I might go and throw my phone into the lake: A thread to complain about modern technology.

fine, it's the axe šŸŖ“
21

Really frustrated specifically by touchscreen dashboards in cars now. They seem especially compulsory in electric cars and hybrids too, so if you donā€™t choose internal combustion then youā€™re stuck with a car whose instruments are dangerously distracting to use while driving.

At least the thing I dislike about hybrids the most is going away, and maybe touchscreens will follow suit.

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Capture dā€™eĢcran, le 2025-04-29 aĢ€ 08.15.441920Ɨ1118 144 KB

Also a byproduct of the advancement of tech than the tech itself: hate how electric vehicles and hybrids have to look like like the cars in Minority Report. Trying way too hard to be sci-fi.

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22

I just got a new job! Until literally 3 hours ago, I did freelance work ā€˜in techā€™ making user interfaces look nice, and making sure users of various devices were able to access their functions in the most efficient and pleasing ways.

Let me tell you, stuff just doesnā€™t work now and the only way to fix it would be to start again and significantly simplify the devices and software we use. Rather than doing this though (which would in fairness be commercial suicide) the industry at large just works on hacky workarounds and UI tricks to mask the problems so that the current priority can be followed - surviving by doing as much gimmicky AI stuff as possible and making enough money through repeat monetisation until the real ā€˜next big thingā€™ appears.

Itā€™s bad!

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23

I was looking to buy a new phone a few months ago and was shocked to find that small phones just straight up donā€™t exist anymore. It seems that iPhone 13 mini was the last of that breed.

And whatā€™s crazy is that at least half of the people that I know have some variation of the iPhone SE or 12 or 13 mini, or also wish they could have a compact phone. I guess the kind of people that own a small phone are also the ones to own it for a long time before replacing itā€¦

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24

Oh yeah thatā€™s the worst! This last time I bought a phone, they also had a foldable one, and I kinda wanted it just because, folded up, itā€™s nice and small. Unfortunately it was also $500+.

25

i lowkey also want a foldable phone for my next one so i can spend less time picking it up and looking at it

i really actually just want the headphone jack back

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26

Iā€™m still driving a 2008 GMC Canyon because of how hard it is to find an affordable truck. Iā€™ve been looking at this but the 150 mile limit on the base model has caused me to balk knowing that the upgrade path to the 280 range battery is going come bundled with features I donā€™t want at a price that is no longer competitive.

This is of course assuming that we donā€™t have the tariff nightmare looming on the horizon and China lifts itā€™s rare earth metal restrictions to the US. I think I might be taking the bus for a few years before buying to new vehicle.

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27

Man do I have thoughts on modern techā€¦

The tech itself is great! Can get information quickly, use your phone for directions, calls, quick messages, etc. Games look better than ever and opened up huge doors for a variety of games and styles.

The bad part, which is quite overwhelming, is companies exploiting people for profit all the time. Everything is about monetization and squeezing every little bit from users. It could be providing a free service and then selling user data and feeding users ads, or providing a paid service and then still selling user data and feeding users possibly less ads.

Also, algorithm-based sites are designed to keep people scrolling and clicking and keeping eyes on a particular site for as long as possible. (Or listening as long as possible, if itā€™s an audio streaming service.)

Honestly I donā€™t think itā€™s strictly conservatism, but anti-capitalist. I have made some individual choices that would place me into a ā€œgood old daysā€ type of person, but itā€™s really to save money and reclaim my own time and brain.

The ā€œgood old daysā€ of tech is more software and monetary based than anything dealing with hardware. It was before the aforementioned monetization of everything and algorithms working to suck away your brain.

A couple choices Iā€™ve made is I have an AM/FM radio at home so I can listen to local public radio stations that are commercial free. College radio stations are also great for this purpose. This means Spotify is not a thing I have to worry about.

If I want digital music I purchase via Bandcamp. Now I own it and can download it and do whatever with it.

For games Iā€™ve found myself more at GOG and itch.io than Steam, because then I own the game a bit more.

If I didnā€™t have to rely on a smartphone to send photos of my kids to parents far away, Iā€™d likely get one of those Lightphones Iā€™ve seen around. Until then Iā€™m sticking to the smallest phone I can and work to not use it at all unless necessary. (iPhone 13 mini and I hope I can use it until smaller phones come back in vogue.)

I have more thoughts but this post was getting long so I cut them for now. Sorry for the read.

TL;DR - Hardware good, software bad. Good Old Days tech can be anti-capitalist as youā€™re fighting against companies squeezing every bit they can from you.

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28

I think we may have a fundamental disagreement. Owning things and developing habits to demonstrate your anti-capitalism is what I would describe (and dismiss) as lifestylism. It sounds like you made healthy choices for you, but I would not describe that as anti-capitalist.

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I can see your point, though one can argue anti-capitalist is a lifestyle in itself.

My point was that I donā€™t think Good Old Days of tech is inherently conservatism. When I hear conservatism I think of someone who believes that nothing should change, or things should be like the past, and believing everyone else must do it.

