>

Meta verse hasn't peaked yet so I think we aren't there yet.
The impact on mental health alone is insane. After doom scrolling I feel horrible about myself. It’s an onslaught of reading people argue over nothing, comparing myself to photoshopped women, feeling jealous that I don’t get to fuck around and travel, etc. It’s inescapable online. People are the worst version of themselves on the internet. 
The shitty thing is, I’ve tried to get rid of all social media but it makes me feel like a hermit when I do. I’m so conditioned to immediately go on my phone when I’m bored. >

I'm 30 and just got rid of everything in October except BeReal and Snapchat, as lame as that sounds. I like Snapchat because I can still keep in touch with people, post the things I want, and only check the stories I want. No other bullshit, long text posts, arguing, so on. BeReal is fun because it's new, and it's just a once a day prompt to post what I am doing right at the exact moment the notification goes off. 
Everything else was beginning to be exactly how you described it for me. It was just non-stop toxic trash. No more Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for me. I'm actually MUCH happier without them. You'll feel like a hermit but your mental health will thank you for dwindling down your connections to only those who truly want to connect with you, and not the filler garbage of everything else.
ETA- yeah, I didn't get rid of Reddit, because I don't use this like social media, nor does it feel that way to me. It's not a toxic space like the "big 3" are (FB, Insta, Twitter). Getting rid of things for me was getting rid of those 3 mainstream social media apps. Here I most times just see lots of memes and cat pics-its a happy space, not a toxic one like the others are. Sometimes I chime in on things on Reddit, but it's not very often, and admittedly, sometimes it's hard to fight the nature of being human and wanting to have something to say. Personal growth is a journey, and not a perfect one! So if you're out there looking to put yourself in a better headspace- don't give up, keep pushing on, and do what is best for you! >

What is BeReal? I have never heard of it before. Would you mind explaining? >

Sure thing! The idea behind it, is of course to "Be Real!" A notification from the app goes off at a random time once every 24hrs. At that time you take a picture using your rear camera, and front facing camera. You have 2 minutes to do this. It will keep track of how many times you retake, and if you post your BeReal outside of the 2 minutes, it tells others you posted late and shows the time on your post (like 5 min late, 15s late, so on). The idea is, if you're being real and in the moment, these photos won't be curated to be "perfect". There are no filters either. When the notification goes off, it goes off at the same time for EVERYONE who has the app. You can have friends and see what they post in your feed and react with a "realmoji" which is a photo of yourself (like giving a thumbs up, smiling, so on). You can comment and mention as well, as long as you are friends with each other. There is a discovery feed to see what everyone else is posting that you can react to. 
The one photo a day, is all you get in the app. The next time the notification goes off, everything in the feed changes to that current days photos. In your own profile, you can see past "memories" of BeReals from days before. 
Hopefully that's a good explanation! >

This is perfect!! You explained it so well! Thank you for taking the time to do so for me. :) 
The app sounds awesome actually. It seems like something I would be interested in. >

You're welcome! It's not for everyone, but I've really enjoyed it myself! >

Right? Did not see this coming in the Xanga, AIM and MySpace days at all. The biggest contributing factors is that everyone has a smart phone now with cameras and the ability to post, look up and say literally anything they want to. I remember how in the 2000s being able to film yourself, put it onto a computer, edit it and post it online seemed like such a strange, magical and hard thing to do. Like “how the fuck do people do that”. Unless we have a huge shift in culture, I’m assuming we will probably see some strict regulations coming down the line if things get worse. It’s gunna get weird. >

The internet was a different thing when you could only access it at the school library, or at home, or office. The internet needed physical access at x locations. You weren't just on it 24/7 like with smartphones.
Fun statistic. 2012 was the year where, for the first time, over 50% of internet users came from a mobile device. You can quite clearly mark the decline around that time and after. >

Hey now, wasn't that the end of the Mayan long count? IE:
THE END OF THE WORLD?!?!
I kid, but I think it's kind of funny in a way. >

You’re not wrong >

This might be highly unpopular, but I miss the days when a computer was a thing only for "geeks".
The smartphone kinda ruined the silicon world because it became so mainstream that it got to the point of being a huge market, hence the ads, tracking, etc.
This kind of things only happen because basically everyone has a phone on their pocket. It's amazing having all the information any human couldn't even dream of knowing right on the palm of your hands. But it makes me miss the BASIC era (BASIC as in the programming language) >

and there was this wave when pcs became pretty affordable and there was msn messenger at all, all teens had one. and they went into higher education and could use a keyboard.
now, they spend 99% of that time on a bloody phone and don't even understand what the shift key is for (number of times i see teens hit 'caps lock' then type a key then hit caps lock again drives me mad.
no idea about files or folders or vaguely how things work.
all well and good if you're just going to be a couch cabbage reacting to the many bings your phone makes at you, not so much if you want a job in IT >

