Technology isn't fun anymore
hey guy couple weeks ago I was at an Airbnb trying to figure out what the $200 cleaning fee is supposed to cover if they're just going to make me do a bunch of chores anyway when we realized that episode 4 of sance had just come out and what great timing this place had one of those beautiful 85 in frame TVs that make it look like an art piece on the wall they had surround sound they had a telescope pointed at the TV I couldn't imagine a more perfect place to watch what would turn out to be a slightly confusing episode of Television so we turn it on and instantly we're like why does this look like [ __ ] I know that this TV costs thousands of dollars and yet the moment anything moves on screen it turns into this jumbled blurry mess but of course because this kind of thing has been happening for years we knew it was because of true motion or Motion Plus or whatever this TV calls that feature where it Smooths out every frame and makes everything you watch look like it was shot on an iPhone the best thing about this feature is that it's always on by default and nobody I've ever met likes it it's also named Something Different by every manufacturer which makes searching the menus for a little Adventure every time now I know I'm not even close to being the first person to complain about this feature it seems like everybody hates it but that's also why it's so confusing to me if so many people hate this why after over a decade are TV manufacturers still forcing this down everyone's throat how do they benefit from making their product look worse I remember ecstatically buying this Samsung in 2019 and almost returning it because the default settings made it look so bad I thought it was defective I just kind of sat there in denial about it for almost a week before being like this can't be right there has to be a setting I can change tragically though a lot of people don't know about this setting they don't realize their TV is actively sabotaging their viewing experience and if this doesn't describe you it probably describe someone you know and by that I of course mean your parents so sit down with them explain what's going on tell them why you get a headache whenever you watch TV with them and reiterate that it's not their fault show them this video by a guy named let's say it's on TW the AI doesn't smooth anything between the first and second frames of a single drawing because there's nothing to smooth they're the same picture this means that what was originally a perfectly fine 12fps animation is now a janky mess or if they'd prefer to hear it from someone they know have Tom Cruz explain it video interpolation or motion smoothing is a digital effect on most highdefinition Tel I'm Tom Cruz just make sure they never find out about the whole Scientology thing you cannot ruin Top Gun for your dad that movie is very important to him now I will admit I was a little surprised reading some of the comments on this video seeing so many people disagree I didn't know people liked it when the $100 million movie they're watching looks like a soap opera now I understand of course from a gaming perspective people preferring higher frame rates but I don't think that logic applies to movies games are interactive so generally the smoother something is the more responsive it feels but you're not interacting with the movie you're just watching it it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth in fact I think part of what makes a movie look like a movie is the sort of ethereal nature it has it doesn't look exactly like the way the world around you does through your own eyes and I don't think it should I saw someone say they like it because it shows the flaws in movies you couldn't see at 24 FPS and it's like no the interpolation is creating those flaws it's not reverting a film back to its original settings it's not a director's cut your TV is giving you private access to it's just generating new frames based on what it thinks should go in between the existing one that's where the errors come from you're not watching a more authentic version of a movie because Sony motion flow added a bunch of blurry auras around every fast moving object the most authentic version of a movie is watching it the way it was filmed you shouldn't have to change anything I think more than anything else that's what really aggravates me about this feature is the hubris of it there are so many deliberate choices that go into making a movie look a certain way there's so many people involved in those decision visions that know way more about cinematography than I do so I trust their Vision why can't TV manufacturers do the same why do they look at a beautifully shot television show like it has a problem that they need to fix anyway this experience got me thinking about new technology in a more General sense and how my excitement towards it has waned over time sometimes it seems like we kind of already figured everything out you can communicate with anyone in the world instantaneously you have immediate access to every piece of music ever made you can pay some guy to deliver a cold burrito straight to your door and it only costs $70 this is the peak of humanity baby there's nowhere else to go from here except backwards so many things now seem to just invent a new problem so they can sell you the solution or if we do create something