My Discontent with the Internet and Modern Technology

[sunnyp4rk]

New blog post on my grievances with modern tech

https://blog.after-rain.net/archive/2026/may13.php

[Yoylecake420]

Hey there, I just read your blog post, and I got to say, I'm glad and proud of you for standing up for yourself and attempting to ditch modern technology. I am slowly trying to decentralize myself from Google and other big companies by finding alternatives, even if they are not huge. It's not easy for me, but I feel you on this one.

And if there's anything the state of modern technology taught me, it's that we need to stop overrelying on big companies. And I feel like we should try to make older stuff accessible and not have to rely on getting new stuff. Also your last paragraph is just amazing advice, people have the choice to decide whether they want to keep going or not.

[RNotteLovesOwls]

nice post! also, thanks for the shout-out to my own blog i, too, have talked about the state of modern tech and how inconvenient these so-called "convenient" systems truly are, several times on it. your points on thrifting, quitting social media, and buying DVDs/blu-rays/CDs echo many of my own thoughts on this topic

and welcome to the "old stuff is better" club. we strive to make sure no still-usable item goes to waste. i remember getting 2 different budget android phones (a pixel and a moto g), both of which i got when i had an old-version iPhone that still worked fine, and both of which stopped working properly and slowed to a crawl after owning them for a year. i got them out of my sight and went back to that iPhone, realizing that i never needed a "better" phone, because it was with me all along

let us reject "convenience", together 

[sunnyp4rk]

I'm definitely trying to deGoogle as best I can. I don't think I'm ever going to be at a good time to move from Gmail/YouTube, but I've been replacing services like Drive with Syncthing, and Keep/Docs with Obsidian. Like I said, baby steps are better than no steps.

Definitely agree on the phone thing. See, I like my Pixel 8, but the screen issues are really throwing me off of actually loving the thing (look up Pixel 8 green screen. you'll see what I'm talking about). Thankfully I got it off Ebay for around $200 instead of the actual brand new price. But still. It's really annoying when you get something that SHOULD work and it doesn't. Not that $200 is cheap but it's still better than getting a new phone for $600+ and it has a bad screen issue. It works 99% of the time, so I'm trying to hold out for as long as I can.

My Pixel 5 wasn't exactly "broken" but it was having a hard time holding charge during my long work shifts. Maybe I'll try to change the battery (or take it to a repair place) and see if Graphene would work on it [edit: pixel 5 isn't compatible with graphene]. Might be nice to have it as a backup phone in case my Pixel 8 borks itself.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Regarding phones: I'm a happy user of a dumbphone in my private life, and I'd say I recommend it. They are rather durable, and take much less resources (and money) than smartphones. Using construction site phones is a good tip, as many of the "normal" mobile phones are designed towards really old people nowadays.

About Degoogling: It is rather easy to do, except for Youtube and Maps; both concepts are inherently expensive, so there is no independent alternative available. And not using them will cut you off from a lot of things - I sometimes consider it, and somewhat reduced the usage of both, but ditching both completely isn't worth it for me as things are.

An important thing to have in mind is that every technic will change the society that uses it. Regarding GMaps: When I was in Bologna, I searched for a cafe; as said, I'm not using a smartphone, but I had a vague idea were it was, and I had the adress. It was damn difficult. People rarely have to ask for a way these days, and they are very shy towards strangers; I made some attempts, but nobody would hear me out; while searching the street, I passed mothers with their children in buggys, and some of the kids that were rolled around played with smartphones (The difference in their potential access to information - only that they couldn't use it - was somewhat stunning) it took me long to find some people (some smoking guys in front of their shop) who could help me out - and they used GMaps to locate the street that was just around their corner.
A few days later, I went through Rome and experienced the joy of using a street map - right after using one that the friend who was with me on this trip brought along for the Italian hinterland :). He used a compass - you don't necessarily need one in the City, since you can just spot for streetnames.
I used Google Maps to prepare this trip, and on several occasions people helped me out by using it. It would have worked without it, but the existence of Google Maps changed my whole experience dramatically; and - I think thats also a part of the truth - not necessarily only in a bad way.

