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Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#181

Post by distantaidenn »

lobocinza wrote: post #161
ok_dad wrote: post #4

Advertising. I know this is an extreme view, but I think any advertising other than a spec sheet style ad (just facts) should be banned. I feel like it steals your attention and mindshare day after day. The ads I see on TV now (rarely, as I don't watch live TV much) are just so horrible. Dripping with emotions and trying to tug on your heartstrings to sell some toilet bowl cleaner or some other garbage. Social media.…

Ads are pointless. No matter how much human capital was invested in making targeted ads possible, only very rarely I see something that I might be interested in buying. And I can't remember a thing that I bought due to ads. They are a better signal of what to not buy.

Buying the product is the primary goal, but they don't expect you to act right away. It's about impressions. You see 1000 Coke ads and product placements a year. When you finely decide you want a sweet fizzy drink, well the decision has already been made for you.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#182

Post by podgaj »

jacquesm wrote: post #29

I think there is an 'optimum' level for technology of all kinds, below that you really want more and it is clear that there is room for improvement. But once the optimum has been reached any further additions will degrade the experience. Examples: Car controls: pre: direct taps and gauges plumbed into engine parts and such, real switches and levers. optimum: does what it should, not more, not less, more reliable than…

What you are seeing here is the natural pro(re)gression of all technology. It only gets worse, it doesn’t get better. They will always be abused by the worst of society.

And then we did new technology to “fix” the old technology. Kind of a ponzi scheme if you ask me.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#183

Post by GnarfGnarf »

yardshop wrote: post #123
handrous wrote: post #99

Two phone-related ones: 1) Phone calls sounded better when they were analog. Even today, after some improvements, this is still true. 2) Long distance charges turned out to be well fucking worth it for keeping phone spam from being a thing. This "improvement" has been strongly net-harmful.

The thing I miss the most is high-quality full-duplex audio over copper cables! No lag, no cutting each other off, just warm analog signal! I also miss wiring up phone lines in the basements of friends' houses!

This is why I keep our landline for customer service. Cell phone quality is second-rate,

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#184

Post by hidden-spyder »

jstx1 wrote: post #92
ok_dad wrote: post #4

Advertising. I know this is an extreme view, but I think any advertising other than a spec sheet style ad (just facts) should be banned. I feel like it steals your attention and mindshare day after day. The ads I see on TV now (rarely, as I don't watch live TV much) are just so horrible. Dripping with emotions and trying to tug on your heartstrings to sell some toilet bowl cleaner or some other garbage. Social media.…

> Advertising I get a lot out of using Search, Youtube, Maps, Gmail, Drive and all of Google's other services for free. Advertising probably comes out as a net positive for me if you take all of those into account.

Yeah, I hate ads too, but don't think Google products or any other big internet companies would exist at the scale they do if ads went away.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#186

Post by jazzyjackson »

Nextgrid wrote: post #54
noneeeed wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thoroughly agree about adverts. Have you read Tim Wu's "The Attention Merchants"? On the social media thing, I find they are always better when they just show you the things you've asked to see, in chronological order. It's all this algorithmic "hey, your aunt's brother-in-law's gardener just commented on a post by someone you don't know" bullshit that causes the problem. If I just look at Twitter posts from the peop…

The reason behind the algorithm is again advertising. A chronological timeline makes it super-easy to tell when you've caught up. An algorithmic one can recycle posts endlessly in a different order, making you spend more time trying to make sure you've caught up - this means more opportunities for them to insert ads. The problem with social media isn't "social media", it's advertising and the fact that money is made…

It’s also the well studied slot-machine effect of “intermittent reinforcement” - sometimes when you refresh the page you get nothing new, sometimes when you refresh the page you get what you want - this releases more dopamine and is therefore more addictive then simply getting what you want every time.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#187

Post by jdofaz »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #148

Recently I went to a 7-11, and the cashier wanted me to teach me how to use an app to checkout. Instead of putting my items down and having him scan it, I had to pull out my phone, scan items with a line of people behind me, then present a code he scanned to bill me. Took 5 minutes to do something that usually takes 30 seconds. Just as in your examples, imo the key here is not "tech". It's that the tech is being used…

Wow, I would have just left

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#188

Post by 4ggr0 »

Yhippa wrote: post #6

I reach for my smartphone the microsecond I have idle time. I can't read things longer than 280 characters.

I had, or rather still have, this exact problem.

The way I could cure this a bit is by starting to read books again. Now when I'm in the train I just read a book instead of scrolling through Reddit.

I've also deleted Youtube and Reddit from my phone, which also helps. But brains adjust quickly, so now I start visiting Youtube via browser instead of the app. But I do feel better about that whole situation, now that I started reading again.

The problem is, that I only feel like reading while travelling to work or elsewhere. When I'm at home, the temptation to sit in front of my PC is just too high. While working from home, I'm in front of a screen for like 95% of the day...

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#189

Post by lobocinza »

DataGata wrote: post #90
gherkinnn wrote: post #33

Algo-paranoia. Every time I interact with a remotely "clever" system, I keep thinking how my input will feed some machine. How fast do I scroll, what is in my viewport. What do I listen to and when. Is this an A/B test? Will something I do on a whim affect that machine to predict something incredibly stupid tomorrow? It only became obvious recently, as I was readying an actual, physical book. The relief to realise th…

It should be reassuring to know that most of the things you interact with are actually too bandwidth constrained to care about those things, and the algos you interact with are fairly obvious and explicit (Feeds, curated things, etc)

It's not and even if it were it could be pre-processed locally as to reduce the data volume. It's safe to assume that everything you do on Instagram, Tik Tok is taken into account. Those are spyware and will intrude on the filesystem, on the clipboard history and wherever else they can.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#190

Post by TchoBeer »

distantaidenn wrote: post #181
lobocinza wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ads are pointless. No matter how much human capital was invested in making targeted ads possible, only very rarely I see something that I might be interested in buying. And I can't remember a thing that I bought due to ads. They are a better signal of what to not buy.

Buying the product is the primary goal, but they don't expect you to act right away. It's about impressions. You see 1000 Coke ads and product placements a year. When you finely decide you want a sweet fizzy drink, well the decision has already been made for you.

I would be very, very surprised if this sort of subliminal effect was strong enough to make advertising worth it.
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