The future of Windows

[StarTreker]

You know what I really don't like about society today? Is it assumes that everybody wants to be on social media. There was a time when you could go to a forum website like ours, and chat. Now days, you got to go on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Discord.

And folks much older then I am, its even worse for them, because they lived before the internet, and put up a wall against it, and just stick to still reading newspapers and watching live television. As much as these kids today are glued to their phones, acting like social media is the greatest thing since the invention of the car, these new social changes obviously work for them.

But for people like me, I know the sewage that is social media, and also how dangerous it is to society, as has been proven over the past 2 decades now. I don't want to use all these platforms, just to communicate with people, or to get support for a product of piece of software.

I resist it like its the plague, and thats because it is. People who are on social media, are making decisions that they never would, if they weren't on social media. To give you one example, when I was a kid, I never heard of anyone wanting to leave the USA, and go visit a middle eastern country.

Now, social media are convincing teenagers, to leave the country, and go to the middle east, because they think they are in love. They get themselves captured, and you know where the story goes from there. I don't need to go into specifics.

So, this is a long story to simply say, I absolutely hate social media, and I am sick and tired of how social media has bled into our everyday life, where it feels like every company is trying to force push us into it. All those QR codes and URL links on product boxes, telling us to go to their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Discord.

Why are website forums not good enough? What happened to forum popularity? Times just change too fast for me. But social media is a cesspool, and I refuse to conform to it and consume it. As long as this country stays a democracy, I will stay far away from it.

---

[swarfendor437]

My mother-in-law is 93 and obviously is not on the grid apart from landline telephone. She had been getting nuisance calls so I purchased her a new triple handset with call blocker. I've been trying to get her to use an old 1+ 3 phone I converted to /e/OS, but she won't use it. She is stuck on a 2g phone that her late husband bought her. Until all the small energy companies went bust I have had to search online for her. Ironic that we are now both on what was a nationalised company making so much large profits that their CEO last year got a bonus of £4 M! On a side note we have had spam calls that I don't pick up. I added it to the call block list but call blocker gets circumvented because they are launching their attacks via VOIP, generating a bogus landline number. It won't be an issue come the end of the year as we will no longer be using the landline as copper gets turned off, with the expectancy that everyone moves to FTTH. If we were to do that it will cost another £1 a month, and a further £10 a month for Internet. I will then have to by a 4g modem and use a SIM card that will work out £23 pounds a month cheaper. The other issue for the elderly is a lot of things, like energy, needs to be done on the internet. I've had to use my gmail account for her to keep track of her energy bills for her and print statements off for her.

[ian4238]

Since the first time I retired many years ago, I have tried to remain anonymous, but it is becoming more and more difficult.
I've known the name Zorin for many years as it cropped up in a James Bond film.
I agree with zenzen: I have an iPhone that gets fake calls, although I don't give the number to people usually.
I agree with StarTrecker about social media. Of course I do not include this forum as social media! I have a very good friend who sometimes helps me with my smart phone problems, but she earns a living as an "influencer", and I wonder if photos taken when riding our bikes have ended up on her webpage. But I don't ask.
I sympathise with swarfendor437. I live in Australia and when I switched to fibre broadband, I got to keep my landline phone as a VOIP phone with the same number. During a power-cut it is useless . But my internet connection is practical as the modem provides wifi, which my iphone can use for updates etc, especially as I have a small phone data allowance each month.
To summarise, I have tried to keep up with tech developments, but it hard for someone who went to school during the war. Back then, the idea of having a cordless gadget for contact and information was science fiction. Even television was not really imaginable. News came from the "wireless" (radio) or newsreels in a cinema/theatre, or gossip. How the world has changed!

[zenzen]

I share some of your dislike for social media platforms, but they do have their place. The problem, as usual, is not the technology itself but the misuse of it.

Having more choices implies fragmentation, which can have negative effects. In Linux, too many distributions and individual components to pick and choose from — desktop environment, package formats, display servers, etc — often overwhelm people unfamiliar with how things work.

Forums used to be the main way of creating a community. Now, there's simply more competition, and I think that is a good thing. The problem I see in regards to social media is that there's no competition... all of them are essentially the same.

@StarTreker

But social media is a cesspool, and I refuse to conform to it and consume it. As long as this country stays a democracy, I will stay far away from it.

A democracy only gives the means of making our own choices, even if they are bad ones. I would argue that having an uneducated or ignorant majority of people is always going to hurt the society from within, despite of the form of government. Education is crucial so that people understand the decisions they're making.

@ian4238

I have tried to remain anonymous, but it is becoming more and more difficult.

Being fully anonymous has always being difficult. It's best to aim to get some balance in terms of privacy and convenience. I'm happy with not being targeted with ads everywhere I go. I'd love to take things further... but that takes us again to the obsessive expectation that one is always connected, and has all sort of apps installed to do even the most trivial things.

It reminds me of this:

[swarfendor437]

I remember my Dad waxing lyrical when he was a boy - the wonder he had owning a 'crystal' set - listening to voices, coming out of thin air. I'd always hoped I could have built him a PC with a Matrox Mystique graphics to keep in touch more regularly when I started out with Windows 95!

Matrox Mystique Promotional Video

Now going back to unwanted stuff on mobiles. I recently purchased a ZTE usb 4g modem that came with a SMARTY sim. I was having some issues and so I stuck it in my old 1+ 3T and I discovered that the Emergency Announcements is activated by the mobile carrier which has nothing to do with whatever OS is present on your smartphone. These are those annoying elements that the Government will send you an alert if you are in imminent danger - if I am going to die, then I am going to die!

[zenzen]

@swarfendor437

if I am going to die, then I am going to die!

That's the spirit!

Out of curiosity, do these alerts work even when you are abroad?

[Sorro]

@zenzen

do these alerts work even when you are abroad?

It only works if they have been activated for the exact location where you are in

Some months ago, apparently, it activated in all the phones from my family but not on mine; I was at university in a different city (not too far away from my family, but far enough to not be dangerous enough for an alert), and I didn't hear the alert activating for anyone else near me. From what I've been told, it plays REALLY loud, so it can't have been a situation of "I probably didn't notice" neither

[swarfendor437]

What I did not know until recently, it is activated by your carrier, I suspect under Government meddling in order for the carriers to keep their licence. I forgot to turn my Alert settings off and got the British Government's Alert test after an /e/OS update to the phone. To the ministry responsible I say "4Q"!

Stay A Lert - Tricity Vogue

She reminded me of the late, great Victoria Woods.