Why I Am a Tech Luddite

Contrary to how the term is commonly used, Luddites were not against technology. Named after their leader Ned Ludd, they were opposed to (specifically textile) machines that threatened their jobs and injured (often seriously) the people who operated them. They came to prominence during a period when trade unions were banned in Britain. As usual when workers protest the conditions they're forced to work in, the (in this case British) government murdered, imprisoned, and deported Luddites. Despite this history, Luddite erroneously became synonymous with someone incapable of understanding or accepting change and new technologies.

I wasn't always a tech Luddite.

• I have used computers every day of my working life since 1977;
• I purchased my first PC (with a CP/M operating system) in 1984;
• I did my share of Gateway builds (IYKYK);
• I've been connected/online since the late 1980s (including using dialup modems to transfer files overnight between my office in suburban Chicago and my partner's office in suburban Seattle for a company that eventually employed 5½ FTEs before we abandoned it after ten years because … well, that's another long, complicated story so I'll spare you);
• I taught businesses how to incorporate the Internet as part of their marketing strategy in 1994 when I also co-wrote "Cruising on the Information Superhighway";
• I was part of the team at HP that could have saved newspapers from the Rot that prevents them from reporting on the Rot Economy if it hadn't been excised by Carly Fiorina;

But, now I am a tech Luddite.

Last year I bought a brand-spanking new computer (built in 2020) with an outdated OS since I refuse to downgrade to the algorithmic slop foisted on users of the current version.

On my new hardware I've installed the licensed copies I purchased years (in some cases decades) ago of word processing, mail, graphics creation/editing, spreadsheet, financial, and backup applications; an offline password safe made by a company that disappeared decades ago but which still works and is still secure; and Adobe Creative Suite 5.5*.

There's a trend in my version numbers. They're all just before that particular software went rogue by moving to an online and/or subscription model in which case I said nope every time. I always bought disks rather than downloads. When forced to use downloads, I keep the original download file and turn off updating.

The only thing I keep up to date is my security software (which is high end), my VPN (I pay for one that's not in the U.S., and Signal (it stops working if you don't, but technically it's also security software) and my OS (which the company still supports despite claims to the contrary, presumably because enough enterprises still use it).

I stopped using Google search more than a decade ago (DuckDuckGo actually does what Google once did, i.e. returning useful results and offering usually-correct guesses if I mistype my search term, without invading my privacy or jeopardizing my security) and I don't understand people who complain about Google search results but continue to use it.

Instead of using gmail accounts, because I own my domains and pay less than $5/month for hosting and unlimited email accounts I am able to use multiple email addresses to keep financial information separate from subscriptions and correspondence, personal from business, one business from another, pseudonyms from legal name, etc. In addition, because my email is deliberately segmented, if one of my addresses gets pwned, I just kill it and set up something similar after changing it any places where its used.

I store nothing in the "cloud" (i.e. on someone else's computers). I keep redundant hard drive backups. (When I was able to leave my home, pre-pandemic, I kept one backup in a safe deposit box and whenever I did go out carried a thumb drive with me that has backups of files I was currently working on.)

When I send my writing out for consideration, it includes the language that my submission was "written with no assistance from or exposure to any type of machine learning algorithm" (I refuse to call it "artificial intelligence" since it's neither). I do use a spell checker to alert me to typos since I'm slightly dyslexic (but I don't allow it to change anything because it's often wrong, especially with homonyms), but that's the extent of the computer assistance I use in my writing beyond the software itself ("grammar" checkers, for example, are absolutely useless for fiction and poetry) .

I don't log into anything on my phone. I use applications that are no longer available to download a few of my email addresses so I (could) get them when I'm out/away from my computer (but since they're my personal, private email addresses with 15-digit passwords and I don't click on any links, Android can't access any data). Most permissions (especially location) are turned off.

I only get a new phone when one stops working and then I manually install/sideload the apps I use and keep the Google Play store disabled unless I need to update Signal. If I need a new app because one stopped working (e.g. weather apps tied to NWS), I investigate it (especially what permissions it claims to need and what data it collects/shares) from my PC and if I can, I sideload it/install it with F-Droid rather than download it from Google Play. The first thing I always do, before even opening any new app, is turn off updates and any unnecessary permissions.

I haven't been on Facebook (or LinkedIn or Goodreads) for years except to post a couple of promotions. I never opened an Instagram account because I refuse to allow Zuckerberg access to my phone (and if you go back over my FB you'll find most of my non-promotional posts were warning people about FB, warnings which fell on mostly deaf ears). I never gave FB (or any other app) even my birthday (in that password safe is whatever birthdate I randomly assigned to each site as well as the bogus answers to any "security" questions for that app) never mind a phone number or address. I was always skeptical about the need to share information.

I use Twitter (I will never call it anything else) in ways the prevent me from being fed Nazi trash or junk ads. I use ad blockers to prevent interference with my browsing experience and only use Firefox (with its add ins that allow blocking google analytics, tracking, ads, javascript, etc), Comodo Dragon (exclusively for Twitter), and Vivaldi (for sites that no longer work on FF). No Chrome. No whatever Microsoft is calling it's garbage browser these days. I never share crash data or synchronize across the "cloud" (I manually copy my bookmarks if I need to transfer them e.g. to a new computer).

