The average American now holds onto their smartphone for 29 months, according to a recent survey by Reviews.org, and that cycle is getting longer. The average was around 22 months in 2016.
While squeezing as much life out of your device as possible may save money in the short run, especially amid widespread fears about the strength of the consumer and job market, it might cost the economy in the long run, especially when device hoarding occurs at the level of corporations.
Oh no, we’re being so selfish. Why not buy a 10% performance upgrade every two years for $1000 while wages stagnate? Oh, and carriers don’t subsidize the cost at all anymore. They call it “free” then lock you into their most expensive plan so you spend thousands more on the plan than if you could have afforded to just buy the phone outright.
Fuck this out of touch reporting.
It’s all over the place. In the middle of the article they suddenly talk about how software updates, modularity and repairability is important so that old devices can be made to keep up with contemporary demands, blaming the fact that this is an issue on big tech.
Then again, other parts are completely nuts.
Noticing some em dashes in there, so at least some of this is AI.
The parts about corporate infrastructure sound like a c suite dipshit trying to sound like they know what they’re talking about.
“Our networks run slower because we have to be compatible with older devices!”
No, Judith, your IT department just keeps 2.4ghz wifi available for the old devices while also running 5ghz. Those devices stay slow, but it doesn’t impact anyone else.
“Back in 2010, 100Mb internet was the fastest! No one could imagine gigabit becoming widely available! Stuff needs to be upgraded to handle it!” Judy, tons of businesses were running gigabit in 2010, and common network gear has had gigabit ports for years. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
Not saying you’re wrong (pretty sure you’re not) but important to remember that the reason LLMs use a lot of em dashes is because it features so prominently in journalism.
I would have little respect for a journalist who didn’t know how to use an em-dash, so I don’t think that proves anything. But I agree that there is a lack of coherent thought throughout, though that’s something humans are also fully capable of.
But yeah, fully agree. Never mind that network connection speed is not really the relevant bottleneck for most office situations these days. If Germans are less productive due to technology it’s because they still use freaking fax machines over there, not because employees are stuck with five year old smartphones.
I – to a certain extent – know how to use an em-dash.
(Source: Former journalist.)
Confirmed—only journalists would have the audacity to place spaces around an otherwise fine em-dash.
Let’s not get audio editing involved!
Those look like en-dashes.
Most word processors will auto-format to em dashes when they detect regular dashes in context of a sentence with a space on either side
That’s great with AP Style. MLA goes in a different direction regarding spaces.
Can we please stop with the em-dash bullshit? That’s a literary tool, not a sign of an LLM in play. That people did not encounter them ahead of ChatGPT speaks more to their news diet than the ability to be a literary critic.
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I’m not sure whence your animosity comes. I’ve been a columnist since the '90s, and I assure you: Em-dashes are on the menu.
To claim proof of LLMs is to say it was never done until then. It most assuredly was.
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Hold on, you can simply tack on 10-50 dollars to your cell plan and get a “free” upgrade every year instead!