ttamttam's site

I was once a young, bright-eyed (or maybe dead-eyed, there certainly were a lot of red-eyes), college student. I had just gotten a new apartment and was ready for move in. The check in process was smooth, the rental company was professional, even if I didn't trust them not to screw me over. I just needed to get my key.
"Alright, all you need to do is download the app and then we'll link it to your door."
A second passes as I parse what I just heard.
"What if I don't have a smartphone?"
The staff member, themselves probably an underpaid student, looked at me like I was an alien. They assured me that everyone had a smartphone and that I needed to use the app to get in. I didn't want to fight this, I wanted to move in. I prayed that the app was compatible with GrapheneOS and breathed a sigh of relief when it was.

Then, just in case my phone ran out of battery, they gave me a spare keycard.

God damnit.

Now, I have a smartphone. But I actually know plenty of people who have at one point in time removed the cursed bricks from their lives. I myself use GrapheneOS, which is a good excuse for pretending my phone can't do everything a normal smartphone can. When people ask me why I don't get X app, I can say something something super non-committal like "oh I'd love to but my phone uses a custom ROM so I don't know if it will work". In reality my phone's been rock solid. The only things it can't run are some of the more invasive Google services like FindHub, and applications that require the Play Integrity API which - contrary to its name - is useless at providing security and excellent at letting Google abuse its monopoly. The real reason? I just don't like apps. They take up space, they run in the background, and they collect any data they can get their hands on. But you know what? I don't even need an excuse to not like apps. Plenty of people aren't as terminally plugged as your average TikTok carrying adult. They could be old and never prioritized learning all the new tech, they could be young and under parental guidance, maybe they have a gambling problem and decided to drop smartphones since online sports betting is rampant these days. And maybe some people just plain don't like having the internet in their pocket 24/7. Apps can be convenient but they should never be mandatory.

It seems like we live in a world built for the technologies we use instead of being built for us. Want to go to a restaurant? It's only 2 miles away. Too bad you can't walk or bike across that busy highway. You need to get in your car and drive 2 minutes to the parking lot, which itself could fit 2 more restaurants. Ready to look at the menu? Hope you have your phone ready to scan that QR code. Time to pay? Just scan another QR code and checkout online. Now I don't mean to say that highways and QR codes can't be convenient, what I'm trying to point out is that they inherently exclude anyone who doesn't have or doesn't want to use a car or a phone. And when no alternatives are offered, it's inconvenient at best and at worst people feel locked out from society.

None of this is revolutionary, it's been blogged about to death. But what I want to add to the conversation is just another anecdote:

I've heard of a growing trend in job applications. LinkedIn, I'm told, is now a required field on many job application forms. I deleted LinkedIn long ago alongside all my other social media. And I have no intention to create one again. Let's be honest, LinkedIn is largely vapid networking, self promotion, and sucking up to superiors. LinkedIn isn't unique in this regard. I do a bit of all these things at work, amongst my friends, at conferences, on forums, and in discussion groups. But what none of those places have in common with LinkedIn, is that none of them are required fields on resumes. LinkedIn is not a resume. A resume is a resume. Linkedin isn't a CV either. A CV is a CV. LinkedIn is a place for people to talk about their work on the public internet and accidentally break a few NDAs in the process. LinkedIn is one of many places for people to network. LinkedIn is also a place for people to advertise their personal brands to employers. But again, it's not the only place or the only way.

Employers are desperately trying to weed out AI applications and fake applicants in general. There's a very big scare over employees secretly not being who they say they are. Living in other countries, working 4 or 5 jobs at once, being corporate spies, being foreign spies, or falsifying information about their employability. How much of this is a legitimate risk and how much is fear mongering depends on your company's risk profile. But I can say this: There's only one thing that will help you avoid this. It's meeting prospective employees in person, looking over physical documents, and cross checking their stated experience with tax documents, payslips, and transcripts. What won't help is checking their LinkedIn profile. By LinkedIn's own admission, fake LinkedIn profiles are prolific. I can fake a LinkedIn profile as easily as I can fake a resume or anything else. If you start requiring LinkedIn for hiring, you'll only weed out the people like me; who care deeply about technology, don't like what social media does to them, and wants no part in it.