I never click on ad links (never click on most links, including for newsletters I subscribe to. I go to the originating site and find the link to what I want so my "engagement" is untraceable). I don't shop at Amazon and buy local when possible (or did until the pandemic began and I was forced to quarantine for, apparently, the rest of my life since we have absolutely no public health that doesn't include eugenics in this country), set my browsers to delete all cookies, caches, etc. when closed, and close them between visiting one site and another.

The only time Siri has been in my home is when a visitor with an iPhone used it and Alexa has never crossed my threshold.

I almost never look at Mainstream Misinformation Media except when there's a bleeds-it-leads event I want to get basic details on that I know it will "cover" (i.e. regurgitate whatever copaganda the police report) like a shooting or an explosion. For everything else, I have carefully curated sources of information from trusted reporters/writers via Twitter, blog posts, newletters, media that isn't owned by fascist corporations, and even Bluesky (although there I mostly visit folks I know who've fled Twitter).

I pulled all of my blog posts (most of my fiction is published under a pseudonym which has its own blog) off WordPress when it decided to sell user data to companies like Midjourney and OpenAI and moved them to my own websites. I removed all of my posts (mostly poetry broadsides for this name, book covers for the others) from Pinterest. I set up Bluesky accounts, but don't go on there or skeet much because it's always been hostile to Black, disabled, and trans folk and more and more shitposters and right-wing turds are moving over there because they have no one to piss off on Twitter.

(And since the Rot Economy is hardly restricted to what most people consider "tech", we still drive a 2010 car, watch disks a 2010 television that's not connected to the Internet, and rule out any appliances that claim to be "smart" when forced to replace those because the IoT is just another, extremely insecure, way to steal data.)

All of this is a fair amount of work and/or limits what I can see/do online and off. But, every time I read about the scams, spam, and privacy invasions others endure, I pat myself on the back for having the foresight/knowledge/understanding to avoid that hell while still being able to use the Internet (hell, I can still get good information, mostly from out-of-U.S. and marginalized folks, on Twitter because of the way I set it up to serve my needs not the company's long before the muskrat walked in with his hokey sink).

*Which brings us back to Adobe, and the reason I started writing this ridiculously long post. I first purchased Aldus PageMaker back in the late '80s (when I wasn't yet using Windows as an OS, just DOS, but PM came with a "run-time" version) and used it until I upgraded to Creative Suite 5.5 in 2011. I considered upgrading one more time, but then the subscription (why let 'em purchase a license for a single fee when you can charge them every month for the same thing) was introduced.

My perpetual CS 5.5 license can only be used on two machines. I mostly use InDesign. My spouse mostly uses Photoshop (I prefer a different, in my opinion easier-to-use application for creating/editing graphics). So we use one license for both of us. When I went to move my CS 5.5 license to my new computer, I discovered Adobe has disabled the website that allows you to remove a license from a computer while still maintaining the website that prevents you from installing a license on a new computer.

Guess what? That's actual fraud.

From what I could find online, most people who complained about this eventually gave up and either found an Adobe alternative or (reluctantly) moved to the subscription model (of course, more and more people are finding alternatives now that Adobe has infused its products with algorithmic plagiarism, especially since many freelancers have signed agreements prohibiting their use of gibberish generators).

I didn't give up. I called. Over a week or three, I worked my way up from phone operator, to supervisor, to management. All of those I spoke to told me my only option was to purchase (for which they'd give me a six-month discount 🙄) a subscription and warned me that even if they manually de-activated the license on my old computer I might not be able to install it on my new computer.

I told them all that they could resolve my issue (to my satisfaction, i.e. my CS 5.5 license installed on my new computer) or I would be filing a fraud complaint with the Oregon Attorney General's office of Consumer Fraud. (I'm almost 70 years old. Ain't no young whippersnapper who hasn't been alive as long as I've been using computers/the Internet is going to give me 💩 and get away with it and unlike the feds, the Oregon AG is pretty aggressive when it comes to fraudulent business practices.)

On the very day that I had set aside some time to gather screen shots of complaints from the Internet (the AG is understandably more likely to pursue a company which has multiple victims) and write my complaint, I received an email from Adobe stating "As an exception, the new serial number has been issued … This new serial number will have a limit of two activations."

Somebody talked to an attorney. (And/or blackmail works. 😈)

But for the most part, surveys, customer "service" complaints, and (except for very small businesses) reviews are ignored. (The person who convinced companies to purchase survey software/service and bombard users with surveys every time they made a purchase should be hung by their thumbs and pierced with a BBQ skewer every time a survey is generated.) Because the only "value" of surveys is selling the software/service and no one bothered to explain to companies (who probably don't care) how to use those surveys to improve anything.

I complain constantly (by calling and talking to customer "service" as well as occasionally filling out surveys when I have negative comments) and never once (except with my local credit union) have I gotten even a response, never mind the acknowledgement of the enshittification I'm pointing out.

As someone posted the other day "when people argue for giving in to fascism it's generally because they find fascism appealing." I think the same can be said of enshittification. These people are absolutely fine (and always have been) with destroying our environment, exploiting labor, and killing (indirectly or directly) the most vulnerable with their algorithmic generator grift if it puts a few more $$ in their pockets and/or boosts the stock price.