I think the 90s to 2007 was the golden years of social media and tech. We are sort of in some kind of dystopia as far as I see things. >

If this is the dystopia then this is the most boring and lukewarm timeline >

Not everywhere is the same but over a billion people living in China can definitely claim to be living in a dystopia, or Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Venezuela and more places. >

Well I see it through western media and so I have this bias. My friend traveled a lot of those countries and it’s a lot more complex than what we make it out to be >

One thing that's kinda scary is how China weaponized this. 
Tiktok is literally the perfect social media for harming the youth, and it's exclusively aimed at the west. Kids in China are allowed 40 minutes of douyin time a day and they get recommended educational and inspirational content excluively. >

Singling out Tiktok for harmful content seems disingenuous when both Instagram and YouTube are literally copying them in the multi billion worth short video format. All this talk of regulating Tiktok is just for the benefit of the American tech corps rather than the general populace. >

well yeah tiktok is the step forward for social media as a conduit to prey on children. Once we ban tiktok we can talk about reigning in American tech corps, because they surely need to be smacked down a bit as well. >

There's a reason things like Black Mirror and Blade Runner are considered predictions of the future. >

Well to be fair black mirror seems to be late in the game since other countless books came first  about this stuff >

I compare this era of internet/tech/social media to a part of history where people thought cigarettes were either mostly harmless or even somewhat good for you. Then over time people started to become more and more aware of the harm cigarettes cause. Now it is a downright fact that cigarettes are bad. We’re at that apex point where more and more people are going to become aware of the negatives internet/tech/social media cause humans. >

The thing is, smoking is a just an action in itself, and nothing good comes from it. Internet is a platform where life itself transcurs, and has positive and negative aspects, but it's unavoidable. >

I understand they’re 2 very different things. I wasn’t trying to 100% directly compare the two. It’s the similarities as time progresses where people begin to figure out something that was originally believed to not be harmful, turns out to actually be harmful. >

True. I think this is like the gold rush of the internet since I hear the previous generation being called wild west of the internet alot. Since before it was all about exploring this new land now it's all about exploiting it and cutthroat profit. You even have the Rockefellers who are making the internet versions of big oil companies like Facebook, Twitter, etc haha. >

The Google-Meta-Tok-Verse will find ways more to intrude more in your life and control even more of what you see and think. They're not done yet. Not even close. >

Say “more” again. >

The Dark Age of Technology >

Praise the Omnissiah >

Yep, if you don't watch commercials for a long time and then you expose yourself to them, it's only then when you notice how toxic and stupid they are. >

I want to say the "dark age" of tech probably started with the proliferation of smartphones. That's probably about the time we kissed the last of our privacy goodbye, too.   We're probably 20 years in, living naked in glass houses.
Don't get me wrong- I love being able to bust out my phone and look up information when I need it, use it to stream whatever music my heart desires, and make handsfree calls from my vehicle. It's fun to go on Reddit and fuck with people when I'm bored, too.
Having grown up during the 1980s, I fondly remember life pre-tech. I could write a book on all the ways life was different, as could anyone from my generation. >

Since I’m a younger guy and only vaguely familiar with life before all this, at least as far as actually living it goes, would you say the “proliferation of smartphones” is a net positive or net negative to life? It feels like an unambiguous net negative to me, but maybe that also just comes with the angst of growing up. I’m interested to hear your perspective on it. >

It's such a massive net positive, honestly. Just a matter of people actively seeking out detrimental news and content and looping back into their perception of all that is bad now. That's before we're considering people actually and fully leveraging this stuff to live with disabilities of many, many colors, we're talking hundreds of millions of people who truly use their phones as prostheses. Google Lens for blind folks alone is such an inconceivable thing, we just magically put super intelligent agents into tiny boxes and make them spell out what we would be seeing.
There always are going to be drawbacks with anything novel, but man, you have to deliberately ignore all the good tech today does to think it is going for net negative. Not even remotely close, the Internet is a pretty good and needed equalizer, even before the great industrial revolution of the 2020s about to hit us like seven brick walls. 
Tech is barely to blame, it's bad policymaking and shitty assholes ruining it for everyone. Which intricately links into each other, of course, but that won't change the prospect of good, beneficial usecases, of which there are so very many.
A concept as old as time too, people always were skeptical about things that are unmitigated benefits for us. >

I don’t disagree with your assessment of the problems, but the “dark ages” were characterized by a lack of advancement and distribution of philosophy and art. It would be more accurate to say we are transitioning into the silver age of tech. The golden age saw the creation of the computer and the interconnected world, but it ended with the creation of social media and all the problems you mentioned. Once we figure out how to solve those problems we’ll enter a phase of rapid development tempered by a mistrust of corporate power. >

I desperately wish I could get rid of my smart phone. But I can’t. It’s just too convenient. There is no way I’m going back to printing out directions on a computer >

