Literally anything involving AI bullshit.
Physically possessing the music that you bought, having the actual vinyl records (or later, CDs and DVDs of shows). That you don’t have to keep renewing subscriptions for to continue being able to listen to (or watch), that you can lend out or pass down to your kids or sell to a used record store, where you can buy the ones someone else sold to them. Those were the days.
It’s still done this way in many communities but the progression of courtship to the families meeting up and giving their approval to marriage to sex to children. I know people will often have sex right after courtship but it’s the fact that the other steps still have to be followed and the acknowledgement that this is not just for hedonistic pursuits but for deeper connections and purposes that’s sorely missing nowadays, particularly in the West ofc.
TV.
I hate the smart-TV workflow, its a terrible user experience: Turn the TV on, wait for the smart-TV OS to load, land on an app menu, navigate around and select an app, wait for the app to load, choose a profile, wait for the list of shows to load, scroll through shows, finally select a show, wait for the video to load…
I miss when you turned the TV on and it was just instantly playing whatever channel you last had on. I miss not having to make the conscious choice of what to watch and feel overwhelmed by so many options. I miss TV programs being a common experience, like an event, that everyone would be talking about together the next day, instead of everyone watching their own thing on their own schedule.
It was truly exciting to look forward to a weekly show on TV.
A group of us used to meet every week to watch Twin Peaks. We’d unplug the phone, drink coffee, and eat cherry pie (or apple for a bit of variation). Then we’d watch the episode again having just recorded it and try to figure out wtf was going on. Happy days.
Except when you couldn’t know in advance when your show skipped a week and they had to play some crappy rerun of a completely different show.
On the plus side people with jobs other than 9-5 can now be included in the experience.
You can still do that by paying for cable.
You’re not wrong, although I think I’d still have to wait for the smart-TV OS to load and navigate the menu to select the Cable input.
I have cable. It doesn’t really work like that anymore. I used to be able to click through ALL the basic cable channels, catching a frame or two of every single channel, with zero delay between channels, all within like under a minute. These days every channel change or menu selection has a built-in delay of at least a second or two. Channel surfing just doesn’t vibe the same anymore. That form of TV is mostly if not entirely dead.
If you haven’t used free Over-the-air TV these days you might be surprised that most cities have a few dozen channels of live TV right now. If your in a large metro area get the simplest of cheapest TV antennas, plug it into your TV, and do a channel scan. You’ll be surprised how many channels there are now.
If you’re in suburbs or rural, you’ll still likely have quite a few but may need a more substantial antenna.
I do have an antenna and get some decent channels with it
many countries need to go back to reasonable inconvenience for superior and ethical product. same-day shipping is accelerating the speed of climate change so no you don’t get to have it actually. no, fruits and vegetables are not available 24/7, seasons matter again. etc and etc. we need to go back to all of this. we have to reduce the strain.
I want a phone where I am reach the top and the bottom of the screen without shifting my grip. Also being able to comfortably store in a pocket would be nice
Pixel 10 Pro or Galaxy S25 both fit that bill
Those are both big phones. they do not
The S25 Plus/Ultra, and the Pixel 10 and 10 Pro XL are. The S25 and Pixel 10 Pro are small phones that can easily be used with one hand.
I would disagree. I have the pixel 4a5g which is pretty much the same size as the pixel 10, and in a normal grip there’s like an inch above and a centimetre below my thumb
Also I’m not even in the market for buying a new phone, I’m going to wait until this phone is dead before I buy one.
i’m actually this close to just going back to a dumb phone.
And less weight and no camera cluster sticking out making the phone not lay flat when put down would be nice
Yes! Make smaller phones! Why do they all have to be getting bigger and bigger?
I like the bigger phones (at least however big a pixel 6 is – that seems about a perfect balance to me). Good to view web pages and videos as well as to use as the nav for my motorbike and still fits in the pocket. I find the smaller phones just too cramped.
Buy one
The only commercial technological advancement from the last ~30 years I think I would miss if it were all to revert to how it was before then would be GPS navigation. I don’t like the prevalence of technology in classrooms, dating, shopping, and vehicles today.
I would have liked discovering music, film, and events by word of mouth or just playing a tape I borrowed/rented even though a lot of people would probably defend the convenience of having it all readily available today.
