Paywalled article. Pretty fucking apt.
Strange, it’s not paywalled for me. Does this community allows to paste whole articles?
As an IT person I get it.
Especially printers.
PC Load Letter?! The fuck does that mean?
Cheaper to buy a new one than more ink. Fucking extortionate.
Yeah but the cartridges that come with a new printer are usually only 1/3 full. As another guy said, get a printer that uses toner. They’re more expensive (because you’re actually paying for the printer) but you don’t have to worry about ink drying out because it’s toner, it’s supposed to be dry.
Inkjet printers are basically a scam, if you don’t print all that often, the ink will probably be dried up when you go to use it, and if you print frequently, it’ll be cheaper to have a laser printer that uses toner in terms of per page cost.
Refillable inkjets are starting to become a thing. Cool thing about those is that they’re often smaller than a color laser.
Given that I don’t print very often these days. I like having a small printer that I can chuck in a drawer or a closet during the 360 days of the year that I don’t need it.
I want this bad boy: https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer
If it would run a open source firmware or be open source hardware, it would be nice. But they are using a non-OSI/non-FSF license, so it is not open source.
Toner all the way.
For every second you have your headphones in on the train, you’re not talking to anybody and you’re not taking in the world. For every one of those seconds, how much of your life do you let pass by?" one man asked.
Lmao what the fuck
Well I consider talking to strangers in public a waste of time, so what now?
Its a call to be present.
There is nothing inherently wrong with wearing headphones on the train, but ask yourself why you’re doing it.
If you put on Headphones to keep people from talking to you, you’re making the choice to opt out of the human experience.?Make that choice every day on a 45 minute commute and after only a week 7.5 hours where you’ve opted out of chance encounter, conversation, possibly meeting a new friend or partner. It might not be a bad idea to make the choice to NOT disconnect, actively choosing to engage in the world around us makes a huge difference in how we percieve it, and how it percieves us.
An experiment I’d suggest, if you’re the type to default to using your phone as an idle activity:
Next time you’re idle and get the urge to pull out your phone, instead look around you and find the most interesting thing you can see. Why is it interesting? Is there anything abnormal about it? Is it’s place significant? Take that and note it in your mind, have a conversation with a coworker about it later. Then take note, how did this pointless conversation make me feel?
Being present by choice, especially if done often, will create chances to engage with the World, and its inhabitants.
The other day someone told me life was boring. Put the phone down, make more than the 2 meter cone you can see from around your phone visible, and you’ll find the World has a lot of engagement to offer.
I don’t any randos talking to me on the train. Commute is worse enough without people trying to “connect with me” during it.
Lots of research shows that random social interactions are far more enjoyable than people expect them to be.
It’s like 90% drunk homeless people that talk to you on trains and buses though. It gets tiring.
If I want chance encounters with sober people, I’ll go to the bar. I mean eventually the people there get drunk too, but it’s a nice “5 hours and 10 beers” drunk not “what month and/or year is it” drunk.
I expect it not to happen and hope it stays that way since. Please jusr don’t bother me while I’m on the train
Noted. If we ever see you we’ll ignore you.
Just post your name and photo so we know what you look like. Thanks.
I’m the person on public transit
But I don’t mind people talking to me so how do others differentiate us?
Or getting hit on. I’m just trying to go home, I have no desire to chat with you. I’m busy go away.
That’s kinda what I’m saying though. Those aren’t randos! They’re other people taking the same commute as you, every day. Make a connection with one and you might start to notice them more. Maybe you have a similar hobby or interest.
Give people a chance to enter your life and they often become more than randos on the train. Maybe you find a commute partner, someone to chat with or bitch to about Jane in Accounting.
I’m not gonna try to convince you, Clearly you saw my point and chose to reject it, that’s your choice. I’d urge you to give different thinking a chance though.
They’re random people I most likely have never seen before and probably won’t ever see again. I live in the city, not a small town where everyone knows each other. The idea of trying to connect with the poor sobs who ended up in the same train as me sounds both crazy and draining as fuck. Not the least bit because where I live, most people cherish that moment to themselves and you’d be fucking that up and bothering them.
