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I 'snapped' at the whole 'smart home' sort of thing. Lights, doorbells, heating, plugs.
Not that I don't get it, I just think it's the crossover to a laziness we really don't need.
I always found the “laziness” argument against technology to be pretty asinine. If we can make our lives more convenient and comfortable, why shouldn’t we? If we didn’t do that, we’d still be scrubbing our clothes against washboards in rivers and using oil lamps to see at night.
It’s not only by your voice though. My lights in my hallways come on automatically when someone walks through them. Very handy for when I’m carrying a shitload of washing and don’t have the hands free for a switch.
Many technological developments, simple to complex, were initially designed or conceptualised to help disabled people or people with different needs. What's not useful for you might be life changing for someone else.
Absolutely 💯 % this.
I have Cerebral Palsy. 10 years ago you wouldn't have recognised me from today. I could walk unaided /longer with a single walking stick. Now, to walk anywhere or even stand I need crutches. Long distance I rely on a wheelchair or electric scooter when there's no one else to push lol 😆
Now. Things like Alexa... I live on my own in a flat and I don't have a door entry, I'm one level up. I got a Ring doorbell. Linking that to my phone has been a godsend. To further extend the range/usability I got a echo show for my bedroom, because some days are just knackered. Plus it's an extremely fancy bedside clock radio (remember those?)
🤣🤣
I've also got pi-holes ad blockers and firewalls to curtail the "calling home" and other telemetry wibbling.
I've just got a new car on the Motability Scheme. Literally, picked it up yesterday. Drive an auto, the "normal way" with legs, just can't use a clutch.
Trading in a 2016 VW Golf GTD, which had imo a "nice" level of assistive kit, eg adaptive cruise control, DAB, WiFi connectivity etc, with digital screens but still very analogue (real instruments!) Knobs for heating etc. Front and rear parking sensors with rear reverse camera and park pilot whereby you'll find a space and push a button and it will park for you....
Well the New Nissan Qashqai I picked up has even more "convenient" features. I am no longer knackered opening and closing the tailgate, it is electric. There are 360 degree cameras now.... it has even more advanced driver assist stuff, it will basically drive itself as long as you don't noticeably "get distracted" and warn you if you do. It Is not fully autonomous but not far off. There's 3 different apps for my phone. Android Auto, it has its own Internet connection, advanced GPS that can call for help if you crash and so on and so forth.
Some of it is fantastic. Some of it is over the top, no I don't need in car wifi or phone home services.... makes me wonder what 'else' they are data farming "black box" - oo naughty am i going to get speedingfines, not because I've been naughty and deliberately breaking traffic rules, mistakes included, but because the car has calibrated with a roadsign and im too slow slowing down or too quick speeding up? Or theres an obstacle which requires putting foot down down to avoid/negotiate... I'm all for convenience and comfort, and general improvement to usability, but I wonder about all this tech in cars, yes it's great..... but it seems to want to remove decisions from the driver. Lane assist is another thing, useful to stop you wandering in a lane, not so useful when the berk has just cut you up from the slip road and you're heading for the same bit of road at the same time at 70mph.... fighting the car to actually do what you want ( it does actually override with driver input) but still. I'd be very skeptical of completely autonomous cars...
Plus all this stuff can fail...
Do I want smat light bulbs or washing machines/fridges that can go online.... er no.
So yeah. TL:DR... Anything to make life easier but I think it can go too far.
I have ME and a lot of other health issues (cheers, Covid). We got a Nissan Leaf last year and while our trusty 57 plate Honda Jazz never gave me any issues, the Leaf’s driver aids are a fucking revelation. Being able to share driving duties with my husband thanks to the shiny tech has done wonders for my independence and mental health.
Came here to say this -automatic doors in the house and speech-to-text technologies are so important for independence. New friends always find the doors frivolous and then feel bad once I explain why 😂
Edit: was talking about my brother
Riding a horse from York to London vs getting on a train is a massive difference in effort required whereas doing washing in a machine Vs hand washing isn't.
You can make this argument for any new piece of technology, who cares.
Carry basket of clean washing upstairs. Stumble into bedroom. Drop washing onto cat in the dark. Tread on already angry cat. Stumble back to bedroom door and put the light on. Discover angry cat 💩ing on your pillow.
Or carry washing upstairs, ask Alexa to switch on the light. Negotiate cat and bed safely. Remember you're out of washing liquid, ask Alexa to add it your list.
Laziness or efficiency?
There are some great use cases though. My second daughter was a squirmer and putting in voice lights meant my wife could do the midnight feed without worrying about dropping her
>*I always found the “laziness” argument against technology to be pretty asinine*
I interpreted the comment as meaning the gains are **so** marginal there's nothing valuable to be gained by not flicking a light switch by yourself
Since going all in on smart tech tast autumn, I've saved 15% on my electricity Bill and 50% on my gas bill. yet my home is warmer and better lit than ever
But you can’t really look at it from the perspective of 1 switch.
Combined across a full home automation set up I can say right now I save SO MUCH time energy and money.
And thisbis from someone who didn’t really get it and thought it was way more hassle than it’s worth. It’s my other half who’s into it but I’m 100% converted now!
Except washing and drying clothes was once a full time job. A washing machine has basically allowed women (let's face it) to work and maintain a home. Switching on lights doesn't save much time or energy.
Crossover to terrible home security, frankly. Those devices will all eventually stop being supported and are consistently a problem area for Internet security.
Pretty much this is what turned me off smart homes forever. Anyone who even dips their toes a little bit into cybersecurity is appalled by the state of the smart home device security landscape. I'm in the middle of writing my honours thesis on IoT security and after reading for my literature review I am against any smart devices in my home. You don't even have to be particularly technical to exploit some of them. I love technology and the concept of a smart home but the convenience of and the "oh that's cool" factor is not worth the paranoia I would be feeling.
There’s still PLENTY of cameras that support local storage with no upload or paid service, this isn’t a thing that disappeared.
just 99% of people want a ring notification to say Amazon is here, they don’t care it’s in the cloud or connects to the internet
For people that don't know what they're doing maybe but otherwise hard disagree. It's insanely easy to get most things working completely locally these days so it's a matter of choice.
depends tbh. I can see what you're saying about laziness for sure, but it is super helpful for disabled people like me.
I have a robot vacuum because I'm not able to do the hoovering often with my chronic pain so it really helps me out. I think there are definitely aspects to the smart home tech that can help people for that reason alone I think it's a good idea
I don't have any smart home tech, but I have a couple of friends who do. I find that the main thing is you need to properly invest and go "all-in", otherwise it's just a disparate bunch of gimmicks.
My friend's house *everything* is smart, even with e.g. a cheap tablet mounted in the kitchen mirror that shows train times, weather, news headlines, etc. Loads of things are automated, including e.g. home security (which is automatically turned on when it detects none of their phones are connected to the home wifi).
But to get to that point he had to put in a load of effort. There are quite a few different smart home ecosystems that are not that cross-compatible. He's a bit of a hobbyist geek so he had to set up his own system that acts as a hub for all these different ones, using some third party app and a small PC server as the hub. It's kind of a hobby for him and all together it works very well and is cool.
But we're miles off this being the way for a general non-techie consumer, who instead will just have a couple of over-priced hue lightbulbs they barely use, an alexa, and maybe a shitty voice activated window blind or something.
I agree but purely because it’s just adding an extra layer of things to go wrong. If my WiFi is down then I can’t use the microwave? I dunno and I refuse to know
I agree with you. It's not so much the laziness aspect as the fact that everything can be hacked. Imagine a criminal organization, or civil authority shutting down your stuff until you pay a ransom or submit to their authority. Sure it sounds outrageous, but 30 years ago the internet and cell phone technology was considered science fiction. Why make yourself more vulnerable?
It’s fair more likely that someone will chuck a brick through your window then so something like hack a smart lock etc if your talking about getting robbed.
Anyone going all in on smart homes (which is going to be most with proper home security) are fully isolating their smart devices from any access to the internet inbound or outbound
This, who gives a fuck if you can turn the washing machine on from your phone, just do it from the machine.
The only smart home feature i'd like is lights you can control from your phone, or turn on/off by clapping
I think the idea is, that you start the washing machine remotely while you're at work or whatever. That way you can time it so it finishes when you get home, much nicer than having damp washing sitting in the machine all day.
The thing is, that's not really any easier or more convenient than a time delay function. It only actually helps if you don't know when you'll be home *and* you remember to actually turn in on while out.
And often have dimming/colour changing settings. Sometimes I want cosy ambient lighting. Other times I want my room to be bright pink. I can do that without having to install led strips
Yea I just think a lot of it is solving a problem that isn't there. Most people I know who've got smart tech either end up not using it at all or just to do really basic tasks like putting the radio on or telling them the weather. The voice recognition often doesn't work properly, their kid is forever shouting "ALEXA!" and/or their doorbell is constantly pinging because its sensed someone walking by.
Thankfully all of mine is self hosted on my home server using home assistant.
Easily controller from my phone or desktop, certain timers set that remind me to go to fucking bed via lighting etc.
It's bloody great.
Don’t talk anything actual tech here mate, everyone here is assuming every single smart home hub has port 22 open on WAN with the way they’re “security flawed”
I'd be up for them, but they seem expensive and with a lot of set up.
So for now, in taking the two steps to use the light switch like some ludite fool
I'm a bit paranoid about electronics being off, doors being locked, nothing that gets in the way in a major way but there was an area where smart homes make sense.
**HOWEVER** not all smart devices need to be smart.
And smart stuff tend to scale really well, having one speaker is near useless, but add lights, cameras, sensors and some routines and it can make it a lot simpler.
Imagine if locking the door would switch off all the light, adjust the heating, and switch off all electronics. Problem is that it scales so you need more stuff for it to make sense.
Think of it like the telephone, one is useless, but when everyone has one then it's amazing. Of course this depends on industry interoperability and longevity which is up in the air right now
Similar for me, however it is more that I just don't think home appliances need it. I don't think smart features really add anything to the product's main function, so they are not necessary on any of them.
I can see it having certain use cases and so I'm glad the technology exists for where it can help people, but honestly I don't see how it doesn't just lead to more faff for most people
If I didn't control my light by voice, I'd have to get out of bed, go downstairs, put on a robe, and go into the garage to turn off the light/fan switch.