Paying for things.
- I prefer to operate the clutch and shifting on my truck myself.
- I’ll rather do manual labor than any work that involves sitting on a computer.
- I’m chronically online but without a smartphone addiction.
- I prefer long-form media.
Driving manual (stick). I have an automatic now only because the model/trim I wanted doesn’t come any other way but if I could have got it in manual I would have. This car has less personality than my last one because I operate it rather than driving it. I literally have less of a connection with it.
Playing music on a record player. The ritual of removing the record from the sleeve, placing it on the deck, cleaning it, landing the needle. Listening to an album.
Cooking on gas instead of a halogen hob. Sure halogen is great and super easy to clean but gas is visceral and ‘real’. I also like to cook over charcoal or, even better, wood.
I’m the opposite for cooking. I have a gas stove and would love an induction one. So much waste heat unnecessary pollutants with gas.
Most of your stuff im eh but man if wood fire is just not amazing.
Dating, though i have met my partner online too. Not dating app but a forum.
Data, i LOVE PHYSICAL STUFF. TRY TO TAKE THAT AWAY STREAMING SERVICES!
And politics. Used to actually be honorable and people across the board worked together for the good of their country.
Not so sure about the last one as it reeks of nostalgia. Corrupts politicians have existed in the past, honorable politicians still exist. The biggest change imo is how easily the corrupt people can influence their voters and how they get away with everything.
I get you on the last. As lowleek mentioned there was scummy politicians but damn it was nice when they tried to hide it and were ashamed (or at least aped shame) and most had pride in their position and thier institution. I miss the days when senators were senators before republicans/democrats and judges were judges first and the congress would put their own parties president to task for overstepping.
I wasnt talking about american politics but there too. Though that defenetly has been more corrupt than what i am talking about: german politics. Helmust Schmidt was the last real chancler who cared
- Mowing grass with a scythe instead of a mower
- Splitting wood with an axe instead of an electrical splitter
They both are quieter and calming to the mind and soul, meditative even. And you kind of feel like an NPC in Anno 1602.
I don’t think anyone mowed grass with a scythe. At least for me mow suggests ornamental grass.
English is my second language, but my understanding was that nobody mowed their lawn with a scythe, but tall grass and wheat is something that you would absolutely have cut with a scythe.
I want mobile phones with actual keyboards back. I hate touch screen keyboards with the passion of a thousand suns and I swear they’re getting worse.
Give me an LG enV2 with Android and I’ll be happy.
Buying stuff online using a phone or app. I still feel safer and more secure on a desktop browser with uBO.
Good news: Firefox on Android supports extensions, including uBlockOrigin
Though Im in the same camp, much prefer desktop over mobile for big purchases, banking, or anything that feels important
Big purchase, big screen. Dems the rules.
Anything to do with the internet. I’d go back to 2010 in a heartbeat.
Bro, I had dial up in the early nineties…
I do not miss dial up.
Why did they want us to hear the handshake‽ Like there’s no reason we all would be able to pitch perfectly recreate a noise we haven’t heard in two decades.
Eeeeeeee brbrbrbbrbrll gzzzd
Ding-ur-ding-ur-ding brrp
cshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh…Actually I quite liked that bit. It was reassuring and familiar and you knew it was working.
What I didn’t like was taking 20 minutes to download a tiny video, anyone picking up the phone instantly killing your connection including the software download you’d been watching download for the last 15 minutes and the cost per minute and unreliability that taught me to connect, download my email, open my messages page, on the forum, disconnect, write all the forum replies in notepad and email replies in my client, then dial up again, hit sync on the email client and paste all my replies back in the forum.
We were well into the internet in 2010…
Hell, we were well into the internet in 2000
I’d argue people were really starting to discover the Internet at about the smart phone boom and housing crash of 07/08. I was talking about Wikipedia with someone then and they stopped taking to me for a while. They thought I was saying something like Wiccan-pedo.
Yeah, I was there for pre-2000 internet. It was cool back then too. I just remember 2010 as the last era where the internet still felt fun. That’s all gone now.
I’d prefer to go back to an internet pre-YouTube where the Internet started to become corporate.
