💾 Archived View for schinkel.bevuta.com › rants › you-will-not-understand-this.txt captured on 2024-02-05 at 09:42:03.
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-11-04)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[by Stanley Lieber - http://stanleylieber.com/2017/11/07/0/]
YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THIS
"I just hate to be pushed around by some @#$%^& machine."
– Ken Thompson
This is my exit interview from social media. Some of these “services”
I abandoned years ago. Others I am still struggling to avoid. From
experience, I assume that you, reader, will make it impossible for me to
remain ignorant of developments WRT: all of this garbage. What all of this
garbage has in common is that it has all lately proven to be surplus to
requirements, and soon I will never voluntarily use any of it ever again.
Google
Hi. I remember the Internet before Google.
Fuck you forever for breaking e-mail for everyone in the world. Fuck
you forever for enticing users who don’t know any better into relying
upon your services, and then shuttering them with little warning. Your
extensions to established standards and ever changing policies make it
increasingly impossible for individuals to host and control their own
information. Yes, I am aware that this is no accident.
Search quality is no longer a core competency of Google, the Internet’s
premiere search engine. For example: Two people type the same search
string, each receives different results. Yes, I am aware that this is
likewise no accident.
The quality of ads displayed alongside various Google services has
steadily devolved from semi-relevant to absolutely irrelevant at all
times. Yes, I am aware that this is no accident.
Malware served.
Insight: Google does not want you to know or remember. Anything, if at
all possible.
Facebook
Worldwide, 24/7, telepathic contact with every person I, or members of
my extended network, ever met. How many degrees of separation between
me and the worst person alive? Now that person knows what my mom threw
up after breakfast, and wants to offer advice.
Mandatory non-linear curation of user contributed content.
Malware served.
Insight: Gamification of personal interaction degrades human health.
Twitter
Worldwide, 24/7, telepathic contact with every person I, or people I used
to think of as friends, ever met, or favorited, or retweeted. How many
degrees of separation between me and the worst person alive? Now that
person knows the GPS coordinates of my bedroom. How do I know? Because
they are (as I type) standing outside my bedroom window. Thanks, Twitter
client, for wiping my preferences after updating yourself to patch a
critical security vulnerability.
Mandatory non-linear curation of user contributed content.
Malware served.
Insight: Gamification of personal interaction degrades human health.
Instagram
I paid them for the app. Then they sold the app to Facebook. Now I see
targeted ads and promoted posts.
Mandatory non-linear curation of user contributed content.
Malware served.
Insight: Gamification of personal interaction degrades human health.
Tumblr
Was at its best when I thought I missed comment threads.
Javascript requirements slowly killed what value it had.
Not a replacement for anything.
Summary
No offense, but it’s just not worth it.