I still keep up with the stuff. Tech is my hobby after all, so I am generally at least aware of the latest gadgets and computer hardware and sometimes even apps, but that doesn't mean I don't think they are dumb, or that I actually use any of them.
I stopped counting iphones at 4 or 5. And didn't even bother with ipad. I don't really follow tech outside of PC and what I actually want to buy anymore.
I don't know what it was, but tech definitely peaked in 2007. At that point the financial crisis was at risk of killing Google, so they dropped their "don't be evil" mantra and just went all in an evil instead, collecting and selling data like it was going out of style, and once they did, everyone else followed.
I somehow slept through that bit, the financial crash was barely a breeze here, didn't affect me at all (unlike the current inflation).
In 2007 I still used opera as my browser and probably altavista as my primary search engine. That decade for me was full of all-nighters, if not at work then out partying, that's all I remember. For me PC tech peaked around 2015, that's when I stopped caring about having the best and latest HW. And that's when it started to matter less as well. It became a sport for the rich, rather than a nerd thing to have a fast PC.
2007 was the inflection point where new tech started getting dumb (while simultaneously being called smart), and the industry has just continually doubled down on the dumb at every turn since.
It's the effect of going mainstream, whenever something goes mainstream it becomes dumber. Not just tech, but movies and TV as well as games. My first smartphone was a Sony W950, it was impractical, but I could play Legend of Kyrandia, The Dig, Full Throttle on it with ScummVM. My mind was blown that my favorite games from a decade earlier were now playable on a tiny handheld device.
I'll certainly keep upgrading my desktop with the most powerful components, but that doesn't mean I want anything to do with other modern tech. I used to always say "I want my phone to be more like my PC, not my PC to be more like my phone", but as this transition has been accelerated I may have to clarify. "I want my phone to be more like my PC was in 2010, or is today under linux, not my PC to be even more like my phone".
I'd settle for my computer remaining MY computer. But we lost that already with Windows 10. This is the first OS where I feel I'm not in full control, and at the mercy of the whims of MS. I never liked Linux tho, so I don't think any year will be the year of linux on desktop.
As far as Harry Potter goes, I think I partially viewed one of the films on a plane once or something, but I couldn't get into it. I'm generally not inclined to getting into fantasy genre stuff. It requires too much of a suspense of disbelief for me. I like science fiction where the "magical" things are explained by technology, but as soon as you throw in orcs and warlocks and monsters I tend to start rolling my eyes.
Don't get me wrong, even now after playing the game I don't want to get into the other stuff. The game is a prequel set hundred years earlier, it stands completely on its own, it just happens to be in the same fictional universe. I don't mind fantasy as long as it has clear rules it is no different from sci-fi. And Hogwarts Legacy has pretty straightforward rules. If you replaced magic wand with a scifi gadget, it would still work all the same.
I'm actually surprised I ever liked Star Wars. The Whole "force" thing would normally be too magical and a turnoff for me, but I guess I did start watching it when I was rather young, so there is that.
I never liked Star Wars for the story. Well, I didn't even fully get the story when I first saw the movies out of order mind you. No, my love for Star Wars was purely for the visuals, the production quality, the music, and the extended universe based on videogames mostly. I craved for a star wars themed RPG since forever, in fact I still do. Yes there was Kotor, but I always found that clunky. And being set thousands of years earlier it never felt fully Star Wars to me, just one more scifi game.
I was alwas more of a Star Trek guy. Never could get into the original series (but the TOS movies were enjoyable) but TNG was really my jam growing up. it felt like a somewhat realistic (if somewhat optimistic) depiction of what humanity in space could actually be like, and I liked that.
I had grown up on the TOS movies, and loved them all even ones that everybody hated. Yeah, The Motion Picture, Voyage Home, Final Frontier, were all my favorites. In fact I was such a staunch traditionalist that I refused to watch TNG. To me the original crew was irreplaceable. I watched Voyager as it didn't feel like I'm cheating on the original crew with it. And only after that in 2004 did I start watching TNG. It had it's ups and downs, and the movies definitely count among its downs. Nemesis was a travesty and a precursor to what happens to Star Trek if Patrick Stewart gets a license for creative input, yes I mean Picard S1 and S2. It seems his license was revoked for S3 as it actually started decently, not great but better than anything since Enterprise.
