I’m starting to wonder what the real benefit even is anymore. Between the technofeudal landscape we live in, where billionaires own the means of communication, data is constantly mined for profit, and surveillance is baked into every layer, it feels like I’m standing at the beach, using my bare hands to push back an endless tide.
Even when I take the so‑called “liberated” path through Linux, self‑hosting, and privacy tools, it often feels futile. The web itself is poisoned. Browsers are turning into tracking engines. Sites rely on manipulation and dark patterns. Social media is full of misinformation and ragebait.
Even open-source projects are being pulled under corporate influence (ex: Firefox adoption of AI).
It feels exhausting to route around a web that’s already been captured.
So I’m asking myself: what’s the point? Why not just step away?
Why not trade the illusion of digital control for actual peace, get a dumb phone, a CD player, and check out books, movies, music, and games from the library as my entertainment?
Does anyone else feel this way? Have you found ways to reconnect with technology?
Not completely, but more and more I find peace of mind in analog and offline spaces. Physical books feel better than e-books, a real bike is more fun than a Peleton (cheaper too), and cooking my own food is better than GrubHub.
I have an educational background in IT, but I’ve worked as a mechanic for most of my adult life. I’m a tool using primate. Tech is a tool. If a new tool improves on the old and makes life easier, I use it. If it doesn’t, it’s not worth having around. When your job is fixing things, “ain’t broke, don’t fix it” makes a lot of sense.
I’m not going to bend over backwards for tech that I don’t need just because a rich CEO tells me it’s revolutionary. I can flip a light switch, lock my doors, make a grocery list without the help of an AI fridge, and write my own emails.
Does anyone else feel this way? Have you found ways to reconnect with technology?
I’ve been stepping away slowly for a few years now. Back to low-tech and analog… and back to privacy/ownership/control. I don’t plan on giving up on tech at all, I just put it back at its place which is one tool in my toolbox that contains many more. One tool that, I quickly realized, was not even the most essential (pen and paper would be, for me).
I went much of my life with no tech. No cell, no computer, even then slow adoption. I think it has been a net negatibe, for me, and society. Now that capital has bought out all functions, created shittrusts on any remaining competition, and all maximized revenue. With a captured government, including a pet judiciary and prosecutors, there is no check on them left. No government, no consumers unions, no competition.
Even open-source projects are being pulled under corporate influence (ex: Firefox adoption of AI).
It’s open source… just fork it lol (or use a fork someone else already made)
get a dumb phone
Dumb phones have less privacy and security compared to Cheap Moto Phone + LineageOS
a CD player, and check out books, movies, music, and games from the library as my entertainment?
If you don’t own a house that you intend to live in permanently, like if you are a renter for example, its much more painful to move when you have an entire bookshelf of stuff vs just a few hard drives that can fit in a backpack.
(Edit: Also, if you can get “free” stuff online… if you know what I mean… 😉)
Tech is here to stay, tech is not a bad thing, we should direct the effort to be “how do we retake control?”
The future is: FOSS, Open Hardware, etc…
Don’t relinquish control and go amish.
Don’t bring bow and arrows to a gunfight.
IT Professional here.
I’ve been ready to burn it all down for about 20 years now.
Whenever I got called for an issue, I would tell the user “eh, just throw it out the window,” and then they would laugh like I was joking or something
Is it a printer? Hold on. I will come help you throw it out the window.
Cool, Maintenance said we can use their appliance dolly if we let em watch
I started buying physical media again (in addition to data hoarding) because I don’t like the idea of just “renting” everything and having some company decide to remove media from their catalog at any point.
Been buying books, manga, Blu-rays, DVDs, CDs, and records so I can enjoy things without the internet.
Hate the that AI is being shoved into everything as well without any ability to opt out. I’d rather just avoid using your product completely if that’s the case.
Honestly, I’d rather use dumb tech than the smart tech we were in.
Also, in terms of Linux, self-hosting, and privacy tools, I don’t think it’s futile, but rather, as someone who uses as much FOSS as possible, it is liberating if you control it. For the AI part, I’d just use Ollama and Qwen 3, as much of corporate AI is sloppy.
What about Gaming and TV shows?
My aggravation at the people who run big tech companies makes me more interested in hacking than ceding tech to them.
I think stepping back from a lot of specific tools is appropriate. I’m trying to de-Google, and I’ve left a lot of platforms. I also appreciate unnetworked things like physical media, and music and e-books on non-networked devices.
But leaving tech overall isn’t appealing to me. I just recently started getting into mesh radio, for instance. It’s dope stuff.
My aggravation at the people who run big tech companies makes me more interested in hacking than ceding tech to them.
The current wave of doomerism, which I share, is from watching them make unashamed moves to seize the means of computation from us.
You can’t hack anything if you can’t get any information on how it works, any tools to disassemble it, any devices to interface with it. They stopped printing books on these subjects, and soon the whole internet will be LLM agents that can edit the responses of. We’ll all float around in our hoverpods with our 8GB tablets like the motherfuckers in Wal-E
What really fucks me up is how enterprise has their heads burried in the sand to all this. They really think it’s a good idea to put all their little secrets in the cloud. Microsoft is going to predict every move the market makes someday…
I’m not about to give it up but I’m reducing it by a lot.
I really hope this becomes a trend, I’m really tired of smart phones and everything in our lives having to go through them.
You know what? I’ll start leaving it at home more often. Most times I’m at a walking distance from home.
There is the whole thing with hospitals using technology and I do like navigation systems and such too.
But yeah apps in general if I find myself using too much I will delete on spot and social media layouts were too confusing for me anyways.
Only exception has been voyager because it’s a source of news not funded by literal fascists.
So I’m asking myself: what’s the point? Why not just step away?
Video games are amazing and fascinatingly diverse!
Not give up on tech, but definitely refocus to resilient local solutions. And trying to minimize the harms of being always connected to the extent possible for living in society.
I am wondering if it would be cheaper to buy a small patch of woodland than buying a new GPU when mine dies. Make a little shelter and play a few small steamdeck games perhaps and leave it at that.
I hear ya. I have always loved tech. Its been the space i worked in, so it feels like i am turning my back on a lot of my beliefs, but its happening. I visit very few places online now. Its very specific sites. Probs less than 20 TBH.
I am becoming increasing hostile esp to providers who push my bounds on privacy. Example i just picked up some insurance they told me i had to use their app after i signed up, i asked for a browser link they refused. I requested a full refund. Idiots. But i agree its hard to escape the clutches even to just function…you drive you have to give details. You want a house you have to give details.
I craft and make. I enjoy that. I also agree fediverse is a real help when i am feeling out the loop.
I felt this way over a decade ago when I first started working in IT. You see how the sausage is made kind of deal and don’t want much to do with it. I love the internet and video games still, but I visit far less sites, with more privacy tools. I’m at the point where I might try Linux for gaming if not at least my workhorse PC that just browses and stores data.
