So many feelings
Since the start of January, I have:
- deleted my Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Wordpress, and Meta* accounts (I ditched Twitter a while ago)
- divested myself of browsers and search engines associated with the above mega-companies
- got new, secure email accounts to handle private stuff, logins and accounts, and trash respectively
- hunted down and deleted as many of my unused accounts on various sites as I could find
- set up a Privacy.com account for masked online shopping and worked out a budget that has me using cash for nearly all other purchases
- got a VPN and password manager
- set up SimpleLogin for email aliases
- installed Ubuntu on my home computers
- installed F-Droid and AuroraOSS on my phone to avoid using the Google Store
- deleted every app from my phone that has a browser-accessible counterpart
- started using an RSS reader for the first time since Google Reader got Tuvix'd
- started blogging here
- moved my only other essential web page (my portfolio) to static HTML at Neocities
And I have the following works in progress:
- talking all my friends into moving to Signal with me
- acquiring a new phone that will allow me to install a custom ROM, thus freeing my phone from Google
These are major changes, and I'm glad I made them. They have reignited my joy in the Internet - and they have made my offline life better too.
Yet, as with any big change, they also come with Big Feelings. Now that the claws of Big Tech are loosening, I'm starting to understand just how badly the "five sites sharing screenshots of the other four" have messed with me all these years.
I keep recovering little memories I thought I lost. None of them are good. Times I ignored my baby niece (who is 16 now) for my phone. All the times Spouse and I scrolled or shared Facebook arguments with one another - all the time we lost together. The years I spent writing the most plastic Internet slop for my Big Professional Blog - not even for SEO purposes so much as because I bought the lie that that was what the people wanted.
Web 2.0 literally changed the way I write. The thing I have done for a living since I was 17. And I let it.
I don't blame myself. I'm not sure what else I would have done, given the circumstances. But I grieve.
*actually I still have my FB login, because I am the "legacy contact" for my late spouse's page. I promised Spouse's parents I'd leave it up, as it means a lot to them. But that account is now linked to a throwaway email address and I removed all my posts (though I'm sure Meta still has them).