2024-04-30

Living like it's 2004?

When I was younger, I used to love cutting-edge technology. Reading about the 
latest and greatest tech in magazines (shoutout to ComputerBild and Chip and 
Science Focus), testing Windows 10 before its release, looking at new 
smartphones' specs regularly... these were the things that occupied my spare 
time about 10 years ago. But now they are all gone from view.

These days it is all about going back in time for me. SpaceHey, Gopher, 
Neocities, a feature phone, an MP3 player and radio instead of streaming, XMPP 
and IRC instead of countless (and usually commercial) IM services. The problem 
is, the world has moved on from all of that.

Let's take the example of QR codes. They are everywhere. And you are expected 
to always be able to scan them: whether they are embedded in a presentation 
shown in class or point to the menu in a cafe (no human-readable link or 
physical copy is provided most of the time). In short, dumbphones are not 
welcome.

More generally, everyone is now assumed to have access to the Internet 24/7. 
This is why it is hardly possible to cut oneself off from modern tech, despite 
all the simpler alternatives that exist and all the mental health and 
productivity benefits they could potentially offer. We are all forced to live 
in 2024, not 2004 (which is only logical, but one can dream and enjoy the 
delusion sometimes, eh?)

That was a bit like a vent, wasn't it? Now talking about music... no one said 
you cannot live in 2004 in that respect :) "My Happy Ending" starts playing on 
the MP3 player. Not singing along is *not* an option. Life is good.

jay