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.