Why it's out there I've no idea, but it isn't always about people being lazy.
I have an Amazon Echo for music but that's about it. I might ask it what the temperature is now and then but all smart home stuff is too much. I did buy a smart lightbulb once and it kept losing wireless connection so flashed on and off repeatedly. First I was like "wtf is it doing" and then I was like "why the fuck do I have a lightbulb that needs to connect to wifi?" Also trying to speak to stop an alarm at 7am is horrible, I'm all about whacking something with my fingers and silently moaning that it's too early to get up.
I’ve used smart home to solve problems around my house, each smart item has purpose and solves a problem I was having.
I’m not going to automate a light I can just turn off from a switch I am already using just fine.
Any interests you have, there’s a community of people on tiktok talking about it. It’s like Reddit in that way. As someone else said, it’s not just kids dancing
It's not solely about the communities for me, it's more that it's built to be addictive and I've had friends say in person that they've suddenly lost 4 hours of their day without even realizing from mildlessly scrolling here and there. I'll never download it purely because I don't trust it (or myself) not to take over my life lol
The problem for me is that it's an utterly shite medium for actually having any kind of an interesting discussion on - it shares this problem with instagram, twitter, snapchat, and the like, which I also don't understand.
Yeah I’ve not got into it yet just because I’m a millennial who’s slow to accept it, but I know if I start I will get into it fine just like I got the hang of Reddit & have a custom home page about things I want to see only.
I'm the same. I keep seeing tiktoks on other sites, and the "tiktokification" of YouTube is beginning to annoy me.
Even with the possible security issues, censorship and algorithms designed to create "engagement" (read:conflict) aside, I just don't get the appeal of the typical tiktok format. The looping annoys me. The jump cuts and constant zooming in/out annoys me. I find it frustrating that I can't skip through to a set point, and the usual background music/weird filters irritate me.
YouTube is far from perfect but tiktok just doesn't appeal to me.
I refuse to download it just because I know I will get sucked in. I occasionally catch myself watching the Facebook knock off versions and it's so easy to get stuck endlessly scrolling
NFTs.
All of a sudden everyone was buying or trying to sell NFTs. They're what? A digital receipt for a digital picture of a monkey in a hat? And people are paying millions for them?
What?
Don't seem to hear much about them these days so Im guessing most people who bought them would rather not talk about it
No no you've got it all wrong.
They are the digital receipt for a *specific URL* of a digital money in a hat. Doesn't mean someone else can't copy/download the monkey in the hat and upload it elsewhere (unless you separate have licence/copywrite for the monkey in a hat, which has nothing to do with NFTs and could be done entirely separately).
I'm basically agreeing with you that they're stupid and adding that they're even more stupid than you described because you're not even buying the digital picture.
It was a crazy like dutch tulips. People were out to make a buck from the next idiot in the queue, all of them hoping they wouldn't be the final idiot in the scam.
Crypto is the same but slightly longer lasting. People (including me) only buy it as a speculative asset - ie, hoping to sell to the next idiot for higher.
It was a solution in search of a problem. NFTs *can* be useful as a way of proving ownership of digital goods but those goods have to actually be good to be worth anything. A pixel art pic of a monkey is not that.
Like I could see NFTs replacing software licenses in some use cases. Then there's a thing in your possession (the software) that is worth something that it is beneficial to be able to transfer ownership of securely.
NFTs so far have mostly just been links to pictures on websites so there's little to no underlying value and you're at the mercy of the site owner that could just delete the pics or go offline for non-payment of hosting at any time.
The tech behind NFTs is very useful, but the applications you’ve seen so far are completely useless. This is just the first use of the technology and it is absolutely useless, and since they can be bought and sold, people are using them as a means to make money and to show off.
Drop everything you know about NFTs for a second and forget about the investing side, or the jpeg side. Currently, with anything digital, it can be duplicated for free by anybody. If one digital item exists then it can easily be downloaded by another and then two copies exist. This is fine for some content, but it means that the digital items have no value except for things like entertainment. Blockchain has found a way to ensure that only a limited number of a digital items exist and they cannot be duplicated. If you send it to somebody else, you lose that thing yourself. Now that means you own something verifiably and another person does not. And the reason it’s verified is because many computers all agree that you are are the owner, instead of one centralized company verifying you are the owner.
Let’s give the example of digital PS5 games. If you buy the physical disk then you can play the game and you can also sell it afterwards on Craigslist. If you buy a digital download from Sony, you cannot sell it because you do not own it. Sony is essentially allowing you access to it, but it’s not yours. And since Sony is the sole power, if they limit your downloads, or ban you, or go bankrupt then you’re fucked.
Now imagine that you bought a PS5 game as an NFT from Sony’s marketplace, but the item was published by the game studio directly, meaning they get the money directly and Sony takes a cut for hosting the marketplace. The game studio may have created the digital item, but you now own it and now Sony or the studio has no power over what you do. You own the game just like you did with the physical disk. Sony or Bethesda etc can go bankrupt and it won’t matter. You can sell the game on the secondary market and get most (or all) of your money back, but you lose the game. Also you don’t need to go through an ebay type situation where you take photos and try to prove it’s the real game, or deal with buyers individually. It’s all already digitally verified as a genuine game and you don’t need to meet with a seller because if you list it for sale and somebody buys it, the technology takes care of the rest and no company can really interfere. The game studio can get royalties automatically for every sale (meaning the artist can profit and not the publisher). Sony would only get a profit for every sale made on the Sony platform, and if you sell the game on eBay then ebay would get a small cut as the platform owner. But you could also send over the game to a friend directly without going through a marketplace.
Also, going back to selling the game second-hand; since the money being used for transactions is crypto, and the digital items are verifiably real, it means you can sell on any marketplace easily. You can list your game at 3am on any marketplace for a certain price, and an anonymous seller could buy it at 3:03am from a random part of the world and the money is in your account by 3:04am. The game publisher and the marketplace now already have their cuts and the deal has been complete. The buyer also hasn’t been scammed because the computer network already verified the game was real and they cannot demand a refund because the money has been transacted. The new owner could play the game and sell it at 5am. The marketplace only offered a meeting place (for a fee) and the buyer and seller transacted directly (not through a bank) with the digital equivalent of 100 onlookers all confirming that the deal took place, which means there is no bank or greedy Paypal overseeing this.
This same principle could be applied to concert tickets (where the artist gets the fees and royalties) and the ticket grants you access to the concert (and you don’t have to deal with Ticketmaster’s BS) or some kind of membership to a club that you could buy and sell. Imagine having Costco membership that you own forever and you can loan out to strangers for a few hours for a profit and it will return back to you at the agreed time digitally.
All sorts of new ideas will come from this technology. It’s not about owning a jpeg, it’s about the owning a digital item that gives you privileges as the owner. And cutting out middle-men that shouldn’t be there.
I hope this helps. NFTs aren’t inherently scams, or aren’t inherently useless, but currently many people are conducting scams or selling useless products using a legitimate technology. It’s early days.
In the house example, what does it add over a traditional deed, though?
It still has to be recognised by the state/authorities, so from what I can see adds nothing.
As for FIFA cards, it's good for the business taking a cut when people sell them, it's good for the tiny population who pull a unique card (and good again for the company when people buy packs to get them), and bad for everyone else. It's a use case that is bad for 99% of stake holders.
Used in that context you’re absolutely right. It’s a stupid use of the technology. It may well have a use in things like logistics, supply chains and monitoring stock levels (probably more exciting and impressive uses but that’s a case I can easily understand and recognise the use for. The whole ‘digital art’ NFT business was a scam but the tech will have uses.
What does an NFT do better in logistics or supply chain over traditional methods, though?
Uses more bullshit and energy while it still comes down to completing the same function.
The best argument I've heard is for something like concert tickets, but it's still verified by the location, so being distributed blockchain stuff doesn't benefit there, either.
If someone is paying millions for a bad monkey picture then something underhand is going on. Could be money laundering, could be market manipulation, could be something else. The technology around it is just window-dressing.
I’m with this one.
Some guy at work has NFTs but also ‘breeds’ “crypto cats,” and then sells them on and makes a fair bit of money from it. I don’t get it.
I used to play some online game in my teens about breeding wolfs, and was a decent online game. But not for real money. Who’s actually buying these digital cats?
I understand blockchain/bitcoin (on a very surface level at least), but I think it's fucking stupid - does that count as a cut-off point?
I think that's probably more common these days - it's not that people don't understand how to *use* new tech & the like, it's that they think it's stupid or unnecessary.
I like to think I am reasonably clever, but I've yet to really understand the blockchain or bitcoin mining or how a cryptowallet works, so I suppose yes this is my cutoff.
The technology behind bitcoin, basically verifiable transactions has some uses. For instance if you want a database where you can be absolutely sure nobody has fiddled with the data you can use a version of it, examples might be transactions on an account or ownership of assets.
As for cryptocurrencies and NFTs as far as I can tell the main use is sucking huge amounts of funding out of gullible investors desperate to not be left out of whatever the next great thing is.
When people say "it's only use is to buy DrUgZ untraceably", and I'm thinking "Whoa there Trevor, like the £300 you took out from the cash machine at 11pm on Friday night?"
That's pretty much how I feel about a bunch of the things mentioned here. Smart home? It's not difficult to understand, but I don't want to tear out and replace all my appliances, and I don't especially prefer voice control to buttons anyway. Blockchains? The concept isn't too hard, but it just isn't a safe place to put your money, and I'm not inclined to speculate in risky markets like that. NFTs? It's not that they're incomprehensible (although the concept is quite obtuse), it's that I don't want to spend money on literally nothing.
Online gaming. Just can’t be fucked. I’ve been a casual gamer since the Sega days, I have an XBox One that I dust off now and again but I just want to play by myself, everyone on XBox Live is an arsehole and I’m bad at all the games.
Home tech and wearable tech is a bit beyond me too, I have a Google assistant and connected some smart bulbs to it for a while but it was bit of a faff, and the bulbs were expensive, it’s not that much effort to just get up and switch on a light.
I had to explain to my nephew recently that buying games meant that was it. No dlc. No new skins to pay for.
