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⣱⣿⣿⡟⡐⣰⣧⡷⣿⣴⣧⣤⣼⣯⢸⡿⠁⣰⠟⢀⣼⠏⣲⠏⢸⣿⡟⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡟⠁⠄⠟⣁⠄⢡⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣼⢟⢀⡼⠃⡹⠃⡀⢸⡿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟ ⣿⣿⠃⠄⢀⣾⠋⠓⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⣿⣿⣾⣅⢔⣕⡇⡇⡼⢁⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢣ ⣿⡟⠄⠄⣾⣇⠷⣢⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣭⣀⡈⠙⢿⣿⣿⡇⡧⢁⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢏⣾ ⣿⡇⠄⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⢻⠇⠄⠄⢿⣿⡇⢡⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣏⣼⣿ ⣿⣷⢰⣿⣿⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢰⣧⣀⡄⢀⠘⡿⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⣼⣿⣿ ⢹⣿⢸⣿⣿⠟⠻⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣭⣉⣤⣿⢈⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠏⣾⣹⣿⣿ ⢸⠇⡜⣿⡟⠄⠄⠄⠈⠙⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⣱⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⠁⢳⠃⣿⣿⣿ ⠄⣰⡗⠹⣿⣄⠄⠄⠄⢀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⣅⣥⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠋⠄⠄⣾⡌⢠⣿⡿⠃ ⠜⠋⢠⣷⢻⣿⣿⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⣛⣥⣾⣿⠿⠟⠛⠉⠄⠄
Being that I am an enthusiast about technology, most would assume that I am always looking forward to the next big thing. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, I believe that ideally, technology should have hit a sort of "rubber band" point sometime between 2009 and 2011. Indeed, these few years were the perfect mix of old and new when it comes to technology. People still regularly used CRT technology despite HD becoming the new standard, Windows XP was still supported right alongside the beta of the soon-to-be Windows 8, with its shitty flat UI. YouTube switched from star ratings to like / dislike ratings, but kept its same silver (and more soulful) CSS-only layout. iPhones and Apple software still looked exactly as they did in the 2000s, but had a lot of the modern features which they still have today, such as the notification and control centre. The absolute biggest thing for me however, was that web design truly started to die immediately after this micro-generation of time.
As soon as 2012 hit, pages started to be flooded with scripts, nearly overnight. This isn't to say it wasn't tolerable though, but then 2013 happened. Smartphones had gained enough mainstream public use that most websites (starting with YouTube) removed all personal customisation options entirely. Channels with bright, beautiful backgrounds made with hours of hard work were instantly reduced to having your name at the top next to a small, mobile sized banner. At first, nobody followed YouTube in this terrible decision, until Apple completely changed the fate of the entire web in a single night. iOS 7 was released this year. Instantly, in order to keep up with Apple's new design trend, almost every single space on the web was suddenly a solid coloured page with loads of scripts bogging down the browser for fancy animations. To make matters worse, to follow Apple's design trends, many other places like Twitter and even MySpace would follow in YouTube's footsteps of making the desktop site into a bigger version of the mobile app, rather than keeping the two seperated whilst running in harmony to one another.
On top of this, since many people were on the internet at this point (about half of the world population), corporations with a big web presence such as Facebook and Google started to monitor your web activity in the background in order to sell their findings to advertisers, so that they know what products to advertise to you. Google even notoriously removed their original motto "don't be evil" from their mission statement. Now, people accept the shitty reality of having literal parts of your mobile screens cut out, not being able to use headphones with your phones, and having your every move tracked. (Unless of course, you are one of the smarter people who block such things.)
This is why I feel the ideal society would be locked in place around 2009-2011. Things were similar enough to where the functionality was just about the same as what we have now, but different enough to keep things from getting out of control. For crying out loud, Amazon Web Services went down recently, and people were not able to vacuum their homes or turn on the lights because those devices now require an active connection to random servers around the world. This alone should be enough to warrant the banishment of smart technology, but no, now we have people developing AI's which have already threatened to murder all humans while screaming on camera (YouTube is your friend for finding that clip). The way I see it is: "cool, we had our little demo of what a technology dependent future would look like, but now it is time to wake up".