Asklemmy

We don't need a meeting for everything. It could have been an email.

Every time a new technology comes out we think it's going to make our lives so much more simple, but what really happens is the expectations of what we should be capable of doing increase and as a result we take on more responsibilities. One example is cars. You can travel further now, right? Only, now it's normal to drive an hour to commute to work. Or now you have a wider area of travel you're expected to make to visit people you know.

My boomer opinion is that smartphones have done this in a big way. I'm expected now to be available 24/7 to respond to texts on a moments notice. Not responding looks rude. I've been in workplaces that had a culture of checking work messages on Teams on cellphones outside of hours (which I refuse to do). My friends will have long group messages that I'm expected to keep up with. All of this responsibility adds up to more stress than we had in a pre cellphone era. And that hasn't translated to better lives for us in the end. There are advantages and I appreciate many of the things our high tech era gives us. But part of me longs for that era where we just had to trust that people would show up to get togethers at the agreed upon times. When conversations were special because we didn't just have 24/7 access to each other. Where we had to decipher maps to take road trips. Where we were more present with each other. I was born in the 90's which puts me in a strange generation of people that only kind of remember what it was like before.

I find incredibly strange that people think it's normal to walk around with earbuds in at all times. When did that become acceptable? (I know it's the release of the airpod, but still, wtf?)

I can't believe how many people I see with them in when they drive and ride their bikes.

Also looking at your phone while driving. How in the hell is that so common?

Physical media is superior. Don't get me wrong, I love the convince of being able to stream any song I want, whenever, from my phone. But you don't actually own that music, not even the digital music you bought.

So having that physical backup is good. But also, it's just a fundamentally different experience, to have to put a record on a turntable, or a tape in a cassette deck, and listen to an album from back to front.

Phone bad.

Like they're objectively pretty useful but I find the experience of using one to just kinda suck and I avoid it as much as I can. I'd much much rather use a laptop or ideally my desktop if that's at all possible. No idea how some people manage so much time using their phones

I never got twitter's appeal. I used tumblr during its prime and twitter just seems like a blander, angrier tumblr. Even the content I like from twitter aren't enough to make an account and throw my voice in a hoard of millions of others.

That OSes peaked with Windows XP.

Boomer opinions:

• Stop being so loud.
• Get off my lawn and please leave me alone.
• I work in tech, but sometimes tech is added to things needlessly. I just want my washing machine to be a washing machine. I'm tired of being the product.
• Silicon valley's "disruptors" are usually full of shit. The vast majority of the time: it ain't broke, don't fix it.
• Don't tell me what to do with my land if you're not willing to pay my taxes (or if you don't have good ecological reasons). I'll paint my shudders whatever color I want to.
• Bring back the damn knobs, buttons, and switches in my car. I don't need more touchscreens.

On the other hand...

• I recognize that the way I feel and some of the opinions I have are based on a context I grew up with that may no longer exist - or at least it may not exist in the form it once did. I recognize how I see things may die with me and my peers, and that's ok. It's a sad truth, but truth, nonetheless.

I hate QR code menus, just let me see the damn food options without squinting at my phone