It’s okay to be a luddite. Not everything needs to have an interface.

Got into a spat with a manager at my apartment complex because I refused to install their app just to deal with a maintenance issue.

He was like, “I don’t see the problem, you have to use the Latch app to open your apartment door.”

To which I replied, “No, I have the door keypad code memorized.”

Just like I don’t need an app to make a log of exit/entry history in a backend database just to enter my apartment via a Bluetooth lock…

…I should not have to install their app to make my apartment livable.

Indeed, my argument was convincing enough to have a resolution which didn’t include installing their app.

It's not about being a luddite. In many respects I consider it the opposite. It's engaging with technology in a way that demands standards of behaviour and performance.

I don't want the new thing because it is the new thing. I want new things that are better.

People accept abusive technology because they consider that's just the way it is with this new thing. It's a failure to understand what should be considered unacceptable.

> you have to use the Latch app to open your apartment door

So what happens if you arrive home with a dead phone?

And possibly worse, they have a log of when you come and go?

My apartment complex came to install keypads and centrally managed smart thermostats and I would not let them.

Thankfully my lease was old enough that I was able to argue against it. I don’t want a 3rd party company tracking my habits, and I don’t want some manager boiling my pets alive while I’m gone because they decided they think our AC is set too low.