Cyber Bullying

While most millennials won't remember it cyber bullying is not knew.  It began in a land far far away and a distant time, a few years ago.  It was the battle between IBM and Apple, the IBM component being Microsoft after having sold them an operating system that would function much like Apple's but on their all ready existing platform.  Point and Click it is called.  Windows always has been clunky, and if briefly we reflect America's continued war with Windows should by now by a watershed cultural icon.  Forever it seems the consumer has been fighting with Windows, Microsoft's attempt to copy the Apple interface for the IBM.  Because my memories are gray the first point of contention and what broke up the company was Bill Gates bundling Microsoft's Internet Explorer within Windows forcing consumers to use their web browser.  Netscape Navigator objected, the federal government intervened and found Navigator right, and broke up Bill Gate's famed company into separate parts.  I am not sure they have been the same since.  Their X Box was a big seller, but if one really scrutinizes the brief history of computer software, most of the older versions of the programs are better.  When Steve Jobs was alive, it must of been his competitive edge that forced programmers to excel in computer language.  Programs were small, and I mean small fitting on a floppy disc.  That is when three megabytes was something useful.  Like the U.S. economy computer language has become bloated and ineffective.  While the modern version of these original programs function, they are a shadow of their former selves.  Simply it is because computer app's (formerly applications) have become pop fodder.  It has become about selling a product to an unwise consumer.  Sprinkle on sugar and tell everyone it is the greatest thing next to indoor plumbing.  Sales skyrocket and Apple make a mint.  Each time I am prompted to download the newest version of iTunes I am annoyed.  Because continually the computer companies are "upgrading" their operating systems (which really means trying to integrate wireless technology into PC systems) we must continually buy the newer versions of the applications  Although Apple allows me to download most of this for free, what you are going to get is speculative.  When Apple was feeling the competitive edge of Windows, suddenly their clear and concise borders and boundaries disappeared.  Instead of having graphs and numbers and columns, suddenly Apple saw fit to give us words on a plain screen floating in cyberspace.  I like my original Word program better than anything I have gotten since.  I liked my original iTunes and iPhoto program better than what I have now, because the improvements they provided in essence were not improvements to usability.  They were superficial and visual.  Text got smaller, menus simply changed places, icons were scrambled, and non of it was intuitive.  Possibly this is because a newer millennial generation does not interact with software the same way the old school did.  There was no connection of programs via the internet.  There were no online stores.  American Online was the program of choice that started social media.  Today because of an ailing economy computer language strives to deceive consumers with interfaces that coerce human consciousness.  For example I do not want to see advertisements in my news.  In a newspaper they are places accordingly so the reader knows they are ads.  The fashion is today as Big Brother increasingly tightens his grip is to intersperse ads within the news content.  You will see a small icon that says, "Sponsored Content."  With this small change of internet advertising and thus revenue, the world has changed.  Suddenly the reader has to filter what normally is factual and true.  This is not a bad idea, since we should have been taught critical thinking in public school.  Why else are we required to take algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus?  Surely only a select few who choose jobs in technical fields will use these skills.  The rest of us may learn how to think about a problem before we reach a solution.  It bothers me that computing has become this.  Always I have vowed to keep the programs that work for me, yet each time I open my internet browser something is being sold to me.  The internet has become television, but the interactive nature of personal computers have baited a trap large enough to capture the world.  I don't get phished that often, but when I do it is a shock.  I don't own a cell phone, and I don't use a credit card.  My life is exponentially easier because of it.  After I convinced the state of North Carolina I did not owe them state taxes, and after I had a mere six months of Obamacare my financial worries were over.  By financial worries I mean what most Americans call financial worries.  Debt.  I am debt free.  As soon as I announce that to the world the heavens will fall. Being financially debt free is not one half of one percent of immunity from potential strife, but when I stop and think about it is a good starting place.  Unlike graduating college students I all ready have paid off my financial dues.  In my case it was for musical studio equipment and a few motorcycles, the things I need to keep my somewhat happy and productive.  It makes me extremely angry that consumer oriented businesses are not looking out for me.  They are looking to take advantage of me.  I spend the majority of my time not become smarter, creating art, or being happy.  I spend most of my time feeling like a slave and trying not to die.  Is this what life in America has become or always was?