Software is never neutral
A few weeks back, I saw some calls on Mastodon to cancel Micro.blog (the service I use to publish this) because they started allowing publishing on Twitter (it will never be X to me). This after a big hullabaloo over Proton and their CEO’s donations/support for a right-wing party in Europe. Wordpress is a dumpster fire of petty bickering and bizarre choices in leadership. And if you keep digging through the internet long enough, the list of people upset about the choices software developers or their companies CEOs make with their tools goes on and on, from both the left and the right, till I’m sure it would possible to find something wrong with every company, every developer, out there.
I’m tired ya’ll.
I’m tired of keeping my head on a swivel, jumping from one program/service to the other because of something some person said or did at that company. I do my best to make as ethical decisions I can with the tools and services I use but it’s tiring staying on that treadmill. Not from the constant outrage that bubbles up every day, but from the sheer effort required to switch from service to service. I switched to Proton about 2 years ago, over a multi-day process, moving all of my stuff and over 25 years of email to Proton. As a service, I’ve been happy with the reliability and quality of their products, which is what you should expect in any transaction right? I pay you for a product, you deliver said product and we go about our business. But the thought of going through that process again, of moving all of my stuff to Fastmail or something equivalent, because some random CEO said or did something or believes something I disagree with, is frankly exhausting.
The people calling for boycotts or switching, they don’t seem to consider the time needed to make those switches. Not everyone has hours of time to switch all of their stuff around, or have the luxury to spend time finding alternatives, or sometimes the technical skill required to do that. It’s an act of pure privilege to do that and expect others to follow you. And they forget that software can never be neutral because software is people.
People write it, people sell it or give it away and all of those people have thoughts and opinions that I agree or disagree with, that’s just living in an interconnected world. And for better or worse (likely worse, but that’s for another day), we live in a capitalistic world so we just have to work within that system to find what’s best for us. So that means tradeoffs and budgeting and accepting that nothing is ever perfect, will never agree fully with what we personally might think and feel and believe. You can do your best, but inherently that underlying understanding is always there, until something bubbles up and we have to pickup our pitchforks and torches again. And if we just follow the outrage cycle and jump ship to one place, whose to say that 3 months later THAT place won’t do something that we don’t agree with and then we have invest all of the time and effort all over again.
I’m not saying don’t have lines or deal breakers - we all do. I switched from Twitter to Mastodon four years ago because I saw where that was going, how it was already turning into a Nazi bar and that wasn’t something I wanted to support with my time or effort or money. That was a conscious and ethical decision. But Micro.blog allowing publishing to Twitter, something I will never do? That’s not a redline for me because for my $5 a month I get the convenience of just opening a tab, writing this post and hitting publish and not thinking about it again. I’m not willing to throw the baby out with the bath water because of one idea that the Micro.blog team had.
Does that make me a bad person? Maybe. Maybe it makes me lazy, or maybe I’ve fallen victim to vendor lock-in. But I don’t have the time to find alternatives or sit down and write my own system for publishing or find a different tool, so I’m willing to make that trade-off. Of course, these implicit agreements are always evolving, and maybe Micro.blog or Proton or some other company I use on my uses page will do something so egregious to me that I can’t take it anymore, and the time needed to switch will be worth it. But for now, I just accept that trade-off because I’d rather spend my limited free time frankly just doing something else than looking for alternatives.
Software is never neutral. It’s written by people, and it’s always evolving and changing and growing, just like the people who make it. Sometimes for good and sometimes for bad but always changing and always being the product of the people who made it. Lord knows we aren’t short on alternatives for just about anything out there. And if your own personal red line is crossed then you should certainly find alternatives, I’m never against that and have them myself. But I’ve been down the never-satisfied road of changing and switching and storming castle gates for too long now and let me tell you, it’s exhausting.
So as you read forums or posts or articles about why XYZ company/tool is bad, remember that software is never neutral, software is people, and people are complicated and you’re never ever going to be 100% satisfied. You might be happy with your choice of tool for now, but inevitably something will come up you don’t agree with.
Don’t fall into the trap of following the outrage. Set your own red lines and ignore the noise. You’ll be a lot happier that way.