I’m 46 as well and I can’t wait for an implementation of this tech that I’ve been seeing prototypes of since I was 10 that is useful, non-intrusive, well-funded & doesn’t trash what little remains of the 4th amendment. I had hoped that Apple would be the ones, since they have the resources to do it, and had some pretty good Ui/Ux designers a while back, before the last few increasingly klugey years, and before they built federal spyware into iOS & Mac OS. But now I have a doubt that anyone will be able to do anything that doesn’t come at a cost of some nightmarish Faustian bargain, since that seems to be the requirement in American business these days.
It certainly the hell isn’t going to be a Facebook or Google product.
I remember the early coolness of getting mobile internet with a laptop dongle, and then an iPod Touch and thinking about how cool it was with some of the web based games and tools (this was early when there weren't a ton of apps.) Then I drifted into how long it would take before ads and things like that would ruin the experience (ungh the times of relentless pop up ads). Likewise I went from ISCA (look it up) and email to Friendster, and bluntly got bored. Then the progression of other things like Orkut, MySpace, Facebook, Hangouts, Snap, Insta, well I just thought it was tedious and pointless to move your life from one place to another, where each had a shelf life and a process of adding friends. There was always a new thing coming, and it became an tired cycle. I didn't use social media after Friendster, except Twitter for a few years then gave up. (I totally missed out on AOL though as we had internet in college). If I wanted to hang out with people, I would just call them. I honestly don't understand how people are still interested in Facebook or any derivative projects.
I bought an iPhone mini 13 a few weeks ago mostly because it's small, but also because it had a physical SIM. (the nightmare of swapping back to a physical SIM and a glitch on the Apple website that stopped me from buying a phone are a whole other rant, grrrrr) If I learned anything over the years cell phone carriers (especially Verizon) will charge you for every little thing and take away control. I don't like the fact I have to check in to the phone company to change my phone first, and in the future I bet they will limit or charge you from doing so. If you destroy your phone it's so much easier to swap it and go on with your day, or buy one used. I won't buy another phone unless I can swap the SIM, this may be my last iPhone. I don't see the eSIM going away though as it allows more waterproof phones, a win for the manufacturer, less store contact and control over customers, a win for the carriers, and automatic phone registration, a win for the government.
I took a day off and went to a MLB baseball game this week. I had bought tickets online, there has always been a option to print tickets (there still is technically on the website, whether it works or not is another story), or to generate a code on your phone to have a static barcode from the ticket website. The website did mention they were using a free app but didn't think I would have to use it, minor league teams weren't doing this. I didn't want to download yet another app that I would use once, and be forced to jump through hoops to set it up. The huge red flag was that the app links to your login for buying tickets which is fine, but under the data collected and privacy, the app basically scrapes your personal data, and tracks you. It became clear when I got to the park you had to use the app, the helper outside the stadium said I was out of luck if I didn't. It was a nightmare. In order to use the ticket I bought, I had to consent to turning over the contents of my personal data on my phone (seriously, look at the data collected under the MLB ballpark app) to Major League Baseball and whoever was going to use it for marketing. Someone told me there was a ticket office, I found it and said I didn't want to use the app due to privacy, they looked up my account and printed tickets. This option was never mentioned. I was upset. I would be OK with the app if it just made the barcode for entrance, but the data scraping was totally not needed and was just a fleecing of customers. I will never go to an MLB game again.
So with the privacy nightmare that is IT, my new phone, and this stupid baseball game, I find myself being less and less interested in tech as time goes on like I was with social media. I could get by otherwise. I have a physical camera, an Ipod which I can rebuild and rebattery if necessary (and it has a headphone jack!), a Nokia 225 LTE as an "outdoors" phone, and can use any old iPhone for a Calendar, address book, notes, etc. without connecting to the internet or worrying about an out of date OS. I already won't be buying a new iPad to replace my old Air 2, my Macbook Air is light, quiet and powerful enough to fill all my needs. If I had to Linux would cover all my bases on an old Win machine for email, browsing, VLC and an Office clone.
These last few weeks really made me jaded and bitter, and killed a lot of tolerance for being treated poorly in the past. Things shouldn't have to be like this.
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