No. The capitalists are the problem. Not the tech grunts.
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The idea that we can even DO anything about capitalism at this point is a forgone fantasy. Not to say we shouldn't keep trying to push for a better, more equitable world until the time becomes more ripe to do away with personal gain above others, but we don't get there all at once. There will be no revolution, nobody is coming.
But if we were to work together and firmly, decisively push actual, selected representatives into power who are committed to getting MOTHERFUCKING MONEY OUT OF POLITICS, that would bring a thousand miles closer to that ideal world we all want. Other countries have done it, but our problem in America is we have a population way too comfortable and atomized to ever band together and do this critically important thing.
I don't have a way to reach enough people without some kind of massive disaster that forces people off their couches and makes food out of reach.
Please use windows XP and connect it to the internet and see what happens LOL
I have. Nothing happened.
Oh well.
Try to exist in any kind of life above "hippy with hemp clothes living in a yurt on their parent's property and a trust fund" without things like a smartphone, a car and a computer.
How about struggling but still extant written internet journalists? “Dumb” or simplified smart phones or e-ink devices? Modern iPod clones? The upcoming Slate car? A local LLM/voice assistant?
There are tons of neat alternatives to tech bros, the problem is attention. People just don’t know about them, so they don’t hit critical mass.
…I don’t have a good solution to this, but the attention economy is broke and following the herd is not working anymore. And there are solutions better than going backwards, but no mental energy to find them.
Who needs an iPod clone when you can literally buy an iPod, drop 1Tb of storage in it, and sync it to your library like you always could.
It's stupidly easy to do, and those things are still rock solid. And you can put Rockbox on too, if you don't want iTunes anywhere near your computer. Or you use Linux and can't have iTunes.
The junk products are not the problem, they will be phased out in a few years anyway, like all the ones before them.
The problem is the political system that is completely subservient to corporations that allows them to create accepted social standards like "you have to have the newest phone and a computer to even dream of getting a job interview" or the manufactured consent that much of America adheres to that things like social programs, welfare and universal basic income are tools of the devil.
Or the epidemic of planned-obsolescence that every last democrat and republican representative profits from as much as the tech-barons they work for. Other countries have laws about making products that last so citizens don't have to spend their every last dime to just to keep having basic appliances and connection to the world.
If we made a unified push to install representatives that also want a better world and aren't blithering morons who want to get rich, it would go a long ways to healing the system, but I don't know how that's going to happen since we all allowed our population to also become blithering morons.
With the recent destruction of PBS and their associated programs, this is going to get even worse. But don't worry, kids will be able to ask Grok for history facts.
Cutting out the middle man does not involve technologically regressing.
Cutting out the middle man means stepping up and learning how the tech you use in your daily lives actually works. The only reason some tech bro can step in and ruin your life is if you let them keep you ignorant through convenience.
You want to cut out the middle man? Use, and support, open source. Fight to make everything that requires a server, be a server that you own in your own home (or is federated and in your local community). Use, and support, repairable technology... And actually repair your technology!
Cutting out the middle man does not involve technologically regressing.
But then how can you performatively sit in Starbucks with a mechanical typewriter and then post it on social media so everyone knows how progressive and anti-establishment you are???
They are too lazy for that.
does not involve technologically regressing.
The fallacy that technological progress is inherently good is simply flawed. You could say "instead of relying on Spotify, and instead of "technologically regressing", learn open source alternatives and host your own Jellyfin server!"
But what was wrong with "technologically regressing" exactly? A MP3, CD or even tape recording player will: always work, sound great, require zero user friction, never receive updates or security flaws, not depend on a convoluted self hosted setup.
Do you want to listen to music or impress Lemmy? There's absolutely no argument to be made that requires accepting all tech simply because it's tech.
There’s absolutely no argument to be made that requires accepting all tech simply because it’s tech.
False dichotomy and a stupid comic strip making a stupid point all the way down.
If we cared about this issue we would be pushing for the installation of representatives who want to ban planned obsolescence and systems that require you to have the newest, most expensive vehicles, appliances and gadgets. Our current entire government is subservient to and employed by companies that make billions on this manufactured consent to always "needing" to spend our labor on useless junk.
To say nothing of the inherent, massive problem that we made it legal to buy and own politicians.
Yeah no. You just didn't understand the comic and made a stupid point. It happens.
Okay, ya'll kids keep arguing about "devices" while millions of people are forced to buy the newest phones so they can get their email and attend job interviews, while mountains of money get poured into politicians who are affording their fifth homes because Samsung pays them in wheelbarrows of cash to keep consumer protection agencies neutered or destroyed.
It's also a fallacy that technology always progresses. If technology from 25 years ago serves you better than technology from today, it's the superior technology.
Exactly.
Oh look. Lol Amish 2.0
Calling somebody using a retro MP3 player "Amish 2.0" is as moronic as calling you a tech bro neuralink implanted Musk boy just because you're defending technological progress. Both would be equally ridiculous statements, but the difference is, you actually wrote the moronic comment.
