When “Smart” Became Stupid: The Rising Revolt Against Unnecessary Technology

Remember when your refrigerator was just a refrigerator that could last decades without issues?

Most anyone under the age of 40 likely has a hard time remembering this, as this generation and beyond grew up in an age of planned obsolescence.

As a child of the 80’s, I do recall the appliances from my grandparents. They never needed constant replacement parts or software updates. They just worked.

That old “retro” looking refrigerator eventually got moved to the garage, replaced by “upgrades” that looked more modern. But even demoted to garage duty, holding extra beverages for us kids, enduring temperature swings and neglect, it still outlasted multiple generations of the “new” models that replaced it in the kitchen.

Today, that same scenario plays out across every category of consumer products. Except now, when your appliance, your car, your HVAC or your phone fails after five years, you discover the manufacturer has discontinued the part or the app it depends on… or the “smart” features you paid extra for now require a monthly subscription… or the repair costs more than replacement because proprietary parts aren’t available.

We didn’t ask for this.

Increasingly, consumers are refusing to accept it.

To understand how we fight back, we first need to understand how we got here.

WHY THIS HAPPENED

Subscriptions That Didn’t Exist 10-20 Years Ago

VEHICLES

• Remote start (GM, Toyota: $15-25/mo)
• Heated seats (BMW tested $18/mo)
• Self-driving features (Tesla: $99/mo)
• Navigation updates ($15-30/mo)

HOME APPLIANCES

• Robot vacuum premium (Roomba: $10/mo)
• Smart washer/dryer diagnostics ($8-12/mo)
• Coffee maker features (Keurig: $5-10/mo)
• Smart grill control (Weber: $10/mo)

HOME SECURITY

• Doorbell camera storage (Ring, Nest: $3-20/mo per camera)
• Security camera cloud (Arlo: $3-15/mo per camera)
• Home monitoring (SimpliSafe: $15-60/mo)

HVAC & HOME SYSTEMS

• Smart thermostat features (Nest: $6-12/mo)
• Leak detection (Flo: $5/mo)
• HVAC diagnostics ($10-15/mo)

FITNESS EQUIPMENT

• Exercise bike classes (Peloton: $44/mo, NordicTrack: $39/mo)
• Fitness tracker premium (Fitbit: $10/mo, Whoop: $30/mo)
• Smart mirror workouts (Mirror: $39/mo)
• Sleep tracking (Eight Sleep: $17/mo)

CHILDREN & PETS

• Baby monitor premium (Nanit: $10/mo)
• GPS pet collar (Fi, Whistle: $9-25/mo)
• Smart litter box (Litter-Robot: $10/mo)

SOFTWARE (Was One-Time Purchase)

• Adobe Creative Suite (was $2,600 one-time → now $60/mo)
• Microsoft Office (was $400 one-time → now $7-10/mo)
• AutoCAD (was $4,000 one-time → now $235/mo)
• Cloud storage (Dropbox, iCloud: $2-20/mo)

GAMING

• Online multiplayer (PlayStation, Xbox: $10-15/mo)
• Game subscriptions (Xbox Game Pass: $10-17/mo)
• Cloud gaming (GeForce Now: $10-20/mo)

ENTERTAINMENT

• Streaming video (Netflix, Disney+, Max, etc: $8-20/mo each)
• Music streaming (Spotify, Apple Music: $10-20/mo)
• News paywalls (NYT, WSJ: $10-40/mo each)
• Audiobooks (Audible: $15/mo)

PRODUCTIVITY

• Note-taking (Evernote, Notion: $5-15/mo)
• Email apps (Superhuman: $30/mo)
• Password managers (1Password: $3-8/mo)

THE MATH – Conservative household estimate:

• Vehicles: $40/mo
• Home security: $30/mo
• Home devices: $25/mo
• Fitness: $50/mo
• Software: $50/mo
• Entertainment: $80/mo
• Gaming: $15/mo
• Productivity: $20/mo

TOTAL: ~$310/month or $3,720/year

Reality check:

• 2005: Cable TV + Internet + Gym = ~$150/mo
• 2025: 30-50 subscriptions = $300-700/mo

We’re not paying for better products. We’re paying rent on products we already bought.

Over the past two decades, manufacturers discovered something more profitable than selling you a quality product once: selling you a mediocre product repeatedly, while harvesting your data in between purchases.

