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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?

#71

Post by lambic »

tiffanyh wrote: post #62
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.…

How do you discover information you’re not actively looking for? Eg maybe being environmentally friendly is super important to you. You don’t even realize that today the detergent you’re using isn’t as such. Advertising allows for someone to educate you that products exist that you’re not aware of that align to your needs/wants/desires.

If it's super important to me, I'll actively look for it.

Opt-in advertising is another option, I have no problem receiving advertising I've specifically agreed to receive.

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

#72

Post by unbanned »

tiffanyh wrote: post #62
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.…

How do you discover information you’re not actively looking for? Eg maybe being environmentally friendly is super important to you. You don’t even realize that today the detergent you’re using isn’t as such. Advertising allows for someone to educate you that products exist that you’re not aware of that align to your needs/wants/desires.

Governed advertising and education channels would be an answer to this

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

#73

Post by bambax »

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.…

Yes all forms of advertising should be banned. But, it will never happen. So, better not to get too excited with the idea.

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

#74

Post by II2II »

I would say it was the optimism around computers in the 1980's and early 1990's. People were optimistic since a relatively inexpensive computer was an enabler. In some cases, it eased the process of getting stuff done. In other cases, it gave people the tools they needed to do things that they would otherwise have to invest in expensive training or equipment to do. Then the cynicism of the past decade set in. I find it is now nearly impossible to see the positive contributions of technology even when they exist.

(That is not to say those earlier times were entirely positive. People were still trying to build corporate empires, or otherwise use technology to the disadvantage of their customers. Yet the balance of power seemed to be better balanced and it felt easier to walk away from it all and still lead a good life.)

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

#76

Post by tosser0001 »

The slight lag that I encounter constantly when interacting with devices and on-line services.

Since working from home I become acutely aware of how often I'm dealing with spinners waiting for things to load, pauses, lag, etc. I feel like I'm living half a beat behind my physical actions and it's brought on a certain amount of unnecessary stress.

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

#77

Post by DrNuke »

Log-ins & pwds pretty much everywhere, now with 2 and 3 security layers which means more and more SMSes going through the phone and even more being shared among recovery accounts. It’s safer maybe, yet it is a time consuming, irritating madness. Where do we stand with the much praised biometric access procedures yet?

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

#79

Post by dkdk8283 »

ryandrake wrote: post #55
scrooched_moose wrote: post #13

In the last few years I feel like we've reached "notification hell". Technology used to be a tool that was used when needed, now it constantly demands our attention. I feel like something is always beeping at me across countless services and just stresses me out. Windows beeps every time I click anything now, every app wants to spam notifications every our, Jira, countless chat apps, email, even the credit card machi…

Do-Not-Disturb mode on all your devices, 24/7. It stops all notifications, messages, dinging, buzzing, phone calls, everything. Huge, instant, and permanent quality of life improvement. I've been doing it for a few years, now, and I could never go back to life with my phone dinging and lighting up like Reno ever few minutes. A lot of people think they can't do it (OMG what if I miss that one important call out of tho…

I’m militant about disabling notifications. My phone is on silent 24x7 except for certain contacts that bypass DnD. I’ll get to it when I get to it.

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

#80

Post by mrjay42 »

Globally: Having to create accounts for everything. And thus, having passwords, public keys, private keys, password managers, etc. etc.

Subscriptions for almost anything: "I don't want to subscribe to your service, I want to buy a product and never hear from you ever again"

Still WAY too much "white background" everywhere -> it hurts my eyes...how are we still having WHITE backgrounds???

Spending WAY too much time charging devices.

France and many places in Europe still NOT equipped with decent fast access to Internet

Mobile phones: Spending time with people without having them or myself scrolling their phone is difficult to obtain

Planned obsolescence:Phones are full of proprietary/encrypted stuff on a hardware or a software level making them useless after some years...

We still don't have a fully Free (as in Free software) and viable operating system for mobile platforms -> which leads to a pile of Android versions...not even mentioning Apple.

The fact that phones are still nowadays closed-object that we do not control at all.

Job Market: After more than 10 years of career, two master's degrees and a PhD being asked for a tech job whether I know how to code is annoying. Biologists, Physicists, etc. hired as "computer people" and ensuring the recruitment of programmers The creation of "DevOps" or "full stack developers" -> Being an actual admin sys, developper, network admin are separated things, with actual difference in skills and knowledge. Let everyone have their job, thinking you can have the perfect mix in one person is a myth.

Finally: The fact that private software, private platforms win everytime: TikTok, Facebook, Youtube, Discord, etc. -> all private, all preying on us.

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