The smartphone isn’t the main problem. You can turn off useless notifications and even delete apps that don’t make your life any better. Navigation apps, however, do make your life better. >

I'm at the point now of not taking my phone into others homes when I visit. 
I just leave it in the car, come join me in this effort and change people who think they need there phone on them at all times. 
Happy holidays everyone! >

The only time I bring out my phone when I'm hanging out with others is to quickly look something up or to like add someone new I've met as a Facebook friend or whatever. And the people I hang out with have that same mindset. Just gotta find the right people, the ones you can sit around a campfire with and happily chat to for hours or simply enjoy the night sky in silence together. >

You sound like a great friend >

This social media thing is truly as addictive as hard drugs. I have had people walk into me on the street because they can’t look up from their phone for 3 seconds! It seems to be worldwide. Just as bad in the US as in Europe and I would not be surprised to find that this is true in every part of the world where smart phones exist. And I doubt there is a solution. >

I hate it that you are constantly getting content thrown in your face. Big franchises pump out content just to have content. Everywhere needs to be ads. Apps constantly push notifications about stuff I might be interested in. Clickbait title Battles just to get the extra click on your shitty written article. Quality drops.
Its just too much. But on the other hand I browse daily on reddit. >

agreed, I don’t think people understand the sheer extent of the gas lighting or the role something as seemingly innocuous as internet karma plays in shaping society. We’re so far gone, the only thing that could save us would be draconian social media regulations that would probably just doom us in other ways >

We only seen the beginning. This dystopia has just gotten started. >

The wealthy are creating a black mirror world and theres nothing you can do about it... >

And sooo many people worship them >

God 😒 The idolization of wealthy people is disgusting, I'll never understand it. >

I always liked to call it the "Misinformation Age" as opposed to the "Information Age." >

Oh aren't you so clever. >

I like when certain websites keep their old versions available for 'fun' and all it ends up doing is proving the old one is actually the better version:


No perpetual scrolling to screw with your limited data on a metered connection.


It doesn't beg you to sign-in or install an app just to click on the little "Read More" buttons. Which is completely optional(and more importantly: DISCREET) on the old version.


Not designed by people who are totally blind and think that half-a-sentence should take up the entirety of a 1920x1200 display and have 200+ pixels worth of padding between elements.


Isn't a minefield of javascript popups trying to tell you about the 'sale going on' .... on every single page-load. Just remember me the first time and don't bother me again all day pleasse.


 
It just makes me miss the old age more. >

Yeah, it'll be a shame when Reddit finally deletes old.reddit.com >

Don’t forget: you must have an account and include a payment method to start the free trial for everything! Oh and you bet they’re selling that info to a million spam bots. >

I work in IT. I spend millions of dollars a year of enterprise grade stuff that is supposed to run reliably 24/7/365.
It is all half baked shit that never works and the vendors ship it out barely working and fix it on the go. >

Not even to mentioned everything getting automated. Hard enough with regular jobs getting taken but even creativity such as art, writing, and music with generating A.I...
I feel like I have no clue what to pursue in life anymore. >

Dark age of technology? I smell warhammer 40k >

FOR THE EMPEROR >

It's all very frustrating. If I do business with a company ONE TIME they will send me 3000 ads per year for the rest of my life. Online or instore, it doesn't really matter, it's the same. Companies want to harass you with ads through every possible vector to the very edge of your tolerance and there's nothing you can do about it except check out of society completely. >

Just block ads, Jesus Christ this lack of self-accountability is the really weird part about all this
Blaming tech for detracting people from using tech for the benefit of making tech better is a really goddamn strange concepts, but it's not exactly obscure either. Literally all you have to do is ask google how to avoid ads and that'll be the end of it - which, to be fair, should always be an opt-in thing with tangible benefits as a reward, much like Brave's system. >

I agree.  Fucking passwords, ads, I check my phone every 10 fucking minutes.  What have we done!!??  It’s unstoppable.  Hopefully with any luck some awesome hacker will kibosh the entire system.  I would love that.  And you know what?  We wouldn’t know exactly what happened right away.  Because the internet would be fucked. >

What. A crazy thought. 
 Reminds me of the early days of the internet where sometimes it just wouldn't work. >

I remember trying to play online games on my older brothers computer when I was 13 and the game would take sooooooo long to load on the dial up internet. >

And Ai art. Remember AI art. >

10 years ago a person who said our phones are listening to us would’ve been called a conspiracy theorist now it’s just kind of a thing everyone knows but doesn’t talk about. It’s unreal how blatant it is too. I was just talking to my mom on the phone last night about her needing a new laptop, I hadn’t looked one up online, just simply talked about it. No less than ten minutes after our conversation I go on YouTube and the first ad I get is one for some new Lenovo laptop coming out. Well fuck you Lenovo and fuck your laptops too. This isn’t the only example I have either. I was telling one of my friends about how I needed new brake pads for my car and I said I was gonna go to O’Reillys to get them. I get out to my car and as soon as my phone connects to my Bluetooth radio I get a small push notification from google maps that says, “you are 15 minutes away from O’Reillys auto parts” I didn’t look them up on google or on maps, simply talked about going there to get my brake pads. It’s so unbelievably blatant lol. It’s almost like I’m expected to say, “oh wow, how convenient”. Phones and the access to the world that we have today is a blessing and a curse. >