But still, I do believe that solutions often appear as they are needed - the price for this is usually time. There was some french philosopher, Virilio. He said that tech is speeding us up, while shrinking down the room. He is - with all implications - right about this. Power and independence are another aspect in the whole game - I think that Free Software is - even though there are flaws in the concept - a good attempt to deal with it.

[midijunkie64]

About Degoogling: It is rather easy to do, except for Youtube and Maps; both concepts are inherently expensive, so there is no independent alternative available. And not using them will cut you off from a lot of things - I sometimes consider it, and somewhat reduced the usage of both, but ditching both completely isn't worth it for me as things are.

Although I also can't see myself moving away from Youtube  (yet), I have been using OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps for a while now.
It's a collaborative project whose purpose is to make a free map database. It's got a bunch of clients for both IOS and Android. Google Maps is nicer but I don't really miss it.

There is also a pretty interesting Youtube alternative called Peertube which is a federated network. I haven't tried it out yet but it looks cool .

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

OpenStreetMap is good if you have an point of interest and you need the way - I sometimes use it. However, it doesn't offer data about the traffic or public transport - and both of these aspects can be relevant, especially if you want to use the latter a lot; using the different tools of the transportation companies is a lot of work (and doesn't work out all times - I already came in situations where the info on Gmaps was more acurate than the official site). And there are other things - when planing something, having the opening times available on the map is another timesaver - and sometimes again, the info on Gmaps is somehow more up-to-date.

I use PeerTube for my own videos, but more out of principle. I don't really use it to watch videos myself - Youtube is mainly attractive for the availability of copyrighted material (I basically only use it for music videos and live performances), if we are honest, and PeerTube can't do this. It would be interesting if there would be some active underground art community, but I don't see this coming atm; most stuff on PeerTube is the low quality imitation of the typical "Youtuber"-content (that I find boring even in its original form).

So yeah, I use both - but as I said, they are no real substitute as the offer that Google makes is currently still to good. For Google Docs, to give an example, things are different: CryptPad is a fully working alternative. And nobody needs GMail.

[midijunkie64]

OpenStreetMap is good if you have an point of interest and you need the way - I sometimes use it. However, it doesn't offer data about the traffic or public transport - and both of these aspects can be relevant, especially if you want to use the latter a lot; using the different tools of the transportation companies is a lot of work (and doesn't work out all times - I already came in situations where the info on Gmaps was more acurate than the official site). And there are other things - when planing something, having the opening times available on the map is another timesaver - and sometimes again, the info on Gmaps is somehow more up-to-date.

Funnily enough my experience has been the exact opposite. GMaps tends to make stuff up sometimes regarding public transport,
specially with buses. I guess its precision may vary depending on the country.

My Openstreetmap client has public transport data. IDK if its a client specific thing.
I personally like to just check the official maps that I have saved as pdf files.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Funnily enough my experience has been the exact opposite. GMaps tends to make stuff up sometimes regarding public transport,
specially with buses. I guess its precision may vary depending on the country.

What client do you use again? 
edit: Did a quick search. Apparently, this feature is indeed depending on the country - in the one I live at, only a single city has support for public transport route planing via OSM. Which is unfortunate for me, but the fact that they have it in the working is definitely a good perspective for the software. However, I still feel somewhat approved in my hunch that operating a high functional mapping software is both expensive and requires access to a lot of data.

[midijunkie64]

What client do you use again? 

In the one I live at, only a single city has support for public transport route planing via OSM.

but the fact that they have it in the working is definitely a good perspective for the software. However, I still feel somewhat approved in my hunch that operating a high functional mapping software is both expensive and requires access to a lot of data.

I use Organic Maps for that.

I guess that Openstreetmap's dependence on user contributions is a double-edged sword  .

Also. A lot of public transport companies use an open standard for their maps so that they can be used on all kinds of software. Recently though more and more of em (like the ones from my country) have started pushing their own proprietary software  , making things much more inconvenient.