I’m starting to wonder what the real benefit even is anymore. Between the technofeudal landscape we live in, where billionaires own the means of communication, data is constantly mined for profit, and surveillance is baked into every layer, it feels like I’m standing at the beach, using my bare hands to push back an endless tide.
Even when I take the so‑called “liberated” path through Linux, self‑hosting, and privacy tools, it often feels futile. The web itself is poisoned. Browsers are turning into tracking engines. Sites rely on manipulation and dark patterns. Social media is full of misinformation and ragebait.
Even open-source projects are being pulled under corporate influence (ex: Firefox adoption of AI).
It feels exhausting to route around a web that’s already been captured.
So I’m asking myself: what’s the point? Why not just step away?
Why not trade the illusion of digital control for actual peace, get a dumb phone, a CD player, and check out books, movies, music, and games from the library as my entertainment?
Does anyone else feel this way? Have you found ways to reconnect with technology?
I’m absolutely struggling with a sense of professional ennui as well. I feel simultaneously furious and horrified that so many engineers have so wantonly discarded any real ethical considerations from how they conduct themselves and what work they do. And I know why, too: because for the most part, it’s just become a constant rat-race to stay ahead of layoff waves. And the roof cause of that is the profit über alles mentality, exacerbated by fucking finance and business types running everything under the sun these days, and those people answer to VC and PE for the most part.
I don’t have a constructive answer for you. In fact, if you figure one out, let me know.