I'm generally closer to the side of "technophile". To a point.
The one exception for the longest time was smartphones. I dont use social media ever, and those devices tended to seem mostly useless aside from that. Though, I was also stuck with Apple devices, which... they're far too restricted for me. It's either on Apple's Profit Store- er, I mean, App Store, or it cant get onto the device without a jailbreak. Bloody useless gizmos. I always had one, but it usually sat forgotten in a corner somewhere. Basically acted purely as a safety device, where I could call for help if I found myself in trouble when outside of the house. Other than that, the stupid thing was just a flashlight and a magical talking map. I had no apps for the thing, because it couldnt DO things.
I dumped that nonsense very recently and got myself a Galaxy S23+. MUCH better. It actually, you know, DOES things. I mean good grief the sheer amount of features the thing has, compared to the iPhones "here's a camera and a map and a bad store and that's it".
Other than that, I'm primarily a PC user, with gaming being my main hobby/interest. I use WIndows devices. There's no choice there. Indie gaming is my thing and 99% of them dont work on Linux, so that's a big nope right there.
With AI, well, you name an AI, and I've probably used it. I've been dealing with GPT in general for a couple of years now, so ChatGPT wasnt exactly new to me.
But yeah, my "technophobe" side is mostly just how darned erratic I can be with all of it. I'll use these things, but not efficiently, and often not "properly". Think of like, a car mechanic, right, fixing things and working with careful efficiency with great mastery. Then think of someone who sorta just duct-tapes a car back together and it works for some inexplicable reason... that's me.
And I usually couldnt care less what the popular things are and what is considered bad. Like browsers for instance, I loathe Chrome with the blazing passion of a thousand exploding stars. Used to use it, couldnt stand it. I use Edge now, which for me is better to the point where the comparison isnt even fair. I know many dont like it, but... feh, dont care. I'm like that with most things. Provided I even know what's popular and what isnt. And I simply dont follow new developments or science or whatever. I use what I stumble into. My PC being the one exception to that rule since it is also used for fractal rendering. It's a hyper-expensive thing. However, I dont actually buy new PCs until my previous one falls apart. My current one is very recent.
And I'll never, ever understand the appeal of social media. Wont touch that nonsense with a 2000-foot pole. Particularly after seeing what it does to people. Methinks I'm fine with being old-fashioned about internet usage. I'll always stick with forums instead, and I really miss AOL and AIM.