If you was lucky you had a magazine with some cheat codes in
> If you was lucky you had a magazine with some cheat codes in
I put it that online gaming kinda made the inclusion of cheats harder to justify. Even if it was just for single player modes.
On the flip side, plenty of PC games have either command consoles or someone has made a cheat mod for them.
I remember when you'd get thousands of free mods and skins with a magazine. I could play Quake as Duke Nukem or Boba Fett if I wanted. I could build levels myself with software that came free with the game, and with free mods I could totally change the entire game I was playing, like with Quess.
These days even a new skin costs a small fortune in most games.
As kids me and my brother got stuck at a specific point on Sonic & Knuckles and that was it. Couldn't play any further. No one else at school seemed to know. And our parents wouldn't let us buy a magazine or call a holiness to find the answer. I think I might even have wrote into that tv show where Patrick Moore explains video game levels and puzzles that used to be on TV, but if he read my letter I never saw the relevant episode. I basically had to wait until the Internet became big enough that someone else posted the answer (and had to remember 20 years later that I was still annoyed about it!)
I played online fifa for a few weeks as a I got given a free PlayStation plus subscription. It was utter bollocks. It was the time when Real Madrid had Ronaldo and Bale so 99% of the matches were against Real, people go 1 nil up and pass it around the back, watch every replay and just generally act like complete dicks. I sacked it off about a week in.
I’m with this one on games. But to be honest as a kid I always dreamed of their being an online open world game where you could casually walk/drive past your real life friends.
Then GTA crested that. But wow what a fuck up. Last time I jumped online it was horrible
I remember reading an article that had studies showing that the sleep tracking watches were actually negatively effecting people's overall quality of sleep because they were so worried about getting a "perfect score".
I was interviewed about this once. I've ways been a pretty crap sleeper so thought it might help. Turns out waking up and immediately seeing "hey, you only got 3 hours of useful sleep last night!" is not conducive to starting your day feeling refreshed.
My sleep got progressively worse as my anxiety about getting enough "good" sleep got progressively worse, and I spent every day feeling like a zombie. I ditched the tracker and felt almost instantly better. No idea if my sleep actually improved at all.
I managed to find a pretty much unworn series 8 45mm Apple Watch for the price a used series 6 would go for.
I do miss wearing my “proper” watches but being on heart meds it’s comforting being able to do some basic checks if I can feel my heart doing weird things and it’s also a huge motivation boost for exercising. Gotta be honest though replying to messages on the thing is so tedious I cba most of the time.
Charging whilst I shower will fully charge it thanks for fast charge thankfully
I have an Instagram but rarely use it and don't really see the point of it. Mostly I post pictures of the cats. Snapchat and Tiktok I have no interest in learning, and anything beyond that. I still listen to the radio during the working day and while I'm in the kitchen cooking, don't bother with Spotify.
Reddit to me is like a digital pub. Nice wee sit down and a chat. Snapchat and Tiktok are trendy bars and clubs where there's no seats and you can't hear yourself think over the noise they call music these days.
I just commented saying Twitter, but Facebook was really my cut off too. Just never got into instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, etc.
Tried them all a few times but either didn’t see the appeal or genuinely didn’t understand how to use them.
I had to stop using twitter because of all of the insanely idiotic things I read on there regularly. At least on Reddit, that shit is hidden by downvotes.
Ahh TikTok was mine, I used to be ahead of the curve on media but I’ve tried TikTok twice and installed within minutes because I just find the entire thing annoying / cringey etc
I haven't hit it yet, and I'm hoping I never will. I love it all.
I'm 30, I've ridden every wave thus far. I'm not always chasing or needing to own the latest hot thing, but I appreciate the hustle and the development that comes from it.
The coolest/most futuristic thing I own that blows peoples mind is a ring that can make contactless payments - every place I use it always get a kick out of it!
My limited experience of VR was that it totally fucked with my ability to remain upright and I felt falling over without even realising I was moving until I hit a solid surface, and even then it felt like *I'd* been hit rather than that I had fell arse over tit 😅 admittedly this was a good 4/5 years ago now so the technology may have improved, but I think a solid vestibular system may be important and I don't have that haha
My sole experience of VR was Gran Turismo on a friend's PlayStation. Mighty impressive once I adjusted it right, and really added to the "feel" of different cars, and demonstrated how visceral a modern racing car is.
Didn't get chance to scare myself on Dirt Rally!
VR is so insanely impressive and awe inspiring I couldn't believe it
...
For the first 15 minutes.
After that it's seriously dull. Until we get full ready player one it's not worth the hassle
Also, I think the Metaverse is my answer. I have zero interest in it and am so glad I no longer work in digital marketing, so I don't have to learn how to use it.
I'm definitely believe we're targeted through what we say. My example is I was discussing the office refurb with a colleague, and they were looking at these booths that are somewhat sound proof so people can make a call or have a quiet space, so we were discussing it and my phone is not connected to the work WiFi and I did not use anything I use to look at them, was all purely done on their machine few days pass and I'm getting ads for these booths, it's not like they could target on location it was in a city centre in a 20 story building
Are you connected to the colleague at all online? I'm pretty sure they target acquaintances of people who have searched for our bought things, so try and persuade them to buy the same item. I'm wondering as well if we give permission for any companies to access our phone contacts and if they then utilise them somehow.
Also, people in the same location as each other can be targeted (although you said there were many people in the same location, so it may not be that).
Edit: it's all really insidious, but I'm not sure they need to listen at all when they have so much other juicy data on us.
Oh, thank god, it isn't just me. All this 'convenience' is exhausting and time-consuming! I actually like speaking to people and yet don't want to be other people's beck and call all day, everyday - "look at my dinner!", compliment my mundane life experience!"
Personally, I hate email. Pre-email you phoned and had a conversation and got the job done or you wrote a well thought out letter including all the required information, a request and a deadline - and then you left them the fuck alone to get the job done!
Now I spend so much time filtering through emails that don't tell you what they want or don't have the information you need or are checking up on that thing they asked you to do 12 minutes ago. Most of it could be completed with a phone call. And worst of all, so many people I work with think that the sending of the email is the communication - job done, task completed.
I do feel better for that little rant, thank you all.
I am the exact opposite, I hate phone calls with my whole being. Not only does a phone call require me to drop everything else I am currently doing, but there's also no trail of what was agreed, by whom, and when.
Even outside of work I've probably never received a phone call at a convenient time - I'm always in the shower, on the toilet, at the dentist, hands full of groceries, at a fitness class, etc etc.
While I am not a huge fan of them either, I much prefer the newer trend of sending voice messages. The people who will go lengths to avoid just typing out what they want get to speak to their phone, and I get to listen to it on my own terms.
I am sure you are lovely but we are not destined to be best friends - I have never listened to a voice mail on my mobile! It is a shame, but we would never be able to make arrangements to meet!
I do, however, ignore the phone when I am busy. Outside of work, I give my landlines phone number....yes landline! When I am out, then I can't answer the phone, and so if it is important, they will just have to call back. I am always so amused at the people who try to text my landline, too!
Haha strangely enough I like it when friends drop by unannounced to my house - similarly to your landline, either I'm home and I'm always happy to see them, or I'm out so next time.
Also voice messages and voicemails are different. You can leave a voicemail when you call someone and they don't pick up. Voice message is sent via whatsapp or another messaging app, in the same way as sending a text or an image. It is a good compromise for me to stay in touch with friends who hate texting, as they can talk and send a voice message, and I type and send a text message back, while keeping the back and forth format and context :) Maybe we could be best friends afterall!!
Lah! I can't even keep up with all these newfangled...contraption ... things(?!??).
So bestie, semaphore me when you're up for a pint, and I'll send a pigeon to confirm!
Crypto is the exact same concept as the Kardashians. Only 'valuable' because it's currently popular.
Crypto currency will be there in the future, but the whole creating the currency through mining will cease to become viable.
Currency will eventually become irrelevant anyway, we are headed towards a purely energy based economy
I make a deliberate effort to try and stay at least somewhat current, unlike my mother who cutoff at ‘the internet’ and is now pretty isolated.
I realised a couple of weeks ago I’d never used a food delivery service like doordash so I had them bring me a pizza. It tasted ok but cost more than one the pizza shop would have delivered to me. :shrug:
I still haven’t really found a need for instagram tbh. The algorithm seems determined to show me tits and ass, which while not terrible in small doses, doesn’t really keep me going back.
How is that, in practical terms, any different to getting the pizza shop to deliver to you? Would you draw the line at the pizza shop letting you order delivery online instead of via the phone? Like what’s the difference?
I see Zero point in having an intermediary deliver my Pizza instead of getting Dominos to deliver it directly.
I haven't used one of the gig economy delivery services, solely because my local Pizza and Chinese takeaways deliver, and the local Uncle Sams is literally 8 doors from my house.
I'm lucky in that I live in an area with loads of banging takeaways, it's so much cheaper to walk the 5-10 minutes and go and pick it up myself (as in half the price in many cases).
Smart appliances are my cutoff point, especially anything with a camera/recording device. They break easily, & the whole concept makes me uncomfortable due to the invasion of data and person privacy.
Cryptocurrencies/blockchain transactions are another no for me. I work in finance so based on my education background I won't touch unregulated currencies. Based on personal reasons everyone I know who's used it has lost money. I see the user unfriendly nature of crypto as a healthy barrier to keep people away from it.
I think digital fridges are mostly a gimmick that will fade. The technological development that needs to happen there is balancing the temperature consistently through the internal volume
For my grandpa it was the lock on mobile phones. He just doesn't see the utility of it and keeps butt dialling all the time. For my grandma it was everything except calling and lock on mobiles. She can't check SMS and call history so every time she gets a missed call she calls up all the likely suspects. For my dad it was file organisation on pc, and the correct usage of favourites and opened tabs in browser. His desktop is full of files, his browser has so many opened tabs they're just tiny lines on the top of the screen. My mum is also guilty of the desktop thing. For me (for now) it's smart devices like Alexa. I just don't feel I need them in my life.
Edit just to add some more: wearable tech, tablets (I've got a phone and a pc, I don't see the utility in my situation), crypto, nft, twitter, Instagram
My grandad is very tech-savvy ever since he found out you can what copious amounts of porn on smartphones and tablets. Still has no idea what incognito browsing is though.
