Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#161

Post by goatlover » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:27 AM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #136

mherdeg wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yishan Wong's response to that worry starts out: > The pre-internet era was boring. Some may say that it was just as stimulating but in different, more "vibrant, outdoorsy" ways, but they are wrong. I have lived in both and the internet definitely makes life more interesting. In fact, combining the outdoors with the internet is one of life's greatest pleasures. https://www.quora.com/How-did-people-waste-their-time-in…

It was boring. A lot of TV was watched. There were some video games too. You could program too. The only thing you could do outside of that would be to read or socialize. You could read a gauntlet of things that you can do today as well. But YouTube, podcasts, blogs are great.

> The only thing you could do outside of that would be to read or socialize.

Hike, play sports, build stuff with your hands, make art, write, go swimming, and a bunch of other things.

I don't recall being particularly bored growing up before the internet became a big deal. It's just that now I'm used to having online access to so many things, it's easier to be bored without access to that.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#162

Post by muzani » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:29 AM UTC

flyinghamster wrote: post #143

One of the big things for me is the demise of trustworthiness in just about everything. Extremely cheap phone calls plus Caller ID spoofing has made the telephone almost useless (raise your hand if you only answer callers in your contact list!), email has never been trustworthy, and the internet has made it possible for hoaxes to spread farther and faster than ever.

There's an app for that: Truecaller. It crowdsources who is calling.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#163

Post by platz » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:30 AM UTC

HankB99 wrote: post #87

I have a small device in my pocket that provides access to nearly the sum total of human knowledge. I use it to get into pointless arguments with people I don't know and look at pictures of cats. (I wish I could claim that as original but it is something I read on the Internet. Between cats. :-/ )

Are you absolutely sure those arguments are pointless

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#164

Post by greggman2 » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:31 AM UTC

shantly wrote: post #133

WilliamEdward wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the exact position i am in right now. I crave the outside world and human contact like a drug. I am not clinically depressed, just in a state of constant longing for social interaction. I keep telling myself my work will allow me to one day enjoy the outside, ironic really.

If you don't have to have home Internet service and an Internet-connected phone for work... shut off those services. It's fine. There's more stuff to do without the Internet than a person can reasonably do, anyway, even if you're pretty picky.

I find that advice hard to accept. I'm older so I spent plenty of time as an adult without the internet (unless you count BBSes). I use the internet to find things to do. Meetups to go to, events on facebook, events and parties friends invite me to, restaurants to go do, etc... I don't know how I would do it without the internet at this point. Maybe it used to be I'd look in the local paper like SF Weekly or LA Weekly but I live in a place that doesn't have those anymore and AFAIK even those are a pale version of what they were in the 80s and 90s

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#165

Post by greggman2 » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:35 AM UTC

sideshowb wrote: post #93

djbrigidope wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you are supposed to slow down before running over people. bicycles are still vehicles.

You are also not supposed to step from sidewalk into road without looking.

It's hard for me to have sympathy for cyclists as I see so many run red lights and plow directly through pedestrians even when the pedestrians have the right of way. Maybe that's a few bad apples but it happens enough that it feels like the norm. Yes, 2 wrongs to make a right. If the light is red and the pedestrian is crossing without looking then I'd also be upset at the pedestrian.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#166

Post by mauli » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:38 AM UTC

imoverclocked wrote: post #41

Noise. Auditory: I can't tell you how accustomed to hearing stuff constantly everyone is. Cars (even just the tires on a busy street), Air Handling, Refrigerators, Beeping timers (ovens/microwaves/calendar reminders). Visual: Web notifications, web advertisements, billboards, "news," spam phone calls/texts. Social: Many people have an expectation that sending a message entitles them to an immediate response. In the a…

I came across more bird scare devices [0] lately and most are at ~19-23kHz at -20~30dB (personal measures, device ranges differ). I can hear them and it hurts. Fortunarely they are mainly only deployed near entrances and do not have a broad field of effect. Would be interesting to know how many people do not hear this and feel kinda weird/sick while standing at those places for a longer period of time.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_scarer#Ultrasonic_scare...

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#167

Post by gorgoiler » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:38 AM UTC

Journey time calculations in Google maps, Uber etc. mean no one I know is ever on time.

If you need to be somewhere at 8:30 and the journey “takes 17 minutes”, one psychologically sets 8:13 as the deadline for leaving the house. You pick up your keys at 8:13, actually leave a few minutes later, hit traffic or take a wrong turn or two, and end up crossing the threshold at your destination fifteen minutes late.

It’s no big deal and quite a grumpy old man thing to say, and I also don’t know if tech is the root cause, but squeezing travel into unrealistically small and algorithmically created windows of time has killed most people’s sense of punctuality, including mine if I’m not careful.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#168

Post by greggman2 » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:41 AM UTC

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #88

'I'm being tracked' paranoia. I have to force myself to stop thinking about the ways may daily activities can be tracked. I find myself feeling increasingly paranoid, especially when reminded that my actions are available to faceless people and how they help to train systems that then exploit my 'humanness'. In fact, I imagine they will get so good that they not only exploit me, but use that very humanness to veil th…

Yes! I hate being tracked watching videos. I have a self identity I want to put forward. I hate being judged differently based on what I watch. For this reason there are plenty of shows I don't watch via streaming. If I really want to watch I'll find another way. If it's youtube I'll do it not logged in (it's possible it's still attributed to me but I doubt it).

It's illegal for a video rental company to share your watch list. I'm not sure that covers Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Youtube, etc.. I suspect they don't share the list though, they just put you in categories and sell marketing to those categories. That still bugs me since I'm being judged.

OSes and stores spying on app usage is the same. I've never checked out any of the more risque games or VR apps because I'll be tracked.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#169

Post by jmkni » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:43 AM UTC

muzani wrote: post #162

flyinghamster wrote: post #143

One of the big things for me is the demise of trustworthiness in just about everything. Extremely cheap phone calls plus Caller ID spoofing has made the telephone almost useless (raise your hand if you only answer callers in your contact list!), email has never been trustworthy, and the internet has made it possible for hoaxes to spread farther and faster than ever.

There's an app for that: Truecaller. It crowdsources who is calling.

There was a news story recently about a journalist who got outed by Truecaller, ended up putting her at risk, I’ll try and find it

Edit: https://privacyinternational.org/case-study/2997/betrayed-ap...

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#170

Post by geggam » Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 3:44 AM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #160

geggam wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This perspective is interesting. Explain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_is_theft

Completely opposite of the nations foundations, I had no idea the concept of property being theft was actually entertained as a feasible concept

"America's Founders understood clearly that private property is the foundation not only of prosperity but of freedom itself. Thus, through the common law, state law, and the Constitution, they protected property rights"

https://www.cato.org/cato-handbook-policymakers/cato-handboo...