Tag: technology

I’m So Tired

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Recently I was shopping for a water gun for my son’s birthday, and to my surprise, it was hard to find a simple, sturdy one that didn’t have some kind of battery-powered feature. Not only is that one more thing to break, but I really don’t want to add yet another device to the list of things in our house that require charging. It got me thinking: nearly every purchase these days feels like a negotiation between joy and technology.

That’s not to say they’re always at odds. But finding the sweet spot is getting harder.

There was a time when the march of “smarter” items was a net positive. It made things smoother, smarter, simpler and generally more joyful or interesting to use. These days, that optimism is harder to summon. I know I sound like the aging guy yelling at clouds, but I don’t think it’s just nostalgia. The balance really does seem to have shifted over the past decade, and the trend line isn’t encouraging.

Sure, there’s still plenty to like. I can check the weather, unlock my front door, and queue up music from the same screen. But the magic wears off fast. What starts as convenience often ends in clutter. Every small problem now has an app, gadget, or subscription that fixes one issue and quietly creates three new ones.

Streaming music feels less intimate than owning a few beloved albums. Delivery apps bring cold fries, surge pricing, and mystery fees. Social media promised connection but mostly delivers outrage. Smart homes? Great until the WiFi blinks and nothing works or your fridge needs a firmware update. Even the web is a mess of pop-ups, autoplay videos, cookie banners, newsletter traps, and paywalls. Every click has a privacy cost as well.

You can never possibly watch all of the amazing entertainment that on YouTube and every streaming service out there. And yet, it’s more frustrating than ever to navigate subscription costs while fighting the algorithm that recommends more and more ragebait on YouTube. Toys for toddlers need firmware updates. Cars have become rolling iPads. Your heated seats might already be installed, but unless you pay a monthly fee, they stay cold — taunting you with unearned luxury. Most products require an account. They harvest data. They nag for upgrades. When they break, you’re not allowed to fix them. The tools don’t serve us — they serve their makers. And it’s exhausting.

Even Apple, a company I’ve long admired, feels less like a craftsman and more like a casino. Their stuff still (mostly) works great, but it no longer feels entirely yours. Most of the apps I use are rented. Let a subscription lapse and the functionality vanishes. Not all subscriptions are bad, but when everything is a subscription, it dulls the entire experience. Even products that don’t have a subscription (yet) associated with them loom over us. We’re just waiting for the shoe to drop.

I don’t know what to do about this, really. I have tried to be more intentional about my purchases in general, limiting my exposure to subscriptions, overly complicated features, and “smart” tech in general. I fully appreciate that this makes me sound like the old man I’m increasingly turning into. But my optimism around any consumer purchase has been replaced by cynicism and even a bit of dread. It makes me sad but hopeful that a turning point looms as more folks tire of the state of “smart” everything and looks for something a bit simpler.

My favorite 2019 tech things

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As we head into the holiday season, I thought I’d throw my hat in the “best of the year post” ring with a list of a few of my favorite personal tech items of the year. Some of these are bigger than others, but I wanted to list out some things I’m thankful for this year.

Apple Watch Series 5

I’ve owned the Series 0 (review here and here) and a few Series 3 versions before pulling the trigger on the 5 this year and the always on display is a game changer. I’ve gotten into sleep tracking by using the fantastic Autosleep app alongside the built-in fitness tracking and it’s really been illuminating. I’ve changed my sleep habits as a result and feel like I have more of an understanding of my exercise, eating and sleep habits by simply creating a habit of quantifying all of the things I do.

AirPods

I actually got gen 1 AirPods last year for Father’s Day but my use has really skyrocketed in the past year. I have noise-cancelling QC35s and almost never use them because the AirPods are just so darn convenient. The AirPods Pro seem like game changers, and I’m hoping my gen 1 models last until there’s a second generation of the pros.

Siri Shortcuts

With iOS 13, Siri Shortcuts have gotten super powerful. I’ve been setting more and more of these up over the past few months and it’s helped me automate a lot of little things that Tasker for Android used to allow me to do (and more!) A few examples:

  1. Bus commute: when I leave my work on weekdays between 3-6pm. It checks my departure time in that area against the bus schedule and assumes I’m on the nearest one before the current time. It then sends a text to my wife with my departure time and expected arrival time.
  2. Reading time: I’m asked how long I’d like to read and in which app (Kindle or Apple Books). It then turns on Do Not Disturb for that time period, turns on dark mode, adjusts the volume/brightness and starts up some chill instrumental music. Finally, the app I chose launches.
  3. Create packing list: this shortcut pulls from a Bear note template that I have and creates a new packing list based on the type of trip and prefixes it with a lot of metadata. That way, each trip I go on I update the template with any things I typically forget or need.

Chromecast / Nest Hub music management

Chromecasts can finally “hand off” to other groups/speakers like you can with Airplay 2. So I can be in the Kitchen and say “play this on all speakers” and it’ll keep playing the same music but throughout the entire home. Additionally, the Nest Home Hub now allows you to have more control over speakers from the UI so you can adjust volume for groups and individual speakers. I use this a ton, so I’m super thankful it’s here.

DuckDuckGo is finally good enough

I’ve mostly stopped using Google for search in the past year. DuckDuckGo is a super powerful search engine with privacy at it’s core, and the results are finally good enough for me to put my digital information eggs in multiple baskets. A recent Wired article makes the point better than I ever could. I still use Gmail and Calendar, with an occasional Google Maps search so I’m not burning anything down. Heck, as you can see above, I’m still using Nest stuff so I’m not going anywhere. But I’m also wary of the idea of Surveillance Capitalism being something we’re okay with.