These technology phobes are the next generation who will be scammed out of their pension fund, inheritance or investments just like current boomers who refused to advance along with the world, and they deserve to be hacked, scammed, robbed because they refuse to keep learning.
Learn or get left behind.
Technological progress isn't inherently anything. It's just technological progress; an inevitability. Fighting against it is like fighting the laws of the universe, if not outright stupidly phobic.
What defines the "goodness" of technology is how people choose to use it.
Everything more said is just pointless philosophical fluff.
Technological progress isn’t inherently anything
Exactly. So arguing that "you shouldn't technologically regress" is meaningless.
Fighting against it is like fighting the laws of the universe
Not only is this not applicable to the argument at hand, given there's no law of nature that makes a CD player implode just because Spotify exists, but this statement is so bizarrely wrong it's almost hard to take the rest of the discussion seriously.
Is this supposed to be satire? How is print media owned by massive conglomerates, flip phones with no OSS firmware, handwritten letters delivered by a literal middleman, avoiding the middlemen??
They’re not defining “middleman” in the traditional sense of an intermediary in an economic exchange. The first panel introduces a new definition of the term as a tech bro attempting to insinuate himself into the process of communicating with others. The remedies offered would indeed seem to preclude this type of middleman from interfering with the process.
No they wouldn't. All of those products involve middlemen servicing content.
When ceiling fans and AC units requires an account, yeah, something's wrong.
The morality of a technology is determined by those in control of it, and look who's in control today.
I see a few comments about self hosting stuff to escape the clutches of big tech, and while all that is effective to a high degree, it is beyond the abilities of the general populace.
Besides, I am also of the opinion that not everything has to be digital or smart.
I relish writing and receiving letters, it is tangible and indicates commitment. Fortunately, postal system isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I like reading newspapers and it was sad to see all shops in my neighbourhood stop selling them during or after COVID. It was equally sad to see a lot of magazines not survive that period.
I miss my old TV that was simpler to use and started quicker than my newer smart TV. It does not matter if I disconnect the latter from the internet, it takes its time to load up. Besides, I don’t see any perceivable difference in picture quality from the distance I watch from.
Older laptops, though heavier, were more repairable. In certain aspects, they are better than modern ones: more tactile keyboard, nicer screen ratio (4:3). Of course, the newer laptops decimate the old ones when it comes to performance and screen quality but that is just technology progressing.
I could keep going on with a plethora of product categories. But across all my points, I wish some companies could continue offering such products, at least to a customer base that is willing to pay more just to support the existence of those products.
I was with you until 4:3. You should be locked up.
On a more serious note: Framework laptops. More repairable than the laptops of yore, minus the soldered CPUs which seem unavoidable in laptops now.
lol.
To rile you up a bit, I wish I could say it is a subjective thing but 4:3 is the better option for laptops.
More vertical screen estate, given one would mostly be doing their reading, writing and browsing – activities that are traditionally vertically oriented.
Even most websites just centre their content and leave behind swathes of white/empty space on both sides.
Anything beyond those activities, one should be using a bigger screen (desktop or a TV)^^^.
Jokes(?) apart, Framework laptops are the best option for folks like us as it ticks the most boxes. But it is not available in the country where I live, and I don’t want to import it as it would be meaningless without its broader ecosystem. FWIW, I have dropped them emails every year requesting them to expand their presence in more countries.
Till then, old ThinkPads. They are cheap, have enough spare parts on the market even after almost 2 decades, and even come with the kind of keyboards and screens that I like. :-)
^^^This, unlike the text above it, is a subjective thing
P.S.
I always wanted to use superscript, subscript and horizontal line. Thanks to you, I got to use 2/3. :-)
That's just false, and is also not the message of the article you linked.
The articles point is not that avoiding enshittification won't make a difference in the amount of enshittification you experience: To the contrary, it affirms that it likely will! The articles point is that personally avoiding enshittification isn't an effective way of combatting the ubiquity of enshittification in society, ie "consumer activism" and "voting with your dollars" cannot create system change.
Most everyone here already knows this, and I imagine you also understood the article just fine and don't need me explaining it to you, but you botched the paraphrase in your link thus seeding a lot of potential confusion and frustration absent some clarification. This is intentionally a thread about personally avoiding enshittification, and that does not imply a rejection of the desire to also end it oestebsibly by other means.
Did you read it till the end?
Yes: We need structural remedies, not individuals opting out. But please tell me what your implied “gotcha” is supposed to be.
What a fantastic post, thank you for linking it!
Seriously though, I do think that it's interesting that this comic and that essay seem to take up opposite positions*, but in each case they attract more contrary comments than ones that agree. I suppose no matter what you post, any given person is more likely to comment on it if it pisses them off than if it confirms their beliefs. It's a good thing Lemmy doesn't reward engagement, or else we'd be up to our eyeballs in ragebait, eh?
*Unless you read the whole thing instead of bouncing off the first paragraph.