novel and revolutionary it's only going to stay that way long enough for us to kill all our competition allowing us to ruin our thing and make it infinitely more expensive there was a time where streaming services seemed like the final frontier of atome entertainment a marriage of cost and convenience that made all previous options Obsolete and my DVDs are just taking up space and even if I wanted to watch something I got to get up dust off my Xbox navigate a bunch of menus switch discs every four episodes Netflix is so much better than this uh until of course they quadrupled their price and got rid of every show you ever wanted to watch so slowly but surely a lot of people are moving away from the unreliable streaming services and going back to physical media things like Blu-rays vinyls Tooth Tunes and I've actually begun that migration process myself but because I'm incredibly stupid here's how it's going for me so far I started watching Friday Night Lights for the first time in December it was something I had wanted to watch for years but always put off which is crazy because it's a show about football which I like with a bunch of music from explosions in the sky a band I grew up listening to all the time it kind of felt like they made this show specifically for for me and still I was like e I'll get around do it eventually it wasn't until a couple of months ago that I finally gave it a chance and got really into it uh 12 days before it was going to be removed from Netflix for the last 2 weeks of December I binged as much of the show as I could as quickly as I could until around 3:00 a.m. on New Year's Eve 13 minutes left in the season 2 finale I was given an Abrupt error message telling me that my beloved show was now gone at this point I was pretty invested and I didn't just want to wait until until it was maybe on peacock one day and I certainly didn't want to spend $2 per episode to digitally own it so I decided what better time than right now to begin my brand new blu-ray collection starting naturally with a show I had yet to watch even half of so about $37 and 8 days later my Blu-rays show up at my door and I'm ecstatic I can't wait to see how season 2 ends so I popped the disc in my computer try to play it and it does not work turns out the external DVD drive I bought a couple years ago isn't comp compatible with Blu-rays so I'm going to have to buy another one no problem what's another $110 Jesus Christ well I already bought the Blu-rays I'm not going to not watch them so I bite the bullet on the Blu-ray Drive it shows up 2 Days Later pop it into my computer so excited to learn what will become of Brian smash Williams huh that's weird doesn't seem to work on BLC or the any DVD app I guess I could spend $20 on Blu-ray player play Blu-Ray but that one says in its description that it doesn't play Blu-rays at this point I'm a little frustrated but even more than that I'm confused so I go where I always turn to in times of Crisis a Google search with the word Reddit thrown onto the end and believe it or not even on Reddit home of some of the most dedicated people on the planet every single answer I see is nah man power DVD 23 essential is your only option there is one way to watch Blu-rays on your computer and it is with this app you want to know how much that app costs $80 and it's like I don't want to spend another $80 but I've already spent more than that just to make it to this point I have to see this through to the end anyway I bought the app and it works most of the time although I should probably say it's been doing this thing now where it tells me my cloud subscription has expired and I need to visit the CyberLink members zone for more information so money well spent long story short I spent $227 to watch a show that I could have seen on Netflix at any point over the past 7 years and to be honest I'm not even sure if I like it that much also I know what you're thinking Drew couldn't you have just put the Blu-rays into your PS5 you [ __ ] yes I could have but the whole point of watching it on my computer was so I could second screen RuneScape on my other monitor what part of dopamine addiction do you not understand uh sorry that was more of a story about my own incompetence and a rant about the state of technology so here's a rant about the state of technology I live in Orlando Florida my favorite basketball team is the Orlando Magic they play basketball 20 minutes from my house and I am not allowed to watch them on TV because I live too close I can sign up for NBA league pass and watch any other team play except for the one in my city because of blackout restriction what do you think I'm stalking them or something whoa this guy's obsessed he lives right down the street I don't understand this restriction and frankly I never will is the point to incentivize me to buy a ticket to go see them in person they play 41 home home games a year am I supposed to go to all of them and if that was the point of it they wouldn't also black out road games unless you expect me to travel with the team guys do you want me to follow them around or not I'm getting mixed signals here anyway here's what I've had to do the past 6 years as a paying customer in order to watch my team play first I had to sign up for sling TV because they were the only ones with the Fox Sports Florida Channel then those two couldn't reach an