Technology

I guess? Someone also said "rhetoric", and although it counts as both of these, I'm specifically thinking about these kinds of statements you get in press releases that obnoxiously try to paint the world the way that the company needs it to be in order to justify what they're doing.

Things like "Customers don't like regulations that stop us giving them the best service", "Our users are clear that they want the freedom to choose what subscription models work for them", you know? Those kind of weaselly shit on my pie and tell me it's a blueberry statements, where they dishonestly attempt to pose as the good guys wanting to do best for the world. They clearly must know that nobody actually falls for it, but they say it anyway because they need it to be out there in order for their paid-off politicians and useful idiots to have something to support deregulation.

I have one of those echo ball looking things with a clock on it. I mostly just use it to play atmospheric noise and set alarms and as a clock. I do get ads sometimes. Sometimes I ask it to play something and it will ask me to subscribe to something. Sometimes it will notify me of a price drop on Amazon. I'll probably get rid of it soon. My life has just been hectic lately, and I haven't had the time to set something else up to replace it yet. Going to completely de-big-tech soon (I'm mostly there already); I don't trust them, with them being so close to this fascist admin. I think it's likely these will be used for state surveillance; some of big tech's products and services already are.

For me, there's no level of advertisement that is permissible, no matter how seemingly inoffensive the ad may be. It's still an ad.

In my own home on a device I paid for, it's simply not happening.

My tolerance is zero, because I am not willing to accept this ad-saturated society that we have somehow been generationally conditioned into thinking is acceptable.

Yeah, ppl say 'if it's free, you're the product.' and that sentiment feels like it applies here.

I was falling down that hole about 2 years ago. I've always been a tech nerd, big scifi fan, etc so the tech advancements lately were really cool to me. Integration was such a cool concept. A fridge that could see inside itself, track what was in it, and suggest when it's time to get more of something just seemed so futuristic. Screens everywhere with weather and useful info really played into my childhood dreams watching scifi movies and tv. I've since done a complete 180 and as of 2 months ago finally completely cut out all big tech, but there's a big push for people like me to fall into the trap of "I don't need it, but it's so cool".

I think you are severely underestimating how computer illiterate most people are. Many people I know struggle to use their Iphones. Not long ago a friend asked me to help him turn on subtitles on a streaming service on his smart TV.

Exactly. It's not the smart part of a device that is the problem. That's an extreme overreaction.

The problem with most smart devices today is that they are proprietary, non-fully libre and open source, for-profit, cloud-connected, corporate committee designed spyware, adware, and bloatware.

Devices that are fully FLOSS (firmware, hardware, software) and based on open and free standards and protocols are awesome, but they get easily forgotten.

The Internet and your technology can be so much better. Demand it.