If I was commuting with the same four people every day I’d be more likely to talk to them but not in a full ass train with random people.
They’re random people I most likely have never seen before and probably won’t ever see again.
And why do you think that? Have you paid attention to the people around you? If you and another person get to work at the same time, and live in the same area then odds are you will encounter them again. There might be a million people in your city. But how many of them have the exact same commute as you?
Also so what if you never see them again on the train? What if you end up really liking them, get their number, and stay in contact?
And why do you think that
Because I have eyes and easily recognize faces. And a shitload of people have the same work schedule and commute in and out the same time. And it’s a big ass train.
For every one of those seconds, how much of your life do you let pass by?" one man asked.
Well, one second I’d estimate
Every 60 seconds, a minute passes in Africa.
Dear god.
That was my first thought as well, but I think he means things, not time. You miss this thing and that as you stare at your phone. So in that second of mindless scrolling, you missed things around you that might have added something to your day, to your life. So ‘how much of your life do you let pass by’ is not asking how many seconds of life did you let pass by (though that is the first thought upon reading), but ‘how many things that could have affected your life- for the better or worse- do you let pass you by?’
Probably should have said “looking at your phone” instead of “have your headphones on”.
Yeah I totally get what he’s saying here and do agree with the message overall, just thought that was a funny way to put it.
I’m a fan of taking back control over my tech, not giving up control. They’re treating it like there’s no other option.
If you listen between the lines we are given by tech companies, right now there is no other option.
Its hard to believe that someone would be aware enough to go to something like this, while not being aware of the existence of alternative solutions that give you more control. But these people do definitely exist. At the same time i think that this group of people is probably quite diverse with some being complete hardliners that want zero tech while others are just against the kind that is extremely damaging to society and the world.
I dunno.
Multiple people in my friend group are aware of the issues with big tech companies.
But the second you bring up FOSS with them, or Linux gets mentioned, they either disengage completely or get angry. One of these people heads an IT department.
I don’t know why they react that way. The weird part is, they’ll happily use FOSS software like VLC or something Minecraft launcher. The second you say it’s FOSS they actually seem less into the software, not more.
I get it. My first introduction to FOSS was getting insulted by people for not knowing about FOSS, and it really put me off of things. It was made abundantly clear to me that only smart people know about Linux, and if I didn’t know about Linux, I was too stupid to run Linux and needed to stick to Windows like the loser I was.
So I stuck to Windows because I’d rather be a loser than an asshole. I have since tried linux, but everybody hates that I think Ubuntu is good for n00bs, so there is no winning.
This comment makes me sad. But I also feel like I’ve seen this. I honestly don’t know where the hate for FOSS comes from. Has this person that hates FOSS ever explained their hatred? Genuinely curious how someone could hate options.
I think it’s a product of having grown up during the time when accessing commercial applications was about as easy as accessing the free ones at a time where many of the free ones were just pale imitations. And before the enshitification had really gotten going.
I think few open source projects enjoy the user satisfaction that VLC does. Even Linux itself is not as friendly to its users.
VLC (by cause or by effect?) also doesn’t have evangelists trying to push it. It doesn’t need them. Contrarianism is a strong motivator in today’s culture.
VLC definitely has evangelists, they have just become the dominant culture so you don’t really notice it. They don’t have an advertising budget, it got popular through word of mouth.
I think Linux enthusiasts appear more evangelical because of the deep entrenchment of Windows; you are noticing the push back and debate, whereas with VLC you just see people recommending it and people being grateful for the recommendation.
It’s the same with vegan food
Yeah i know these creatures exist, but i will never understand them. Im always maximally hyped when i see good FOSS alternatives even if they have some minor drawbacks. For example this beautiful app which does OCR and translation completely offline in one app https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dev.davidv.translator/
Angry about what specifically?
The author works for business inside. He’s 100 % on board with all the heinous shit tech companies are doing
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater because they think all tech is is walled gardens on toy hardware. Sad. We failed the next generation.