For me, I donā€™t care if tech keeps evolving and new fancy things come out. Iā€™ll take that new CPU or the Switch 7 or whatever else comes out in 10 or 20 years. Cool tech is great! My issues stem from companies constantly exploiting people who use tech or their software. My choice to actively not engage with those companies, even if doing so would be fun and/or make my life more convenient, is at least boycott behavior, if not anti-capitalist. I reject the idea itā€™s conservatism.

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30

I guess itā€™s a good thing after all that my bsky feed is covered in porn so that I canā€™t open it up in public.

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31

This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but a smartwatch has really helped me reach for my phone less. Often I just want to know the time or the weather or peak at my notifications and I can do all of those things from my wrist without being pinged. Iā€™ve used Pebbles in the past and have a Garmin now, all with monochrome displays that extend their battery life into the weeks. Thatā€™s the kind I recommend: something low-tech with limits on how integrated and featureful it can be so it doesnā€™t just feel like a smaller smartphone.

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32

I know a lot of YouTubers have done a ā€œNo phone for x daysā€ kind of video, but this is the best Iā€™ve seen. Eddy is not a tech guy, heā€™s not into design or fashion or travelā€¦ he comes across very much as a normal, everyday dude. Heā€™s also 28, so it isnā€™t just some older guy deciding to hate tech.

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33

My bsky isnā€™t covered in porn, but definitely has lewd art thrown in to balance out the horrors of the world. Itā€™s like, indie artists (not lewd stuff), lewd stuff, horrors reported from actual news outlets, people local to me, a couple cool people from YouTubeā€¦

34

Some of those e ink phones are real appealing to me. My best phone experience was using a windows phone from 2013-2015. I loved the UI and feel but the best thing was the lack of native apps. Couldnā€™t be on social too much or addicted to whatever hot new thing was going around my friend group bc it was such a small install base the phone was basically a pretty brick that could take photos, play music, and get directions. Miss it everyday.

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35

My biggest struggle with a smartwatch - and maybe this is just a me thing - but it feels like checking your watch with another person is somehow way more rude than checking your phone?

Obviously neither are ideal, but if my phone goes off itā€™s easier to ignore the impulse. When I have had notifications enabled on a smartwatch previously, I found myself reflexively checking my watch as soon as it buzzed and coming off to others as if I couldnā€™t wait to get out of there.

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36

I feel this too and itā€™s usually like I just want to know the weather outside before we leave or even whenā€™s the sunset or maybe I forgot what day it is (it happens!!) so I always feel compelled to remind the person Iā€™m with that thereā€™s more info on my watchface than the time because glancing at oneā€™s watch is indeed a passive aggressive-coded gesture.

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37

I agree that itā€™s boycott behavior, though I donā€™t think thereā€™s anything inherently anti-capitalist (or even leftist) about a boycott. Conservatives (as a political movement) have successfully boycotted products before. If the boycott is organized, what I think matters is the political character of the organizers. If itā€™s not organized, I would say itā€™s not relevant.

I will concede that I was too quick to simplify the impulse as conservative. It certainly can be, but Luddism was a labor movement and Iā€™m not prepared to argue that there are conservative labor movements. There probably are but Iā€™m not going to make the case.

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38

I have to renew my professional registration next month and the board sent out an email about the new process that will make it simpler and more convenient. It involves downloading an app and making an account (or figuring out the details of an old one, I havenā€™t done it yet). I have too many apps! Too many accounts! I donā€™t want any more! Coincidentally I was clearing out my filing cabinet today and came across an old renewal form from when you had to take it to the post office, show them your ID, and pay it there. Man I miss that process, even though it sucked. I wish I could just do that again.

I feel like Iā€™m turning into an old man, probably because I am, so Iā€™m suspicious of my own suspicion of technology. A lot of it is just I donā€™t like change, but I know from experience once I get used to changes sometimes they are good. I resisted Bluetooth for years, stuck with everything wired, but once I started using it I didnā€™t want to go back. Iā€™m sure a lot of it is that I donā€™t notice the tech changes I like as much as the ones I donā€™t like.

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39

I will say that Iā€™m a total tech junkieā€”just this week I was looking into a drone that would automatically follow me on my bike to film! So Iā€™m not against advanced tech, like, I love my steam deck, Iā€™ll no doubt get a switch 2, on and on

Where I am repulsed and where I push back is the mechanisms of the attention economy on our attention and the way our brains are mined by corporations. Smartphones are the most insidious entryway into those mines, which is why I have such strong feelings about them. Where I think the blame lies for my hatred of a lot of these systems (like algorithm-based social media) is their ubiquity and what theyā€™ve done to human relationships, attention spans and general way of life

And I think the social media model (every human connection available all the time) being applied to media through Netflix and Spotify and whatnot is also horrible to the arts and our experiences with them. I realized, in loading the entire Saturn redump onto my Satiator a couple years ago, that I had made my Saturn into Netflix For Saturn Games, and ended up experiencing the exact same ā€œugh what should we watch tonightā€ feeling that streaming services have done to us, but with my video gaming. And I fear for that same thing being done to gaming in general with like, the Mister and backlogs in general. Weā€™re Netflix-ifying our day to day lives, and I hate that

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40

Not jumping right into a new technology is good, as it gives time for that tech to mature and not be a buggy mess. Current development cycles focus on getting a product out fast, then having a lot of updates/patches after the fact. Jumping in early leads to frustration.

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