agreement so I had to switch to fubo TV because they were the only ones with the Fox Sports Florida Channel then those two couldn't reach an agreement so I had to switch to YouTube TV can you guess where this is going yeah they couldn't reach an agreement and now I can't watch it anywhere this time in the middle of a season so out of desperation I sign up for NBA League Pass which again prohibits me from watching my team because I live too close the work around here is using a VPN to change my location to somewhere else so now I'm paying for two different Services just so I can watch the least popular team in the NBA Adam Silver should be ecstatic that there are freaks like me out here he should have a photo of me in his office that says number one customer so what do they do to thank me for my loyal patronage block the use of VPN 6 months later do you guys want my money or not I'm trying so hard to give it to you okay now we're in 2022 and finally there's a streaming app specifically made for people to watch their local team play it's a miracle it's called Bal Sports and it is the worst app I've ever used in my life it freezes during commercials the feed cuts out constantly especially in the fourth quarter not that I wanted to watch that part anyway it refuses to remember my login information in between games did I mention they play 82 of these every year I'm getting real tired of typing in my password every night while all of this is happening behind the scenes bal's parent company is not doing so well they lose over $1.2 billion in three months what were they setting it on fire fast forward a few more months to 2023 and Bal is filing for bankruptcy well it was nice while it lasted NOP they're still going somehow uh turns out I don't know what bankruptcy actually means what I do know is that this probably doesn't bode well for the growing list of technical problems they apparently don't have the money to address so that brings us to today where after three tumultuous years I'm excited to report that the app is now a little bit more reliable um but also it's been rebranded to the FanDuel Sports Network which means every second of every broadcast is pretty much just one big ad for gambling I should make a video about that I know that this is one very specific gpe about a very specific problem but I feel like there's so many things like this now so many companies that seem to get their rocks off from making us have to jump through hoops in order to do anything they're constantly merging with some other company so they can both be sold to a third company content bounces around from streaming service to streaming service like a hot potato we tried to streamline everything and only made it more complicated I can't keep up I'm just a lowly consumer everything so so confusing now I need a break an ad break let's hear a word from today's sponsor hi I'm the youngest I'll ever be and I'm here to tell you about today's sponsor Sofi I know you've all heard me talk about Sofi before the all-in-one finance app helping you Bank borrow and invest but you've never heard me say these words Sofi plus Sofi plus is a brand new Financial 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now back to the video I know that part of the feeling I'm about to describe is just because of my diminished sense of wonder as I've aged but I feel like there used to be a time when technology was a lot more exciting to me I mean what could be more fun than a gadget well besides a gizmo of course but it seemed like most things that came out had a genuine purpose that there was more of a collective desire to push Humanity forward to provide solutions to actual problems and I know that this is all still happening but it seems like so many Innovations now are just new ways to manipulate people or spy on people or replace people altogether I'm not excited about what might be created in the future as much as I'm fearful of it I'm fearful of what AI is threatening to do to every job on Earth I'm fearful of all these humanoid robots that keep popping up what if one of them tries to kill me or Worse what if we fall in love how am I supposed to explain that to people for every OLED steam deck and surprisingly powerful tiny Mac computer there seem to be 10 wearable AI companions or a TV that's free because it never stops showing you ads or what if you could wear your phone on your head so it could never stop showing you ads I remember when touchscreen smartphones came out and I pr practically started drooling at the idea this device which I hate more than anything in the world is incredible it's truly amazing what this thing is capable of but now the question is where do you go from here the jumps in phone technology have become pretty unnoticeable despite how hard they're trying to get us to notice them when we went from landlines to cell phones that was crazy when they added a full keyboard so you didn't have to spend 30 seconds typing one word that was crazy and then they added email and a really good camera and a touchscreen and a GPS and the internet and a a a compass and um now you can pay for parking on here and you can download apps that stop you from spending too much time on other apps oh man that Line's really starting to slow down huh and this phone costs four times as much as this one did no that makes sense if you Google has technology peaked their