Late stage capitalism is what this is.
The term “late stage capitalism” is not a call to action, it’s a call to apathy. It’s promoted by online influencers to make it permissible to participate in capitalistic endeavors (it doesn’t matter the collapse is inevitable) so they can entice people to buy their merch so they can be rich. It’s a sign that leftism has been successfully captured by capitalism.
Came here to say this lol
What’s the reference here?
Old school runescape gnome child. Don’t think there is more meaning to it then just that they are dressed as gnomes lol
Appstinence is just one of a seemingly growing constellation of groups, mostly led by young people, advocating for reduced reliance on technology, either for one’s own mental health or as a protest against powerful tech companies that have an ever-growing hold on all aspects of our lives.
I’ma be real with you. Choosing to dump technology entirely instead of learning to use it responsibly and finding things that aren’t dominated by corporations looking to control us seems really short sighted and leaning into false promise of things being different at best.
It’s quite like the whole Climate Change movement and how we won’t do anything to constrain giant corporations or billionaires in how they impact the planet, but instead individuals (often poverty stricken) are expected to shoulder the burden through recycling programs that don’t even end up recycling what those individuals take the time to sort.
It’s also eerily similar to the anti-AI movement which focuses on all the most negative aspects of AI generation, ignores the benefits of locally-hosted models as opposed to giant models owned by corporations run out of energy and water hogging data-centers, and similarly ignores that the AI that consistently is a failure is general purpose AI whereas highly specialized AI is often very successful. I am by no means an AI lover, I don’t use it at all in my every day life, but I think it’s foolhardy to write it off entirely instead of making regulations that prevent this kind of environment-destroying investment in endless data centers for profit. Much like the Climate Change issue, it’s the smallest and weakest among us shouldering the burden, making our own lives harder, while nothing materially changes and AI advances anyway.
These modern Luddites are not wrong that some aspects of the modern era are terrible, but some of the things they decry are the same things that are so beautiful about it. When I was a young person, finding LGBTQ+ or atheist groups was basically impossible without the internet. As someone who grew up in a relatively rural area, it was hard to make friends and connections even in a mostly unconnected world (I am in my forties, for reference, so I grew up in the era of CompuServe and AOL being the only “online” options). Having the internet suddenly opened me up to finding people who I could actually be open and vulnerable with, something I couldn’t say was true about most of my IRL peers at the time. Returning to that, especially at a period where Christofascism is taking hold, is asking to let the Christofascists dictate how society looks and functions and removing those footholds of access for people who are queer or atheist or disabled. It returns us to an unconnected world where people suffer in silence for decades not knowing that there is nothing wrong with who they are deep down as they are regularly shamed and abused by their IRL peers for not appearing or acting the “right” way.
Especially with the likelihood of modern communication methods being clamped down upon, embracing the technology and finding ways to use it to benefit humankind instead of deciding it’s all evil is the way forward. The world was, for example, a better place with Fred Rogers in it, who leveraged the technology of television, often villainized as terrible for children, as a way to connect with children and educate them in a healthy, humane, and loving way. I see shades of that type of villainization in this movement, equating screen time with being unhealthy.
All tools are able to be misused. All tools are able to be used positively. It’s all in who is using those tools and what their aims and intents are. A hammer can be used to both create and destroy in positive ways in the trade of construction. A hammer can also be wielded as a violent, dangerous weapon. It all depends on whose hands it is in, and what they aim to use that tool for.
Dropping technology instead of standing for using it in positive ways will always be tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Nah, ludditism is the way. Sincerely, a tech bro.
The newer generation of tech users know only of a narrow subset of technology from big tech / ad tech. They know little of anything at all the grassroots era of technology.
Yeah I think the focus should be on technological sovereignty, not abstinence. We need control over our data, control over our software, control over our devices, control over our hardware, and through these things we can gain control over our lives while still accessing these extremely useful tools. We need our own search engines, our own operating systems, our own applications, our own email, our own social media, our own video hosting, etc etc. We can never go back, the only way out is through.