That's not how it works. You are under estimating the ad network. Your phone isn't constantly transmitting mic output and it certainly isn't listening for keywords like "O'Reilly".
However, the ad network does know your family, their searches, all previously purchased products, and so much more. It's not the fact that they couldn't listen to your mic. Surely, it's possible. It's the fact that they don't need to. >

I agree with most of what you said, but... the mic definitely does listen. I'm not saying there's a human being on the other end listening, but it is WAY too specific to not hear keywords. I mean, why wouldn't they implement that?
Everyone blindly (myself included) accepts microphone and camera access, and with how accurate speech to text software is, I'm sure it can absolutely detect certain brand names and the like. >

Not unpopular >

Unpopular outside of Reddit imo >

>online news that used to be free is now a subscription
FYI use archive.today to get around most news sites paywalls. Doing so is also extremely important for preserving stories. There have been many cases of news sites stealth editing their articles because they let the mask slip a little too far, if someone archives it before they edit though they'll never be able to get away with it. 
Another benefit is not giving them any advertising money when you click on an article or (more importantly) when you share. Sharing an archived article saves anyone that clicks on it from being assaulted by 20 ads at once. >

Ad block everything always. No exceptions no mercy.
It's armor for your mind, sure there's still cracks in it everywhere but it beats raw dogging the internet 100% of the time. >

I think we are riding the wave of a technological singularity. I'm relatively speaking not much older and I've seen several technologies born and die already. 
What came after the dark ages was the period of enlightenment, right?  Or am I just being hopeful? >

Historically yes. But IMO thr singularity could easily be terrifying and dystopian instead of a new golden age of enlightenment >

Hmm, the Dark Age of Technology.
For the Empruh! >

'We are now in the dark age of technology'
Me: Laughs in Warhammer 40k. >

Hard agree with everything needing an app. I got a pair of bose qc 45s for Christmas, and to use them, you need an app? I tried to get around intalling it but couldn't figure out a way. They're literally headphones. Why would I need an app for them? >

I have an app for a meat thermometer. O.o >

Shit's all fucked. >

But we got this guy Not Sure. >

We are currently living in a « cyberpunk-type » era and we can’t do anything about it. >

And without any of the cool cyberpunk aesthetics smh >

That’s the most disappointing thing about that >

I agree especially on car tech. We don’t need features that will incentivize bad driving. People will become reliant on those auto brake, lane assist, adaptive cruise control, and the worst one, auto pilot. Then when one fails, they won’t know what to do and will kill somebody. 
I work in the auto industry and a customer was outraged that they hit a tree because their car didn’t stop for them and thought Ford had to pay for their repairs due to “faulty equipment”. >

Nah, it can (and will) get much, much worse. >

Agreed. I hope this opinion isn't unpopular because I'm tired of all the fooking bullshiet. >

The internet early years were amazing, the likes we will probably never experience again. It felt like we've reached the future and anything was possible with the world's knowledge at our fingertips. There's nothing wrong with the World wide web it's social media and greedy corporations that ruined it >

I agree with this message. Welcome to my hell. >

I agree. Can not determine if this is an unpopular opinion though. >

"From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel" >

Your Edit: is regarding planned obsolescence, one of the shiny cool things capitalism has brought us. >

Yeah, we're already living the Cyberpunk universe. Just without the fancy implants and flying cars. >

I think this is pretty accurate >

I fully agree with you. I downvoted because this is not an unpopular opinion. >

Let's see...

We got two Smart TVs in the house with a YouTube app that would happily crash after an ad. If you want to continue watching. You gotta quit the app, reopen, and find that video. Can't find it, fuck you I guess. I guess they shouldn't call it TVs anymore, call it Mini Billboard, because that's what it is now.
We have an electric stove that has a mind of its own. You'd put the power/intensity at number #3. You turn your back for like a minute, and after that, it has raised itself to the maximum (at #5. If I didn't see it coming, I'd already burnt whatever I was cooking. This wouldn't happen on a good old-fashioned one with knobs. 
Then we have a washing machine with touch sensitive controls. I'd find myself automatically turning off the damn thing, whenever I had to lean over the thing, just add/remove clothes in the middle of the cycle. Guess what? I had to set the damn thing again. Same thing with the last paragraph, this wouldn't happen with knobs. 
We had elections last year. Thanks to misinformation through social media. Instead of voting for someone whose competent, who actually knows what they're doing, they actually voted for some bozo to lead the country. And what's sad about our current leader, his father used to be this country's dictator. He stole a lot and killed a lot of innocent people during his time. 

