I’ve definitely turned into the paranoid nutcase within my friend group in recent years, I hate that everything is “smart” nowadays requiring an app/internet connection & account, just to do basic things that didn’t require any of that before.
What’s some things currently making you ramble like an old man?
I’ve always kind of been that person—when Facebook came around, I was paranoid about it (and I was right, thankfully. Glad I never got on that train.), when front facing cameras came around, I covered them shits up; now with facial recognition tech, I wear a face covering around everywhere and thankfully can pass it off as a Covid safety thing. I mean, I wear a bandana these days, so it’s really not doing much for Covid, but I have the pass and no one gives me too funny a look. In the city, there are public USB ports to charge everything, I’d never use one with anything but a data-blocked cable (but even so, fuck that). Cell phones, cars these days (check out that Mozilla Privacy not included piece about that)…we are the product like never before. The sky really is falling, but I feel like I’ve been chicken little to my friends for so long that no one takes me seriously anymore.
It sucks being the only person in your friend group with a Cassandra complex.
And I mean that as Cassandra was cursed to know the future but to not have anybody believe her when she told them, no matter how she told them, and so she was fated to watch helplessly as horrible things happened that she could have averted if only the people she was talking to would listen.
Good excuse to keep wearing that mask. Don’t need people tracking us out on the street.