Before diving into hardware and software, I wanted to take a step back and reassess some fundamental lifestyle choices. While these choices might seem unrelated to technology, they form the foundation of the habits that define our relationship with it.
It is easy to get overwhelmed by services and platforms that drain our time, money, and attention. Before searching for alternatives, it is often best to discern what is truly essential to maintain. Sometimes the best solution for a service isn’t to replace it—but to remove it entirely.
Social Media #
It would be an understatement to say that social media has changed the way we interact with the world. What began as a method to instantly message your friends, soon ballooned into a multi-billion-dollar industry occupying every social niche imaginable. However, to sustain this growth, social media companies rely on selling user data and serving targeted ads. User data is farmed by eroding privacy, and ad revenue is increased by maximizing user screen time.
Every single social media platform is competing in the attention economy for your screen time. This results in features quickly spreading across services, regardless of context. Whether it be the rollout of infinite scrolling in the early 2010s, the propagation of stories just a few years later, or the recent explosion of short-form content, if one company releases a new feature, you can be sure the others will be quick to copy.
This combined with social media’s penchant for forwarding divisive content to increase outgroup antagonism has begun to negatively affect brain development. A trend alarming enough to get the attention of the US Surgeon General.
[We] have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works
— Chamath Palihapitiya (former Facebook VP of Growth)
Like many, I felt trapped in the addictive cycle. A quick perusal of the battery and wellbeing application on my phone confirmed this. I had far too many social media apps, with too many overlapping functions. There were nearly 7 apps, all of which had direct messages (DMs), content discovery, news, and entertainment.
It was time to simplify. Given the aforementioned privacy issues, I only considered trustworthy, audited end-to-end encryption (E2EE). For instant communication with friends and family, Signal was perfect.
For education, news, and entertainment, I kept YouTube. It offers a vast range of genuinely helpful and educational content with no real alternative, and much of it can be accessed without an account. Despite this, it is only bearable with custom frontends or browser extensions.
Exceptions #
While I was personally able to discard most proprietary social media, it is not feasible for everyone. This is particularly true for things reliant on a network effect. Perhaps Facebook Marketplace is the only local secondhand market, or WhatsApp is how you stay connected to family overseas.
It’s best to think of this process as a journey, not a destination. Who knows, maybe you and your friends can make the shift together. It’s always easier when you’re not doing it alone.
Subscription Services #
Over the past decade, consumers—including me—have traded ownership for convenience. This trend has pervaded every commodifiable aspect of our lives, most notably media consumption (movies, shows, music, games, etc.). We no longer purchase items, but licenses, that are free to be amended and revoked at any time.
Despite paying more for streaming services than we ever have before, they are getting increasingly worse:
- Aggressive password sharing prevention harassing legal paying customers
- Ads in paid tiers
- Throttled bitrate at high subscription tiers
- Arbitrary removal of songs, movies, shows, and games
- Regional locked offerings
- Abusive Terms of Service (ToS), End-user License Agreements (EULAs) and Privacy Policies
My solution was to return to ownership. Most movies, shows, and music are available as physical discs, which can be backed up digitally for personal and private use. With games, it is a little more difficult; GOG and itch.io offer DRM-free selections but with a limited catalog. Most other games, especially multiplayer ones, are only available as licenses on Steam.
Delivery Apps #
While undeniably convenient, grocery and food delivery apps like DoorDash and Instacart exacerbate sedentary lifestyles. Not only are they costlier than in-person alternatives, but also unhealthier. Similarly, I avoid using online marketplaces like Amazon, especially for basic needs. It’s healthier to have a routine that involves going outside to buy things, rather than having everything delivered to your door.
Of course there are some items that are only available online, but even then I try to purchase directly from the retailer’s website whenever possible. I try to treat ordering online as a last resort, only considered after all other options have been exhausted.
Accounts #
Creation #
I try to keep the amount of accounts I create to a minimum. Many businesses and services offer enticing initial offers for creating accounts, but I don’t consider them worth the privacy trade-off. If they ask for too much information it’s an even bigger red flag.
This is just my mentality but Privacy Guides has a much more comprehensive section on account creation.
Deletion #
There were many accounts that I had accumulated in the past. I went through both my email and billing history to find and delete them all. For those I could not delete, I changed the credentials to be more secure and held onto them just in case. If there is no deletion option you can request it by citing the GDPR if you are in the EU—or just request anyway; what’s there to lose?
This is just my mentality, but Privacy Guides has a much more comprehensive section on account deletion.
Data Brokers #
On the topic of wiping information online, there’s a pretty shady industry of data brokers. They sell location data, skirt privacy laws, and covertly sell movement data to government agencies.
This is a problem I’m not quite sure how to deal with. You can manually request that your data be deleted from these data brokers, but doing so often requires forking over personal information like a government ID. Not to mention, you have to do this for dozens of data brokers. Doing it by hand can get really tedious really fast. By the end of it, all you may have accomplished is sending your government ID to 20+ shady entities.
There are paid services that offer to do this on your behalf—but I have a hard time trusting them:
The whole video is a great watch; I highly recommend it.
That’s why I’m hesitant, but as usual, Privacy Guides has a more comprehensive page on this.