So yeah, we're definitely on the dark times now. I wish I was born in the 40s up to the 60s. Sadly I was born in the 90s. >

Is it me or is it getting really difficult to find shit on Amazon?
Just Wading through a mountain of cheap knockoffs and overpriced garbage to try and find Something specific.
Even when I know what I'm looking. Search for a brand name and a model number, nope, first page is junk and it's hiding on the second page. >

to add:  one of the only good things about the internet, Google, is now virtually useless as SEO has completely obliterated any functionality it had in terms of presenting relevant search results >

Came here to say that… >

you are close but its actually the dark age of capitalism all of these things are done so that people buy them >

If people have not realized that the next 20 years is truly gonna be the avengars endgame, then they just live in fabricated facsimile of reality, and thats okay too :') >

Google changing from this amazing fucking tool, I can find anything, learn anything, etc. to a “here is a page to buy it”.  That was my final fucking line.  
Wikipedia.  You stay strong you sweet angel.  (I don’t donate because my ass is broke and I still donate to wiki). >

Lol wikipedia is so politicized it isn't good anything popular. Great for obscure stuff though mostly. >

Another popular opinion!
This sub fucking sucks!! >

ITT: Boomers. I fucking love the internet, y'all are too old to install adblock or pirate movies >

Every issue mentioned here isn't really caused by tech. It's caused by people not having enough self control to not spend all day on social media and noone being bothered to check facts. Ads are annoying but it's a pretty small price to pay for basically every song ever or every video or thousands of hours of films and shows. People generally don't hate each other, they are just indifferent, but it's always been like that if you are outside of a person's "group" (for want of a better word). 
Idk if this is a golden age but it's pretty good compared to what it was before. >

Man i had to scroll down far to see someone not just agreeing with OP. I hated not having access to the internet in my bedroom. I used to pay like €5-10 for a few megabytes just so i could use the ebuddy website just to talk to this girl from school i was into.
But yeah Facebook, TikTok and basically any kind of doom scrolling really has the capacity to make you feel like shit, but you can just get rid of them or at least move the icons on your homescreen, if you have the habit of just opening them when you're not really thinking about it.
For me, the internet has absolutely changed my life for the better. It's opened me up to travel and live in other countries. I've found mg fiance online. Im currently able to work from home, which I love, because of it. If the price to pay are things that are absolutely manageable, then this a price im willing to pay. >

I really like to say, "We live in a modern society, but our body is the same as those a thousand or two years ago." As someone who enjoys archeology, it's crazy to find out just how similar we are and how little we psychologically evolved. Our species are very unused to living in such large societies and using such equipment.
Suicide rates are higher in large cities.
The rate of depression and other mental illnesses is higher in large cities.
The rate of violent crime is higher in large cities.
The rate of hate crimes is higher in large cities.
So on and so on. This observation came from a war veteran who explained this very primitive part of us. We were meant to be living in small populations of up to sixty or so individuals, living in hunter-gatherer lifestyles and in dangerous conditions. As horrible as this sounds, people will click and feel happiness and brotherhood beyond anything in groups like these. In fact, there was a problem with people integrating themselves into indigenous populations in the early stages of America and refusing to leave. This is my hypothesis as to why everyone is angry and hates each other, we're living in a world our bodies are literally not suited for and it's going to take a lot to find a way out of it.
Edit: Please note the fact that the sources of this may be very flawed as pointed out by one the replies. This again is just a hypothesis and not meant to protray any hate to cities. >

I always got confused on what was worse: living in a city or in the country? From what the u/thedashingpigeon was saying it's interesting because i used to go to boarding school with roughly a hundred so people and living in that community was the best time of my life. I also love exploring cities. I've lived in the country and although its peaceful and beautiful it's very boring. So maybe a blend of both city and country? >

I am a boomer. I typed my first college paper on a smith corona typewriter. My senior paper on a mac. Life was fine before cellphones. I had a blast. I used real thomas guide maps to find stuff, I tried later if a friend didnt answer their landline and I was actually knowledgable about things and didn't google every question. 
​
I really want to get rid of my phone, but I would be so disadvantaged professionally and I wouldn't be able to contact my friends. >

Get an ad blocker, this is probably the only time you can do so much on the internet unfettered by pay walls and someone peaking in your asshole as long as you know how to protect yourself. Personally I have a VPN set up that connects any device I have to my home network so I can have safe encryption from anywhere, then I have a dns level adblocker set up to block ads on my devices that can't have their own adblocker like my phone, or my tablet. >

Gonna have to downvote as this is definitely not unpopular. >

Honestly. after the dark age there is the renassiance. I only hope once we reach the internet renassiance things get better >

We have definitely gone too far on one end, with no self regulation or oversight from government. >

