Amazon basically.
Some things are near impossible to get in a reasonable time frame, or get shipped from China anyway if i get them at the source.
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Amazon basically.
Some things are near impossible to get in a reasonable time frame, or get shipped from China anyway if i get them at the source.
Also returns aren't a maze of bullshit and return fees like many other online sites.
My vote goes to Google, to whom I am tightly married. It's ecosystem and interconnectivity between apps as well as devices is unbeatable. It's super reliant.
It's the one entity that can wreck my online and offline presence. I mean, I use android and Google to login everywhere. If Mr. Google so decrees, my phone could wipe and google account be gone tomorrow. Same applies to Apple and Microsoft, but I don't use their systems as much. The poison I picked is Google and I hate it.
I feel like I don't use that many Google services (mostly because I'm not convinced they won't shut down), but the ones I do use are the ones that would really suck to lose access to. I realized this a few months ago and have at least been working on moving my email away from Gmail to my own domain since that is the critical one that could screw everything up.
Windows
I like Windows, it's MS that I hate and the bullshit they add to Windows.
I hate to break it to you, but the stuff MS added to Windows comprises literally all of Windows.
I've always felt theres multiple sides to Microsoft. Theres devs making a damn good and simple product. Then comes the enterprise devs that over-engineer the product. Then theres the marketing coming in and try to buy up competition or bundle the product with other products to force it on people (MS way of advertising). And THEN the suits either ruin the product for money or shutting it down for not either making enough money or for not helping their enterprise products make money (like for example VSCode is a product that helps MS make money on Azure).
Absolutely, it's essentially required in Europe... but also, fuck Facebook.
Facebook. I never willingly go on it, but my friends all use it for events and shit. Itโs funny hanging out with them and having someone mention things from a group chat Iโve never even touched. I absolutely refuse to install that fucking malware they call Messenger.
Other than that, anything Google. Have to use it all for work.
So many small businesses have a Facebook page and no website which is quite frustrating too. I just want to see your hours, why did I need to sign up to another website to do that?
Discord. Too many people and communities on it that won't use Matrix.
Almost anything Google. I have an Android because I hate the restrictions of iOS, but forcing me to sell my location to Google if I want to know where I am (even in an open source app because location is a system thing).
Several things from Google.
A car running on fossil fuel.
Well fossil fuel in generalโฆ
I hate that there's an app for everything, it's like when everything wanted your fuckin email now they want an app plus your email and a phone number, I have having to download POS apps on my phone for simple things that can be done from a browser, like concert tickets.
YES! This is my number one pet peeve. I am so fucking tired of having to install an app just to use my new e-scooter, or light bulb, or to use 100 new different functions that would work perfectly well on your website if you weren't such a fucking money grubbing troglodyte.
Amazon. I try to buy elsewhere most of the time but other sites just don't have the same stuff sometimes.
Socks. If I'm at home you'll never see me wearing socks, not even if it's -5ยฐC out there. But got to use them while wearing shoes, I guess.
Capitalism
Google.
Reddit - I don't post there any more, but sometimes I still end up there looking for answers and information.
BUT most of all:
LinkedIn - This platform is built to benefit companies, employers and managers, not the masses of people scrambling to use it to get noticed and build their careers. There are so many things that bug me about LinkedIn, but ONE is definitely that I have no real options NOT to use it (without suffering terrible economic penalties if I you know, don't want to give them my data). I get resentful and anxious every time I look at it.
Browsers. Firefox hasnt given me reason to doubt. Yet. And I find that odd. Still uses it. Because every other big browser have given me reasons.
Generally "free" stuff from big companies is giving me more and more the heebie-jeebies. Even if they have good reputation. But there's NO WAY I could ever pay for everything I use. Nor donate to every deserving person who has given their free time to create and publish FOSS.
money
YouTube. I wish they made better decisions about how to run the platform,.
It's not just one thing. I can easily whip up a list:
YouTube, Amazon, Comcast Internet, and my employer. In fact, all employers.
Single use plastics ๐คฎ
my body
Cars
Social media. I use some begrudgingly and most others I avoid like the plague.
I waste time every day watching YouTube shorts.
The way it's designed, you can see a little bit of the next short, and the curiosity will get me, i'm always really tempted to scroll and find out what the next one is.
I wouldn't intentionally waste time like this, which is why i haven't installed TikTok; but i do watch YouTube every day, and so shorts come get me where i am. And honestly, it's a garbage experience. Part of me thinks i would probably have more fun on TikTok because their algorithm is better. Shorts keeps giving me these channels that edit bits of podcats, often MrBeast and Joe Rogan, and there's loads of channels doing this so i keep seeing it no matter how many i block. What content i do enjoy is drowned out by a lot of trash content like that, and would probably be better in long form anyway.
Holy crap, Lois. Where do I even begin?
Microsoft on my desktop. Want to try out Linux but even boomers would make fun of my tech skills. That, and more games are on Windows.
Cars. Born in bumfuck nowhere, and cities with public transit are expensive as hell. If I ever get a better paying job, I'm selling that shit and moving anyways, because cars are also a huge money sink in and of themselves.
Google. I'll give them props, it's a good search engine even in its enshittified form, some of the ads I can deal with because if I am looking for a new t-shirt or something, then it would make perfect sense a Uniqlo ad would pop up. But its privacy that's the problem, and I try to be as "normal" as possible in this KiwiFarmsified hellscape. In the panopticon, the winning strategy is to not be interesting.
My iphone (inb4 avocado toast Venezuela). It would be silly to trash this thing now by principle, but once when its unusable, I'm going for a Linux Pinephone.
YouTube. It's a Monopoly and my broke ass doesn't want to subscribe to curiosity stream. It's like Texas though, while it's mostly derivative cringe, there's small pockets of gold that keep me there.
Linkedin. Pretentious garbage
Suburban life. Again, I am not a suburbanite by choice, decent paying jobs are tight and it's even harder to find an apartment in a state I know I probably won't be killed in AND I can afford.
TL;DR: I REALLY need to start learning 2 tech so I can navigate tech alternatives. Oh, and I need to get my shit together in life so I can afford to live in a blue city.
iPhone. I travel a lot and I had my bags lost three times. Well no more thanks to AirTags.
We donโt know where your bag is, come back tomorrow and try . I understand you overworked and underpaid but my bag right behind that wall. Oh look it was.
This is only thing reason why I keep using it. I am not going to be hater . For some people it is a great phone but gods on high the limits all over the place.
Here is app drawer. Great can I change Categories? Nope have fun if an app is wrong category. At least I can change what icon gets big? Nope.
The keyboard? Where is the bloody , or ? Button? On android I can have button that lets me pick any of those. But not here I have to go into an under keyboard. But you can have auto prediction on! Not once have it given me a question mark during this whole rant.
The spellcheck. This is probably me being dumb but god, how do I correct? It doesnโt seem to work if I click the word it doesnโt work if I use spacebar to guide it to end of a word. Only seems to work if I somehow managed to click at the end of the word.
The first party cable missing the basic thing pretty much every 3 party cable using to prevent the cable from breaking but no need to 3d print option for it.
The lockdown. Now this maybe obsidian but I will blame Apple. I love lockdown and I probably should not use it yada yada. But why canโt I just a bloody list of all apps and white lists what I want? No instead I have do a big song and dance with sync on obsidian for over 3 hourโs then just one day it works and shows up.
The internet
anything proprietary
Human interaction.
Safety bars on my power rack. I hate when the bar goes low and clanks on it and I'm always hyper aware about hitting it. But I have a home gym and I don't want to die doing anything less than a 3 plate bench.
The English language.