That’s not even a boomer complaint. Zoomer here. I fucking hate how everything needs an account. I recently started cleaning up my mail box and this shit makes that nigh impossible. I especially hate it when it’s just a shitty novelty site, if it needs an account, you bet your ass I ain’t ever using it, piss off!
make an email for different things, such as one for subscriptions, one for things like this, one for professional use, etc. it’s annoying but also helps 🤷🏻 i hate that we’re at this point lol
I just auto tag using the term “unsubscribe”. It tags as “automated/spam” unless another filter such as banking, games, or in contacts triggers
My trick is that I use a domain name I’ve bought for my personal emails which is a catch-all address, and I sign up to websites with “(websitename)[email protected]”, so I’m assuming I’ll know who the culprit is when the time comes and I can do something about it with relative ease. I don’t know if that’s actually smart or not but I’ll see how I get on.
I kind of wonder whether it’d be worthwhile to have a certification agency that just certifies things for privacy and non-cloud-connectivity or the like. Trying to dig through spec sheets and reviews to figure out how a product functions is a pain. I’d rather pay slightly more to just look for some privacy certification on a product. I don’t really want to try to keep up with the latest privacy issues present in a given product category, would rather have a specialist do that.
Like, let me just look for a “PC-24-O” (Privacy Certification 2024 Offline) label or something on products. Saves me time. Also would let vendors like Amazon let me filter products for that certification.
Finding a fucking living room lamp where you can change brightnes, was quite a search to exclude all the iot devices. That most online shops have no filters for iot, doesn’t help.
Minimal effort to investigate before you buy. But i guess most tech is bought on reflex.
It’s one of those things people don’t really think about checking because it’s so moronic from the get go. If I’m buying headphones I shouldn’t have to check if I can use all functionality without needing to download an app and creating an account. They’re headphones, they’re supposed to output (and input if they also have a mic) sound. They don’t need a dedicated app that also requires an account. There was a time when checking for that wouldn’t even cross my mind.
I definitely wouldn’t blame the customer for not checking the moronic things companies put in their products. Times are changing and I do have to check how much control I actually have over the hardware I’m buying, but it shouldn’t be like that.
It is so frustrating. Especially when you did your research but the information is out of date. Widget2000 rev1 was fine but Widget2000 rev2 requires an account.
Or it doesn’t require an account but your options are “yes” or “ask again later.” So all of your searches say it’s fine. But if my experience is degraded for no good reason just because I don’t want an account, that is a weak win at best.
But then there’s factors like in-ear/earbuds, waterproof, noise-canceling, sound-quality/technology, price… a bit of research is advised here, if not your only factor is cheap. There’s in-ear with quad drivers even, still in the range of 90$!
You can do all that research and not find out you need an account. I know because it has happened to me.
Same. I’ve returned more than one item for refund for pulling that shit.
Ok, fair point.
Not wanting to be exploited by tech coorporations, technological literacy, is not a boomer thing.
I mean, have you met zoomers? Technological literacy as we knew it is dead.
but also have you met boomers? Tech literacy as we knew never existed.
Born too late to be blissfully unaware about technology
Born too early to be blissfully unaware about technology
Born in just the right time to have the cursed knowledge on how all of the cobbled together tech stack out there barely works
Every time I use an ATM I get the mental image of a 70 year old COBOL programmer desperately trying to patch holes in a sinking ship with a roll of duct tape.
Me too, except any time I have to deal with the US banking system. Ever used ACH? What a wreck.
It’s a fucking nightmare, but I have heard rumors that it is in the process of being replaced with a new nightmare.
Quick, invent everything before we get too old!
Gen X and Millennials to the rescue
Boomers were the generation that invented a lot of this tech. Most of them weren’t literate, but I have known quite a few who were. Honestly same with Gen x, we grew up with it but, a lot of the good tech didn’t come until later in our lives. There are tons of illiterate gen xers and millennials and gen y and z. Some people care and some people don’t.
