No focus, no fights, and a bad back – 16 ways technology has ruined my life

"And I’m here to tell you that when you ­forsake modern technology the world ­generally refuses to take part in the experiment. You find this out the first time someone behind a ticket ­window looks you in the eye and tells you to just ­download the app."

This happened to me twice just last week: first at a museum when I asked for a map and was told they simply didn't have them anymore and I'd have to use my phone, then at a restaurant where it was the same story. Browsing a menu on a phone is a really poor experience, it's just not enough space to see much at once and that's even without accounting for whatever awful navigation they built. This isn't a big problem, but it is worse than how things used to be and nobody likes when technology makes things worse.

It reminds me of how rail stations have moved to digital signs. In the past there were kiosks displaying a paper map of the rail lines, and there were other kiosks displaying ads and other things. Well now there are new digital signs that cycle between the rail map and a bunch of ads. It's a worse experience, it makes pulling up the app seem pleasant by comparison.

Now in fairness, some of these are fair; having to pass capchas is a pain. But more are self inflicted; nothing makes you hit reply. And some...

> I can remember a time when it was considered ungentlemanly to check the factual accuracy of a statement made by a drinking companion. You were just meant to counter their argument by presenting specious facts of your own.

Really? Your objection to technology is that people suddenly have to contend with accurate information!?

For context this is a weekend-edition light entertainment article for a "Life Unplugged" section.

This author mostly writes semi-humorous self-deprecating stuff for the "Life & Style" section of the paper, so don't take it too seriously: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/timdowling

Not that we can't have a serious conversation about the topics of course.

I believe this is a personal problem of the author. I see a lack of self-control and self-determination where he is doing more of what his social group and technology want/enable rather than what works for him. For example the 77 tabs: how is that useful? The tech makes it possible but doesn’t endorse or require it and they don’t make money off of it. I find tabs become useless once there are more than eight or so in a window. I prefer to break out work streams into separate named Chrome windows that I can minimize and maximize when I need to. And also I still get into plenty of fights at bars but maybe that’s just me

1. Read books, they require you to concentrate. Use computer to take notes and if appropriate, run code samples, look up technical details, check historical facts, etc.

2. Fix posture with one of many back support options and a good chair. Write 'posture' on a sticky and slap it on wall. Get light exercise frequently.

3. uBlockOrigin and NoScript on Firefox allow you to selectively block all kinds of login pages and cookie permissions and so on. Often wrecks page functionality, but then you can click on different scripts in NoScript to see which ones are needed.

4. You want something that causes your Zoom meeting to freeze up while claiming a bad WiFi connection is the issue. Here we are: https://github.com/abagh0703/turn-off-wifi

5. When going to pub, turn off phone. If the FOMO is unbearable, don't go to pub, and maybe get therapeutic help.

6. Avoid IoT smart products, they're mostly a scam with bad security protocols and terrible interfaces.

7. & 8. Mute, block, ignore. Don't follow the shiny red ball.

9. Switch to using an editor like vim with autocomplete turned off to improve your typing.

And so on. I suspect the author was subjected to the Apple-Microsoft brainwashing propaganda program at some point, in which technical tinkering was discouraged and acceptance of the closed corporate ecosystem was encouraged, and this is the result.

It's as if someone asked 'what's eating?' and they were told, 'well, you go to McDonald's and press the button for the thing that looks good, and then you eat it.' Learning how to cook your own meals - i.e. not taking what's on offer from the corporate conglomerate - is a much better and more satisfying option.

It's easy to write off some of these complaints as silly - a fair bit of them are distinct problems of the author's own making, or just gripes that the world has changed, but a few of them do seem to be large issues with far reaching consequences.

The attention span issue and the constant deluge of psychological torment in the form of doom and gloom are two that I recognize every day and have had to make deliberate and sometimes limiting choices in my life to intentionally avoid.