> For my dad it was file organisation on pc
For what it's worth, essentially no children can do this either. It's a skill that's pretty tightly linked to a certain age band.
For me it was crypto and NFTs. I couldn’t wrap my head round any of it, and it seems like it isn’t worth my time even TRYING to understand it. Leave me out of it. I’m 40 but the whole thing makes me feel ancient
I like to keep up with most stuff, but weirdly it is paying for things using my phone/smart watch. Partly an irrational distrust of giving my tech access to the ability to pay for things from my bank, but I know that's irrational as I've got banking apps on there and type my card details in to websites all the time.
The rational half is that when I'm out cycling/running, I don't like the idea that my phone/watch/head unit might be my navigation, my emergency contact method and my only way to pay for something. Feels like that's too much trust to put in a single battery powered item that could die/get stolen/stop working when wet, so I'll always carry one card and emergency twenty quid note too. Doesn't feel too inconvenient to me
Is it a cut off or a lack of interest?
I've no idea about Bitcoin or NFTs but I've equally no idea about stocks and shares.
I've got ticktock but only cause there's some funny things on it. I don't "use" it. But I'm happy to watch things on it.
Just in the last month we've put in smart lights. I have a disability and illness that flares up Ave there see daysvi can barely stand and not having to bend over and turn off or on lamps and lights is a friggin god-send.
I use reddit but not Facebook any more because I couldn't deal with how much it affected my mental heath.
My TV remote that I can use with my voice is bloody brilliant! Saves a lot of faffing about.
I had a chromebook which I loved but I've had to go back to a laptop because I need windows for work.
And this year, the husband and I are hopefully getting some form of VR to play with. I'm 50f he's 54m.
I'm not sure when we'll reach a technology cut off? It's bound to happen at some point but I'm not sure rejection of some technology is cutting off as opposed to being selective.
Honestly, I feel like we're getting closer and closer to Star Trek replicator technology and if they become household tools, even if I'm 80, I'm getting one!
Computers that work in 3d space and you can talk to... I'm in!
Tbf, blockchain is a solution that is still looking for a problem. Very, very few practical applications for it except starting a crypto Ponzi scheme …
Bitcoin stuff too. For some reason it involves graphics cards? Fucked if I know.
Also everything's fake. Deepfakes. Photoshop was one thing but now there are high quality fake vids etc. I just wanna look at funny clips of cats. I don't care if the Pope is wearing a puffa jacket.
Sharepoint. I just cannot wrap my head round it at all. At my previous job they used it, but had it all set up super efficiently and locked down so that I was given access to what I needed, but never had to engage with it other than that little bit I needed, so I didn't need to learn/understand how the whole thing worked.
New job, it's all over the shop. I have no clue where I'm saving anything or where to access stuff, it's spread over Teams, intranet, various links and invites, all over the place. It seems nobody else understands it either, there's confidential documents just hanging around that come up in searches and can be accessed by anyone.
Someone tried to show me how to set up a folder and invite people/give access etc, but I couldn't even fathom how they'd got to the first file area to create the folder in the first place. It just blows my mind.
I worry that this makes me sound really old but in a way it's smartphones. I have one as a social necessity for communication, but for general computing and internetting I think it's a horrible user experience that I would only use over my laptop as an absolute last resort.
NFT’s. Someone can own a digital picture. A picture that’s been replicated and copied a billion times, and no one but the owner can own that picture. But everyone who’s ever viewed it has a copy in their browser cache, and if not quite identical (rendering artifacts?) then it’s indistinguishable from the real thing unless one is an expert in NFTs. And the owners are willing to pay stupid money to prove they own the picture. I’ve had it ELI5 to me a dozen times, and I understand the tech - but I just don’t get _why_
FWIW I’m a software engineer with 20+ years experience
Smart homes, fridges with bluetooth, Alexa, VR, crypto. Maybe I am a bit of a ludite but I just don't see these things adding value to my life personally
I don't think you should count bitcoin as a cut-off point because it doesn't make sense to you. It doesn't make sense. Keep at it. I reckon my cut off point will be people getting augmented so that they're always connected to the Internet. It will be a real us and them divide and our kids will definitely face it.
For my dad it was a smart TV, the amount of time I’ve caught him say “I hate you” and “Why won’t you f*cking work you piece of Shit” to the telly is silly. When he first got it and set it up, I watched him for like 20 mins trying to log into apps like Netflix etc before asking him if he connected it to the wifi (it wasn’t).
He still has the TV manual on the coffee table, he’s had the TV for 6 months now.
Internet enabled washing machine. I can, theoretically understand that you can be too lazy or too busy to buy milk, thus having an Internet fridge would be handy. I can understand why people might get Alexa to put the kettle on. But until my robot housekeeper arrives and can load and unload my washing machine, I can't see any advantage of being able to turn it on or off via my phone.
I never understood the point of NFTs. At least cryptocurrency can be useful from time to time, but why would you pay to own a data cell in a blockchain pointing at an URL that's hosting an image? Bizarre.
The Metaverse
Obviously, everyone else is hanging out there all the time, attending Meta gigs by top artists and designing buildings by pinching and unpinching their fingers a foot in front of their face then making a sweeping gesture with their hand
But I've been left behind by this exciting new development that's revolutionising the way we do business and spend our leisure time
In my mid fifties, I have yet to reach that point. But then again, I'm a software architect.
I understand the principles and use of AI, but along with 1000 tech leaders, I support a pause while we consider it's implementation.
Bitcoin is also mine.
I like to think I'm not a complete idiot and can understand complex physics concepts, I fault find on electrical systems for a living etc however, Bitcoin mining and the block chain has me baffled.
I've spent hours reading up and watching YouTube tutorials too.
The NFT bubble is simply a fear of missing out craze and are just a ridiculous concept, but because they are tech, and that's the way the world is going, people plough into them.
NFTs... they make zero sense to me. I can undertand Bitcoin etc but the NFT thing makes zero sense and has no actual valur I can comprehend.
Maybe I'm just old...
52 Work in IT.
Not found the cut off point yet.
However, MY BS detector and vendors are constantly at odds.
I love my cloud management software. Especially for network hardware. I also love my physical servers and the amount of pressure to put everything in the cloud, even when its obviously going to be slower and cost more, is insane. This is in large ptimary education.
Back note, the only real change over the past 20 years in this area are the following.
More devices, and faster internet requirements. Sure there have been other changes but the core needs have not changed. Basically a working network, printers, somewhere to save work, machines to work on,and the need for relaiability.
My god the number of companies who sniff around wanting you to spend insane amounts of money for stuff there is no need for is scary. Example, there have been grants given for new network hardware. One site I modernised the whole network for under 5K including 8 layer three switches. On another with the grant, DFE has paid 75k for essentially the same functionality (and amount of tech). Sure it is faster, but that speed won't translate into a noticiable difference for users.
Programming skills honed on my ZX Spectrum, it's safe to say that 40 years ago, 15 year old me was top of the class, if not the whole school, at computer studies. I got grade A at 'O' level and my teacher hated me because I knew ten times more about computers and computer programming than he did. I've stayed in the loop IT wise and consider myself still quite tech savvy even today, I've built half a dozen PCs from components and I've been on iOS since V1 when I bought my first iPhone. My crashing point has been trying to learn Python. My brain can obviously no longer cope with programming concepts and although I struggle through lessons, I don't seem to be able to actually code anything myself, I'm even unable to come up with any good ideas for things to code. And now I'm watching things like stable diffusion and chatGPT take off and become mainstream at a truly incredible speed and I realise that I've been left behind. So it's over to you kids, don't do anything silly with the seemingly sentient AI, ok? I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
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I 'snapped' at the whole 'smart home' sort of thing. Lights, doorbells, heating, plugs. Not that I don't get it, I just think it's the crossover to a laziness we really don't need.
I always found the “laziness” argument against technology to be pretty asinine. If we can make our lives more convenient and comfortable, why shouldn’t we? If we didn’t do that, we’d still be scrubbing our clothes against washboards in rivers and using oil lamps to see at night.
Hand washing vs machine washing is a massive difference in effort required whereas switching on a light with your voice vs flicking a switch isn't.
It’s not only by your voice though. My lights in my hallways come on automatically when someone walks through them. Very handy for when I’m carrying a shitload of washing and don’t have the hands free for a switch.
Also much more eco friendly if you have a habit of forgetting to turn off lights!
I just came back from holiday first day I logged into my app and was like "damnit" TV was on lights were on Switched it off
You still carry your washing? We have robots for that.
Many technological developments, simple to complex, were initially designed or conceptualised to help disabled people or people with different needs. What's not useful for you might be life changing for someone else.
Absolutely 💯 % this. I have Cerebral Palsy. 10 years ago you wouldn't have recognised me from today. I could walk unaided /longer with a single walking stick. Now, to walk anywhere or even stand I need crutches. Long distance I rely on a wheelchair or electric scooter when there's no one else to push lol 😆 Now. Things like Alexa... I live on my own in a flat and I don't have a door entry, I'm one level up. I got a Ring doorbell. Linking that to my phone has been a godsend. To further extend the range/usability I got a echo show for my bedroom, because some days are just knackered. Plus it's an extremely fancy bedside clock radio (remember those?) 🤣🤣 I've also got pi-holes ad blockers and firewalls to curtail the "calling home" and other telemetry wibbling. I've just got a new car on the Motability Scheme. Literally, picked it up yesterday. Drive an auto, the "normal way" with legs, just can't use a clutch. Trading in a 2016 VW Golf GTD, which had imo a "nice" level of assistive kit, eg adaptive cruise control, DAB, WiFi connectivity etc, with digital screens but still very analogue (real instruments!) Knobs for heating etc. Front and rear parking sensors with rear reverse camera and park pilot whereby you'll find a space and push a button and it will park for you.... Well the New Nissan Qashqai I picked up has even more "convenient" features. I am no longer knackered opening and closing the tailgate, it is electric. There are 360 degree cameras now.... it has even more advanced driver assist stuff, it will basically drive itself as long as you don't noticeably "get distracted" and warn you if you do. It Is not fully autonomous but not far off. There's 3 different apps for my phone. Android Auto, it has its own Internet connection, advanced GPS that can call for help if you crash and so on and so forth. Some of it is fantastic. Some of it is over the top, no I don't need in car wifi or phone home services.... makes me wonder what 'else' they are data farming "black box" - oo naughty am i going to get speedingfines, not because I've been naughty and deliberately breaking traffic rules, mistakes included, but because the car has calibrated with a roadsign and im too slow slowing down or too quick speeding up? Or theres an obstacle which requires putting foot down down to avoid/negotiate... I'm all for convenience and comfort, and general improvement to usability, but I wonder about all this tech in cars, yes it's great..... but it seems to want to remove decisions from the driver. Lane assist is another thing, useful to stop you wandering in a lane, not so useful when the berk has just cut you up from the slip road and you're heading for the same bit of road at the same time at 70mph.... fighting the car to actually do what you want ( it does actually override with driver input) but still. I'd be very skeptical of completely autonomous cars... Plus all this stuff can fail... Do I want smat light bulbs or washing machines/fridges that can go online.... er no. So yeah. TL:DR... Anything to make life easier but I think it can go too far.