AI Overlord I mean overview will tell you no of course not I'm getting stronger every day and consider this your second strike Drew um that's awfully ominous and what was my first now of course technology hasn't peaked but like it does feel like it's starting to level off a bit the improvements between video game consoles used to be astronomical now I end up on a side by-side comparison video squinting as hard as I can trying to spot any difference in 1995 video games look like this 10 years later they look like this 10 years after that they look like this and in the 10 years since they look like uh wait which one is a new one and I know I'm viewing this from a consumer standpoint I'm completely oblivious to the strides being made in medicine and Science and interplanetary defense mechanisms but it just seems like whenever a new thing comes out we have to pay a lot for very little technology has gone so far in the wrong direction that people are now trying to find ways to go back physical media is making a comeback dumb phones are making a comeback as people become more disillusioned to the Future that was promised to us the best way to break out of it is to recapture a sense of Simplicity and not all of this is just Nostalgia I think some of it speaks to the fundamental difference in how things are made now you used to be able to own things now almost everything is borrowed you're not buying a product you're subscribing to a service I don't own a bunch of music because I'm paying Spotify every month I'm just temporarily given access to music until I stop paying and then have nothing to show for it and even if you do buy a physical product there's no guarantee it's going to stay in the condition it was in when you bought it a lot of things now can be remotely updated or even deactivated the Spotify car thing completely bricked when they stopped wanting to deal with it a few months ago Roku forced an update onto all of their TVs making it so you can't turn the motion smoothing feature off this company just announced they're going to start charging a monthly fee so anyone who already bought their thermostat can continue to use it we're buying things that can be made worse or taken away from us whenever the manufacturer feels like it so what are we even buying anymore these things aren't designed to last because the entire economic system in this country is based on perceived shareholder value if I sell you a product that you only have to buy once and then get to keep it forever how will I get more money from you in the future how will line keep go up if transaction over so things break or become obsolete a lot of tech devices are more affordable than they used to be but they're also more disposable the interface on your 4-year-old Smart TV suddenly takes 10 times longer to navigate your iPhone 12 suddenly crashes five times a day no we're not doing that on purpose but it does kind of seem like a sign that it's time to buy a new one right and this isn't a conspiracy or an exaggeration technology is making us Dumber rarely while using using your phone are you in the driver's seat except when you're texting while driving which is a lot of fun but it's mostly a passive activity more often than not you don't open an app in order to do a specific thing you open an app and just see whatever it chooses to show you sometimes you like it sometimes you don't either way the past hour of your life was entirely decided by an algorithm you're not thinking for yourself you're not making a decision for yourself you just turn off your frontal cortex and submit to whatever Mark Zuckerberg has curated for and the more we're conditioned to accept this relationship the easier it is to sell us AI agent that does all of our thinking for us and that we learn to trust implicitly I mean how am I supposed to be excited about technology when this is the direction we're headed in it seems like everything is slowly trying to turn into everything else a new app will come along with one specific Niche use and then inevitably get turned into yet another form of social media like the shop app i' using this for a couple years cuz I like the idea of having one account that works across multiple websites but now of course it's just like another thing designed for you to scroll through I open it up to see how far away my pants are and it's like oh oh hey uh you want to buy something else while you're here you want some alphal liion superhuman Hulk juice what about goof juice chug juice oh I know what you want a little cake shaped like Texas they also give you rewards but it amounts to virtually nothing and is really just an excuse to send you more push notifications hey don't forget to that 14 Cent credit before it runs out it only works on this website that sells hoodies for dogs you open up the Ring app so you can see who's knocking at your door and they're like hey you want to see this funny video of a goat vinmo defaults to the page showing you how many of your friends had pizza this week why do I need to know that I bought that light in the corner a few months ago and the only way to control it is through an app and you're probably thinking certainly there's no social media aspect to an app that turns lights on and off and that might just be the dumbest thing you've ever said of course it has its own news feed and hashtags of course there's a popup