I don’t really think this is an opinion, rather a truth. >

I'll take the dark ages of tech and the asshole Elitists feeble minded attempt to control my mind, over those damn librarians, and their Dewey decimal system any day.
As far my addiction to technology goes, I'll kick it when, yall decide to do it too! >

Love how you snuck in "everyone hates one another" without any specifics. People hate alt right racist losers. Not everyone. I'm fine with almost everyone else. >

I am in the very small independent hate both sides minority I suppose. Both left and right are little children arguing in the schoolyard blaming each other while both being hypocritical of everything each side says while everything falls apart and destroys what they can't have for themselves. So I pretty much hate you all. Unpopular opinion >

The vast majority of people who hold the sentiment you are sharing are embarrassed ex trump supporters who find it easier to say both sides are equally bad vs acknowledging they supported bigots and transphobes and racists. These same people will pretend to be in the middle while their entire comment history is criticism of the left and defense of the right. The same people who think men like DeSantis is a viable option. 
Democrats aren't pushing for transphobic policies. Democrats didn't storm the capitol over a failed election and election fraud lies. Democrats aren't pushing for policies that hide military deaths abroad or giving tax breaks to the ultra rich. And this is coming from a very left wing person that barely feels represented by the Democrat party because they're essentially right wing. 
Im not one of the idiots that propagates the "both sides" narrative and I'd be the first to point out shitty politicians. The only reason I don't vote independent is because I'm not an idiot who thinks both sides are the same and I know if I want more progressive policies that help minorities, the LGBTQ, the homeless, low income people, and the most vulnerable then there no way I'd vote independent or Republican. 
But sure, you're one of the smart ones who hang in alt right bubbles that inform you of how bad both sides are because if Republicans are absolutely terrible let's not criticize them but point out how both sides do the same thing so it's okay! It's not an unpopular opinion. Go to most right wing subreddits and you'll see hundreds of people repeating the same exact sentiment. >

You’re terminally online. You see ghosts everywhere and you certainly do overly hate people. This is evident by how you somehow took a lot of offense to “everyone hates each other” despite being really innocuous. This post is relevant to you. >

This…. Isn’t an unpopular opinion. 
This is fact. >

It's not tech, it's unregulated capitalism. >

Someone not being able to put down their phone isn't capitalism for fucks sakes >

our smartest software engineers and UI designers flock to silicon valley for the high salaries, and spend their time developing apps and algorithms to make social media as addictive as possible, rather than work on something actually useful to society. if that's not capitalism i don't know what is >

Technology isn’t the issue. Too many people have too much unrestricted access to media sharing platforms.
Everything went to shit once broadband internet access and smartphones became affordable to the masses. >

Not dark age of tech. Dark age of greed. Because that's the source of it. Technological regress, quality dropping, price raising etc.
Also please, stop making phone addiction an issue, where there is no issue with it. Do You met anyone addicted to the phone? Or just people who used it? Because common misconception is that having a phone = being addicted. Some people would say it right away after seeing someone actually holding one. HE IS ADDICTED. Nooo? Addiction is when someone can't stop using phone when they really should (e.g. going to work, but they want to play), not when someone is just using phone. I really hate this prejudice. People see phone and they go crazy. They don't care, they make gossips of what that person do. It doesn't matter if someone is texting their wife about the dinner or that they just chat with friends. Maybe someone is literally writing down ideas, because they are writer? But no, people see phone in hand and they already are so disrespectful and stereotypical. The problem is with people who say there is phone addiction problem. Because for majority there is no addiction. But people just love to judge others, because they feel better if someone is worse than them. That's why people are hateful towards phone users. That's the fact. >

And since most public discourse takes place on social media nowadays, they have the power to silence anyone who steps out of the line of "accepted" thinking. Social media is supposed to encourage hive mind thinking and steer us into a certain direction. I've been noticing this for a while with all the "wokeness" going on. Slowly but surely they're turning us into a giant ant hill. >

Have faith my friend. What follows the dark ages is usually the renaissance and my intuition tells me that one might be just around the corner!
Especially the Elon Musk Twitter takeover and curb on censorship gives me some hope. Other issues might well get solved in the next milestones. >

bruh >

The internet sucks. Time to create the Next Big Thing. >

And we'll call it Outside™. >

We spent a summer outside catching Pokémon >

ITS NOT THE TECHNOLOGY ITS THE PEOPLE. If you don't like social media you should get better friends. Fuck bro. Grow up. >

Thank you for proving my “everyone hates one another” point >

I don't hate you. I just feel sorry for you. Log off if this shit is that hard on you. It's just a hit of a switch away. >

No I’m pretty sure I do >

This is one of the hurdles technology and online entertainment is going to have to get over to keep us engaged, because it's getting unbearable. It's starting to give "Maniac(Netflix 2018)" vibes with how much ad space there is squeezed into every little corner of the internet; we'll eventually be valued for what we can offer to advertisement companies in order to have our own entertainment, but on a whole different level than what they're already doing. >