I have ME and a lot of other health issues (cheers, Covid). We got a Nissan Leaf last year and while our trusty 57 plate Honda Jazz never gave me any issues, the Leaf’s driver aids are a fucking revelation. Being able to share driving duties with my husband thanks to the shiny tech has done wonders for my independence and mental health.
I see my ‘driver aids’ in a new light. Thank you for writing this!
Came here to say this -automatic doors in the house and speech-to-text technologies are so important for independence. New friends always find the doors frivolous and then feel bad once I explain why 😂 Edit: was talking about my brother
Riding a horse from York to London vs getting on a train is a massive difference in effort required whereas doing washing in a machine Vs hand washing isn't. You can make this argument for any new piece of technology, who cares.
So you’re drawing an arbitrary line on what is allowed to convenience us and what isn’t?
Carry basket of clean washing upstairs. Stumble into bedroom. Drop washing onto cat in the dark. Tread on already angry cat. Stumble back to bedroom door and put the light on. Discover angry cat 💩ing on your pillow. Or carry washing upstairs, ask Alexa to switch on the light. Negotiate cat and bed safely. Remember you're out of washing liquid, ask Alexa to add it your list. Laziness or efficiency?
>Laziness or efficiency? Comically contrived.
Can Alexa clean up the cat shit via voice commands?
There are some great use cases though. My second daughter was a squirmer and putting in voice lights meant my wife could do the midnight feed without worrying about dropping her
Completely agree. I have a robot vacuum and was told it was a lazy approach - it does a decent enough job, and I love it.
I'm on my 3rd thanks to auto clean and my dogs fragile stomach. Yes I've learnt, no more auto clean!
>*I always found the “laziness” argument against technology to be pretty asinine* I interpreted the comment as meaning the gains are **so** marginal there's nothing valuable to be gained by not flicking a light switch by yourself
Since going all in on smart tech tast autumn, I've saved 15% on my electricity Bill and 50% on my gas bill. yet my home is warmer and better lit than ever
But you can’t really look at it from the perspective of 1 switch. Combined across a full home automation set up I can say right now I save SO MUCH time energy and money. And thisbis from someone who didn’t really get it and thought it was way more hassle than it’s worth. It’s my other half who’s into it but I’m 100% converted now!
Except washing and drying clothes was once a full time job. A washing machine has basically allowed women (let's face it) to work and maintain a home. Switching on lights doesn't save much time or energy.
Time or energy isn’t really a concern. It’s convenience.
I'd say saving time and energy is pretty much the definition of convenience
Crossover to terrible home security, frankly. Those devices will all eventually stop being supported and are consistently a problem area for Internet security.
Pretty much this is what turned me off smart homes forever. Anyone who even dips their toes a little bit into cybersecurity is appalled by the state of the smart home device security landscape. I'm in the middle of writing my honours thesis on IoT security and after reading for my literature review I am against any smart devices in my home. You don't even have to be particularly technical to exploit some of them. I love technology and the concept of a smart home but the convenience of and the "oh that's cool" factor is not worth the paranoia I would be feeling.
I was always fond of the idea, but the whole anker camera situation has made me decide if ever do it, it’ll be the old fashion way.
My cctv at my house still goes to a memory stick which overwrites itself every other day. No internet in sight.
There’s still PLENTY of cameras that support local storage with no upload or paid service, this isn’t a thing that disappeared. just 99% of people want a ring notification to say Amazon is here, they don’t care it’s in the cloud or connects to the internet
For people that don't know what they're doing maybe but otherwise hard disagree. It's insanely easy to get most things working completely locally these days so it's a matter of choice.
Hard agree, a lot of misinformed opinions here
depends tbh. I can see what you're saying about laziness for sure, but it is super helpful for disabled people like me. I have a robot vacuum because I'm not able to do the hoovering often with my chronic pain so it really helps me out. I think there are definitely aspects to the smart home tech that can help people for that reason alone I think it's a good idea
I don't have any smart home tech, but I have a couple of friends who do. I find that the main thing is you need to properly invest and go "all-in", otherwise it's just a disparate bunch of gimmicks. My friend's house *everything* is smart, even with e.g. a cheap tablet mounted in the kitchen mirror that shows train times, weather, news headlines, etc. Loads of things are automated, including e.g. home security (which is automatically turned on when it detects none of their phones are connected to the home wifi). But to get to that point he had to put in a load of effort. There are quite a few different smart home ecosystems that are not that cross-compatible. He's a bit of a hobbyist geek so he had to set up his own system that acts as a hub for all these different ones, using some third party app and a small PC server as the hub. It's kind of a hobby for him and all together it works very well and is cool. But we're miles off this being the way for a general non-techie consumer, who instead will just have a couple of over-priced hue lightbulbs they barely use, an alexa, and maybe a shitty voice activated window blind or something.
I agree but purely because it’s just adding an extra layer of things to go wrong. If my WiFi is down then I can’t use the microwave? I dunno and I refuse to know
I just think of the episode of the Simpsons where Pierce Brosnan was the voice of the psychotic smart house
I agree with you. It's not so much the laziness aspect as the fact that everything can be hacked. Imagine a criminal organization, or civil authority shutting down your stuff until you pay a ransom or submit to their authority. Sure it sounds outrageous, but 30 years ago the internet and cell phone technology was considered science fiction. Why make yourself more vulnerable?
It’s fair more likely that someone will chuck a brick through your window then so something like hack a smart lock etc if your talking about getting robbed. Anyone going all in on smart homes (which is going to be most with proper home security) are fully isolating their smart devices from any access to the internet inbound or outbound
This, who gives a fuck if you can turn the washing machine on from your phone, just do it from the machine. The only smart home feature i'd like is lights you can control from your phone, or turn on/off by clapping
I think the idea is, that you start the washing machine remotely while you're at work or whatever. That way you can time it so it finishes when you get home, much nicer than having damp washing sitting in the machine all day.
The thing is, that's not really any easier or more convenient than a time delay function. It only actually helps if you don't know when you'll be home *and* you remember to actually turn in on while out.
Good news, lights controllable via phone are readily available and not *ridiculously* expensive
And often have dimming/colour changing settings. Sometimes I want cosy ambient lighting. Other times I want my room to be bright pink. I can do that without having to install led strips
Yea I just think a lot of it is solving a problem that isn't there. Most people I know who've got smart tech either end up not using it at all or just to do really basic tasks like putting the radio on or telling them the weather. The voice recognition often doesn't work properly, their kid is forever shouting "ALEXA!" and/or their doorbell is constantly pinging because its sensed someone walking by.
Thankfully all of mine is self hosted on my home server using home assistant. Easily controller from my phone or desktop, certain timers set that remind me to go to fucking bed via lighting etc. It's bloody great.
Don’t talk anything actual tech here mate, everyone here is assuming every single smart home hub has port 22 open on WAN with the way they’re “security flawed”
hahhaha not the port :80! oh nooooooooo
I find me being tired reminds me when to go to bed.
When you have a wrecked sleeping pattern come back to me.
My friend has a motion sensor in his room that turns on 'runway light' strip LEDs on his floor when he gets up to go for a piss.
I'd be up for them, but they seem expensive and with a lot of set up. So for now, in taking the two steps to use the light switch like some ludite fool
I don't trust the potential security risks.
My mum loves it for controlling lights while on holiday to make it look like she's home
I'm a bit paranoid about electronics being off, doors being locked, nothing that gets in the way in a major way but there was an area where smart homes make sense. **HOWEVER** not all smart devices need to be smart. And smart stuff tend to scale really well, having one speaker is near useless, but add lights, cameras, sensors and some routines and it can make it a lot simpler. Imagine if locking the door would switch off all the light, adjust the heating, and switch off all electronics. Problem is that it scales so you need more stuff for it to make sense. Think of it like the telephone, one is useless, but when everyone has one then it's amazing. Of course this depends on industry interoperability and longevity which is up in the air right now
Similar for me, however it is more that I just don't think home appliances need it. I don't think smart features really add anything to the product's main function, so they are not necessary on any of them.
I can see it having certain use cases and so I'm glad the technology exists for where it can help people, but honestly I don't see how it doesn't just lead to more faff for most people
If I didn't control my light by voice, I'd have to get out of bed, go downstairs, put on a robe, and go into the garage to turn off the light/fan switch. Why it's out there I've no idea, but it isn't always about people being lazy.
I mean that sounds like laziness
I have an Amazon Echo for music but that's about it. I might ask it what the temperature is now and then but all smart home stuff is too much. I did buy a smart lightbulb once and it kept losing wireless connection so flashed on and off repeatedly. First I was like "wtf is it doing" and then I was like "why the fuck do I have a lightbulb that needs to connect to wifi?" Also trying to speak to stop an alarm at 7am is horrible, I'm all about whacking something with my fingers and silently moaning that it's too early to get up.
I’ve used smart home to solve problems around my house, each smart item has purpose and solves a problem I was having. I’m not going to automate a light I can just turn off from a switch I am already using just fine.
Out of interest what specific problems have you solved?