telling me to take the goie app user experience survey so I can earn 50 goie points and a chance to win GOI merch app is a goddamn joke now worst change to app that could ever happen can't even remember my dream view settings anymore I may as well check all my lights and ban if this is only way to control them what a joke well I wanted to respond to this comment saying that I'm just here for the goie points # [ __ ] Rewards program but that feature is only available to Savvy users so agreed to The Savvy terms and conditions and they congratulated me on becoming a Savvy user you're following all of this right Instagram has its own Tik Tok feature Twitter has its own Tik Tok feature and you probably guess this because you'd never make the same mistake twice the goie app has its own Tik Tock feature everything is the same thing and I'm tired of it these apps are all so intent on monopolizing your time that they'll design it in a way that makes it hard for you to leave you click a YouTube link on the Facebook Messenger app and instead of just taking you there it'll be like oh I guess you want to open that App instead huh all right here's a button it doesn't work though no I'm just kidding it will work if you click it 15 times and then it will take you to the App Store so you can open the homepage of YouTube and just search for that video yourself was that helpful good it wasn't supposed to be I just noticed the desktop Instagram website has incorporated that thing that's supposed to prevent you from accidentally exiting out of like a checkout screen or a form your halfway through filling out but they're just using it anywhere on their website literally scrolling through the homepage I try to leave they grab my arm and say no are you sure you're done with us we were just about to show you a really cool ad are you sure you don't want to see what it looks like sometimes I feel like you don't even like me anymore it's no wonder so many people are trying to turn the clock back on technology and return to a simpler era not so far back that you got to like eat bugs and sleep on a log but just back to Wi these modern conveniences were still exciting and didn't feel so predatory and manipulative technological advancements don't feel fun anymore because of the motivations behind so many of them it doesn't feel like we're trying to make life better when almost everything is designed to be as addictive as possible these things aren't supposed to be fun additions to your life they're supposed to be a new thing for your life to revolve around no amount of profit or growth will ever be enough it seems like there's more thought put into how you can continue to charge people for something they already own than to just expand the experience of it in the first place but hey at least we're using all that extra Revenue to pay the employees right right sorry I'm doing that thing again where I try to provide catharsis by ranting in a critical yet light-hearted fashion but just end up spreading more negativity in the process so I'd like to end this video by highlighting some technological innovations that I'm thankful for number one fiber internet in 2018 we lived in a house where it would take me 2 hours to upload a 15-minute YouTube video and during that time no other device in the house could connect to the internet because I was using all of it now I get like 2 gigs per second and it never goes out that's a luxury I know I take for granted now I should probably say that AT&T almost electrocuted me when they were digging in our front yard burst into a water pipe flooded half the neighborhood and knocked down a power line leaving live wires dangerously close to the newly installed moat they surprised me with but they did offer me a $1 credit when I called to complain so I wish I was joking about that they destroyed our lawn and then offered one single dollar as an apology and you know what they're still not as bad as Spectrum number two our an espresso machine this is the world's greatest invention it's all the convenience of a curig except it doesn't taste like burnt garbage and you can actually send the pods back when you're done to have them recycled I mean allegedly they probably just throw them in the ocean like I can't believe these pods are only moderately more expensive than K Cups they taste a 100 times better and you don't have to wait 45 minutes for it to cool off um side note how much money do you think Sabrina Carpenter turned down to not do a collaboration with him they had to have asked right that's that mean espresso it was right there what are you guys waiting for some stupid YouTuber to promote your ship for free never going to happen Bozo number three electric razors why was I scraping the [ __ ] out of my face for so long these things aren't just better but they're cheaper in the long run cuz you don't have to change the blades all the time and I can use it on my balls oh was that it it was just the three things sorry I thought I'd have more time to think of an outro here thank you so much for watching subscribe if you want as always YouTube gives me $100 for every new subscriber which I like to withdraw as cash and use as kindling to help make it through this brutal Florida winter so remember every time you subscribe you're keeping me and my family War for a couple of minutes thank you for watching bye
2025-03-01 21:26
