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I used to love computing as a hobby, but now it feels like it's a source of evil in the world, how have you dealt with this? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 15 hours ago by koncertejo@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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It feels like all the joy I used to feel from being an enthusiast has been completely voided as computing has become the modern vector for fascism and surveillance. I find myself recoiling from all online spaces, even independent and open source ones that I'd loved and supported in the past.

It's been an exceptionally strange impulse to go from having an elaborate online presence to now feeling like the only acceptable way to engage with the network is to have as minimal of an online footprint as possible.

This especially hurts when it feels like an issue of skilling, where I know how to do certain tasks with computers, but have to teach myself for the first time the analogue alternatives that my parents and their parents likely already knew well.

How have you chosen to deal with it? Do you find yourself moving away from computing and the internet, despite formerly loving it as a hobby? Have you replaced things that computers used to do for you with analogue replacements?

I'm curious how other people are experiencing this.

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[–] Baggie@lemmy.zip 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Technology is not inheritly evil, even stuff like cryptocurrency, NFTs, social media, LLMs, all of that has really interesting technology behind it, but has been used by people for nefarious means.

You can most certainly engage with technology without facilitating things like fascism and surveillance still, though arguably it is harder. But conversely, things like fediverse are happening where by their nature they are much harder to be taken over by corporate interests or fascism. It's an always changing landscape, and you're likely going to need to be a bit of a nomad until things get better. But I think they will get better.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

It's kind of like dynamite

Thanks to Dynamite, we have the Nobel Prize. We've been able to achieve amazing works of construction and mining, and have generated probably a hundred trillion dollars in wealth thanks to the power of Dynamite.

But, people have been killed by dynamite. Dynamite has been used as a weapon. It has been the foundation of grenades and bombs and other methods of war, and probably millions of people have died thanks to dynamite, if not tens of millions.

As long as you're using the technology for constructive good purposes, then it is what it is.

Guns can be used to save lives. They can also be used to take lives. They can be used to protect people. They can be used to harm people. It's all in the wielder.