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Comment by quaintdev | Hacker News Reader

Sometimes I wonder if people will one day wake up and just ditch all the tech. That's seems to be the only way to be out of this mess.

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I know milenimals who know how everything works but only check messages every 2 weeks and dont answer if anyone calls. Might play a game once per month, might watch one movie per week.

One guy boots up his pc, looks at one website, closes the tab, closes the browser, shuts down the pc and switches the monitor off. I have to admit the technology looks terrible if used like that.

That's like waiting for domesticated animals to walk of the farm by themselves. Mess resolves itself the same way throughout history when different camps within the elite start saying enough. But there is a process just like abolishing slavery or getting kings to hand over money printing to the central bank. Wasn't driven by the plebs. It takes time because the different camps have to align. The parasites get reigned in eventually because they are in the minority camp.

yes but there is helpful tech! We’re just over focused on SaaS and now AI (new SaaS).

I do find myself enjoying my computer / phone less these days though.

I find it very useful to be able to look up information at a moment's notice, whether or not a store has something in stock and where it is in the store before I go, doing group chats and video calls with family and friends almost anywhere I am, being able to get a taxi at a known price and see it arrive on a map, etc.

I just had a medical emergency in a foreign country and was able to navigate it with relative ease and almost no cost using translation features. I was able to scan and OCR documents with my phone camera which let me easily submit insurance claims, yada yada, a lot of things are much easier and cheaper in this day and age.

I stay away from the "news" websites (ironic given this site is called Hacker News, but it's not as monetized, so I guess it still works) and instagram/tiktok/youtube shorts/x style stuff.

Hard disagree. Societal change and more inventions are needed, not a degrowth attitude.

What's the difference between the two exactly?

I wouldn't lump up all inventions into this. The incentives are warped and we're too focused on adtech and filling human lives with screentime. It should be entirely possible to live a fulfilling life without having to carry a phone everywhere you go.

Like Dear Alice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Ng5ZvrDm4

What societal change and what inventions, exactly? Some societal changes are for the better, others for the worst. We are heading toward the "worst" direction in full speed.

Some inventions are for the better, other mostly don't matter and yet others make the world actively worst. And the "for the better" things dont seem to come from our industry anymore. Nor for rich VCs, nor from private equity investments etc.

Lol that would lead to billions of deaths

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