Anyone else feel the same?

[knobby]

“I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the Wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results.

I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm.

I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card.

I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place.

I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore.”

~ Robert Sterling

 

[Rosie C]

I must admit I do quite like QR code pub ordering - saves jostling at the bar to get service. But otherwise, I'm with you! The worst is PhotoShop, I use it once every few months, so really don't want to pay for it monthly. I have an old paid-for version and every time it starts up there's an annoying message box encouraging me to upgrade, but I shall not!

 

[colinm]

“I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the Wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results.

I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm.

I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card.

I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place.

I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore.”

~ Robert Sterling

Pleased that someone else has noticed, also annoying how anything I google seems to appear in hundreds of different manifestations on facebook for weeks.

 

[PhiliGol]

Sometimes I feel like an old(fashioned) guy thinking exactly same way.
Few things I couldn't escape / didn't want to have'em "online".
It's a trade off between convenience and paranoia (how to prevent LaserJet acting as virus-distribution machine?) e.g. to access my printer via AirPrint.
But for sure I won't connect the microwave oven, furnace, dish-washer, dry-cleaner, etc. just because it can - I don't see the benefit.
If I could start the furnace remote via app - presumably someone else can - old-fashioned or (too) paranoid?

 

[murathan]

I dont have a smart phone.

 

[debra]

I feel mostly the same way: I want to buy a product (and pay one time). I don't want to buy a subscription to a service. But often the reality is that some things can only be done as a subscription to a service because they really are a continuous service. Our internet connection is a good example.
And another sad reality is that whey you buy a software product it is rarely flawless and this is because 1) it has to be rushed to market in order to not be later than the competition, 2) programmers are not trained at writing flawless software (anymore) and 3) customers seems to always want new features that were not in the original published specification and they feel "entitled" to getting such "upgrades" they didn't pay for.
I still do have many devices that are not connected to my wifi, including my coffee machine, stove, oven and everything else in the kitchen. My car also does not have wifi (or even bluetooth), my TV has wifi but it is disabled (I have a set-top box from my TV provider and that's all that's connected). And my alarm (security) system is also not connected except to the phone line to call me when there is an alarm. From outside my router blocks access to everything that is connected except for my server (and there just web, mail and ssh)...
I feel safer having as little on-line as possible. I don't need to control stuff while I'm away and I don't want hackers to be able to either.

 

[losthobos]

Most disturbing for me ...last week I was searching Google for tips on my monstera plant as had developed brown spots on leaves ....
Next day I get a front page newspaper article on how to care for my plant....would have been ok if was from a garden centre or horticultural society...however was from GBNews a right wing pseudo political party.. .
I can accept data plundering from merchants but from political regimes trying to legitimise their agendas I'm not sure.....
Come on what has Keep Britain great, rule Britannia blah blah blah got to do with houseplants......
Pushing me further and further offline with every advancement

 

[Tom]

I have ditched all social media except for 2 ad free accordion sites. I’ve managed to keep my email and phone pretty ad free. I don’t know what to say about all the pretty women who come on YouTube telling me to eat salt to get big. Anyone tried it? . Yeah, remember when you did a search and actually got results for what you typed in? Those were the days!!!! When you start getting ads for what you were talking, or even thinking about, it gets pretty creepy. First they came for the reporters. Then they came for the artists and musicians. Be careful out there.

 

[Ventura]

Cookies used to be wonderful.. if we scraped our knee
after Mom fixed us up and gave it a kiss she also gave us
a cookie

Cookies were THE best way to say "i like you" you gave
half your cookie on impulse to that pretty girl or boy
from down the street (and some of us married them)

you left Cookies for Santa

then "they" told us Cookies were a way for our lives to be better,
more precise, because Cookies would remember all kinds of
important things about us and what we did and what we
looked at and clicked on so that the great Master Computer
in the Sky could help us get to Nirvana faster, easier, the
road to it paved with what we obviously want most, what
suits the type of person we are..

Cookies were for OUR benefit

but it was a lie.. Cookies are now only a way for them to
get the "skinny" on us to compel us trick us force us to
see what THEY want us to see and know only what THEY
want us to know so that it benefits THEM

i shop on Amazon and Micro center a lot.. my cookie certainly
lets the great Master Computer in the Sky know for a certainty
that i ALWAYS sort results by "lowest price first"

Bah.. Humbug..

that i only click on pertinent results, that my search for
"leather reed valves" does not include a result only based on
Leather (like a handbag) or reed (like a box of VanDoren)
but only on "leather reed valves"

the rich men in suits who control the great computer in the Sky
are not our friends, and have made us hate cookies !

that alone is a criminal offense of mind numbing proportion !

