this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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Technology

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[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 5 points 21 minutes ago

Tech isn’t the problem. It’s the people in charge of it. It’s the capitalism/neo-feudalism controlling the politics.

[–] rektdeckard@lemmy.world 3 points 9 minutes ago

Author is one step away from the realization that Capitalism is the culprit, and technology is just the vector.

[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 2 points 11 minutes ago

Consumer technology I can see being very toxic and also toxic for the environment because people don’t know how to recycle or purchase correctly. Commercial tech like IoT is going to help save the planet and support the majority with them knowing.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 31 minutes ago

We'd all be better off if we learned to question tech as a gift and see it for its grift.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 21 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Open-source technology absolutely is making the world better.

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 3 points 12 minutes ago

Open source analytics tools are still pushing for ad-driven business models that make the world (and the content) worse. Open source LLMs still waste computational power and pollute. And the list continues. Some open source technologies serve a good goal, some contribute to make the world as bad as some non-OSS.

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 13 points 10 hours ago

People forget that technology is agnostic to morals and ideals. Which is a big part of why I support FOSS. It is tech with goals that do aim for accessibility and making the world better. I am not a huge donator as I don't make much money, nor can I code well, but I donate and contribute where I can.

technology has the potential to make life so much better, there are two problems.

Tech that makes life better, usually doesn't create much value. Because it's either, already been created, and if it has, it's probably enshittified by now.

Go use open source FOSS tech, it's great. Contribute to the improvement of society by not using terrible technology and begin using good technology, it's free!

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 11 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I had an Amazon bot lie to me. I told it some item didn't show up and I wanted a replacement. It said it would send one and it would show up in my orders. It never did. So I requested a refund later. So tedious.

[–] comfydecal@infosec.pub 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You see, it actually did still save you time from finding a local shop that sells it and interacting with your neighbor

[–] Dumbkid@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 10 hours ago

Yeah my neighbors suck

[–] Xed@lemm.ee 18 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Technology absolutely helps advance science and helps the disabled, It’s greedy fucks that destroyed good tech

[–] comfydecal@infosec.pub 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah I think blanket statements either way are misguided. Some tech does help the disabled, other tech makes their lives much more difficult. It's like any other tool, when it's used at scale by something aiming for optimizing profit it will have terrible side effects

sure, some tech makes life more difficult, but it'd be weird to require it's use, so you're either going to go through a bad government structure (different problem) or choose to use bad products for some reason.

I guess the secret third answer is working somewhere that requires you to use shitty tech, but like, same problem as no 1.

I find the bigger problem to be implementation and support, shit like QR codes and phone based payment taking over things like paper, and card based payment, that's objectively worse. Though both QR codes and phone based payment are in isolation, explicitly good and beneficial things.

[–] x4740N@lemm.ee 29 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

I prefer the saying "technology is a tool and a tool can be used for good or evil" or something like that

You can use a hammer to hammer nails or to injure someone

Technology can make the world better if its in the right hands for example open source hardware & software

[–] comfydecal@infosec.pub 1 points 11 hours ago

Agreed, but things act differently at scale and it's not like there's 10 billion+ hammers being used at the same time, almost all of the time, for years on end

[–] beans1013@lemm.ee 2 points 13 hours ago

"La science sans conscience n'est que ruine de l'âme"

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[–] ricecooker@sh.itjust.works 6 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I think this headline is slightly misleading. Here are some better ones:

  • Reclaiming Humanity in the Age of Overbearing Technology
  • When Convenient Tech Becomes a Burden: A Call for Human-Centric Design
  • How Modern Tech Erodes Human Interaction
[–] qarbone@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

This is weird take on an op-ed. OP didn't alter the title. The only ways I can conceive of a headline being "misleading" is when it declares a falsity (this doesn't; it's an opinion) or doesn't match the content of the titled text (this doesn't; it matches the text).

Wait. Is this satire? Like these suggested versions have been generated by running through a LLM AI?

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 13 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Anytime I have to replace a device I find it incredibly frustrating. It certainly seems like technology is regressing. I've had the same phone since 2016 because nothing I've looked at has enough of it has to replace it and doesn't offer anything better to make up for those deficiencies. My mouse recently developed an issue that had me looking at potential replacements and again almost nothing currently available matches it or was even close. I found two that were potentially not a downgrade and one of those had awful reviews. Instead I'm just buying the part to fix it and hopefully I'll be able to keep limping it along for the foreseeable future. Same goes for my car. Nothing new that I've seen appeals to me. They're all loaded down with infotainment bullshit that's just a pain in the ass to deal with. Those were just 3 off the top of my head. At least with software you can usually find something open source that does what you want, but if it has to be manufactured by someone else you can forget about it.

[–] Toribor@corndog.social 4 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

My mouse recently developed an issue that had me looking at potential replacements and again almost nothing currently available matches it or was even close.

