I have seen this posted before but I search and not on this forum. Here are the main bullets:
- we do not use high tech for the sake of being high tech
- we do not tolerate distraction and fluff
- we hate advertisements
- we are fine with lo-fi
- we do not transcode
- we pay for shit
- we care about privacy
- we own our own culture
- we do not store shit ‘in the cloud’
- we do not tolerate planned obsolescence
- we use native applications
- we care about our planet
- we do not care if you think our attitude is outdated or irrelevant
I agree with some but not others. I also abhor ads and have limited tolerance for distraction and fluff. “We do not transcode” is an underrated point. I am guilty of screencapping posts instead of copy/pasting sometimes when it’s convenient, but I agree that it’s best to stick to the source.
I have more nuance when it comes to native applications. For many uses, a web app is much safer than a native app that can read/write your home directory. Browsers have a ton of built-in containerization features and permissions features. You can pretty easily prevent a web app from sending annoying notifications by simply closing the tab. The performance argument is also undermined by “no distractions.” A simple interactive webapp will be quite snappy with all the work that’s been put into JS optimizations.
The “we own our own culture” bit is where it gets a bit too culty for my tastes. “We seek out lesser-known artists” is just irrelevant. Overall vibe is more about staking out an ingroup us vs. them than low-tech in particular.
