For a mix of reasons I perceive the digital world getting worse.
Not just the services and applications but also all the regulatory things coming down the pipeline; likely wider-spread mandatory age verification, a recent example. Many others.
Though it can be sometimes frustrating, I have found “real world” domain stuff very relaxing and cathartic. You will have noticed my DIY game rising lately.
Rounding over the edges of a bit of oak is wonderfully “analogue”.
And tangible; physical.
I am lucky to have a workshop to do these things in. But I suspect there are physical-domain hobbies that almost anyone could do, without needing much space and tools.
I find I feel better about “digital” once it is a smaller component of a wider life.
Perhaps an unintended consequence of governmental fiddling will be a return to an approach more like dialup days, where you sat down for a contained amount of time, used “the internet” then stopped and went back to doing something else?
If something like this does happen then it is hard not to think that economically there will be a movement back towards what was the case back then.
Put bluntly, if you have fewer people using the internet for less and less time, the money walks away.
I wonder if the government(s) forecasted for this. It’s a big chunk of the economy at several layers.
Perhaps treating the Internet more like we did back in dialup days might even be healthier?
If this thread sounds pessimistic and negative, I don’t intend it to be so, at least not entirely. By way of example, remember when Twitter got ruined? It had been getting slowly worse for years then it got fully ruined.
Note where you are reading this thread now. Better than Twitter ever was, isn’t it? And all because of something we almost all were deflated and upset about when it first happened.
There is room for cautious optimism.
@bloor I'm not sure about your optimism, but thank you for thinking out loud ... it's really intriguing to think where this might go next....
As with WhatsApp groups and similar, maybe more and more "local" or "invite-only" instances of social media, where the platforms push the legal and ethical responsibilities down to the local admins, but run the underlying infrastructure in return for analytical data to sell on?
@bloor I think you make a great point, but I wonder how many people have workshops, or even a space to do this kind of thing in?
My *feeling* ( so unsupported by research or evidence ) is that more people are living together in the UK than they did before due to still living with parents or renting with friends and so on, and houses/rooms are generally smaller in more modern houses, so people just don't have the room for this kind of activity?
@nav @SonOfSunTzu Andrews & Arnold doesn't just pontificate about this.
We provide broadband, free of charge, to a lot of Hack/Makerspaces. It's a small way we can help.
@bloor I never stopped doing AFK things. From growing pepper plants on the balcony to doing the dishes while playing an album on my turntable.
With that same thought I never owned a laptop. And on top of it all I run a coffee stand on our local market every Saturday, I call that my off-line day.
I was an early adopter of the internet but never let it be more important then my analogue live.
I guess this is also where @uselessness is about.
@bloor I have been enjoying splicing in the real world far more than computing the last few years. Computers and everything tech in general is becoming infuriating to use.
I especially dislike it when someone sends me an Instagram video and I can't view it because I don't have an account, nor will I ever have one.
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