The surveillance economy turned products into trojan horses. Your car tracks your driving habits and sells them to insurance companies. Your TV watches what you watch—and watches you through built-in cameras. Your thermostat knows when you’re home. Your phone tracks everywhere you go. The product you purchased became a data collection platform first, functional device second. You paid for the privilege of being surveilled in your own home.

Subscriptions converted ownership into rental. BMW charges monthly fees for heated seats already installed in your car. Security cameras require cloud storage subscriptions to access footage from your own property. Each $10-30/month fee seems reasonable alone, but they multiply into hundreds of dollars monthly for features that used to be one-time purchases. The trap: products technically “work” without subscriptions, but in deliberately crippled states that force you to pay.

Forced obsolescence made you dependent. When companies shut down servers, your devices stop working—period. Smart home hubs become bricks. Apps stop getting updates and devices become incompatible. You can’t repair them yourself because of proprietary parts, encrypted firmware, and legal threats against right-to-repair advocates. You don’t own the product. You’re licensing it until the manufacturer decides otherwise.

The complexity tax punishes you daily. You can’t just turn on your TV—you need your phone, an app, connectivity, updated terms of service. The time wasted troubleshooting, resetting passwords, creating accounts, and calling customer service for devices sitting three feet away is staggering. If your grandmother can’t use it without help, it’s not good design—it’s hostile design.

But the backlash is real. Social media fills with people searching for “dumb” products. Review sections cite forced connectivity as primary return reasons. “No app required” is becoming a selling point. Right-to-repair legislation is passing in multiple states. GDPR and CCPA fines are making surveillance expensive. The mechanical watch industry proves consumers will pay premiums for products that just work, without charging, updating, or phoning home.

The movement is growing. The question is whether you’ll be part of it.

WHAT WE’RE DEMANDING

The path forward isn’t complicated: sell us quality products we actually own, that respect our privacy, and that last.

Products That Respect Ownership

When you buy something, you should own it. Fully. Your thermostat shouldn’t need internet to adjust temperature. Your car shouldn’t need connectivity to unlock doors. If the manufacturer’s servers shut down tomorrow, your product should work exactly as it did the day you bought it.

Physical controls must be standard. Buttons, knobs, switches that work without phones, apps, or Bluetooth pairing. Your grandmother should operate your appliances. Your kids should adjust the thermostat. A houseguest should turn on the TV. If basic operation requires a smartphone and account, the design has failed.

This isn’t radical. This is how products worked until fifteen years ago. We’re demanding manufacturers stop breaking what already worked.

Privacy by Design

Your products shouldn’t spy on you. Data collection should be limited to what’s essential for core functionality, and that data should stay local. Your thermostat can learn schedules on the device itself. Your security camera can process motion detection locally. Your data never leaves your home unless you explicitly choose it.

No mandatory account creation. You shouldn’t provide email addresses or create passwords to use a physical product you purchased. No data collection beyond essential function. Your washing machine doesn’t need your email. Your coffee maker doesn’t need to track brew times. Your TV doesn’t need to monitor viewing habits.

When manufacturers claim they need data to “improve user experience,” they mean they’ve built a business model around selling your information. We’re rejecting that entirely.

Longevity & Repairability

Products should be built to last and designed to be repaired. Use standard components—screws instead of glue, modular parts instead of integrated assemblies. If a capacitor fails, replace the capacitor, not the entire circuit board.

Provide public repair documentation. Manufacture replacement parts for the product’s reasonable lifetime—minimum ten years. Remove artificial barriers: no firmware detecting third-party parts, no encryption preventing component replacement, no legal threats against repair guides.

Electronic waste is a catastrophe, and planned obsolescence drives it. Products lasting twenty years instead of five save money and dramatically reduce environmental impact. Repairability is both consumer rights and environmental responsibility.

Transparent Pricing

One-time purchase price includes full functionality. Period. Not “basic” functionality with premium features behind paywalls. Everything the product can do should be available when you buy it, with no ongoing fees required.

Optional premium features requiring ongoing costs should be clearly disclosed as separate purchases. No bait-and-switch conversions of features to subscriptions through updates. No “transitioning to a service model” for products purchased under different terms.

If your business model can’t survive transparent pricing, it’s probably exploitative.

** Buyer Checklist **

What to Ask Before You Buy

Print this, save it to your phone, or memorize it. Ask every time.

PRODUCTS DOING IT RIGHT

Alternatives exist today across most product categories. Here’s what to look for.