 

[KeysFla]

I don’t use ear buds (I tend to lose one of them).
Christmas shopping and give everyone a gift card.
Attend a Church online.
Spend more time on social media at a dinner date.

 

[John Doe]

I:
-don't use one drive or its ilk. My own local storage is just fine.
-clear cookies and browsing data every time I close the browser and keep the setting on the brower for strict. I'm sure I miss some "deals" but have not yet suffered that I know of (?) as a result.
- disabled all the "collaborative" and AI features on my email/word processors. (a result is my perpetual "sorry for typos and howlers" comment in closing- not all progress is bad but in this case I'm willing to risk the baby to eschew the tainted water)
-broke down a decade ago and tried some synthetic reeds for my tenor sax. Worked OK and surely lasted and lasted- but I went back to cane.
-will put up with electric keyboards but will not have an EWI or a synthetic "accordion" in the house. When I play an accordion I want bellows driven air flowing through metal reeds whether or not they are precisely in tune or can be made to sound like some lame sax or a thrify Salvation Army organ...

If I want electronic synth (from la-di-dah Moog synth through the full array of orchestral mimicry I'll punt and use a full on synth - probably a full keyboard replete with the Star Wars light array and buttons and switches to beat the band- not a half hearted neither fish nor fowl pretend legacy instrument.

In practice I mainly relish a plain Jane accordion- piano/CBA or one of them new fangled Club model button boxes to really stretch the limits- or a four key wood flute- two and a bit octaves of pure bliss.

Clearly- to each his own.- and for commercial purposes (as on a stage, busking, or strolling) appearances count. While the musicianship required to operate them varies of course- I place the Asian "plays itself accordion for those who can't pick out Twinkle Twinkle" on a keyboard and the vast preponderance of "electric accordions" on the same continuum. Widely separated on that continuum- but on an arc I just do not care to have truck with.

Many talented, dedicated, and musical players may well think differently and more power to them.

Sorry for any typos and howlers.

 

[noelekal]

I bought vinyl albums beginning before 1970. Then I bought eight track tapes, I sort of skipped over cassette tapes, but went whole hog on again "re-buying my music" on CD. I am dying on the hill of CD music listening technology. I am not paying again for another format!

I have purchased the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album on vinyl, eight track, cassette, and CD. I'm not paying yet again for what I view as my possession. I'm nearly 68 and my CDs will just have to see me through.

I would pay extra for a car that didn't have a computer screen, required to access capabilities necessary (mirror dimming, interior vent control), or capabilities unnecessary and unappreciated ("sport" steering adjustment, stereo equalizer, blue tooth), and a jillion other suspect "features."

Once upon a time we had smart people. Now inanimate things are "smart" and people aren't!

If something is marketed as "smart" then I won't have it! 15 years ago we began seeing products with "smart" as a prefix. What a con that is! Smart car, smart phone, smart appliances, smart banking, smart insurance, smart investing, bottled smart water for crying out loud! Of course avoidance of all things marketed as "smart" could be why I'm so dumb.

"Smart" has become a code word for intrusive nannying though it is marketed as adding convenience and ease to one's life.

I don't want a smart accordion.

We have become used to being nannied at every turn and we mindlessly accept it. I still remember life before nannying and I don't like nannying at all. Nannying is anti-liberty. I don't like being nannying. Don't wish to be nannied by wives, relatives, appliances, cars that speak to me and monitor my driving maneuvers, the nanny state government, or the great computer in the sky that intrudes to monitor, catalog, spies and tattle tales, markets to me, and propagandizes.

Did I mention that I am fed up with being nannied?

 

[Ventura]

something many of us face as we age out, losing space
in our living situations.. the album collections and such
end up in difficult to access storage or lost

so i will just mention, especially if you have an older windows desktop
that is largely unused, it is pretty easy to load some freeware or low cost
old NERO software that lets you rip your CD's and DVD's to handy audio or
video formats. Interfaces for your record and cassette player plus software
are also pretty easy to rig up and use.

and yes here is where the modern thing comes into play,
ridiculously huge portable hard drives, even an SSD 2 Tb
are pocket change now, and can be a way for you to continue
to have access to your personal collection

just sayin'

personally, i have incrementally ripped pretty much every CD and DVD
i ever bought (as a backup) and it really is kind of handy having my
favrit video's especially handily hooked up to the big-screen TV with
big old Kenwood floor speakers on HDMI 4..

don' need no stinkin' Bluetooth speakers

 

[kimric]

I must admit I do quite like QR code pub ordering - saves jostling at the bar to get service. But otherwise, I'm with you! The worst is PhotoShop, I use it once every few months, so really don't want to pay for it monthly. I have an old paid-for version and every time it starts up there's an annoying message box encouraging me to upgrade, but I shall not!

