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Old tech is cool!

6/2/2024

So for the longest time I've been a fan of old tech. I'd spend countless hours watching youtube videos on obscure systems like the Vectrex, a vector based games console that predates the NES by around two whole years, or things like early home computers like Commodore systems. I loved learning about different media formats like Zip Drives, Floppy Disks, Laserdisc, the truly immense variety of uses for magnetic tapes, and all that stuff. Old tech is dope. Maybe it's because my generation is a tweener generation. It's during a time where the world wasn't quite so digital yet but it definitely was picking up. I remember we didn't have wifi at home up until a few years after I got my first DS. We didn't have a home computer. Dad had an old netbook that we'd all share if we needed to use it. I also may or may not have killed it.... but anyway. All of this is to say, I lived during a time period where a lot of the world was still relying on analog systems and or older technology and things weren't as interconnected. But that didn't last very long. By my teens social media had taken over, everyone and their dog had a mobile phone. I was one of the lame kids who had to make do with an ipod touch and a flip phone because an iphone was too much for me to have LOL. No resentment towards that kinda stuff, but I never quite let go of the analog world from those few short years in the 00's.

It's now 2024 and I have a CRT Monitor and a CRT TV, a Dreamcast, an IBM Model M replica, and a weird longing for maintaining some lame website because its cool and hip all while making it look old and shitty because "that's how it used to be". Why am I so insistent on tinkering with old technology? I dont know. But what I do know is that it always feels like a breath of fresh air. It's nice. I think at some point I just got bored. The modern computing experience is stale and exhausting. Current day Windows issues aren't really issues. It's more so me wanting to correct dumb UI choices that make no sense, or blocking telemetry, uninstalling bloatware, turning off all the nag popups. It just doesn't end. Windows 11 is slated to add a whole set of new AI features that literally nobody is asking for and they have gone on record that they will let you know your PC doesnt meet the requirements for AI stuff and you'll get popups to use the new features. It's all dumb and I have to go out of my way to remove this shit. But let's say I don't want to use my PC. What about my phone? Oh don't even get me started on the phone. Social media my behated. It's truly an incredible thing what social media has achieved. Being able to communicate with anyone anywhere at any time. Humanity has never been so interconnected before, but sadly, humanity has also never been so polarized and divided before. Algorithms that cater to extremes of political spectrums aim to brainwash people to get them to tear each other apart. Online hate groups that enact targetted harassment are widespread across the internet. Negativity drives engagement, engagement drives people to stay on for longer, and longer user sessions means more ads. It's a cynical destructive cycle where the only ones that win are corporations. It's disgusting. It's also really addictive. I can't count the amount of times I've opened youtube or instagram to just check it quickly and then oops ive been doom scrolling for 2 hours. There goes my evening. I hate it.

None of this stuff really happens on old tech. The internet was still being figured out and operating systems were a lot more focused on being a tool than a platform. It's nice. Everything was local, you had to intentionally decide to establish a connection to the internet to browse the web. It was fun and it was a lot more personal. When was the last time you downloaded a song to your hard drive? When was the last time you bought a piece of software at a computer store? When was the last time you looked forward to being online? It's all been so watered down. Tech is part of our routine now, it's not something we think about and I think that's rather sad.