This is extremely hard and expensive, though. It’ll require mass organization of millions of people, we can’t do it as individuals.
That’s correct. We can’t put the genie back in the bottle. We have to increase our mastery of it instead.
The core relationship is rather simple and needs to be redefined. Remote compute does not assign numbers to any of us, we provide them with identities we create.
All data allowances are revokable. Systems need to be engineered to make the flow of data transparent and easy to manage.
No one can censor us to other people without the consent of the viewer. This means moderation needs to be redefined. We subscribe to moderation, and it is curated towards what we individually want to see. No one makes the choice for us on what we can and cannot see.
This among much more in the same thread of thinking is needed. Power back to the people, entrenched by mastery.
When you think like this more and more the pattern becomes clearer, and you know what technology to look for. The nice thing is, all of this is possible right now at our current tech level. That can bring a lot of hope.
There‘s a lot of emotions there that lead to irrational decisions. I can‘t really blame them. These tiny slabs robbed them of a childhood that me and many other generations got to enjoy.
Appstinence is something that I couldn‘t imagine doing because it‘s so drastic and I don‘t have that kind of relationship with my phone where that would be preferable or necessary. But they definitely do and maybe they will learn to have a more healthy relationship to technology afterwards. This could be a necessary step toward a better future for them.
Even bob marley was a small axe.
One counter point is young people drive the technology trends. Look at how social media and the Internet in general took off in the early 2000-2010s, it was driven by younger generations using these technologies. Now everyone is on social media after the younger generations at the time pioneered it.
If younger generations do rejected apps, smart phones, and surveillance capitalism, maybe there could be change in the direction.
Holy shit. I think this is the best comment I have ever read in my entire life. I’ve been complaining about the exact same things to my IRL peers and they all think I’m nuts for having these “beliefs”. Especially the one about recycling.
Excellent, insightful comment and I very much appreciate and resonate with this response.
I do think the protest serves to raise awareness, even if it’s a bit extreme. The desired effect is not really to encourage the complete rejection of tech, but bring attention to the issues and get the average person to think a little more about their usage of it. I’m actually kind of proud of these young folks for being able to snap themselves out of the social media-induced hypnotic state their generation seems to be stuck in.
Standing ovation 👏
The rare comment that is so good, I upvote all comments that applaud it!
I might be one of the few in this thread who really empathizes with the perspectives of the protesters here
I’m not in a position to cut tech out of my life, but for people who are and dont need or depend on it for something important, it may do a lot of harm for little benefit.
But whether there’s important benefit will vary from person to person. I have a very isolating sleep disorder, and the internet allows me a little bit more connection than I would get otherwise. And home automation helps shoulder some of the load of managing environmental variables that impact my sleep. And there are also technological things that bring me joy.
But not everyone is in a position where their only connection to others is through the internet (if you’re queer in a small town, maybe it is, if you’re queer in a big city or you’re straight that probably isn’t an issue)
There are ofcourse benefits to technology, some of which you can better access through FOSS software, or community projects, or self hosting. But not everyone needs those things, and even those things can have harmful downsides. I think the hyper convenience that much of tech provides is not exactly great for us. Even the fediverse platforms can be addicting, can prioritize stuff that makes you angry, etc, because they copy the underlying design of proprietary social media (even without recommendation algorithms). I struggle to manage how much time I spend engaging with these platforms. Not as much as with reddit, but I still do, and am now creating structure around engaging more in moderation.
I don’t love creating e-waste though. I get that it’s symbolic, I still think it’s wasteful and has no meaningful upsides. It feels deeply privileged to not grasp how that could be a lifeline for poor people who need a way to connect, keep up with work, handle digital tasks like banking and telemedicine, etc, and to smash it on the ground instead of donating it to someone who couldn’t afford a reliable device.
I have no idea what smashing perfectly functional devices is supposed to accomplish. I mean yeah, it’s an anti-tech rally, but creating e-waste is kinda shitty.
