Patient Gamers might be a community that interests you. https://lemmy.ml/c/patientgamers

My PC is over 7 years old now. It was cutting edge at the time of build (because of VR) and it can still play many of the new titles that come out with medium/high graphics, but generally, however, I don’t bother with new releases. Most new releases in modern gaming are cripplingly expensive bug filled messes that are close to being unplayable for at least 6 months to a year after release. Recent games I’ve played/replayed are Monkey Island, and Syberia which are both over 15 years old. There is a huge library of great older games to dive into using older tech without chasing the latest shiny release that has grabbed everyone’s attention or having to upgrade your hardware every year.

When I do upgrade I will again buy hardware just below cutting edge. Not the best you can get as it usually has a crushing price premium but as good as is reasonable and affordable as it provides longevity and reduced waste over constant low level upgrades (hence my 7 year old gaming PC). Second hand is of course always an option especially now the era of GPU powered crypto mining has passed and you can probably buy used graphics cards now that haven’t been thrashed to within an inch of their lives.

An interesting read that confirms many of my thoughts regarding the rise of negativity and hopelessness in the modern world. It explains much of what I feel well. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for explaining. Yeah. That is a weird way of showing subscription and doesn’t encourage people to join if a instance looks dead. One of the growing pains I’m sure will shake itself out.

Did you read the book?

The main takeaway of it is that slowly and pervasively we have been manipulated into handing over our focus. The techniques have been sophisticated and subtle.

If I were to convince you that it was worthwhile to hand over your life savings to me and then it was pointed out to you that you had been manipulated in to doing so, would you not take the view that the money had been stolen from you?

Similarly, for some, telling them to go cold-turkey on tech and social is not massively dissimilar to telling a smoker to just quit smoking, or a alcoholic to just stop drinking. Our brains have been conditioned to want the dopamine fix that our vices give us and it is a strong motivator. Just stopping is not that simple.

But to respond to one comment “we, as as society, are also in charge of gaining our attention back”, that is actually what the book leads to. In the realization that singularly the deck is stacked against us to fight this as much as we may try. It is hard to succeed and easy to fail. But as an organized group or body with the power and/or ability to collectively resist the methods of big tech, to legislate against the situation we are in now where the public are the commodity and the advertisers are the real client to social media companies, to make us the real clients who are catered too, then we stand a better chance.

I recommend the article author’s book Stolen Focus. An interesting read. Not so much a self-help book providing solutions to the problem (such as Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism or Deep Work books) but an analysis of the problem and in some ways vindication for us, the masses, who are being constantly manipulated by tech companies that spend billions on psychological methods to keep us hooked and brainwashed.

One of the most impactful parts of the book, for me anyway, points out that while we assume smart speakers and phone assistants are listening into our private conversations to provide the data necessary for Google and their likes to miraculously provide ads for things we may have talked about offline with a family member or spouse (a scary prospect in itself) the reality is even more scarier. They don’t need to listen (although if they can I bet they will), they already know us better than we know ourselves to the point that they know what we are likely to think about before we even know it ourselves and so provide the right ad at just the right time giving the creepy sensation that they were somehow listening to us.

The book has made me much more privacy conscious. Tech is unavoidable but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Spread your tech needs and subsequently your data across multiple different companies that have better track records for privacy. Make it harder for any one company to connect the dots and be able to know you better than you know yourself!