I completely get it. It’s been so demonized in recent years that it’s completely understandable to feel this way. I literally can’t fathom how I was ever excited to take an AI course 3-4 years ago in grad school lol

Here’s how I’ve been dealing with it without letting it crush my interest in computing.

In terms of online spaces:

There’s always an alternative. You being on Lemmy right now is evidence of this. The big media conglomerates want you to believe there are no alternatives. That’s how they function, they use social pressure to get you to conform. Enough friends badger you to get facebook and you eventually get a facebook, even if you hate it.

Gradually move away from these circles, don’t allow yourself to be pressured.

The internet is a vaster ecospace than you can possibly imagine, despite how many people believe it’s limited to cycling between the same 3-4 apps. You should try checking out Neocities sometime if you don’t believe me. Other people who haven’t allowed their passions for computing to be drowned out still exist, it’s just that the voices of the mundane crowd who don’t know anything about computing or have ever had any desire to learn are louder and currently propagate the online space.

Also, never underestimate the power of rigid filters. You’ll begin to notice so many other things once every other post you see is no longer a catastrophic news update about how the 1% is currently raping the earth and ruining life for the average citizen. It can feel tempting to always stay “in the loop”… but the truth is, most of the things we stay up to date on aren’t as important as we think they are.

Yeah, maybe them building an AI data center in your local district seems like urgent news you have to have… but you already knew these data centers are bad and being built everywhere. You were probably already going to vote against that the next chance you got in a local election. Beyond that, if you aren’t planning any local protests… the most productive thing you’d do that day is vent anger online about it with other strangers. Seriously, try to limit your intake to just world news and a local newspaper or the most important stuff that happened that week. If a new war starts I assure you there’s no way you’ll miss it.

In terms of AI:

Here’s a really simple platitude that actually helps more than you think.

“Blame the artist, not the pencil.”

It’s just another tool, not the end of civilization or the “singularity”, or anything people really want to build it up to be. Quite frankly, it’s not that cool or spooky at all. I’m 1000 times more spooked by the trends I’ve seen develop in humans dialing back basic data privacy rights than I am about ChatGPT’s actual capabilities.

In fact, I use AI regularly. It’s all about balance, just like any other tool you use with computer literacy. You don’t download random files, click weird links, or upload your social security number. Same principles with AI.

• I use AI to troubleshoot when I’m programming and it saves me countless hours of searching 15+ year old stackexchange posts: I don’t use it to program my code.
• I use AI to roleplay sometimes because the engaging feedback helps spark my creativity: I don’t use it to write my stories or texts for me.
• I use AI to help research complex questions to aid my comprehension, such as “Why is manufacturing a cure for AIDS so difficult and have any recent promising developments been made in the field?”, not as a one-stop shop for all my factual knowledge.

As draining as it is to find a new AI spyware thing I have to uninstall everytime my browser updates or I open a Microsoft program these days, AI itself is not this big evil thing. And if you have less patience for it than I do, someone who stops to look up the instructions on how to manually disable OneDrive updates in Administrative Tools to stop reinstalling Copilot, take the other people’s advice in this thread and go completely open source. Try Linux. It may save you a huge headache in the long run.

Lastly, in terms of creative liberty:

Always remember that the online space was created for us, not for them.

I love messing around with Stylus these days and especially publicly made GreasyFork scripts to see just how much I can break websites and get them to do my bidding. While everyone else is lamenting bad website updates with angry “Goodbye forever” and “I’ve unsubscribed!! (yes I was paying)” posts, I’ve already fixed the issue with a script or some basic coding.

In addition, uBlock Origin, VPNs, PopUpOff and a handful of other useful extensions are all your friends, and will help save you from countless hours of irritation of having to navigate spaces with no functional UI in mind. I haven’t had issues viewing an article on some offbrand newssite or a mainstream paywall in ages. I found out they banned imgur in my country because of lemmy posts, not because I couldn’t access it.

And never throw in the towel because something’s “gone forever”. I’ve already found a new piracy website after the last 5 went down. I’ve already started migrating pages from archive.org to archive.is. Someone has already reuploaded the entire decades old collection of english dub One Piece episodes that went down because of a copyright strike. You know what they say, “Once it’s out on the internet, it stays there forever.”

Final thoughts

From one computer enthusiast to another, don’t let the current state of the world take away your passions from you. Remember, at the end of the day, these are all just tools. It only matters what you do with them.

Here’s a little video I’ll leave with you in case it helps cheer you up.

Microsoft Windows 95 Launch with Bill Gates & Jay Leno (1995) (be prepared, it’s corny as hell lol)

I used to be a thief, as a hobby, but I feel way less guilty about it nowadays.

I still like occasional tinkering with computers, not in depth but on a Linux newbie level :) And I like it. Not only did I learn loads of new stuff and was fascinated by the way Linux works, but I also am glad, that there are less predatory alternatives to Windows and MacOS.

So yes, while big tech like Google, OpenAI and Meta are increadibly disgusting, I feel fine by staying away from their services when possible.