It's the pre-Cyberpunk age >

How is this an unpopular opinion? This isnt a opinion. This is a fact that billions of people (that includes me) have let this happen right under our noses by sneaky ass corporations. >

Lord, come back soon and save us all. FR >

I agree. A lot of this tech has also led to poor communication skills. I'm sorry, but if you're fluent in English, but intentionally use poor grammar, I won't take you seriously. >

I agree. A lot of this tech has also led to intentional poor communication skills. I'm sorry, but if you're fluent in English, but intentionally use poor grammar, I won't take you seriously. I'm a gay guy, and the amount of gay guys who intentionally use poor grammar, is outrageous. >

the dark age from which a golden age will rise >

Read a book called Timecaster, it's awesome and in it the internet is nothing but a virus with ads >

I've long held this opinion >

Are you kidding me? This is bound to get much worse. >

Yep mental health is a big part of it >

It was a pretty short trip too, wasn’t it? >

These comments passed the vibe check, usually with this topic Reddit likes to bury its head in the sand >

Doom scrolling has made anxiety worse. We have never had this much information available to us. Before 2000 you had to look up encyclopedias or newspapers or magazines for information. Then Google was founded then YouTube was founded. Then Google bought YouTube. >

can this noise! >

Fucking factos >


dark age of tech

Holy shit is that a Warhammer 40K reference?? >

Been in depression in past. Read and watched a lot about dopamine. Trust me when I say this, if you care about your physical health, add fruits and veggies in your diet. AND if you care about your mental health, get rid of sociel media platforms. (Everything with "scrolling" basically) Before someone asks me, let me clarify, I am trying. Work in progress. ( bcz I am typing this on reddit lol)
If you ask yourself not to use social media for a certain period (preferably few days or weeks, not hours) and you can't control yourself, you got an issue. Saying this from experience. 
Messed up neurons, quick judgments on people or things, living in a bubble, affairs, toxicity, misinformation... these things heavily outweigh any and all benefits that we might think we get from them. >

We need a right to repair.
We may need a right to block ads in the future.
Not enough is being done about false news.
Phone addiction - nah, that's just part of modern life. >

Desiring everything for free with the amount it costs for quality development and other business expenses is quite the dark ages mindset to have.
Your data isn't really as valued from a dollar standpoint as most consumers believe. >

AI is getting crazy good too, can get clips of anyone saying anything anywhere, most of it rn is ridiculous memes but I’m sure sometime soon something will be believable enough to go viral >

Aye >

Let’s talk about the Industrial Revolution.  It sucked.  I mean, it was great and all — but at first it made a few guys super rich while making everyone else’s lives worse by the minute.  14 hour work days 6 days a week, child labor, etc.
So what happened?  We passed labor laws, antitrust laws, and other steps to force society to adapt to the changing technology — and that’s why things got better.  Capitalism didn’t fix itself magically.  We fixed it, to better allow us to live with the new technological realities.
So… you know, let’s do that again. >

It’s supposed to work, but it definitely won’t >

Car tech is trash and is getting worse with every iteration
Can you elaborate on this? Not sure what you mean. Car tech, especially EV's are freaking awesome IMO. Just in my generation, advances in car technology has been incredible. >

Feels like car quality is decreasing. Cheap crappy plastic. Some automakers are making it more difficult to even access the engine. Any day now there are going to be subscription services for basic shit like adjusting seats (which BMW has already somewhat implemented) >

I can't comment on a BMW, never owned one. Yeah, plastic is king, but that has been the deal since I can remember. I had quite a few older vehicles that had plastic parts that got brittle and broke in the winter, and sun faded from the summer. That hasn't happened to me on any of the newer vehicles I own. UV stabilizers in plastic and the material mix has gotten way better. Paint is better. The traction control and build quality is insane since cars of 30 years ago. I mean, you can buy a fairly mediocre car and compete with older super cars around a track. Tires are way better too. I have a fairly new car now (nothing but maint so far). Haven't bought anything in the last 5 years though. Just not driving enough with WFH to bother, so unless quality has gone way down in that time, I would disagree. 
Although, I stopped buying domestic shit and just sold my last Chevy after I bought my newer vehicle. So if you are talking about domestics, I can't argue against that. Will never buy another, unless it is a Tesla. I have been pretty happy with Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi and Nissan. Dumped more way money into the Chevy, then the 4 Japanese vehicles combined, and drove 3x the miles on them with no issues. Well, I am due for a refresh in a couple years. I hope you are not correct. >