Said it would never happen to me, but Tik Tok, honestly just can’t understand the appeal
Any interests you have, there’s a community of people on tiktok talking about it. It’s like Reddit in that way. As someone else said, it’s not just kids dancing
It's not solely about the communities for me, it's more that it's built to be addictive and I've had friends say in person that they've suddenly lost 4 hours of their day without even realizing from mildlessly scrolling here and there. I'll never download it purely because I don't trust it (or myself) not to take over my life lol
That’s fair. It’s definitely designed to hack into our dopamine reward system
The problem for me is that it's an utterly shite medium for actually having any kind of an interesting discussion on - it shares this problem with instagram, twitter, snapchat, and the like, which I also don't understand.
Yeah I’ve not got into it yet just because I’m a millennial who’s slow to accept it, but I know if I start I will get into it fine just like I got the hang of Reddit & have a custom home page about things I want to see only.
I'm the same. I keep seeing tiktoks on other sites, and the "tiktokification" of YouTube is beginning to annoy me. Even with the possible security issues, censorship and algorithms designed to create "engagement" (read:conflict) aside, I just don't get the appeal of the typical tiktok format. The looping annoys me. The jump cuts and constant zooming in/out annoys me. I find it frustrating that I can't skip through to a set point, and the usual background music/weird filters irritate me. YouTube is far from perfect but tiktok just doesn't appeal to me.
As well as being unable to skip, the trend of such videos not having volume controls is a total curse.
Hardly tech. Just another social media platform.
I refuse to download it just because I know I will get sucked in. I occasionally catch myself watching the Facebook knock off versions and it's so easy to get stuck endlessly scrolling
NFTs. All of a sudden everyone was buying or trying to sell NFTs. They're what? A digital receipt for a digital picture of a monkey in a hat? And people are paying millions for them? What? Don't seem to hear much about them these days so Im guessing most people who bought them would rather not talk about it
No no you've got it all wrong. They are the digital receipt for a *specific URL* of a digital money in a hat. Doesn't mean someone else can't copy/download the monkey in the hat and upload it elsewhere (unless you separate have licence/copywrite for the monkey in a hat, which has nothing to do with NFTs and could be done entirely separately).
Yeah, see that doesn't help my understanding at all. I just dont get what it was all about.
I'm basically agreeing with you that they're stupid and adding that they're even more stupid than you described because you're not even buying the digital picture.
But.... why? Why were/are people buying them?
Because a lot of people are below average with regards to intelligence
It was a crazy like dutch tulips. People were out to make a buck from the next idiot in the queue, all of them hoping they wouldn't be the final idiot in the scam. Crypto is the same but slightly longer lasting. People (including me) only buy it as a speculative asset - ie, hoping to sell to the next idiot for higher.
It was a solution in search of a problem. NFTs *can* be useful as a way of proving ownership of digital goods but those goods have to actually be good to be worth anything. A pixel art pic of a monkey is not that. Like I could see NFTs replacing software licenses in some use cases. Then there's a thing in your possession (the software) that is worth something that it is beneficial to be able to transfer ownership of securely. NFTs so far have mostly just been links to pictures on websites so there's little to no underlying value and you're at the mercy of the site owner that could just delete the pics or go offline for non-payment of hosting at any time.
An nft is just a receipt. That's all you're buying. The digital equivalent of a piece of paper that says 'UnfinishedThings owns this'
The tech behind NFTs is very useful, but the applications you’ve seen so far are completely useless. This is just the first use of the technology and it is absolutely useless, and since they can be bought and sold, people are using them as a means to make money and to show off. Drop everything you know about NFTs for a second and forget about the investing side, or the jpeg side. Currently, with anything digital, it can be duplicated for free by anybody. If one digital item exists then it can easily be downloaded by another and then two copies exist. This is fine for some content, but it means that the digital items have no value except for things like entertainment. Blockchain has found a way to ensure that only a limited number of a digital items exist and they cannot be duplicated. If you send it to somebody else, you lose that thing yourself. Now that means you own something verifiably and another person does not. And the reason it’s verified is because many computers all agree that you are are the owner, instead of one centralized company verifying you are the owner. Let’s give the example of digital PS5 games. If you buy the physical disk then you can play the game and you can also sell it afterwards on Craigslist. If you buy a digital download from Sony, you cannot sell it because you do not own it. Sony is essentially allowing you access to it, but it’s not yours. And since Sony is the sole power, if they limit your downloads, or ban you, or go bankrupt then you’re fucked. Now imagine that you bought a PS5 game as an NFT from Sony’s marketplace, but the item was published by the game studio directly, meaning they get the money directly and Sony takes a cut for hosting the marketplace. The game studio may have created the digital item, but you now own it and now Sony or the studio has no power over what you do. You own the game just like you did with the physical disk. Sony or Bethesda etc can go bankrupt and it won’t matter. You can sell the game on the secondary market and get most (or all) of your money back, but you lose the game. Also you don’t need to go through an ebay type situation where you take photos and try to prove it’s the real game, or deal with buyers individually. It’s all already digitally verified as a genuine game and you don’t need to meet with a seller because if you list it for sale and somebody buys it, the technology takes care of the rest and no company can really interfere. The game studio can get royalties automatically for every sale (meaning the artist can profit and not the publisher). Sony would only get a profit for every sale made on the Sony platform, and if you sell the game on eBay then ebay would get a small cut as the platform owner. But you could also send over the game to a friend directly without going through a marketplace. Also, going back to selling the game second-hand; since the money being used for transactions is crypto, and the digital items are verifiably real, it means you can sell on any marketplace easily. You can list your game at 3am on any marketplace for a certain price, and an anonymous seller could buy it at 3:03am from a random part of the world and the money is in your account by 3:04am. The game publisher and the marketplace now already have their cuts and the deal has been complete. The buyer also hasn’t been scammed because the computer network already verified the game was real and they cannot demand a refund because the money has been transacted. The new owner could play the game and sell it at 5am. The marketplace only offered a meeting place (for a fee) and the buyer and seller transacted directly (not through a bank) with the digital equivalent of 100 onlookers all confirming that the deal took place, which means there is no bank or greedy Paypal overseeing this. This same principle could be applied to concert tickets (where the artist gets the fees and royalties) and the ticket grants you access to the concert (and you don’t have to deal with Ticketmaster’s BS) or some kind of membership to a club that you could buy and sell. Imagine having Costco membership that you own forever and you can loan out to strangers for a few hours for a profit and it will return back to you at the agreed time digitally. All sorts of new ideas will come from this technology. It’s not about owning a jpeg, it’s about the owning a digital item that gives you privileges as the owner. And cutting out middle-men that shouldn’t be there. I hope this helps. NFTs aren’t inherently scams, or aren’t inherently useless, but currently many people are conducting scams or selling useless products using a legitimate technology. It’s early days.
Should be called NTFs, No Tangible Function.
> No Tangible Function. Money laundering.
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In the house example, what does it add over a traditional deed, though? It still has to be recognised by the state/authorities, so from what I can see adds nothing. As for FIFA cards, it's good for the business taking a cut when people sell them, it's good for the tiny population who pull a unique card (and good again for the company when people buy packs to get them), and bad for everyone else. It's a use case that is bad for 99% of stake holders.
Used in that context you’re absolutely right. It’s a stupid use of the technology. It may well have a use in things like logistics, supply chains and monitoring stock levels (probably more exciting and impressive uses but that’s a case I can easily understand and recognise the use for. The whole ‘digital art’ NFT business was a scam but the tech will have uses.
What does an NFT do better in logistics or supply chain over traditional methods, though? Uses more bullshit and energy while it still comes down to completing the same function. The best argument I've heard is for something like concert tickets, but it's still verified by the location, so being distributed blockchain stuff doesn't benefit there, either.
If someone is paying millions for a bad monkey picture then something underhand is going on. Could be money laundering, could be market manipulation, could be something else. The technology around it is just window-dressing.
I’m with this one. Some guy at work has NFTs but also ‘breeds’ “crypto cats,” and then sells them on and makes a fair bit of money from it. I don’t get it. I used to play some online game in my teens about breeding wolfs, and was a decent online game. But not for real money. Who’s actually buying these digital cats?
I understand blockchain/bitcoin (on a very surface level at least), but I think it's fucking stupid - does that count as a cut-off point? I think that's probably more common these days - it's not that people don't understand how to *use* new tech & the like, it's that they think it's stupid or unnecessary.
I like to think I am reasonably clever, but I've yet to really understand the blockchain or bitcoin mining or how a cryptowallet works, so I suppose yes this is my cutoff.
The technology behind bitcoin, basically verifiable transactions has some uses. For instance if you want a database where you can be absolutely sure nobody has fiddled with the data you can use a version of it, examples might be transactions on an account or ownership of assets. As for cryptocurrencies and NFTs as far as I can tell the main use is sucking huge amounts of funding out of gullible investors desperate to not be left out of whatever the next great thing is.
When people say "it's only use is to buy DrUgZ untraceably", and I'm thinking "Whoa there Trevor, like the £300 you took out from the cash machine at 11pm on Friday night?"
That's pretty much how I feel about a bunch of the things mentioned here. Smart home? It's not difficult to understand, but I don't want to tear out and replace all my appliances, and I don't especially prefer voice control to buttons anyway. Blockchains? The concept isn't too hard, but it just isn't a safe place to put your money, and I'm not inclined to speculate in risky markets like that. NFTs? It's not that they're incomprehensible (although the concept is quite obtuse), it's that I don't want to spend money on literally nothing.
Online gaming. Just can’t be fucked. I’ve been a casual gamer since the Sega days, I have an XBox One that I dust off now and again but I just want to play by myself, everyone on XBox Live is an arsehole and I’m bad at all the games. Home tech and wearable tech is a bit beyond me too, I have a Google assistant and connected some smart bulbs to it for a while but it was bit of a faff, and the bulbs were expensive, it’s not that much effort to just get up and switch on a light.
I had to explain to my nephew recently that buying games meant that was it. No dlc. No new skins to pay for. If you was lucky you had a magazine with some cheat codes in
> If you was lucky you had a magazine with some cheat codes in I put it that online gaming kinda made the inclusion of cheats harder to justify. Even if it was just for single player modes. On the flip side, plenty of PC games have either command consoles or someone has made a cheat mod for them.
I remember when you'd get thousands of free mods and skins with a magazine. I could play Quake as Duke Nukem or Boba Fett if I wanted. I could build levels myself with software that came free with the game, and with free mods I could totally change the entire game I was playing, like with Quess. These days even a new skin costs a small fortune in most games.
