on becoming ungovernable
I have quit shopping.
I haven't quit buying things; I bought groceries today, for example. I will be buying enough gas to fill my tank in a day or two.
But I've stopped "shopping" as a recreational or boredom-driven habit. I don't even want to look at things anymore. I don't want to go into stores. It's not that I've chosen not to shop; shopping has become something I don't even want to do.
I told a friend this earlier, and they responded with surprise. After all, recreational shopping has been something I've done - and fought with, at times - for years. It was the only hobby my mother and I shared, so it's associated with a lot of good memories for me.
Knowing all this, my friend asked, "Why do you think you stopped?"
I thought for a moment and answered, "I think it's my way of becoming ungovernable."
While corporate surveillance of us all could be put to any number of nefarious uses, the fact is that such surveillance is being put to the use of tracking and predicting our behavior to get us to buy things. It has been for years. Not only are ads everywhere, they become more "everywhere" every year.
The big tech companies, too, are "more everywhere" every year. Our behavior is the raw material they mine to drive our shopping behavior. There's lots of other behavior they can manipulate with that data, and at least some evidence that some of them have manipulated us. But the system is purpose-built to mine our behavior to part us from our cash.
When I started decoupling my life from Big Tech earlier this year, I was driven mostly by two things: (1) a vague desire for more "privacy" and (2) a real joy in discovering that alternatives built by real humans are out there and are thriving, and that I can become one of those humans. I wasn't thinking about my longstanding shopping habit.
But without online shopping accounts, it's no longer easy for me to scroll and click when I'm bored. If I think I want something, I can't just pop into Amazon and order it. I have to think "where could I get that around here?" I have to decide whether the thing is worth going out for. If I want to order something online, I have to spin up a Privacy.com card, which also makes me ask if I want the thing enough to do the work.
And thanks to both ad blockers and big changes in my online browsing habits, I see few to no ads - so I have fewer urges to buy things in the first place. When I do need to order online, I use an email alias, which I delete the first time a sales email rolls in.
Ads that can't get to me can't influence my behavior. If I don't spend time on the sites that sell things, they can't influence my behavior. Capitalism cannot govern me in the moments I choose to step outside its reach.
"Being ungovernable" doesn't always mean burning things down. Sometimes, it just means saying "no, thank you."