I have a old computer and a old version of photoshop I use. I have some sort of blocker set up so it can't talk to the wed so it does not do that.

 

[JerryPH]

@knobby … amen.
There are some things that I like, but I don’t need to be ruled by AI or have my life tracked to the last movement.

 

[cat]

Humans are not machines, but in every case where they are given the opportunity to behave like machines they will choose to do so - L. von Bertalannfy

 

[OuijaBoard]

I dont have a smart phone.

I have made a policy of using a "dumb phone," an old-school flip phone. Initially the rationale was medical--I had brain surgery in the '90s to remove a tumor that while benign can blind or kill you if not diagnosed in time. And they can recur. Low probability, but not impossible. Causes remain uncertain, but there's correlative chatter about certain types of electronic emissions, including from mobile phones. Old-school flip phones have an extremely low output of that type of emission, and I almost never put the phone to my head, speaker use only. Of course, fast-forward 20 years and the medical rationale has almost become meaningless due to one now being surrounded by other people's smartphone emissions in close proximity 24/7.

But somewhere along the way my rationale shifted to resistance. Or, we might say proper-noun "Resistance." Smartphones simply provide more windows to invasion by advertisers, identity thieves, pests, and other types of surveillance and tracking. The old-school flipphone works for very rudimentary texting and voicemail, and that suits me fine. I despise smartphone cameras and use digital and old mechanical film cameras for photography. I do use an electronic reader tablet to always have a library on hand in a small package, and access the internet if needed--with a small modem or free wireless, no wi-fi subscription in a phone or tablet unit. My only wi-fi subscription is a petit modem that is off most of the time. I use it at home for a small laptop and can take it with me if absolutely needed, but that is extremely rare. Of course, I do work in an office with access to a server wired for the cloud and all levels of connectivity functions, so I have the luxury of being old-school in my private life.

For listening pleasure, thus far it's record player with old-fashioned speakers, cassette player with same, CD player with same. And small boomboxes. I do have some streaming access online to albums I've purchased as CDs which have turned out to include free streaming with the purchase. Some Amazon CD purchases have surprised me with this. And Bandcamp CD purchases often include download with the CD. But no cloud or streaming or any of that stuff aside from that. So far.

 

[JudyKimp]

I bought vinyl albums beginning before 1970. Then I bought eight track tapes, I sort of skipped over cassette tapes, but went whole hog on again "re-buying my music" on CD. I am dying on the hill of CD music listening technology. I am not paying again for another format!

I have purchased the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album on vinyl, eight track, cassette, and CD. I'm not paying yet again for what I view as my possession. I'm nearly 68 and my CDs will just have to see me through.

I would pay extra for a car that didn't have a computer screen, required to access capabilities necessary (mirror dimming, interior vent control), or capabilities unnecessary and unappreciated ("sport" steering adjustment, stereo equalizer, blue tooth), and a jillion other suspect "features."

Once upon a time we had smart people. Now inanimate things are "smart" and people aren't!

If something is marketed as "smart" then I won't have it! 15 years ago we began seeing products with "smart" as a prefix. What a con that is! Smart car, smart phone, smart appliances, smart banking, smart insurance, smart investing, bottled smart water for crying out loud! Of course avoidance of all things marketed as "smart" could be why I'm so dumb.

"Smart" has become a code word for intrusive nannying though it is marketed as adding convenience and ease to one's life.

I don't want a smart accordion.

We have become used to being nannied at every turn and we mindlessly accept it. I still remember life before nannying and I don't like nannying at all. Nannying is anti-liberty. I don't like being nannying. Don't wish to be nannied by wives, relatives, appliances, cars that speak to me and monitor my driving maneuvers, the nanny state government, or the great computer in the sky that intrudes to monitor, catalog, spies and tattle tales, markets to me, and propagandizes.

Did I mention that I am fed up with being nannied?

You can "rip" your CDs into your computer - that's the majority of my music in iTunes. In fact, I usually just buy CDs if I want anything even now, and rip it into the my iTunes. My husband (who is older) on the other hand, just buys stuff to download from iTunes (I think he doesn't want the clutter). Even with the vinyl (and my husband plays with this more than me) you can download some free software called "Audacity", and just get a cheap wire to connect your stereo to your computer's USB port and you can get your vinyl into the computer, and the Audacity software allows you to edit out all the pops and scratches and stuff - really cool. A lot of fun if you have time to kill.

 

[Tom]

I pretty much find everything I need on Spotify. For obscure stuff, YouTube.