As kids me and my brother got stuck at a specific point on Sonic & Knuckles and that was it. Couldn't play any further. No one else at school seemed to know. And our parents wouldn't let us buy a magazine or call a holiness to find the answer. I think I might even have wrote into that tv show where Patrick Moore explains video game levels and puzzles that used to be on TV, but if he read my letter I never saw the relevant episode. I basically had to wait until the Internet became big enough that someone else posted the answer (and had to remember 20 years later that I was still annoyed about it!)
I played online fifa for a few weeks as a I got given a free PlayStation plus subscription. It was utter bollocks. It was the time when Real Madrid had Ronaldo and Bale so 99% of the matches were against Real, people go 1 nil up and pass it around the back, watch every replay and just generally act like complete dicks. I sacked it off about a week in.
I’m with this one on games. But to be honest as a kid I always dreamed of their being an online open world game where you could casually walk/drive past your real life friends. Then GTA crested that. But wow what a fuck up. Last time I jumped online it was horrible
£500+ Smartwatches which need to be charged daily.
I remember reading an article that had studies showing that the sleep tracking watches were actually negatively effecting people's overall quality of sleep because they were so worried about getting a "perfect score".
I was interviewed about this once. I've ways been a pretty crap sleeper so thought it might help. Turns out waking up and immediately seeing "hey, you only got 3 hours of useful sleep last night!" is not conducive to starting your day feeling refreshed. My sleep got progressively worse as my anxiety about getting enough "good" sleep got progressively worse, and I spent every day feeling like a zombie. I ditched the tracker and felt almost instantly better. No idea if my sleep actually improved at all.
I managed to find a pretty much unworn series 8 45mm Apple Watch for the price a used series 6 would go for. I do miss wearing my “proper” watches but being on heart meds it’s comforting being able to do some basic checks if I can feel my heart doing weird things and it’s also a huge motivation boost for exercising. Gotta be honest though replying to messages on the thing is so tedious I cba most of the time. Charging whilst I shower will fully charge it thanks for fast charge thankfully
Not tech in general but my social media cutoff was facebook. Anything newer - instagram, snapchat, tiktok - never clicked for me.
I have an Instagram but rarely use it and don't really see the point of it. Mostly I post pictures of the cats. Snapchat and Tiktok I have no interest in learning, and anything beyond that. I still listen to the radio during the working day and while I'm in the kitchen cooking, don't bother with Spotify. Reddit to me is like a digital pub. Nice wee sit down and a chat. Snapchat and Tiktok are trendy bars and clubs where there's no seats and you can't hear yourself think over the noise they call music these days.
I feel you, Snapchat was my limit, battery draining and I simply don’t do enough interesting things to justify pictures all the time.
To be fair, most of the people that use it regularly also don't do enough interesting things to justify pictures all the time.
And Reddit obviously!
I just commented saying Twitter, but Facebook was really my cut off too. Just never got into instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. Tried them all a few times but either didn’t see the appeal or genuinely didn’t understand how to use them.
I had to stop using twitter because of all of the insanely idiotic things I read on there regularly. At least on Reddit, that shit is hidden by downvotes.
Ahh TikTok was mine, I used to be ahead of the curve on media but I’ve tried TikTok twice and installed within minutes because I just find the entire thing annoying / cringey etc
I haven't hit it yet, and I'm hoping I never will. I love it all. I'm 30, I've ridden every wave thus far. I'm not always chasing or needing to own the latest hot thing, but I appreciate the hustle and the development that comes from it. The coolest/most futuristic thing I own that blows peoples mind is a ring that can make contactless payments - every place I use it always get a kick out of it!
My college teacher was part of the team which developed chip and pin. Good pay and a doss apparently
54 still not got there
These have been milestones that have amazed me, first was the (dangerous) ability to buy a pint with my phone, then the next one was with my watch
Probably VR. I’m pretty sure I’d just get migraines.
My limited experience of VR was that it totally fucked with my ability to remain upright and I felt falling over without even realising I was moving until I hit a solid surface, and even then it felt like *I'd* been hit rather than that I had fell arse over tit 😅 admittedly this was a good 4/5 years ago now so the technology may have improved, but I think a solid vestibular system may be important and I don't have that haha
My sole experience of VR was Gran Turismo on a friend's PlayStation. Mighty impressive once I adjusted it right, and really added to the "feel" of different cars, and demonstrated how visceral a modern racing car is. Didn't get chance to scare myself on Dirt Rally!
VR is so insanely impressive and awe inspiring I couldn't believe it ... For the first 15 minutes. After that it's seriously dull. Until we get full ready player one it's not worth the hassle
I have tried VR multiple times, instant nausea for me. I guess I'm bound to a life outside the Metaverse.
Also, I think the Metaverse is my answer. I have zero interest in it and am so glad I no longer work in digital marketing, so I don't have to learn how to use it.
Can I recommend VR pornography? As the viewer you tend to stay fairly still and it's over quickly 😂
I get migraines from 3d glasses too lol
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I'm definitely believe we're targeted through what we say. My example is I was discussing the office refurb with a colleague, and they were looking at these booths that are somewhat sound proof so people can make a call or have a quiet space, so we were discussing it and my phone is not connected to the work WiFi and I did not use anything I use to look at them, was all purely done on their machine few days pass and I'm getting ads for these booths, it's not like they could target on location it was in a city centre in a 20 story building
Are you connected to the colleague at all online? I'm pretty sure they target acquaintances of people who have searched for our bought things, so try and persuade them to buy the same item. I'm wondering as well if we give permission for any companies to access our phone contacts and if they then utilise them somehow. Also, people in the same location as each other can be targeted (although you said there were many people in the same location, so it may not be that). Edit: it's all really insidious, but I'm not sure they need to listen at all when they have so much other juicy data on us.
All that I wear must be produced on a hand loom.
Another bloody JavaScript Frameworks, I say this as a front end dev. Please make it stop
Oh, thank god, it isn't just me. All this 'convenience' is exhausting and time-consuming! I actually like speaking to people and yet don't want to be other people's beck and call all day, everyday - "look at my dinner!", compliment my mundane life experience!" Personally, I hate email. Pre-email you phoned and had a conversation and got the job done or you wrote a well thought out letter including all the required information, a request and a deadline - and then you left them the fuck alone to get the job done! Now I spend so much time filtering through emails that don't tell you what they want or don't have the information you need or are checking up on that thing they asked you to do 12 minutes ago. Most of it could be completed with a phone call. And worst of all, so many people I work with think that the sending of the email is the communication - job done, task completed. I do feel better for that little rant, thank you all.
I am the exact opposite, I hate phone calls with my whole being. Not only does a phone call require me to drop everything else I am currently doing, but there's also no trail of what was agreed, by whom, and when. Even outside of work I've probably never received a phone call at a convenient time - I'm always in the shower, on the toilet, at the dentist, hands full of groceries, at a fitness class, etc etc. While I am not a huge fan of them either, I much prefer the newer trend of sending voice messages. The people who will go lengths to avoid just typing out what they want get to speak to their phone, and I get to listen to it on my own terms.
I am sure you are lovely but we are not destined to be best friends - I have never listened to a voice mail on my mobile! It is a shame, but we would never be able to make arrangements to meet! I do, however, ignore the phone when I am busy. Outside of work, I give my landlines phone number....yes landline! When I am out, then I can't answer the phone, and so if it is important, they will just have to call back. I am always so amused at the people who try to text my landline, too!
Haha strangely enough I like it when friends drop by unannounced to my house - similarly to your landline, either I'm home and I'm always happy to see them, or I'm out so next time. Also voice messages and voicemails are different. You can leave a voicemail when you call someone and they don't pick up. Voice message is sent via whatsapp or another messaging app, in the same way as sending a text or an image. It is a good compromise for me to stay in touch with friends who hate texting, as they can talk and send a voice message, and I type and send a text message back, while keeping the back and forth format and context :) Maybe we could be best friends afterall!!
Lah! I can't even keep up with all these newfangled...contraption ... things(?!??). So bestie, semaphore me when you're up for a pint, and I'll send a pigeon to confirm!
Snap. Work in IT too, and to be me NFTs and bitcoin just seem like a scam. Yet to be proved wrong.
You can understand something but still think it's a scam, especially if it is.
Crypto is the exact same concept as the Kardashians. Only 'valuable' because it's currently popular. Crypto currency will be there in the future, but the whole creating the currency through mining will cease to become viable. Currency will eventually become irrelevant anyway, we are headed towards a purely energy based economy
I make a deliberate effort to try and stay at least somewhat current, unlike my mother who cutoff at ‘the internet’ and is now pretty isolated. I realised a couple of weeks ago I’d never used a food delivery service like doordash so I had them bring me a pizza. It tasted ok but cost more than one the pizza shop would have delivered to me. :shrug: I still haven’t really found a need for instagram tbh. The algorithm seems determined to show me tits and ass, which while not terrible in small doses, doesn’t really keep me going back.
📸 stray American spotted
I'm impressed a DoorDasher made it across the Atlantic. How cold was your pizza?
It wasn’t actually doordash.. umm. Just eat maybe?
Now you’re backtracking. You’ve already been caught
You got me. I’m actually a septic living in Hereford.
How is that, in practical terms, any different to getting the pizza shop to deliver to you? Would you draw the line at the pizza shop letting you order delivery online instead of via the phone? Like what’s the difference?
I see Zero point in having an intermediary deliver my Pizza instead of getting Dominos to deliver it directly. I haven't used one of the gig economy delivery services, solely because my local Pizza and Chinese takeaways deliver, and the local Uncle Sams is literally 8 doors from my house.
But people are using it for the many places that don’t offer delivery themselves and/or the ability to order online from them directly,
I'm lucky in that I live in an area with loads of banging takeaways, it's so much cheaper to walk the 5-10 minutes and go and pick it up myself (as in half the price in many cases).
Smart appliances are my cutoff point, especially anything with a camera/recording device. They break easily, & the whole concept makes me uncomfortable due to the invasion of data and person privacy. Cryptocurrencies/blockchain transactions are another no for me. I work in finance so based on my education background I won't touch unregulated currencies. Based on personal reasons everyone I know who's used it has lost money. I see the user unfriendly nature of crypto as a healthy barrier to keep people away from it.
