Slashdot Mirror
'Pushback': Resisting the Life of Constant Connectivity
vinces99 writes "Researchers at the University of Washington have studied and named a trend lots of people can identify with: the desire to resist constant connectivity and step back from the online world. They call it 'pushback.' The researchers looked closely at instances of pushback against technology, reviewing 73 sources divided equally among three areas of online expression: personal blogs and websites, popular media sources and academic conferences and journals. Co-author Ricardo Gomez said they thought they'd find frustration with devices, costs or learning new technologies as key pushback motivations. Instead, the reasons were more emotionally based, with 'dissatisfaction' — the thought that users' needs are not really being met by technology — most often expressed, followed by political, religious or moral concerns. Other motivations were the wish to regain control of time and energy and fear of addiction to the technology. Among the least-often reported objections were worries about loss of privacy."
These people have something to hide. We should plant bugs in their houses and track their locations.
I call it 'get a life'
I didn't have a phone for 13 years, land or cell, and only got one when I had a severe injury that left me bedridden for a few months. I got a pre-paid dumb phone that I still have but leave it off 95% of the time and usually don't carry it. I just want a period of time where I'm not staring at an LCD device, lord knows I stare at the screen too much as it is. What I will sometimes do in the summer is have a "technology-free" weekend I know that everything is a technology of sorts but let's go with that term. From Friday afternoon until Monday morning, nothing electric will be used. No lights, no food from the fridge, no cars. I read books by candlelight, eat fruit/raw veggies/nuts/bread, ride my bike, take walks, if the phone rings...let it ring (no one is going to need an emergency kidney transplant). It's really quite relaxing just to disconnect from it even if you're surrounded by it all in a city. Somehow, you survive being disconnected and it really is a refreshing change to "pushback"
Pushback starts by not reading Slashdot.
The real cost of this is people who allow constant connectivity to take over their whole lives. The most obvious example I can think of right now is the mainstream media, which fell in love with Twitter a long time ago. It shapes their thoughts and they can't even think any more without applying a hashtag. The idea that there might be a world beyond is a foreign, strange idea.
Others stay glued to their phones and computers all day long and blithely use slang and jargon from whatever site they use most frequently in public. Nobody else can understand them, they can't figure out that it only makes sense in context. Nope, the whole world uses that slang, and if you don't understand, then how can you really be a person?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
No, Luddites were complaining about their livelihoods being taken away by industrial machinery. The supposed trend of pushback isn't about being anti-technology, just not being plugged into it every waking moment. You may miss some vapid messages. Is that a bad thing?
I see no reason to chase the mystery trend any more now than I did when I started working with computers in 1962.
It is not "technology," nor is it being a "luddite;" it is just being sensible about your life.
consumer choice, the active and willful decision to use or not to use a specific product or service, or even none at all, is what its called. To brand it as 'pushback' is condescending and offensive as it implies im somehow inappropriately stubborn, or creating an inconvenience or disservice to others in the pursuit of things like consumer capitalism.
Speaking as a member of the 'pushback' community, If you'd like to use facebook, gmail, google plus, and twitter, by all means do so. If the only way you can start your day is with a fresh stream of "news" from the blogosphere, or an instagram of your cat, then I've nothing for which to lambast you. The internet is an open technology and as such everyones entitled to use it differently as they see fit, or not use part or all of it at all. Extend to me a likewise courtesy though, and dont bitch piss and moan when I cant be found on linkedin or your favourite social spheres. Give me a call, or a text, or an email, or come right over some time and hang out. if its too grand an inconvenience to leave the laptop though, we need to reconsider our relationship.
Why as a "pushback" troglodite am i refusing your utopia? Because its offered at the price of my freedom, which isnt for sale. Its alabaster wall is a prison in which the inmates scrawl their wishes and dreams, announce their likes and disklikes, and pass the time with games and witty reparte while a recumbent warden looks on intently. Constant connectivity is its chain gang. misery is the road it paves alongside the convicted who shall be Sentenced to a lifetime of free trials, free updates, introductory offers, limited events, and great deals.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Much of the new technology, especially when discussing the internet, is no longer about the user - at least, it's not about doing something for our on line experience. Current technology trends are about user data, not the user. More precisely, how the company can harvest and profit from user data. As facebook changes its policies weekly to sell more and more of you there by reducing your privacy, Zuckerberg buys houses around his property to give himself more privacy. The browser in IOs7 removed the URL direct entry and everything is now a recorded search. By doing so attempting to track your intent (and sell it) rather than allow you to do it yourself. I believe in profit and capitalism. However, what happened to actually caring about someone else? gone. You think that paparazzi today would respect FDR and not take or publish pictures of him in a wheel chair or falling down? Nope. Those scum would be hiding in the bushing looking for the golden shot of the President falling. That's the core of push back.
It was nice, 5 days of no interruptions and the feeling i was back in charge of my life. I also try to vacation in places where there is no coverage ergo no intrusions. If cell phones wouldn't be so useful for emergencies and job searches I would ditch them in a minute.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I'll open by repeating what others have said: this isn't being a Luddite, not by any means. If there's a tech toy / tool that makes my life easier, I'm all for it, whether it be physical goods or software.
But, similar to the "i love me" websites of the early days of the web, Twitter and Facebook, to me, are just another kind of dancing cat / hamster / chilli pepper: Utterly superfluous. I actively reject them, I have no FB or TW account. I don't want to know what my friends are doing 24x7. I don't want the world to know that I just had six blonde Oreos and two cups of non-name-brand non-trendy coffee that is still awesome due to careful preparation.
I'm sure this view is incomprehensible to some. To them I say: It's ok to sell yourself, if you don't mind being treated like a whore -- kept around only as long as you have value to the people "giving" you the serivce for "free." Myself, I'll make "them" work for their money: If you want my $, then you should make things that interest me. I'll hear about them, ads or no ads.
But to those making targeting decisions / algorithms with data obtained from my mere mousing around, I say "fuck off." I took off your logo'd t-shirts and polo shirts a decade ago. I stopped listening to your drivel on TV a decade ago. I block ads and do a few other interesting things, just so I don't have to see / hear your unrelenting patter.
Maybe y'all should look at it from that point of view: To them, your body is a billboard to display their ads, you are data, not a person. Deny them the use of your body, deny them the use of your data. Most everytime you click somewhere you just either made someone a fraction of a penny, or gave data to someone who will eventually make a mint aggregating your data to a massive data mine from which they "target" ads (or lately, as it turns out, "target" people directly)
Resistance to always-on isn't being a luddite, it's about being yourself, and keeping that self as private as possible. It's about not being a slave to the phone, but having the phone as a toy / tool: there for your use or amusement, not the other way 'round.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
My wife and I set aside several hours every day as "zero-technology" times. We use this time to read, play with our dogs, have meals together, work on hobbies, and hang out with friends and neighbors.
Everything gets powered down - no phones ringing, no "notification" sounds, no nothing. It's pretty amazing how it feels to be disconnected - like the old days before constant connection invaded and took over society.
The most annoying part are the phone calls about "OMG where have you been!?!?!?" that inevitably come after things get turned back on.
Have gnu, will travel.