The internet has always been like this, back in the early 2000s with dial up it was non stop pop up ads but instead of a company actually trying to sell you something you’d likely be interested in it was almost always a scam or some random service you’d never need.
You couldn’t buy anything you actually needed online unless you either went to a very niche website that only sold one category of items, or some random site being run by a one-person shop in Michigan.
Any idiot with an internet connection was setting up blog sites to share their biased opinion and they would get tons of traffic because most people didn’t know how to tell the real from the fake. This is why schools always made it policy to not cite sources from the internet, unless it was an official .gov site.
Online news has never been free, everyone has always hated each other, and people have always spent hours on the phone (before it was chatting with friends and now it’s scrolling feeds).
I think what you actually miss is that small window of time between 2010 and 2015 when the internet started maturing and could be useful for a lot of people and use cases without being too heavily monetized. It still can look like that if you put in the effort. Install a pop up blocker, get your news from one of those archive sites, download music/movies with a vpn, etc. >

Capitalism >

Why is car tech trash? >

Cyberpunk future here we come >

I have a disease which would have killed me outright if I was living 50 years ago, so I gotta disagree.
If you wanna see the value of technology, look in hospitals. >

Sorry. I should have said “consumer technology” 
The tech that most most people use. I do not shit on the leaps and bounds made in medical technology. >

Just replied this to another comment.
I agree those problems exist, but wouldn't you say those are social problems about how people engage with tech, rather than tech problems themselves?
My grandmother said the same thing about my brother and I playing Nintendo, and about my mother and her brothers watching TV.  I even recall reading something somewhere about how radios were going to destroy the social traditions of gathering around pianos and signing together.
So I guess I'm trying to say I agree with your concerns, but don't share your pessimism.  I think society will adapt and grow with the tech. >

Yes I know but some of my stuff is still valid. Needing a fucking app for everything now. I got a new watch from a respected watch maker and guess what, they have a fucking app for it.
Cars are going to start rolling out subscription’s for basic features 
I am 100% addicted to my phone. Reddit and tik tok all day >

Yeah the predatory apps and monetization practices will hopefully be slowly purged, or at least unified and streamlined.
Carwise, that's why I drive a 20 year old truck I plan on just repairing forever.
Yeah, we all hang out here way too much.  My only advice is that when you find something in real life which you find fulfilling and engaging, you won't be checking your phone.  When I'm at my club or at peace in nature, I have no impulse to read Reddit. >

I've got a huge one that we missed.
Companies design sounds your phone makes to illicit an emotional reaction from you. There's entire departments based around designing sounds that make you want to open your phone right away. >

You can customize your phones notification behaviour. Just put in the sounds you want to hear and adjust which notifications even get to appear and how often. Not like it's complicated. >

I think one of the biggest underdiscussed factors that has allowed this to get as bad as it has in the US has been our political willingness (either because our politicians are from the fucking bronze age and truly don't know, or as I am becoming increasingly suspicious through willful false ignorance) to pretend that an algorithm behaves as a force of nature, and allow them to do illegal bullshit without their constructors facing any consequences. If you want to do something today as a company that violates consumer or personal protections, you just design an algorithm to tell your tech to do it, then throw up your hands and say "it was the algorithm, not us." >

This is one of the reasons i got into cybersecurity. >

Someone once sayed something which is so true but I never thought about it that way before. We get more and more cameras around cities and public places and many people accept this because of our safety but safety actually is just a pretty cheap excuse for collecting our data. Because cameras wont stop a terrorist from killing people. They wont stop masked criminals. But people could. We need more personal for the police. Not more cameras. >

I'm right there with you, mate.
While it's cool that we have robo limbs and shit, it's fuckin scary to think about what will happen if neuralink takes off. We're in the starting days of a cyberpunk dystopia, mark my words.
All we need now is for a punk rock icon to throw a nuclear bomb into a corporate tower. >

The internet has only really amplified humanity's nature, so I don't really find it that much of a problem. We're fucked anyway, at least we can now see just how fucked we are >

Yes. >

Agreed. The negative impact that tech and social media have on young people will ripple throughout humanity for generations to come. >

LMAO No. >

I think the rapid spread of misinformation and wild conspiracy theories is mind blowing. We have come so far as civilization only to be totally dumbed down and duped by idiotic nonsense spread on FB. 
We have self driving cars now and yet 
somehow a segment of folks thinking there are microchips in vaccines and their microwave is listening to them. >

Ha. You poor soul.
It’s gonna get worse. >

I actually kinda disagree. We are actually loving I. The golden age of technology. There has never been a better time to be alive in the sense that we have more available to us then ever before. The negative side effects of this technology are born out of the shortcomings of human beings, not the technology itself. >

You forgot: no quality control, constant bugs/glitches, unnecessary updates that make software worse and/or removes features then locking them behind a subscription service >

This is just the beggining >

Just as was fortold in the documentary of the future, "Max Headroom". >

I think it's only getting worse, and in 30 years we will be on a straight road to Cyberpunk 2077 dystopia >

I think you may want to consult the industrial revolution on that one.