Post #1465603
2026-03-21 16:23 UTC
Replies (2)
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@IceWolf@masto.brightfur.net 2026-03-21 17:28
@janusfox @xoagray Hot take: "internet addiction!!" isn't a problem and I'm tired of people pretending it is. ALL our friends are online. We NEED the internet. Having friends isn't "addiction". So screw that. Is the surveillance a problem? 500%. Is the ad-laden hellscape a problem? Definitely. But the internet itself? NEVER.
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@xoagray@tiggi.es 2026-03-21 17:31
@janusfox I can understand that. I honestly used to be a pretty big fan of newer tech, until it started going the way it's going now. I'm one of those people that's probably part of that resurgence you're talking about. I've been going a lot more analog lately. Pulling things back from online to local paper copies, shooting film instead of digital all the time, collecting CDs, DVDs, and vinyl again. Right now there's a record playing behind me. Just getting tired of everything being a subscription and weather or not something I want to watch or listen to is or isn't available on someone else's whim. And yeah, I used to get picked on relentlessly in school, (until I broke someone's nose.) I can't imagine how much worse that has to be today where every little embarrassing thing you do is all over the internet in real time. Especially when you're young and shit like that matters more to you. And what really sucks is you can't really do anything about it. Ugh. I hear ya' about the long distance friends too. A lot of my friends are from out of state, or out of the country. There are a lot of people I would lose contact with if I just totally went offline. I don't think I would ever do that either, though new privacy laws are definitely making me rethink that. I don't want to live in a world where everything you say or do on your computer is linked directly to your real ID, and that's the world we're careening towards at a fantastic pace. I'd rather be on the small net from a 40 year old computer than that. I've legit thought about just bumping my tech back to the early 2000's and taking most of my stuff offline. But even I wouldn't cut the cord completely unless that was the only way I could go. That said, I've got encrypted things that I can use like Signal and Delta Chat. I use Proton email, and I'm looking for other encrypted secure things. Basically as long as those hold, I'm not going anywhere. But I am also preparing for when I do have to leave the net. I think it's a good thing to have names and addresses for close friends, so you can write them. Or phone numbers for calls and text. I know a lot of people are uncomfortable about that, but I think this is because this comes with an uncomfortable truth. Most people don't have as many friends as they think they do. And that realization can be pretty hard for some folks to swallow. But even if you're not as unhappy with the state of the internet as I am, I still think it's a good idea to have that kind of info. Living in Florida, there have been several times down here where I 've had to go for weeks, or even a month or so without any power, and therefore really no internet. But the mail system still worked, and phones still worked. I stayed in touch with people via letters and phone calls. And even when things aren't so dramatic, it's still nice to get a physical letter and some photos from a friend now and then. And beyond all of this, we are analog creatures. Our brains evolved to funciton in an analog world. I think its' good to keep at least one foot there just so we have some grounding in it. Because there will always be times when the digital world we've wrapped ourselves up in fails us. It's good to be able to function without it too.