@ArishMell
Well my good sir, with all due respect I'm going to have to hit the big X buzzard of you're wrong on that one.
It even has a name.

Technological lock-in.

Once a technology becomes part of our lives and institutions, like banks or hospitals, not participating in such technologies becomes almost impossible.
You used the internet to write that comment. Are you saying that using the internet today is not compulsory??

@TheHammer I take your point, but it's a matter of damage-limitation. The major social-media sites such as Meta are set up as data-harvesters; and I refuse to use them.

It does worry me that far too much is being turned over to the Internet - the nabks for example shamelessly lie that they are closing branches becauas they think "Now We All" use only on-line banking andf only from portable telephones. The lie is in implying out choice when it their choice to drive us onto living on little black blocks.

I do not fear "surveillance" as many seem to do - by the government - but I am irritated by the commercial snooping performed by the likes of Google and Microsoft; and do worry about the weak security of the Internet.


I use a special-interest forum than used to, and still does, run dedicated advertisements for for th hobby's retailers. Fine, and they were not intrusive.Since the pubkisher changed hands it now also carries strange ads from dubious dating-agencies and catches posing as puzzles and dementia self-tests. Many users complained about this cheapskate, irrelevant rubbish, and recently one of the moderators explained how it happens.

The advertisements occupy dedicated areas sold for the purpose, to fund the forum. If the spaces are not taken up by the advertisers we might want, Google, which seems the ultimate master of forum-servers, auctions them world-wide to any chancer going. The dating-agencies are among the biggest businesses seeking these screen-spaces - I guess the home-hypochondria businesses are somewhere up there with them.* Recently one particular thread, about a specific home-heating company, did bring a slew of side-bar ads for that company.

The point is that unless you live in a country like China or Russia, the "surveillance" to fear is commercial, not political; mainly run by a small number of huge, hegemomic, American companies.

++_++

*{Why dating-agencies? I'd guess they proliferate because like on-line gambling, their cynical trade is a total money-spinner exploiting people's hopes. They are based on volume of "sales", not outcomes it cannot guarantee; helped by advertising world-wide to mimimise the chance of real meetings. Indeed the less successful in match-making, the more successful commercially; as the lonely and desperate keep trying. Users cannot know if any couples have met through any given agency, nor even know if is genuine or a "romance fraud". I don't suppose Google cares about probity as long the agency pays for its advertising space.}

@ArishMell I really don't care who is the celebrity in ANY COUNTRY.

Why do I know the name of the heads of every major power?

They are ALL celebrities!
Celebrity IS POWER!

@DeWayfarer I don't know how many national leaders' names you know and would not expect anyone to know many; but at least base your criticism of foreign countries on understanding how they work.

@ArishMell I understand that celebrity is about social control!

That is power! No celebrity, no social control, no power!

It's why I would never be in any political position. I don't want that kind of power! It's as well why I don't want to be on ANY MAJOR social media!