This best-of technology list for 2024 has zero gadgets or AI chatbots.
There was a lot of technology junk, mediocre artificial intelligence and online horror in 2024.
I want to focus on developments in technology that were maybe less obvious, but that made your life or our world a little better.
I asked for nominations from experts I trust, but these five selections are based on my subjective (though absolutely correct) vibes.
There was messy but real progress in protecting your online privacy.
To most companies, we are bits of data to be harvested and monetized. Slowly and unevenly, though, we're wresting back power.
Maryland this spring passed a sweeping data privacy law that advocates called one of the toughest in the country. California firmed up a process to let people delete data from brokers that might sell information from your bills and church-going activity.
And clever inventions such as Block Party and a simple checkbox or browser add-on empower you to say no to corporate information-siphoning.
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Shira Ovide
(Patrick Dias for The Washington Post)
Tech Friend writer Shira Ovide gives you advice and context to make technology work for you. Sign up for the free Tech Friend newsletter.
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Individuals remain outmatched by the data-harvesting economy. There's no broad national law in the United States about data privacy, which consumer advocates say is a root cause of data breaches, scams and stalkers.
You can still feel good about the slow march of progress.
Honorable mention: This year felt like a tipping point for families, schools, elected officials, researchers and children's advocates in grappling with the downsides of young people's always-connected lives. There's more blaming and shouting than nuanced solutions, but it's a start.
Bluesky had fresh ideas for social media
The influence of Bluesky, which became available to everyone in February, is much larger than its relatively dinky 25.5 million users.
That's because Bluesky built an adaptable and open social network that challenged 15 years of internet habits. It turned out that people liked it.
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X now largely show you what their algorithms think you want. Bluesky gives you a choice of seeing posts only from people you follow -- or shift back-and-forth to feeds that anyone can create, like those showcasing cat images or by Black users of Bluesky.
You can choose personalized settings created by Bluesky or anyone else to block violent images or other material you don't like. And Bluesky's clever "starter packs" let you easily find others who share your interests.
"They're genuinely pushing some new social media approaches and features," said Eli Pariser, whose New_Public organization promotes healthy online communities.
Bluesky has had problems and growing pains after usage surged in a post-election liberal escape from X. But Meta is now emulating some Bluesky ideas, which is a sure sign that Bluesky is onto something.
Olympics memes showed that we can still have pure fun online.
This summer's Paris Games gave us rare moments of wholesome joy online, thanks partly to looser social media rules for athletes and NBC's imaginative streaming strategy,
On TikTok, we saw firsthand swimmer Henrik Christiansen's infatuation with chocolate muffins and gymnast Sunisa Lee's balance beam boo-boo self-meme.
We obsessed online over Pommel Horse Guy, Stephen Nedoroscik; indescribably cool pistol shooter Kim Yeji; the magnetic rugby star Ilona Maher; and Simone Biles, the GOAT.
@henrikchristians1
We have chocolate muffin before GTA 6 #fyp #olympics #paris2024 #olympictiktok #olympicvillage #muffins #gta #gta6
♬ GTA San Andreas Theme (Remake) - Ben Morfitt (SquidPhysics)
Honorable mention: Online inventions such as One Million Checkboxes and YouTube home videos rotating at random showed that technology can be silly fun and bring out the best in us.
Empire AI proved that artificial intelligence can be built to serve our collective interests.
Many technology companies say they're developing AI to help humanity -- but their products are often run for their own benefit and profit. Empire AI shows there is another way.
A collaboration kicked off this spring among New York state government, universities and philanthropies, Empire AI gives academic researchers money and supercomputers to develop cancer treatments, improve weather forecasting and work on other challenges designed to help the public.
"Solving these problems is not in the mission statement of any of these big tech companies," said Jeannette Wing, executive vice president for research and a computer science professor at Columbia University, which is an Empire AI participant.
Empire AI can't match the computing or financial firepower of Big Tech. But Wing pointed out that academia has been essential in technology breakthroughs, including the creation of the internet and the AI advances led by new Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton.
Honorable mention: IRS Direct File, the government's free online tax filing website that just worked (if you were eligible) and was also operated in your interests.
Bureaucrats and upstart companies were pains in Big Tech's tuchus.
This year, Apple made chats between iPhone and Android users less clunky, probably in response to new European regulations requiring technology compatibility. Probably because of that law, Apple also unbanned a throwback video game app and people swarmed to it.
In separate legal challenges, courts threatened upheavals to Google search and its Android app store. That could unleash new ideas or make your digital subscriptions cheaper. (Nothing has happened yet. Google has or said it will appeal the court rulings.)
Doubters of Big Tech's power in world capitals, public interest groups and at companies such as DuckDuckGo, Epic Games and Spotify keep asking what you've been missing because a handful of giant companies dictate technologies used by billions of people.
Whether the gadflies succeed or not, and even if they're misguided, it's healthy to question the status quo.