After realizing the iPhone was good for some things (ie, paying bills, reducing paper mail with PaperKarma), but terrible at maintaining focus, I first switched to a Punkt phone. However, finding that was unreliable with AT&T and lacked navigation capabilities, I switched to a Nokia 2780 flip phone. Call quality, texting, camera capabilities, podcasts, and Google Maps are all there. Within two weeks, something strange happened. I found myself able to sit through a magazine in a sitting. I was able to read a chapter of a book. I fell asleep reading books. Truly, these devices have a place, but we know deep down they are a net negative. So now I keep my iPhone on WiFi, but powered down, and use it for some things, but not everything. I download my news and books onto an offline Kindle and read with the device faintly glowing suspended over my head on a phone stand and connected to a page turner. Fall asleep this way and it is not difficult to read multiple books each week.

I got my attention back, and you can too.

some of these resonated with me so hard. Like the password one and robot one. I rarely read other people's opinions - they usually fall in fixed categories and you can pre-generate them anyway. Its also not useful to walk through reasoning on the internet since the factual accuracy is questionable. As such, I dont have trouble with stupid people on the internet (tbh i find them adorable). I rarely even read comments on HN these days and hopefully nobody reads this one either.

> 8. It’s given stupid people unfiltered access to each other’s opinions

This is a big problem. Previously, 'the mob' only came into being when things got really bad. Now it is a constant (virtual) presence.

> 6. I find it increasingly hard to turn things on

> Or you may have faced a similar reckoning in an unfamiliar shower, or standing before a seemingly ordinary hob. The relentless development of new ways to turn things on has led us steadily away from the intuitive and toward the wilfully [sic] enigmatic.

The rest of the article seems to be complaining about post-iPhone technology, but showers have been weird since at least the 80s (probably earlier, but speaking only from personal experience here).

«14. I have consistently risen to the level of disorganisation that any new technology allows At the time of writing, I have 77 tabs open on my browser”

Huh, before computers I can remember 77 open notebooks scattered across my bedroom. Nothing changes.

I feel the typing thing, tho. I was never a great typist, but it was much, much faster and more accurate than I am now. A big part of it is because of mobile keyboards fucking up my muscle memory and perpetuating bad habits.

“But thanks to Zoom, Google and FaceTime, there is simply no reasonable excuse for not making an appearance at a meeting.”

I know this is dependent on situation, but “I am traveling” is a reasonable enough excuse. If you’re in a remote office with other workers who are on same meeting, yeah, you probably shouldn’t miss that meeting. Otherwise, “I’m traveling” is reasonable enough.

And we're just getting started. Hold on, the next hill's a doozy!

I also regret wasting time in the past on junk content online (especially on platforms with algorithms designed to show you the most inflammatory content first), but I have personally found that online discussions and the internet have been a net positive to my life.

I've been studying foreign languages over the past few years. Even though people hundreds of years ago have learned languages without computers, I would have never been able to succeed without technology—in fact, I struggled a lot studying a required language with paper books in high school. Online discussions helped me find the best books and good-enough techniques to start, and streaming services let me easily find foreign television series (along with dubbed series) which made listening comprehension so much easier and fun.

I was also able to learn the fundamentals of software development much easier with the help of technological aids (specifically by creating my own flashcards, which helped me drill practice problems), which has helped me with work. My physical health has also improved thanks to great advice on diet and exercise available online.

Most importantly, technology has been a way for me to work closely with people living far away from me. I really have felt that I can rely on others (as I hope they can rely on me) from conversations and communication online, even if we've never met face-to-face in-person.

My personal belief is that the amount of time spent on screens isn't usually a problem for living a healthy life. What's important is instead how you spend your time using screens: anything deliberately engineered to take your attention and time is generally a leech on life, whereas anything that helps you develop a skill or meaningfully connect with other people enriches it.

The point 5 amounts to "I can not confidently bullshit anymore that easily". Which from my point of view is massive advantage.