Actually, I don’t think I get the point of this whole thing at all. They’re not rallying against climate change or fascism, it’s just “phone bad”. I guess I’m just too old to get it…
Symbolism is a very important aspect of public protest and the consequential reporting on and influence of it.
Actually, I don’t think I get the point of this whole thing at all. They’re not rallying against climate change or fascism, it’s just “phone bad”.
I didn’t read the article in full, but it was pretty clear to me right away from the top. They’re saying: We as a society should prioritize real human connection over consuming big tech platforms.
Can’t open source Apple phones.
So basically, getting rid of tech that spies on you and can’t be used anymore after a certain point I guess.
And unlike books, tech has made some things worse. Job applications for one thing. When we were young, recruiters had to physically read the letters and/or places hiring had to physically see you in person.
Now hiring agencies just use automated tools (even before AI) and you get ghosted constantly.
Renting and housing has gotten more expensive because prices can be changed on the fly based on market data available 24/7 (effigy is illegal in many places, but that law rarely enforced).
And that’s not getting into brainrot AI content and manipulative machinations of social media.
There’s definitely reasons to be frustrated at tech for the younger generation. And even justifiable reasons to destroy closed source tech.
Comparing to book burnings is only a false equivalence, as you’re not destroying information, you’re destroying locks that require special keys, unlike FOSS.
So basically, getting rid of tech that spies on you and can’t be used anymore after a certain point I guess.
There are enough people that are perfectly fine with having any phone or any device to do basic stuff like making calls. And besides, if you wanted to get rid of something there are more responsible ways to do that than “me don’t like, me smash” IMO
And that’s not getting into brainrot AI content and manipulative machinations of social media.
It’s very easy to not use social media (in a harmful way) and not consume brainrot AI content in my opinion. Sure, it’s getting more difficult to differentiate I guess, but it’s still not that difficult if you try even a little bit
Comparing to book burnings is only a false equivalence
Which is why I didn’t make that comparison, I guess you wanted to reply to @[email protected]
There are enough people that are perfectly fine with having any phone or any device to do basic stuff like making calls.
And those people will already have at least a feature phone. The poor don’t stop eating because someone else burns gilded pork fat. In both cases because those things are needed (food, communication in modern society for basic services and work).
It’s very easy to not use social media (in a harmful way) and not consume brainrot AI content in my opinion. Sure, it’s getting more difficult to differentiate I guess, but it’s still not that difficult if you try even a little bit
It actually isn’t. The algorithms for most social media are designed to release dopamine, and humans tend to be social creatures. Sure, if more of society and people knew of the harms it causes, especially particular ones, then it would be easier. But right now? It’s like trying to tell people they shouldn’t smoke in the 1950s.
Btw, we’re using social media right now. Lemmy isn’t immune, and there’s definitely bad actors here that use social media negatively. You either have to avoid All or constantly block communities.
Which is why I didn’t make that comparison, I guess you wanted to reply to @[email protected]
Whoops yeah, that last part was for them.
Destroying perfectly functional tech really bothered me too from an environmentalist standpoint. I am always trying to rescue old but working tech and trying to find a use for it or fix it up to pass on to someone in need.
yeah you are very likely too old to get it
It’s similar to burning books IMO.
Buying something just to destroy it will always be moronic no matter what the item is.
It only accomplishes to make the company that makes those items make more money, so they can make even more items.
Big rally. Wonder how they organised so many people.
Apparently this was advertised on Substack, some sort of “media platform” (??)
One attendee told me they heard about it through word of mouth, which makes sense.
Ha! Good one.
At least it’s a practice what you preach example. I know far more people that love to preach and the attention it gives them and then mostly does the exact opposite. Sometimes so much to the opposite that they’re more predatory than things/people they preach against
I honestly wish I didn’t have to rely on apps made by corpos just to stay updated in school. And I would probably need to use Google and Windows products once I start work. Ugh
This brings person of interest scenario, where someone was using a guy to do protests etc, with messages against the government and AI(the machine). Correct me if I remember wrong.
Ah the humble beginning of the rallies where they smash androids ALA Stanley Kubrick’s A.I. the kids ain’t alright.
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