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Gadgets for life on a miserable planet: At the Consumer Electronics Show, the only solution for technology-induced stress is more technology
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- Title
- Eternal Sunshine of the Tech-Optimized Mind
- Authors
- Amanda Mull
- Published
- Jan 14 2020
- Word count
- 515 words
Unfortunately it seems like tech companies have Hero syndrome and they've created one hell of a situation for us to resolve.
This post also has an article about the same fundamental issue.
This was exactly the highlight of the article for me as well. Absolutely nails the state of affairs, and honestly makes me feel a little self conscious that I have an Apple Watch. Do I really need one to tell me I should exercise more? Or to let me know someone has texted?
Did people feel this way about technology 10 years ago?
[...]
These two quotes pretty much sum up my feelings about tech in recent years. I had a rant about consumerism last night that is still fresh in mind so my points may get muddled a bit but they'll all still apply to tech I think. I just really can't think of the last time I saw anything consumer-tech wise that actually interested me or seemed like it served a genuine need. Instead I just see endless announcements of homogeneous apps or products that all feed on the same societal-based anxieties that's main goal seems to be (a) Convince people buying a new piece of tech will 'fix their problems' (more likely just mask them) rather than questioning why they put up with being so miserable all the time and (b) Harvest as much data as possible to make way higher profits. It's just exhausting. Every time I read one of these articles I think of the low-tech "cults" (they aren't all cults but a lot of them are cults) in rural areas of the US and think about going and joining one.
Well said. I feel exactly the same. Like everything else in our capitalist world tech has finally been overrun by profit and nothing else. It's exhausting and disheartening because I was so thrilled and optimistic about tech 10-15 years ago and the endless possibilities to solve or at least better some of these problems.