I used the exact same Logitech MX518 mouse from ~2009 until ~2020. Then I went through one every 9 months or so until they succumbed to same problems with the scrollwheel failing until I finally had to stop buying their crap.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 4 points 17 hours ago

Yea, this one is actually a Logitch 602 I've had for years, and it's my 3rd one after two warranty replacements so the build quality has always been questionable but I love the button layout on this mouse and the software is usually pretty good at doing what I want so I'm dreading having to replace it. There was apparently another similar one that came out a couple years ago but they don't make them anymore and from what I was reading the quality was garbage too. I still have the one from the second time I replaced it through the warranty so I'm going to replace the problematic switches on it and see how that goes.

On my small fleet of Logi M570 trackball mice, I occasionally have to crack them open and tweezer out the wreath of hair that has built up in the mouse wheel which obscures the sensor. It'll be a mix of mine and my cats hair.

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 41 points 22 hours ago (4 children)

I understand the complaint, but the big picture of tech has a ton of upside.

Tech itself is not the issue. How it's applied is the issue.

Once tech takes hold, there is massive pressure to monetize the asset.

That's where this complaint lives. Amazing advance becomes ubiquitous, then two things inevitably occur. Companies are formed that apply the technology on unnecessary and unpopular ways (parking app is a perfect example) or the pressure to make more more MORE MONEY triggers the enshittification spiral, where "wow, you can print wirelessly now!?" becomes "my printer won't take any cartridges but brand name, and I have to watch an unskippable 30-second ad every time I print now??!!!"

It follows that as tech saturates our lives, the inevitability of enshittification will also saturate our lives.

The year is 2044, you don't feel old but the ticker is starting to skip several beats a day. Your doctor is forced to use the product at his disposal to help you, which is the PaceXMaker produced by the Tesla-Cola conglomerate. The device is a true miracle of modern science. The size of a fingernail, it pulses electricity into your heart in carefully measured bursts to support proper function of all valves, and ensures that any plaque is dissolved harmlessly away. Your iEye tracks the device status, and alerts you when it starts to run low on fuel, a proprietary enzyme designed by Tesla-Cola. When the iEye app notifies you that the enzyme is running low, simply crack open an ice cold, refreshing can of Tesla Cola Zero to refuel your device for another two hours. Need to sleep? We got you. Hook up the Tesla Cola Zero-Venous BeautyRest to your ArmDock (patent pending) for up to five hours of relaxing enzyme replenishment. You can remove the arm dock after you confirm six ad-watch minute credits on your iEye.

Tesla-Cola: We Got You

[–] FIbynight@lemm.ee 3 points 16 hours ago

I would say Tech with a capital T includes not just physical or cloud tech, but the whole process, down to shitty Product Owners and business teams, delivery crap features to customers.

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[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 58 points 1 day ago (2 children)

tech is not the problem, corporations are.

[–] ubergeek 18 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

More specifically, it's capitalism that is the problem, not tech.

[–] samus12345@lemm.ee 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Tech enables capitalism to take the exploitation to new lows.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago

We don't blame the whip, we blame the slaver

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[–] AlienContact2049@lemmy.ca 14 points 23 hours ago

Agree. It's not the tech it's how it's used and how business owners drive the product development and timelines.

[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 15 points 20 hours ago

I kinda agree with the article, I genuinely think humanity peaked with the computer of the PS2 era. Or maybe it had something to do with the patriot act. Just feels like after that things had gotten worse substantially

[–] Tja@programming.dev 32 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I disagree about such a generalization.

There are very few instances where people decide to be dumb and use technology for it but in general my life is much better thanks to technology.

My job exists due to technology, the Internet allows me to work from home, a washing machine washes my clothes, I can order food in the middle of a meeting and have it delivered on my lunch pause, I can speak to my family half a world away everyday, with video, for free, I can have the answer to any question in seconds from my a tiny device in my pocket, my car brakes automatically if I'm distracted (and heats up before I sit down in the morning)... you get the deal.

[–] mPony@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (23 children)

I hear you, but the writer isn't concerned with "can": If you replaced "can have the answer to any question in seconds from my a tiny device in my pocket" with "must" then you can see their dissatisfaction.

if I went to a restaurant and was told that I had to install and use their app to order their food, I would fucking leave. If it was the only restaurant left in town then I'd have much less choice in the matter. The insidious nature of technology is that it changes "can" with "must".

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[–] satans_methpipe@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (5 children)

lunch pause

car brakes automatically if I'm distracted

These two lines paint a very sad picture.

[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

I think you hit the head on the nail.

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[–] FIbynight@lemm.ee 4 points 16 hours ago

I saw the writing on the wall when we started getting itunes updates that no one wanted.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 8 points 21 hours ago

Imagine VR so real that someone severely allergic to cats can know what it's like to give one scritches and feel it purr. Imagine someone who is paraplegic knowing what it's like to swim or climb a mountain. Now imagine how much money Mark Zuckerberg will make when it's $22.95/month with ads and requires you to put in your Social Security Number.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Tech =/= megacorps

That's like saying food doesn't make the world better where you mean food industry megacorps producing hunger & poverty.

[–] NotLemming@lemm.ee 8 points 22 hours ago

I watched a documentary about the Unabomber and had the same thought

[–] NostraDavid@programming.dev 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I dont know... This Linux thing is pretty great, IMO.

I get their point, but it feels like it's more about tech being abused by large corporations, trying to squeeze another cent out of you.

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