on being a luddite

i recently realised that i have a strong distaste for the way technology intersects with daily life nowadays. 

i'd like to make it clear that i'm not anti technology in the sense that it has helped improve modern life et cetera et cetera i don't believe we should go back to workhouses and cotton mills and whatever. i can have an opinion on this while also enjoying the good sides of technological advances. i'd put that one comic here but i'm lazy.

i grew up at the tail end of the decentralised internet and frankly the fact that the internet pretty much consists of a handful of different social media sites (unless you're tech savvy or care enough to try and decentralise things) is incredibly depressing to me. partly it's because i don't fully understand twitter - if you're not famous, what's the point? why would people follow you? - but also partly because i remember when forums ruled supreme and the internet was more of a "see what you can find" rather than "see what gets handed to you". i liked the freedom of choosing what you wanted to see rather than being spoonfed things via an algorithm. there doesn't feel like there are different sites anymore - everything is available to buy on amazon, all the videos are on YouTube, everyone's on twitter.

i also hate how having a mobile phone has eroded my right to privacy in the sense that it's expected that i'm reachable all the time and the mere act of me owning a mobile phone is an invitation to be constantly bothered by notifications. sure, i could downgrade to a nokia brick and use that but as a university student i'm beholden to emails and stupid web portals for timetables (seriously, could they not give us printable ones?) and people trying to call me because "i'm busy" isn't an option anymore. 

i was gonna write more but i'm exhausted and i don't need to labour my point because i think you all get the idea. fuck phones. we live in a society.