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?
I’m not going to give up, but I’ve really stagnated on upgrades over the past decade.
I used to get a new phone every year back when you could do that for $100 a year. Now I go five years between.
My last computer was built in 2012 and I used it until October 2024, and could have kept using it. It was fully upgraded and played all new games on high settings fine. That said, I’m extremely glad I did a new build in October 2024.
And then you have consoles. One has no exclusives and is dead, the other has two exclusives and is there, and the other is Nintendo and is expensive and has its own lineup issues, depending on who you ask.
Tech is stagnating hard and has been for a while. Buy the mid range or high end of what you can afford and acquire right now, and then sit on it for a decade.
Corporations have transformed a once enjoyable place into a dreary and unpleasant environment. I, for one, would prefer not to swim in the port-a-potty it’s become.
They’re doing that everywhere because it’s about how many dollars you can make in the short term. They don’t expect to be around long enough for it to matter some reason.
Of course not, it’s always been about the quick buck. It’s like watching telemarketing scammers run a business, if the scammers were stupid enough to shit where they eat.