Phones: Taking Back Digital Privacy

GrapheneOS-based phones—like the Ghost Phones we build at MARK37—strip out Google surveillance infrastructure while maintaining full Android functionality. No location tracking unless you enable it. No data harvesting. No ads based on conversations. The hardware isn’t the problem, it’s the software. A Pixel running stock Google Android is a surveillance device. The same Pixel running GrapheneOS is one of the most private phones available.

Alternative options include CalyxOS or LineageOS. For those willing to compromise app compatibility, PinePhone and Librem 5 offer Linux-based options with hardware kill switches for cameras, microphones, and radios.

Computers: Breaking Free from Big Tech

Linux distributions have matured dramatically. ZorinOS, the foundation for our Ghost Laptops, provides a Windows-like or MacOS-like interface making transitions seamless. No forced updates breaking workflows. No telemetry reporting actions. No ads in your operating system. Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and Fedora offer excellent alternatives. Tails and Qubes OS provide specialized security approaches.

We’re also big fans of Framework laptops which offer modular repairability. System76 sells computers with Linux pre-installed and firmware respecting user freedom.

Vehicles: Finding the Last Simple Cars

Fleet vehicles and commercial truck base models often skip infotainment systems. A 2024 Ford F-150 XL work truck has manual HVAC controls and minimal connectivity. Older vehicles, 2015 and earlier, predate aggressive data collection. The used market for these models is strong because people want vehicles without cellular modems reporting to manufacturers.

For connected vehicles, you can physically disconnect cellular antennas or refuse consent for data sharing in settings. Buying new however almost guarantees surveillance. Your leverage is refusing premium connectivity packages and being vocal that these features are deal-breakers.

Appliances: Commercial-Grade is Your Friend

Commercial equipment sold to restaurants and hotels is still mostly “dumb” because businesses need reliability, not apps. True Commercial refrigerators use mechanical thermostats. Speed Queen washers and dryers are legendary for longevity and repairability. Commercial kitchen equipment from Vulcan, Hobart, or True runs for decades with serviceable parts and no connectivity.

You’ll pay more upfront, but total cost of ownership is often lower because these last twenty years instead of five. For residential options, search specifically for “non-smart” or “manual control” versions. GE makes some mechanical-control ranges. Whirlpool offers non-connected washer/dryer pairs.

HVAC: Programmable Without Phoning Home

Honeywell manufactures programmable thermostats operating entirely locally, models like the RTH9585WF offer seven-day programming without internet connectivity or app control. Lux Products makes thermostats for offline operation. Search specifically for “non-WiFi programmable thermostat” rather than “smart thermostat.”

TVs: The Hardest Category

Computer monitors (32″ to 43″ models) replace TVs entirely with no smart features, cameras, microphones, or data harvesting. Connect your own media player and control the entire experience. Commercial displays from NEC or Samsung lack smart features because conference rooms don’t need them.

If buying a consumer smart TV, never connect it to internet. Use it as a dumb panel with your own streaming devices. Without internet access, it can’t update, collect data, or serve ads. Search for “hospitality TV” or “commercial display” versions of consumer models.

Security Cameras: Local Storage, Local Control

Ubiquiti’s UniFi Protect stores everything locally on hardware you control. Reolink offers cameras with local SD card storage and NVR systems operating on your local network. For the technically inclined, open-source solutions like Frigate with ONVIF-compatible cameras provide complete control.

Avoid Ring, Nest, Arlo, or anything requiring cloud storage for basic functionality.

Home Automation: Local Control Standards

Zigbee and Z-Wave devices work through local hubs like Home Assistant or Hubitat—systems not requiring cloud connectivity. Home Assistant provides plug-and-play local control for hundreds of device types. Everything runs locally, you control updates, and automation works even when internet is down.

Avoid ecosystems requiring manufacturer cloud services. If companies go out of business or shut down servers, your smart home stops working.

There is a Pattern

Products doing it right are either commercial-grade equipment built for reliability, older technology predating surveillance business models, or purpose-built privacy solutions from manufacturers understanding what consumers want.

Alternatives exist. They require more research, sometimes more money upfront, occasionally more technical knowledge, but they’re available now. The more people buy them, the stronger the signal that surveillance and subscriptions aren’t inevitable.

THE PATH FORWARD

Understanding problems is necessary. Finding alternatives is helpful. But real change requires action.

Actively seek tech-free alternatives. Start searches with “non-smart” or “offline” versions. Spend thirty minutes researching dumb alternatives—they’re often buried under marketing for connected models. Your time investment sends market signals with every purchase.