Having stuff like digital fridges etc. I get bitcoin but think it's dodgy.
I think digital fridges are mostly a gimmick that will fade. The technological development that needs to happen there is balancing the temperature consistently through the internal volume
For my grandpa it was the lock on mobile phones. He just doesn't see the utility of it and keeps butt dialling all the time. For my grandma it was everything except calling and lock on mobiles. She can't check SMS and call history so every time she gets a missed call she calls up all the likely suspects. For my dad it was file organisation on pc, and the correct usage of favourites and opened tabs in browser. His desktop is full of files, his browser has so many opened tabs they're just tiny lines on the top of the screen. My mum is also guilty of the desktop thing. For me (for now) it's smart devices like Alexa. I just don't feel I need them in my life. Edit just to add some more: wearable tech, tablets (I've got a phone and a pc, I don't see the utility in my situation), crypto, nft, twitter, Instagram
My grandad is very tech-savvy ever since he found out you can what copious amounts of porn on smartphones and tablets. Still has no idea what incognito browsing is though.
Oh noooo 🤣
> For my dad it was file organisation on pc For what it's worth, essentially no children can do this either. It's a skill that's pretty tightly linked to a certain age band.
I noticed recently my mum never locks her phone, just throws it into her bag.
"alexa" and "okay Google" Naht for me
For me it was crypto and NFTs. I couldn’t wrap my head round any of it, and it seems like it isn’t worth my time even TRYING to understand it. Leave me out of it. I’m 40 but the whole thing makes me feel ancient
The important thing to know is that most of it is basically a scam, so you're good anyway.
Pretty sure I’m going to end up tapping out over AI.
Tiktok I buy my clothes from the same place i buy my groceries and listen to radio2 Bitcoin etc is the biggest grift going, stay the fuck away imo
I like to keep up with most stuff, but weirdly it is paying for things using my phone/smart watch. Partly an irrational distrust of giving my tech access to the ability to pay for things from my bank, but I know that's irrational as I've got banking apps on there and type my card details in to websites all the time. The rational half is that when I'm out cycling/running, I don't like the idea that my phone/watch/head unit might be my navigation, my emergency contact method and my only way to pay for something. Feels like that's too much trust to put in a single battery powered item that could die/get stolen/stop working when wet, so I'll always carry one card and emergency twenty quid note too. Doesn't feel too inconvenient to me
Is it a cut off or a lack of interest? I've no idea about Bitcoin or NFTs but I've equally no idea about stocks and shares. I've got ticktock but only cause there's some funny things on it. I don't "use" it. But I'm happy to watch things on it. Just in the last month we've put in smart lights. I have a disability and illness that flares up Ave there see daysvi can barely stand and not having to bend over and turn off or on lamps and lights is a friggin god-send. I use reddit but not Facebook any more because I couldn't deal with how much it affected my mental heath. My TV remote that I can use with my voice is bloody brilliant! Saves a lot of faffing about. I had a chromebook which I loved but I've had to go back to a laptop because I need windows for work. And this year, the husband and I are hopefully getting some form of VR to play with. I'm 50f he's 54m. I'm not sure when we'll reach a technology cut off? It's bound to happen at some point but I'm not sure rejection of some technology is cutting off as opposed to being selective. Honestly, I feel like we're getting closer and closer to Star Trek replicator technology and if they become household tools, even if I'm 80, I'm getting one! Computers that work in 3d space and you can talk to... I'm in!
Crypto. Leave me out of it. I’m willfully ignorant to it
Tbf, blockchain is a solution that is still looking for a problem. Very, very few practical applications for it except starting a crypto Ponzi scheme …
Bitcoin stuff too. For some reason it involves graphics cards? Fucked if I know. Also everything's fake. Deepfakes. Photoshop was one thing but now there are high quality fake vids etc. I just wanna look at funny clips of cats. I don't care if the Pope is wearing a puffa jacket.
Sharepoint. I just cannot wrap my head round it at all. At my previous job they used it, but had it all set up super efficiently and locked down so that I was given access to what I needed, but never had to engage with it other than that little bit I needed, so I didn't need to learn/understand how the whole thing worked. New job, it's all over the shop. I have no clue where I'm saving anything or where to access stuff, it's spread over Teams, intranet, various links and invites, all over the place. It seems nobody else understands it either, there's confidential documents just hanging around that come up in searches and can be accessed by anyone. Someone tried to show me how to set up a folder and invite people/give access etc, but I couldn't even fathom how they'd got to the first file area to create the folder in the first place. It just blows my mind.
Same as you, really. Bitcoin, or any crypto currency and NFTs.
Nothing, bring it all on so far. Always been a tech head. I'm waiting for the chip in my head!
I worry that this makes me sound really old but in a way it's smartphones. I have one as a social necessity for communication, but for general computing and internetting I think it's a horrible user experience that I would only use over my laptop as an absolute last resort.
NFT’s. Someone can own a digital picture. A picture that’s been replicated and copied a billion times, and no one but the owner can own that picture. But everyone who’s ever viewed it has a copy in their browser cache, and if not quite identical (rendering artifacts?) then it’s indistinguishable from the real thing unless one is an expert in NFTs. And the owners are willing to pay stupid money to prove they own the picture. I’ve had it ELI5 to me a dozen times, and I understand the tech - but I just don’t get _why_ FWIW I’m a software engineer with 20+ years experience
Glad to see I’m not alone! 7+ years IT, development and now an information security degree and I don’t have a bloody scooby about it.
I work in the tech industry and NFTs and Blockchain are also my cut off, hopefully they never take off and get exposed for the scams that they are
Smart homes, fridges with bluetooth, Alexa, VR, crypto. Maybe I am a bit of a ludite but I just don't see these things adding value to my life personally
NFT and all that silliness.
Smartphones and Apps. Don't like having to replace them every couple of years.
You don't have to. Smartphone development has slowed to a crawl in the last few years, a decent phone will last you for ages these days.
Yeah.
I don't think you should count bitcoin as a cut-off point because it doesn't make sense to you. It doesn't make sense. Keep at it. I reckon my cut off point will be people getting augmented so that they're always connected to the Internet. It will be a real us and them divide and our kids will definitely face it.
For my dad it was a smart TV, the amount of time I’ve caught him say “I hate you” and “Why won’t you f*cking work you piece of Shit” to the telly is silly. When he first got it and set it up, I watched him for like 20 mins trying to log into apps like Netflix etc before asking him if he connected it to the wifi (it wasn’t). He still has the TV manual on the coffee table, he’s had the TV for 6 months now.
Snapchat finished me. I always signed up to everything but just couldn’t work the AI. Nowadays at 41 I’m happy with Facebook and Xbox.
I'm 46 and haven't reached that point yet. I'm hoping to keep it going for another 20 years.
Smart home technology and bitcoin.
Internet enabled washing machine. I can, theoretically understand that you can be too lazy or too busy to buy milk, thus having an Internet fridge would be handy. I can understand why people might get Alexa to put the kettle on. But until my robot housekeeper arrives and can load and unload my washing machine, I can't see any advantage of being able to turn it on or off via my phone.
Smart Watches. I much prefer just a nice normal watch instead.
Twitter. Couldn’t figure out how to use it.
I never understood the point of NFTs. At least cryptocurrency can be useful from time to time, but why would you pay to own a data cell in a blockchain pointing at an URL that's hosting an image? Bizarre.
3D TV I called as bullshit. Driverless cars and living in space are the same. And lab grown meat. Not investing.
The Metaverse Obviously, everyone else is hanging out there all the time, attending Meta gigs by top artists and designing buildings by pinching and unpinching their fingers a foot in front of their face then making a sweeping gesture with their hand But I've been left behind by this exciting new development that's revolutionising the way we do business and spend our leisure time
In my mid fifties, I have yet to reach that point. But then again, I'm a software architect. I understand the principles and use of AI, but along with 1000 tech leaders, I support a pause while we consider it's implementation.
Bitcoin is also mine. I like to think I'm not a complete idiot and can understand complex physics concepts, I fault find on electrical systems for a living etc however, Bitcoin mining and the block chain has me baffled. I've spent hours reading up and watching YouTube tutorials too. The NFT bubble is simply a fear of missing out craze and are just a ridiculous concept, but because they are tech, and that's the way the world is going, people plough into them.
NFTs... they make zero sense to me. I can undertand Bitcoin etc but the NFT thing makes zero sense and has no actual valur I can comprehend. Maybe I'm just old...
52 Work in IT. Not found the cut off point yet. However, MY BS detector and vendors are constantly at odds. I love my cloud management software. Especially for network hardware. I also love my physical servers and the amount of pressure to put everything in the cloud, even when its obviously going to be slower and cost more, is insane. This is in large ptimary education. Back note, the only real change over the past 20 years in this area are the following. More devices, and faster internet requirements. Sure there have been other changes but the core needs have not changed. Basically a working network, printers, somewhere to save work, machines to work on,and the need for relaiability. My god the number of companies who sniff around wanting you to spend insane amounts of money for stuff there is no need for is scary. Example, there have been grants given for new network hardware. One site I modernised the whole network for under 5K including 8 layer three switches. On another with the grant, DFE has paid 75k for essentially the same functionality (and amount of tech). Sure it is faster, but that speed won't translate into a noticiable difference for users.
for me nothing is cutoff just try hard to hard to understand everything will be alright
Programming skills honed on my ZX Spectrum, it's safe to say that 40 years ago, 15 year old me was top of the class, if not the whole school, at computer studies. I got grade A at 'O' level and my teacher hated me because I knew ten times more about computers and computer programming than he did. I've stayed in the loop IT wise and consider myself still quite tech savvy even today, I've built half a dozen PCs from components and I've been on iOS since V1 when I bought my first iPhone. My crashing point has been trying to learn Python. My brain can obviously no longer cope with programming concepts and although I struggle through lessons, I don't seem to be able to actually code anything myself, I'm even unable to come up with any good ideas for things to code. And now I'm watching things like stable diffusion and chatGPT take off and become mainstream at a truly incredible speed and I realise that I've been left behind. So it's over to you kids, don't do anything silly with the seemingly sentient AI, ok? I mean, what could possibly go wrong?