Yep swype around 2010-12 was the golden age of this stuff. I distinctly remember being on a bus commute being amazed how quickly I could pump out work emails, and documents on way to work on maybe an LG android smartphone with no manual invention required on spelling or grammar. Ancient times. Just typing out this comment on mobile in 2024 I’ve had to recorrect every 4th to 5th word , either I mistyped and it doesnt autocorrect correctly , or its autochanging correct words to wrong ones. I have big fingers but the phone is the higgest I’ve had. Clearly these enshittertech corporations dont make money from making better or more useful products .

There is a time and place for nonsense, and this isn’t it. I guess it being plausible sounding is the issue.

Have you thought of going into journalism yourself ? Proper research sorely missed in this underfunded , but crucial field. And in Mental health itself. There are proper studies being conducted on this topic for sure, so this piss poor article perhaps serves to encourage better research on the part of disgruntled readers lol. Even established media orgs seem to resort to alot of opinion pieces, which I guess means they can pay anyone less to spout their anecdotal opinion on a matter without the time (money) required to do the research. Sometimes this is fine - if the individual is an experienced expert on the matter. But much of the time its barely an extension of social media itself which I also generally avoid. Reading someone’s opinion about someone else’s opinion isn’t my idea of a good time. My problem recently is choosing which journalistic outfit(s) to pay.

Yeh. Never truely completely captive, but the potential shaftings they give us are hard to take. Full on denial can set in, I’ve noticed with some I know, the more we have invested into the given shittersphere. Understandable and sad. We are also talking about a relatively niche area here unfortunately. Obviously for the likes of google, amazon et al., we aren’t the customer. Our relative loyalty to their walled shitterspheres are unlikely even a metric to them other than as ad / clicks/ conversion, as they’ll just replace this week’s initiative with a shinier (to the masses) gadget next week. I really hope that whole industry’s days are numbered, but unfortunately all of it is a feature of consumer capitalism and not a bug. Competition, regulation , and DIY are our only defences. The fact that to varying degrees these big tech players are in control of information itself ( to anyone silly enough to consider using the yellowpages/google a fair and factual info source ) , helps them no end with whatever strategy they’re onto this week.

Regarding not getting what you pay for. Ive often thought that having to pay the nominal cost price for say the firestick is merely to obfiscate what it really is. ”They should pay me for embedding this spy stick in my house” is the natural feeling, so paying some arbitrary amount to ‘purchase’ immediately elicits some sort of entitlement ( which should totally be the case ! ) in the consumer. The psychology behind such corporate behaviour is fascinating but it’s probably as much to do with regulation, ironically.

For sure. When they had our livelihood by the balls because ‘industry staaaandaaaard’ then they stick it in a perpetually cranking vice called subscription model, we reach for any cope available. Its been decent cope and now we need a new cope.

Protesting a particular issue that riles him, is completely his right and should be applauded. It’s an especially brave thing to do from within the sacred corporate halls of his holy employer, when most people value their income and reputation over life itself (of others)- a common method of control. The idea that you’re not allowed to say a word in opposition unless you target every single possible google indiscretion, at apparently the exact same moment (max 30seconds as captured here possibly?) is ridiculous and pathetic. If he had stood up with a list 2000 matters to raise, would it have made it to your highly critical radar? The contractual, and geopolitical timing is kind of relevant also.

And besides , I wouldn’t be surprised if this person has been dissentful in other cases in other ways internally on smaller matters that didn’t make news. He appears to have a moral compass after all. If you dont have the guts to cause your superiors trouble when you know they’re doing wrong then atleast offer some kind of support to those who do. Not discourage with this kind of ridiculous dissent smothering attempt.

Any effort to expose groogle’s evil on any single matter is valid.