Technology and me.
Lately, I've developed this feeling of wanting to go back to the time when things were simple, durable, and affordable. The designs were straightforward and solved the purpose of necessity. They were also aesthetically pleasing.
But now, things available in the market seem to irritate me more by making my day-to-day life difficult than solving the problem.
Here, I'm writing down a list of things that bother me the most.
Bluetooth mouse and Keyboard - I shifted to them last year. I bought a considerably good one. It's affordable and solves the purpose of what it needs to be. But the problem started when I had to change the batteries constantly. Keeping track of buying batteries and disposing of used ones is a big problem. Imagine a situation like lockdown If I don't have batteries to change and I have to work from home. And they seem to lag when I'm much in need of it. My old wired ones work very well. I have had them for more than 10 years now, and they are very reliable. I hardly remember worrying about taking care of them. My old mouse fell and hit the ground hard way too many times for me to remember. Yet, it works fine even now. My new mouse would have fallen down two or three times. I'm sure next time it hits the ground, I need to replace it with new ones.
Bluetooth headphones or pods - Do I even need to talk about them. Same, my wired headphones are more reliable, especially during my office online meetings. I remember buying it during my college days. Also, back then for Rs.2000/- you got the best sound quality headphones. Now, they have added Bluetooth and removed the wires from it even the basic ones cost Rs.5000/- and it's so fragile that I need to buy new ones in a year or so. Also, a new task of charging it properly. If I don't, it goes off right in the middle of my meeting or favourite song.
Smartphones and all smart devices - I'm done. I'm done with ads and lack of privacy, things that are happening for greed and money. I just need a Nokia or pager to contact people. Today, Spotify made me realise how much I miss my Walkman or MP3 players. I could just store a few gems of songs and hear them daily. I wouldn't be bored.
I mean, why make life so complicated. Can't we have simple things with few choices and be happy with what we have. Everything is changing in this fast-moving world. Modern humans are expecting people to be as fast as their smartphones. Someone who has people around him to do things for him and has lived half of his life promotes a 70-hour work week when a majority of the young population is actually struggling to solve the basic needs of life.
Yes, he is right. Young people should do a 70-hour work week. Work on their health and skills to have an independent income. So they don't have to listen to such inhumane corporate companies that extract everything from us for their never-ending thirst for greed and success.