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.
