50 in 50: What is my relationship with technology?

Currently, I find that technology is both a slight blessing and a major curse.

The thing with technology, and of course by this is meant computer technology, is that I fundamentally find it very interesting. The way the CPU works, the concepts worked with in programming (essentially whatever the language. C is minimal but powerful, C++ has many concepts (also literally, as of C++20) that are very interesting, like move semantics and the different value types, Rust has the borrowck and all that, Haskell has category theory...) are really interesting... Yet, I realise that to access and work with any of these, I need a computer.

Ok, well, I have a computer. I have two, in fact. (Three if the phone is counted.) I just really want to not have to use them.

I do feel like technology makes me unhappy nowadays. Really, I don't think it is the computer itself, moreso the internet. This endless access is... nice, sure, and it is enjoyable to read people's blogs, or to browse the net, but it also comes with the downside that I end up doing that almost unconsciously. I noted the same thing with the phone: it is highly addicting.

I am trying to move more towards my goal of the internet, where it is far more minimal and contained, or at the least, relatively inaccessible. For instance, I blocked search engines recently, in an effort to stop the infinite access. It means that I need to find other ways to find what I want. It does actually make many things more difficult though, that I would largely say are valid uses. If I want to look up some random fact, I can't really do that because I don't know where to look. Currently also, usable documentation is hard because cppreference is very difficult to understand. Of course, there are ways around all of this, and it will come with time. I essentially am going through the stage of slight frustration which is incurred when trying to limit something. I do want to limit access to the internet still.

Another issue I have, more in the real world, with tech, is that everybody else is so thoroughly entrenched in it. Whenever people go anywhere, they want to take photos, and inevitably I end up embroiled in that. I actually have no issue with some photos, but I think that constant access has completely devalued them, to the point that people will take photos of just about anything. It's not uncommon to walk about and see people taking photos of things that aren't even all that valuable; I imagine all of these photos will be sat in storage and not be looked at again.

Also, people spend a lot of their time on their phones. It's quite unpleasant to go out with someone, and then find they are on their phone half of the time.

Still, at the end of the day, I do think it offers... something. There is something to be gained, but sadly a lot to be lost.