Gen X would like a word
nobody cares about Gen X
Laugh it up now. When we’re 50, our holoshere is going to require us to submit to genetic modifications to get our next soylent nutrition paste to dispense. God only knows how we connect to a person young enough in 2040 to know if it’s even possible to bypass. That kind of stuff was laughed at the last time we tried.
just keep an eye on pirate forums or learn how to steal ig
If you want a lightbulb that changes colors to be controlled by a phone or network accessible device, as opposed to some other sort of special RF remote, and you DONT want random other people to be able to control or possibly disable or damage your lights, then it kinda needs to have an account.
By all means, avoid iot stuff if it’s not your thing, but then why are you looking at color changing lightbulbs? The ones that need special remotes are terrible gimmicks and the ones that get wired into a hardwired home automation system cost a fortune to set up and require a ton of installation.
How is this a boomer complaint? Why does everyone need my email and info?
What I love was it is boomers that allows these changes so they gotta live with it. It’s not like we all woke up and decided to start asking for emails for everything. It was sitting back and being cool with letting ads take over everything until they started needing more and more data so they weren’t paying 30 million for beer ads to people who don’t drink
Any beer paying millions in ads isn’t worth drinking.
Anything paying for ads shouldn’t be worth it. We should be hostile to any advertising as stealing from us. They don’t pay us to take our free time yet tell me anytime of your day where you are not experiencing some type of advertising.
I gotta go to work 1/3 my day. 1/3 I’m sleeping. 1/3 I get to myself except that 1/3 for me is taken up by lunches, kids sports, prepping for tomorrow’s 1/3 work day. So of that 1/3 maybe I get a few hours to relax and enjoy something. So I sit down to the streaming service I cut cable for and and still get chunks of that time giving to company’s Hawking me stuff I don’t need wasting my free time. It gets worse when you think how much-needed of our day is being in front of some type of ads. Radio, TV, bus stops, magazines, going to kids hockey games, browsing the internet, watching movies. Even viral videos often are just paid commercials made to circumvent ad regulations and laws and to not pay websites for server time and big fixes.
It is insidious. We have been corralled into something we don’t even know we’re in. Like cows that don’t realize are in a pasture. It all seems innocent like “I’ll just ignore that thing I don’t like” but deep down that thing is affecting every part of the society we are in and it’s a root cause for most of what we complain about today.
So they can sell it to spam companies obviously.
Er I mean… For better customer exploitation!
Shit, I’m really not good at this but they’re going to send me to the
Ok boomer.
Lol jk
to exploit you. not being exploited at a molecular level is boomer shit.
now, are you an old, or are you gonna send me a copy of your social security number and complete sequenced genome?
now, are you an old, or are you gonna send me a copy of your social security number and complete sequenced genome?
Does email work or do you have a mailing address? I’ll spit in a cup and send that to you if I need to but I’d rather not have to go to the post office.
do you have like a cloud storage with at least 1TB? if not, we’re gonna have to sneakernet this.
I lack that much cloud storage, I’ll see if I can track down a station wagon I can fill up with tapes.
I very much appreciate this. I mean, you are proving that you’re not an old, but I won’t be sure until you do it.
Oi m8, you got an account for that?
“Or sign in with your Facebook account”
No, this isn’t Facebook!
Fighting side by side with a boomer?
What about side by side with a friend?How about side by side with your mother?
It means the fight may continue well over 10 pm. I’m in.
Bro we need to track you in every way possible so we can sell you even more shit, what’s the big deal?
Um, how about no Scott, okay? You got my money, if you wanna keep pestering for more money, I’m gonna return this original item and you aren’t getting shit.
Ladies and gentlemen, Scotty don’t.
Scotty n’est pas
My lightbulbs don’t require an account, I just get up from the couch and turn them off, has been working perfectly for decades 😘👌
It is possible to have lights that automatically turn on and off and not have to log in to the bespoke lightbulb app that stops being updated in three months while simultaneously rendering your lightbulb worse than useless because now it’s stuck on a dim shade of green that you can’t change because the last update broke the app.
The future we were promised is there, we just need to help it into the world.
Meanwhile, you accept that the social media hedonic treadmill needs an user account. Curious?
Anyone remember Lyle and Dexter Manning from the Machinima series “Sanity not Included?”
Fuck that. I don’t give that shit out either. Completely unnecessary.