless information, you waste so much precious time, your attention span is decreased, and it tries to get the users (the used) to buy more things that they likely do not need.

Having written all about this, I'd like to recommend a book to you called "The Anxious Generation" written by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. This book reveals the negative effects of a smartphone-based childhood with social media and what measures can be taken to improve the mental health of children so they are fit and ready for the future. The book can also be used to think about an adult's approach to these technologies. My recommendation would be to nuke the social media accounts and just use an instant messenger (try Signal 😉) or just get a dumbphone.

What the fuck is that astronaut doing?

Consider just deleting all social media! "B-but my family and friends use it!!!" Do what I did and just delete it, explain why, and just use a phone or normie-friendly instant messenger like Signal. The interactions on these social media platforms are absolutely superficial and I guarantee you'll get more value from interacting with your friends and family in person or via a phone/video call. Also, deleting your social media will be an interesting experiment with your friends and family as you'll find out if they bother reaching out to you with a call or message. Do whatever you want with the results.

Anti-Social Media

If someone asked me one of the worst things about technology then I'd say it's social media. Social media in its current popular form is absolutely destructive and having it so easy to access on something like a smartphone really doesn't help. I used to have a girlfriend whom I would wake up to swiping through TikTok, with short-form videos of stupid people squealing like pigs peddling the latest absurd product or trend. The way these platforms work is the same way gambling companies get people hooked to spend more money -- the anticipation for swiping onto the next video that will give you some form of entertainment or useless information is what drives one to keep scrolling/swiping. With this, we find many people just idly scrolling during family/friend hangouts, on public transportation while there are many beautiful views just outside the window they are next to.

Dating Sites/Apps

I hate the idea of having to say to someone in the future who asks how I met my spouse and saying "we met on a dating app". That is LAME. I'm not getting data-cucked by some company that has commodified romance with algorithms.

Also, if you think about how someone is likely using a smartphone app to find someone rather than just joining a hobby club or something else, you'll likely find smartphone-addicted asshats. I've dated some of those and it's not a good time.

LinkedIn...

I hope this platform dies in a fire. They've managed to convince so many that it is essential to get jobs. Jobs? In this economy? I had an account and I thought it would be good to follow some pages about cyber security for news and "insights" (forgive my corporate speak). Nope! Most of my feed was filled with the same generic nerdy memes and these soulless posts from corporate cucks talking about how them crashing a freight truck loaded with asbestos into a school for the terminally blind taught them about resilience.

Someone might suggest that LinkedIn is good for networking. Sorry bud, I'm not that incapable to have to resort to using this shithole platform. I'll just stick to email and phone numbers which is working just fine for me.

I was going to delete my LinkedIn account, then I found out they had the audacity to demand that I verify who I am. My other option would be to have a public notary sign a document that would be sent to LinkedIn, but I'm not paying money for this -- it's not worth my time or money. LinkedIn, fuck you.

Imagine thinking your company is this useful and entitled.

Enshittification

Have you noticed that technology just seems to be getting more annoying, gets worse, and costs more? That's called enshittification! We find that services will fill their sites and/or applications with advertisements, make present features paid, get rid of functionality, and more to squeeze as much money out of you as possible. If you're unfamiliar with this, you may now start noticing now that I've pointed it out to you. What's the solution? I'd just stop using whatever it is, if that is something you can help to do.

Spotify sucks! Bandcamp, CDs, "sailing the high seas" FTW!!!

Congratulations on reaching the bottom. More will come soon, I promise. Check this page to set up updates.