PartyOf5 wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 10:29 am
I feel myself slowly retreating into the shadows. I already backed out of live tv and all it's commercials long ago, and with no sports it's 100% complete. I am glad that I don't subscribe to music services that are now deciding what I should be listening to. I can happily listen to my 100gb of digital music on m own server, free of any "guidance". I'm now backing away from even checking ESPN for the hope of news on sports returning as it is turned into nothing but a black history month site and more lecturing from athletes and sports talking heads who have no sports to talk about. I'm tired of the endless riot, looting, protesting, killing videos taking up my YT page and then all of the non-political channels I watch diving into the discussion as well.
I am still working a stressful job full time. I still have to deal with stress and work in my life outside of my job every day as well. I look to these other things for a break from all that stress. As they turn into avenues for adding more stress to my life I will leave them for other forms of entertainment. That is quickly becoming a pre-internet lifestyle, with things that don't force-feed me what they think I want and barrage me what they want me to see and hear. Pretty soon I'll be back in 1988
Yup. I dumped cable TV a decade ago, as an IT guy people used to question why I don't have a "smart" phone (I do have a "dumb" flip phone)... Even on the tablet now it annoys the crap out of me to constantly be asked to "download our app" for whatever site/service - fuck that, I'll use the web browser thanks, I don't want even more things spying on me. Alexa, Siri, etc... Hell no.
Honestly other than the tablet I rarely even use a computer. I deliberately look to buy low-tech when I can. Even my car I bought a few years back - I wanted a key... Half the cars I looked at had push button start or electronic door entry only - not *one* dealer could answer my question of "when the car battery dies how do I open the door to get to the hood release so I can jump start it or replace the battery?" I got lots of "ummmm" and that I'd have to call them to "break in" to my car... (And then what if I left my phone in the car? Ok, we won't go there).
I drove a friend to the dealer to pick up his new Subaru a couple years back. While showing him stuff in the car he noticed the clock was wrong - their first question? "Wheres your iPhone?" They looked shocked when he said he doesn't have a cell phone, then they asked me and I showed them my flip phone... And then of course I had to ask why you'd need a phone to set the clock? The owners manual was worthless, and with all the buttons and levers and such on the steering wheel to control everything including the radio it took them 45 minutes and 3 different dealer employees to figure out how to set the clock. Remember when it was just two buttons, set/advance, and it took a minute? "Progress"

(And there's not even a push button door remote, it unlocks on proximity of the keyfob to the door - they couldn't answer my battery question either, which my friend found out a year later from an electrical problem that drained the battery and left him waiting 45 minutes for the dealer and over an hour late to work).
Me, I'm annoyed only the driver's side door on my car has a key lock - because my old car I had to climb in on the passenger side a few times when the driver's side lock froze in winter. At least I'll be able to get in if the battery is dead (which was twice in 20 years on my old car - but I guess people don't keep cars long enough for the battery to die these days?).
Sometimes I find myself hoping for that EMP event.

"People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think, don't run, don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome."