I'm so glad you shared Jane's essay. When I read it earlier this week,I loved it.
I am the tech support in our household which isn't saying much. The big difference between my partner and me is that I read the instructions, even if I have to search them out each time the wifi goes down or the phones need a kick in the pants. Printers, however, defeat me. I actually broke mine when I was trying to change the ink. Tore the tip right off. Anger may have been involved.
The easy button was a lie both on the computer and my pants!
I'd think about turning off the internet, but then I'd have to wait days for you to mail Situation Normal assuming you could get the computer and printer to work.
Printers suck because that way they can keep selling you more of them.
CD's aren't gone. I just bought some a week ago. Rip the CD to the computer, load it on the phone and listen to what you really want in the car.
The people available to do more tech support are trying to build the machine to do it at least as badly as the people who do tech support now.
1. My biggest beef with technology is that it's supposed to be less work/brainload than analog solutions and for me IT NEVER IS!!!
2. I would 100% push that button (after I memorized all my closest friend's phone numbers like I used to in middle/high school. I would move to a quiet place with ample hammock hanging locations and spend my days writing and talking to my closest friends on the phone. There would be dogs and ponies, too. And a rainbow a day, at least.
3. Printers are co-artists designed to bleed you dry paying for ink cartridges. I print about 10 sheets of paper a year and I've spend like $250 on ink. It's possible I'm exaggerating a bit in both directions. But only a BIT.
4. I still play CDs in my car. I miss mix tapes.
5. The machines are smarter than the people who built them is my guess. Or douchier. Either way, machines 1: humanity: 0.
When in college, I digitized old tapes and I cannot tell you how many hours of my life were spent sitting on the floor crying over a betamax player that wouldn't spit tapes out. The only advice "experts" could give was just keep turning it on and off and keep q-tips on hand for cleaning.
Your CDs always worked? No issues with scratches or skips in the Walkman? I love the aesthetic of CDs - the colorful discs - but for physical music media, I’m more nostalgic for cassettes, and I’m most likely to buy vinyl.
When it comes to tech, I think there comes a point in your life where you just decide "this is the tech I am comfortable with and I have no interest in advancing." I worry, that even as a fairly tech savvy person that I've hit my limit at 43. Time has passed me by much sooner than I thought.
2: Am I turning off the Internet forever, or just for 24 hours. Either way, I've always been someone who wants to press the button that says do not press. I think I'd do it. Gotta find out what would happen.
3: Printers suck because there are too many moving parts. Too many little things that can break or wear down. There's probably some planned obsolescence mixed it. The printer companies and engineers should feel shame, but I suspect they don't.
4: You are not the only one. I keep thinking about getting a CD player again. There's lots of bands I liked from the mid 90's through 2010ish that were never big enough to have a release on vinyl and the only way to get own their music is on CD. That is going to be a tricky conversation with my wife, as my vinyl collection is taking up a lot of room...
Michael, I fear I'm a luddite too. I just bought one of your books and I'm really looking forward to reading it!
Alas, the 'easy button' is a huge lie. Nothing in life is easy, especially tech! Then again, if it was, we probably wouldn't appreciate it.
If I could keep the knowledge base of the internet and get rid of the SM and instant news I think we'd be better off. IMHO Social Media has not improved our lives. Nor has the 24 hour news cycle. Of course, having four or five megaconglomerates owning all of the world media is probably the center of the problem. Substack has been a breath of fresh air and source for original thought. It's a novelty in the media world. If you haven't read John Zada's book Veils of Distortion I highly recommend it.
2. Hell yeah. And I think the key here would be having the discipline to keep it turned off for more than like five seconds. I'd turn the internet off for at least six months -- just to give our brains some time to heal. Of course, once I turned it back on it'd only take a few weeks to get back to where we were. See: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
3. Human vs. printer epitomizes the travails of the technological revolution. I think the engineers do it on purpose, to test our resolve.
4. I miss iPods as standalone music players. The OG iPod was pretty dang cool, and I'm hoping Apple cynically makes a new one to capture the "retro market" in a few years.
I would turn off the internet in a heartbeat - so long, not nice to know you - if the cost is nobody ever reads another word of mine unless it’s handwritten in a letter, so be it. This opinion comes from someone who is not a tech-phobe, has run a digital magazine, and knows enough to know how much I hate all the stuff like social media and AI that will soon make everyone tethered to a screen rather than the actual blooming, glorious, falling-to-pieces world around them.
End of rant. By the way, eons ago, before the web, I had a job that would have been perfect for you, Michael: I was a software developer for an educational publisher, and my job was to break programs to uncover all the bugs - basically to do what little kids do, punching random keys or options - I could usually break raw programs in seconds. Programmers don’t think like children or bona fide human beings.
And I definitely prefer CDs - you know, *albums* - to any streaming music system. Have a nice day, says ChatGPT with real authority 😉
You are not the only one who misses CDs and I'm not giving mine up.
I came to the whole tech thing late, and as I like to say, my knowledge is shallow yet narrow, but it's deeper than my partner's, who only joined the 20th century a few years ago. That was not a typo. I still own a dial phone connected to a land line.
Ugh. You sound like my husband. And I am Christina at our house! But I’m more like you trying to help Jane when I’m trying to help him. You can see the problem in our house. We need a Christina. And so does Jane! All hail the tech people. They are the ones with the real power. 💪
I'm so glad you shared Jane's essay. When I read it earlier this week,I loved it.
