I begin this manual by clearly stating my issues with modern tech use. I will be direct, since it helps nobody and clarifies nothing if I pull my punches. In the sections following this one I will attempt to show my workings and explain how I reached these conclusions. Let’s begin.
The Technology Problem
Modern technology, though great in many ways, is corrupt. The zero-accountability Big Tech industry is devoted to creating and embedding the use of tools of abuse into everyday life. These tools pretend to exist “for your convenience/enjoyment/safety” but the objective is to monitor and manipulate you like a lab rat.
These tools of abuse find their way into people’s lives because of:
- Their ease of use / overwhelming availability (it’s easy to use them without thinking)
- Their layers of complexity (it’s easy to use them without having a clue what they’re doing)
- Brute force marketing / lying
- Peer pressure (“everyone’s using it” / “my kid won’t have any friends otherwise”)
- Most people’s inability to truly conceptualise their enemy (more on that later… watch out for the word “invisible”)
With the proliferation of “apps” to meet our every need, the phone screen has become our all-knowing guide. “Click here”, “Update this”, “Download that”, the phone screen says, and the user—giving no thought beyond mere cause and effect— says “Okay.” Ad nauseam.
“Tech makes make my life easier”, they say. “I’m so much more productive!”, they claim. And yet, with every tap and swipe, the “liberated” user becomes increasingly entangled in a web of technical complexity which escaping from or, more importantly, SUBDUING is anything but easy. And meanwhile, their reliance is increasing, and understanding waning. In actual fact, the user is stuck - they just don’t know it yet. Or perhaps they do know it, if they’ve given any serious contemplation to the source of the utter dread which overtakes them the moment their phone doesn’t work exactly as they expect.
This is a one-sided mess.
To state my position in one sentence:
Most people do not subdue their tech, but are subdued by their tech.
Tools of abuse? Yes. Keep reading.