Demand transparency before buying. Ask directly: Does this require internet? Need an app? Are there subscription fees? What happens if the company shuts down servers? If answers reveal uncomfortable dependencies, walk away and explain why.

Leave detailed reviews explaining privacy and ownership concerns. When you return products requiring cloud connectivity, say so. When you choose brands respecting offline operation, explain that. Product managers read reviews looking for patterns in rejections.

Support companies doing it right, even when it costs more. Privacy-respecting products often cost premiums. Pay it when you can afford to. These companies take financial risks building products respecting users—they need revenue to survive and grow.

Refuse to activate smart features on products you already own. Don’t connect TVs to WiFi. Don’t install unnecessary apps. Every unused smart feature is a data point in manufacturer analytics. Make that percentage high enough, and product planners notice.

Embrace the “inconvenience” of privacy. Adjusting thermostats manually takes slightly more effort. Pulling footage from local cameras takes longer than cloud storage. That friction is the price of ownership and privacy. Reframe it as independence—you’re not locked into ecosystems, dependent on servers, or subject to policy changes.

Teach others that surveillance isn’t normal. Show friends and family alternatives. Explain your choices. Model that privacy and ownership are values worth prioritizing. Cultural change happens through conversations shifting what people consider normal.

The technology exists to build products respecting ownership, privacy, longevity, and transparency. Market demand is proven and growing. The regulatory environment is shifting toward consumer rights. What’s missing is collective will to reject current business models and demand better.

That will is building. Either it forces change through market pressure, or regulatory intervention completes the shift. Either way, surveillance capitalism embedded in every product is ending. How messy that transition is depends on how quickly manufacturers recognize the direction and adapt.

CONCLUSION

My grandfather’s refrigerator lasted forty years. It never needed software updates, never required subscriptions, never stopped working because servers shut down. It just kept food cold, year after year, decade after decade, asking nothing except occasional maintenance and electricity.

That’s not nostalgia. That’s a reasonable expectation for how products should work.

Somewhere along the way, we accepted a different deal. We let manufacturers convince us surveillance was “smart,” subscriptions were “services,” planned obsolescence was “innovation.” We tolerated products stopping when companies changed business models. We paid monthly fees for features that used to be included. We handed over data for minor conveniences we never asked for.

We don’t have to accept that deal anymore.

The backlash isn’t just complaint—it’s action. Consumers are searching for simple alternatives. Engineers are building privacy-respecting products. Legislators are passing right-to-repair laws. Markets are responding to demand for ownership and longevity.

But it only accelerates if we push it. Every privacy-respecting purchase funds alternative markets. Every returned smart device with explanatory reviews sends signals manufacturers can’t ignore. Every conversation explaining surveillance isn’t normal shifts cultural baselines.

This isn’t about going back to the Stone Age. It’s about technology serving us rather than surveilling us. Products working for owners, not on them. Innovation improving lives instead of extracting value.

I believe we’re at a turning point. The next five years will determine whether surveillance capitalism becomes permanent infrastructure, or whether consumer resistance forces a return to respecting ownership, privacy, and longevity.

The outcome depends on whether enough people decide they’re done tolerating products treating them as data sources first. Whether enough manufacturers recognize competitive opportunities in building products people want to own. Whether enough legislators understand right-to-repair and data privacy are fundamental consumer rights.

The next time you’re shopping for an appliance, vehicle, phone, any connected product—ask yourself: do I actually want this “smart” feature, or is it being forced on me? Does this product respect my ownership and privacy, or is it designed to extract ongoing value?

If the answer is the latter, walk away. Find the alternative. Pay the premium if necessary. Leave the review explaining your decision.

And when you find products doing it right—working offline, lasting, respecting privacy, requiring no subscriptions—support them. Buy them. Tell others. Fund the market for products treating customers with respect.

We didn’t ask for surveillance capitalism. We don’t have to accept it. And increasingly, we’re refusing to.

The refrigerator in my grandfather’s garage outlasted three generations of “improved” models because it was built to last, built to be repaired, built to just work. That’s not an impossible standard. It’s the baseline expectation we abandoned, and it’s time we demanded it back.

Technology should make our lives better, not more complicated. Products should serve their owners, not exploit them. Ownership should mean something again.

The future belongs to manufacturers who understand that. The market belongs to consumers who demand it.

Choose accordingly.