cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/51919648
Reposting this from here from 2023, after I stumbled across it tonight and it hits hard.
The text in the image:
I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it’s trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it’s downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it’s being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my usage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology
Pro tip: Sceptre still makes dumb TVs.
(I'd love to list other brands so as not to give the appearance of shilling for a particular one... but I don't know of any others.)
Also, beware: not all of Sceptre's TVs are dumb; they also have some that run Android TV. Avoid any TV with a model number starting with "A".
Some commercial model displays are still dumb, although it's really hard to tell which ones by Googling.