What I really dislike is AI Bots picking apart each and every forum post, blog or publicly available images as training data (correct me if I’m wrong). To this I don’t have a quick solution. What the user can do is to cautiously think about what they posy online. Playing the long game, we need better legislation in the tech sector, such as: Consent for data scalping is mandatory (let me dream, ok. Please)

I bike more.

I’m getting more involved in that I’m discovering more open source projects that I can support.

Open source really gives me hope. Instead of a profit motive, communities form and work together out of passion and dedication to a project or idea.

That’s really invigorating to me. And, in many ways, can often be a big fuck you to our capitalist overlords. I’m working on presentations and such to teach my friends and spread the word about various projects and better op sec to make it all the harder to harvest our data.

Like many have said here : open source is one way to cure your technodepression. Little project are happy to get you involved. I have helped many project without being a dev.

We should built our own internet, with blackjack and hookers!

I was looking for a tech positive outlook and found solarpunk for myself. Since then I’ve learned a lot that doesn’t have to do with tech, but also on the topic of how technology can empower people. It helps I was already an environmentalist before.

I started looking a lot more into contributing to open source projects. I started looking into decentralized networks like lora radios. I self host a lot more. Got rid of Google on my phone…

Biggest issue is the job. With my attitude change my well paid corporate tech job has become soul sucking.

I am lucky that I got a job that is, if not doing good, at least not doing something evil. And I get to play with cool hardware. Not something practicable for everyone, I know. But those jobs are out there.

Besides, I have met many people with similar feelings recently. You are not alone. I don’t know how to find those people where you live. But for instance, there are many people helping worthwhile causes with the tech side.

Personally, I might have to use two phones in the future, kind of like how I saw some do in China. One for the official, mandated bullshit, and one for personal things, with an operating system that does not snitch on every action I take.

Um I’m not a very tech savvy person. From my perspective, computing is also the only resource left to maintain our rightful freedom over tech. The Internet is meant to be free. Tech is supposed to be yours. Yes, there are exploitative assholes using technology to suck the joy out of you. But I celebrate the people who find and share ways to bypass, circumvent, and nullify this abuse. Which is also computing, right?

Make your shit work for you again. Learn to self-host and embrace open source.

Hacking.

Its a tool that can be used for cool or evil things, like any other tool.

How have you chosen to deal with it?

Moving back to analog wherever I could, re-learn and re-use the old ways as much as possible. And also taking back control, and ownership, over my tech.

I’ve been using a computer since the early 80s and have been online regularly probably somewhere around the late 80s, first through BBS. Luckily for me, while I was self-learning that new computer and digital stuff, I was also taught the classic ‘analog’ ways of doing things. Things like writing longhand, or using snail mail. So, the moment I realized I could not trust nor agree with techs, I started:

• Using physical and/or low-tech objects wherever and whenever I can.
• I got rid of all streaming and subs, an always growing, always less privacy friendly (and more expensive) list of services and apps.
• After years mostly reading ebooks, I moved back to reading actual print books, and using physical media for music and movies (discs).
• Relying less on a computer on my everyday life. Doing math in my head instead of needing that high-tech crutch that is a calculator. Using an actual dictionary to lookup for a definition (a paper dictionary does not track what word I’m checking, like no print book is reporting back what I’m actually reading), Stopped relying on a spellchecker (aka, improve my writing skills and also learn to be fine with doing as few mistakes as I can even more so in foreign languages like English). Small things like that.
• Use older tech (more repairable, sustainable, less connected) wherever I can. See, I recently purchased a 90s digital voice recorder that uses good old AA batteries (that last for months, plural), that requires no Internet connection to operate and no subscription either (so there is no tracking going on, no constant updates or security threats, and there is no ads). Sure, it doesn’t have the latest and greatest AI summarizing tool but… I don’t care. And I certainly don’t want AI to feast on my own voice, nor on my most personal notes, doing god knows what with them.
• Use Free Libre software instead of the most widely known proprietary ones. Apps and tools that respect my privacy and my rights as a user.
  After 40+ years being an Apple user, a few years ago I fully switched to GNU/LInux and to Libre software. My only regret? I should have switched years earlier.
• Last but certainly not least, I barely use my phone at all. On mine, there is only a handful of apps I need to have access to (finance/security/pro stuff). There is nothing personal, not even ebooks or music, and certainly no social or games. The phone is the least trustworthy of all the ‘digital’ device I own, so it’s the one I use the less.

Self hosting, trying to get progressively more serious about privacy and security.

I’ve gotten into the Amateur Radio, you need a license to transmit but you gain access to a lot of cool stuff. The Ham bands are a non-commercalized space where experimentation and the sharing of technical knowledge are highly esteemed. There’s no ISP or hidden tech bro to moderate the experience, your limits are your skill, equipment, and the privileges of your license. On High Frequencies there are propagation effects that cause your signal to travel thousands of miles enabling the potential for worldwide communications given proper conditions.