I am the tech support in our household which isn't saying much. The big difference between my partner and me is that I read the instructions, even if I have to search them out each time the wifi goes down or the phones need a kick in the pants. Printers, however, defeat me. I actually broke mine when I was trying to change the ink. Tore the tip right off. Anger may have been involved.
The easy button was a lie both on the computer and my pants!
I'd think about turning off the internet, but then I'd have to wait days for you to mail Situation Normal assuming you could get the computer and printer to work.
Printers suck because that way they can keep selling you more of them.
CD's aren't gone. I just bought some a week ago. Rip the CD to the computer, load it on the phone and listen to what you really want in the car.
The people available to do more tech support are trying to build the machine to do it at least as badly as the people who do tech support now.
1. My biggest beef with technology is that it's supposed to be less work/brainload than analog solutions and for me IT NEVER IS!!!
2. I would 100% push that button (after I memorized all my closest friend's phone numbers like I used to in middle/high school. I would move to a quiet place with ample hammock hanging locations and spend my days writing and talking to my closest friends on the phone. There would be dogs and ponies, too. And a rainbow a day, at least.
3. Printers are co-artists designed to bleed you dry paying for ink cartridges. I print about 10 sheets of paper a year and I've spend like $250 on ink. It's possible I'm exaggerating a bit in both directions. But only a BIT.
4. I still play CDs in my car. I miss mix tapes.
5. The machines are smarter than the people who built them is my guess. Or douchier. Either way, machines 1: humanity: 0.
When in college, I digitized old tapes and I cannot tell you how many hours of my life were spent sitting on the floor crying over a betamax player that wouldn't spit tapes out. The only advice "experts" could give was just keep turning it on and off and keep q-tips on hand for cleaning.
Your CDs always worked? No issues with scratches or skips in the Walkman? I love the aesthetic of CDs - the colorful discs - but for physical music media, I’m more nostalgic for cassettes, and I’m most likely to buy vinyl.
I am my family’s tech support, which is like being the doctor in the family. Oy.
When it comes to tech, I think there comes a point in your life where you just decide "this is the tech I am comfortable with and I have no interest in advancing." I worry, that even as a fairly tech savvy person that I've hit my limit at 43. Time has passed me by much sooner than I thought.
2: Am I turning off the Internet forever, or just for 24 hours. Either way, I've always been someone who wants to press the button that says do not press. I think I'd do it. Gotta find out what would happen.
3: Printers suck because there are too many moving parts. Too many little things that can break or wear down. There's probably some planned obsolescence mixed it. The printer companies and engineers should feel shame, but I suspect they don't.
4: You are not the only one. I keep thinking about getting a CD player again. There's lots of bands I liked from the mid 90's through 2010ish that were never big enough to have a release on vinyl and the only way to get own their music is on CD. That is going to be a tricky conversation with my wife, as my vinyl collection is taking up a lot of room...
Michael, I fear I'm a luddite too. I just bought one of your books and I'm really looking forward to reading it!
Alas, the 'easy button' is a huge lie. Nothing in life is easy, especially tech! Then again, if it was, we probably wouldn't appreciate it.
If I could keep the knowledge base of the internet and get rid of the SM and instant news I think we'd be better off. IMHO Social Media has not improved our lives. Nor has the 24 hour news cycle. Of course, having four or five megaconglomerates owning all of the world media is probably the center of the problem. Substack has been a breath of fresh air and source for original thought. It's a novelty in the media world. If you haven't read John Zada's book Veils of Distortion I highly recommend it.
Printers! It is so crazy!! Why can’t I buy a printer that prints things!?!?
1. Yep.
2. Hell yeah. And I think the key here would be having the discipline to keep it turned off for more than like five seconds. I'd turn the internet off for at least six months -- just to give our brains some time to heal. Of course, once I turned it back on it'd only take a few weeks to get back to where we were. See: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
3. Human vs. printer epitomizes the travails of the technological revolution. I think the engineers do it on purpose, to test our resolve.
4. I miss iPods as standalone music players. The OG iPod was pretty dang cool, and I'm hoping Apple cynically makes a new one to capture the "retro market" in a few years.
5. Keynesian leisure -- allegedly.
I would turn off the internet in a heartbeat - so long, not nice to know you - if the cost is nobody ever reads another word of mine unless it’s handwritten in a letter, so be it. This opinion comes from someone who is not a tech-phobe, has run a digital magazine, and knows enough to know how much I hate all the stuff like social media and AI that will soon make everyone tethered to a screen rather than the actual blooming, glorious, falling-to-pieces world around them.
End of rant. By the way, eons ago, before the web, I had a job that would have been perfect for you, Michael: I was a software developer for an educational publisher, and my job was to break programs to uncover all the bugs - basically to do what little kids do, punching random keys or options - I could usually break raw programs in seconds. Programmers don’t think like children or bona fide human beings.
And I definitely prefer CDs - you know, *albums* - to any streaming music system. Have a nice day, says ChatGPT with real authority 😉
Long live 1998 <3<3
Wait…what? CDs are not a thing anymore?
You are not the only one who misses CDs and I'm not giving mine up.
I came to the whole tech thing late, and as I like to say, my knowledge is shallow yet narrow, but it's deeper than my partner's, who only joined the 20th century a few years ago. That was not a typo. I still own a dial phone connected to a land line.
Ugh. You sound like my husband. And I am Christina at our house! But I’m more like you trying to help Jane when I’m trying to help him. You can see the problem in our house. We need a Christina. And so does Jane! All hail the tech people. They are the ones with the real power. 💪
As someone currently waiting to reinstall Windows on my crashed laptop, I heart this very hard.