6 ms·

Big tech is making everyone's life miserable: social media, advertising, surveillance. By working for them you are enabling this.

saidnooneever 9mo ago
[flagged]
- duskdozer 9mo ago
  I do choose big tech less, but over time it finds its way to creep back in. Over time it becomes increasingly more difficult to engage with a society increasingly more dependent on it. It's not just stop using facebook and degoogle your phone.
- boelboel 9mo ago
  In most countries living in the woods on your own isn't allowed. You're forced to be connected if you want a job, social life, not be seen as a crazy person. You pretend like we're all living on some island where everything is merely decided by what you as an individual do. In my home country several old people had to close their shop as they were forced to move to a digital accounting system, they didn't have a choice. My bank only allows me to go to their office without an appointment 1 day a week (maybe not even). My grandpa who doesn't have a phone (he never even got a landline), doesn't have internet and barely even drives, he has to depend on others to call and make appointments. If you want to apply for a job, you need internet connection. Many won't even hire you without owning a car (even if you could perfectly commute with a bicycle or public transport). If you think we're at the end of this 'evolution', we're just getting started. My grandpa could perfectly do everything on his own until 2010, by 2018 it was getting almost impossible, 2026 he feels like a burden for not being into technology.
- paprikanotfound 9mo ago
  unfortunately it will not be enough to just choose not to "do big tech" while the rest of society around you degrades. i.e. try going outside into the woods next to an ai datacenter and see if it really doesnt kill you.
- johnnyanmac 9mo ago
  Cover my rent and I'll happily do that. Otherwise, I'm not going to just build a log cabin in the woods.
IshKebab 9mo ago
They're not making my life miserable. I definitely wouldn't want to go back to the tech we had in the 90s. You don't have to use social media. Advertising is annoying but it's not really any worse than TV ads back in the day.
- camgunz 9mo ago
  You don't think the political situation is a teensy bit worse now?
  - DiscourseFan 9mo ago
    The political situation is absurd, but its clear that people are far more resilient against state control, so in some ways its improving.
  - harvey9 9mo ago
    The west was enjoying the peace dividend while Russians were dealing with the collapse of the USSR so the answer to your question depends on who you ask.
  - mlrtime 9mo ago
    If we're talking the 90s, No. The US is not at war invading another country (Iraq).
  - IshKebab 9mo ago
    We were talking about big tech, not global politics.
    - camgunz 9mo ago
      There's a clear connection between tech (social media, loneliness epidemic, etc) and political decline.
      - IshKebab 9mo ago
        No there isn't.
teiferer 9mo ago
> Big tech is making everyone's life miserable: I understand that sentiment, but it's very one-sided. I enjoy having the worlds knowledge at my fingertips. I enjoy being able to video-call my family from anywhere in the world at any time. I enjoy never being lost cause I always have a map showing where I am. I enjoy having group chats with all my different social groups, big and small. I enjoy being able to easily work from home. None of the above was possible just 20 years ago. All of them are enabled by big tech and none of them is based on surveillance, ads or social media. Yes there are drawbacks. I also find them bad to a point of threatening society. But we need to ack the positives, otherwise it's not an honest debate but only a mix of ranting and populist propaganda.
- pharrington 9mo ago
  Did you mean 30 years ago?
- hnlmorg 9mo ago
  > None of the above was possible just 20 years ago. Most of those things were actually possible. In many cases they weren’t as convenient, but as a child of the 80s I can tell you that life wasn’t like the dark ages before we all got smart phones. In any case, I don’t think anyone here is arguing against technological progress. What we’re saying is that big tech has been too powerful, and too unregulated, for far too long.
  - DiscourseFan 9mo ago
    I think you'll find that most of the texts you can access right now are not available at your local library.
    - pharrington 9mo ago
      And most of the texts you can access at the local library aren't even at that local library right now. Libraries are part of a humongous network. If you're willing to wait a few days, there's an avalanche of material that you definitely can't instantly find on the internet.
scoofy 9mo ago
>> Big tech is making everyone's life miserable > Sent from my iPhone. But seriously, this is a political problem, not a technological problem. The harms of technology are like the harms of the food industry or the gambling industry. Those of us who care, know these things can be bad for society, and we regulate them. Our society doesn’t care, we literally just legalized sports gambling, and the leagues have embraced it, forgetting the clear history of what happened last time. Hating technology is like hating metal because you don’t like gun deaths. The problem is that our electorate has stopped caring about society.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]

saidnooneever 9mo ago

[flagged]

duskdozer 9mo ago
I do choose big tech less, but over time it finds its way to creep back in. Over time it becomes increasingly more difficult to engage with a society increasingly more dependent on it. It's not just stop using facebook and degoogle your phone.
boelboel 9mo ago
In most countries living in the woods on your own isn't allowed. You're forced to be connected if you want a job, social life, not be seen as a crazy person. You pretend like we're all living on some island where everything is merely decided by what you as an individual do. In my home country several old people had to close their shop as they were forced to move to a digital accounting system, they didn't have a choice. My bank only allows me to go to their office without an appointment 1 day a week (maybe not even). My grandpa who doesn't have a phone (he never even got a landline), doesn't have internet and barely even drives, he has to depend on others to call and make appointments. If you want to apply for a job, you need internet connection. Many won't even hire you without owning a car (even if you could perfectly commute with a bicycle or public transport). If you think we're at the end of this 'evolution', we're just getting started. My grandpa could perfectly do everything on his own until 2010, by 2018 it was getting almost impossible, 2026 he feels like a burden for not being into technology.
paprikanotfound 9mo ago
unfortunately it will not be enough to just choose not to "do big tech" while the rest of society around you degrades. i.e. try going outside into the woods next to an ai datacenter and see if it really doesnt kill you.
johnnyanmac 9mo ago
Cover my rent and I'll happily do that. Otherwise, I'm not going to just build a log cabin in the woods.

IshKebab 9mo ago

They're not making my life miserable. I definitely wouldn't want to go back to the tech we had in the 90s. You don't have to use social media. Advertising is annoying but it's not really any worse than TV ads back in the day.

camgunz 9mo ago
You don't think the political situation is a teensy bit worse now?
- DiscourseFan 9mo ago
  The political situation is absurd, but its clear that people are far more resilient against state control, so in some ways its improving.
- harvey9 9mo ago
  The west was enjoying the peace dividend while Russians were dealing with the collapse of the USSR so the answer to your question depends on who you ask.
- mlrtime 9mo ago
  If we're talking the 90s, No. The US is not at war invading another country (Iraq).
- IshKebab 9mo ago
  We were talking about big tech, not global politics.
  - camgunz 9mo ago
    There's a clear connection between tech (social media, loneliness epidemic, etc) and political decline.
    - IshKebab 9mo ago
      No there isn't.

teiferer 9mo ago

> Big tech is making everyone's life miserable: I understand that sentiment, but it's very one-sided. I enjoy having the worlds knowledge at my fingertips. I enjoy being able to video-call my family from anywhere in the world at any time. I enjoy never being lost cause I always have a map showing where I am. I enjoy having group chats with all my different social groups, big and small. I enjoy being able to easily work from home. None of the above was possible just 20 years ago. All of them are enabled by big tech and none of them is based on surveillance, ads or social media. Yes there are drawbacks. I also find them bad to a point of threatening society. But we need to ack the positives, otherwise it's not an honest debate but only a mix of ranting and populist propaganda.

pharrington 9mo ago
Did you mean 30 years ago?
hnlmorg 9mo ago
> None of the above was possible just 20 years ago. Most of those things were actually possible. In many cases they weren’t as convenient, but as a child of the 80s I can tell you that life wasn’t like the dark ages before we all got smart phones. In any case, I don’t think anyone here is arguing against technological progress. What we’re saying is that big tech has been too powerful, and too unregulated, for far too long.
- DiscourseFan 9mo ago
  I think you'll find that most of the texts you can access right now are not available at your local library.
  - pharrington 9mo ago
    And most of the texts you can access at the local library aren't even at that local library right now. Libraries are part of a humongous network. If you're willing to wait a few days, there's an avalanche of material that you definitely can't instantly find on the internet.

scoofy 9mo ago

>> Big tech is making everyone's life miserable > Sent from my iPhone. But seriously, this is a political problem, not a technological problem. The harms of technology are like the harms of the food industry or the gambling industry. Those of us who care, know these things can be bad for society, and we regulate them. Our society doesn’t care, we literally just legalized sports gambling, and the leagues have embraced it, forgetting the clear history of what happened last time. Hating technology is like hating metal because you don’t like gun deaths. The problem is that our electorate has stopped caring about society.

deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]