I swear I was ahead of the curve on this one. But modern technology has run out of usefulness to me.
It was obvious enough with the kind of blog I run. Sandy's Palace is HTML and CSS only (apart from 2 lines but don't worry about it), a haphazardly-run shambling mass of a thing. I adore it because it's mine, and I made it mine.
Virtually no aspect of modern tech allows this any more. Smartphones are walled gardens, hemming you in with the power of convenience, sleekness, and obfuscation. If you're on Android, you can fight back, but you need to Know in order to even begin. If you're on iPhone, forget it.
Every item that can be enshittified is in the process of being turned into an appliance. Something designed to break whenever it feels like, totally unrepairable, leaving you powerless to take ownership and control.
Modern cars disgust me. I don't consider them appealing at any price bracket. Frankly the more high-end you go, the worse it gets. Apple CarPlay takes greater priority on a new Aston Martin than anything else it determines on the fly. A surprising aspect of conspicuous consumption to me was that people will happily pay for an appliance that is shit at what it does, as it displays the user's affluence even more effectively, not even needing their pricey toy to work. Also see: Cybertruck.
I made the leap to digital banks and briefly enjoyed it. Then they added a tab for investments. Then for crypto. Then popups for savings goals, trending tickers, brand discounts, analytics, RevPoints, 'Benefits', premium tiers... Trade Republic doesn't even let me see cashback accumulation any more.
Complaining stops here. I try to only bitch when I can do something about it.
Cars - no buying anything that contains the word 'infotainment'. If there's a head unit, ensure it's isolated from the rest of the car. Then replace said head unit with your own CIA-backed puppet. Mechanical switches only for everything important: car controls, air conditioning, cruise control, and ideally the handbrake. Mechanical tach and speedometer is a must.
Banks - It's time to Retvrn to your local credit union. Unlike AIB, BOI, PTSB, etc, these guys bail you out.
Every home appliance must be fixable with a hammer and/or a blowtorch. No exceptions.
Once the banal stuff is out of the way, how do we enjoy ourselves?
Digital photography still has plenty of skill curve left for me to climb, but it doesn't feel fruitful any more. Once you hit a certain level of playing with settings on a screen, it all feels academic. The thought of approaching the same hobby while being forced to relearn how everything works - now that's fun. I desperately want to jump into this with a silly little €20 thing and actually fuck around and find out.
Cooking is unenshittifiable... right? Aside from online recipes. Make your own cookbook. And put chicken chasseur in there. You will thank me later.
I've never been good at arts and crafts, but if a cute girl taught me how to stitch and sew I'd be doing it all day everyday. Mostly to sew gay little patches onto things.
And saving all that, there's always domestic terrorism.
Edit: Forgot to mention. Streaming services are evil and Jellyfin servers are the gigachad solution 👍