an extended meditation on presence (we also have chickens)
Good lord, it's like I'm an entirely different person.
I started a list over lunch in an attempt to track what-all I've changed since January 7, when I clicked on Janet Vertesi's Cyber-Cleanse in someone else's CoSo post and thought "well, I'm already not using Chrome for a browser, I wonder what email options exist besides Gmail?"
Since then, I have uprooted every Automattic, Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Twitter, Cloudflare, and "generative AI" product from my life to the extent it is within my power to do so. It's easier to say what I'm still stuck with. Work requires me to use a Windows machine, Microsoft Authenticator and Google mail/drive/etc; so many websites now require Cloudflare that it's tough to navigate the Internet without allowing it; so many sites are on AWS or Automattic products that I can't totally avoid those; and I have one Windows laptop left whose sole purpose is to run Pyware.
(N.b. the first person to offer a Linux-based, lightweight, functional alternative to Pyware will make a killing, especially if it's Pyware-compatible but cheaper. Think OpenOffice but Pyware.)
I changed where and how I blog. My computers all now run Linux. I bought a Japanese phone and put a Scandinavian OS (Sailfish) on it - it can still be tracked via cell phone towers, but it can't rat on me to Google, Microsoft, or any other such company. I bought a new printer after my HP ink ran out, because I'm tired of paying more for printer ink than I do for oil or gold. My house never had many "smart" devices anyway, but except for my phone, it now has none.
I canceled all my streaming services, as the longer this project went on, the more creepily invasive they seemed. "Here, let me pay you to harvest data about my viewing preferences" just got...weird. Also, I found I wasn't using any streaming service enough to make it worthwhile to keep, especially as my own life started to interest me more absent the fog of social media.
I ditched all social media, and my only regret was using it in the first place. Infinite scroll, algorithmic attention arresting, and all the other tricks drained my mental energy. They ate my time. I'm pretty sure they mined out parts of my soul. I'm also pretty sure the soul is a renewable resource.
I also canceled my broadband Internet service. My phone plan's hotspot easily covers my at-home Internet needs. As expected, I do most of my Internetting at work anyway. I do not miss the broadband at all.
I still spend about two to four hours a day staring at my phone, according to my time-tracking app (which only tracks time and does absolutely nothing else, courtesy of the Jolla Store). But I now spend nearly all of it reading the news, texting with people I know and love in real life, and reading ebooks.
I still read forums that interest me every now and then: 32bit Cafe, Bogleheads, and Backyard Chickens all show up in my regular rotation.
32bit.cafe
Bogleheads
Backyard Chickens
But I comment far less often than I used to do. I'm no longer looking for interaction, just information. That weird, draining need to Be Seen is no longer there. I'm able to read conversation threads without feeling compelled to interject.
I have no more hours in a day than I had before and no more hours than anyone else has, yet I feel absolutely deluged with free time and energy. I'm reading things I've always wanted to read but never felt I "had time." My house is cleaner than ever. I more than doubled my menagerie of pets this year, yet I get more chores done in a day than ever.
The number of ads I'm exposed to daily has dropped precipitously. Several times in the past month, I've looked back at my day and thought "I don't think I've seen or heard a single ad today."
My urge to shop is also almost completely gone. I briefly had the annual "must do back to school shopping" urge a few weeks ago; for the first time in my life, though, it was followed by "why? My closet and pantry are full. There is not one thing I need and I don't want to deal with going out and spending money on stuff just to have to manage it when I get it home."
For the back to school shopping urge to go unheeded is huge for me. I'm a massive sucker for school supplies and fall fashion. I never don't go back to school shopping. Except this year. This year, I wanted to Not Bother more than I wanted to shop. It astonished me.
Don't take any of this to mean I've reached some kind of promised land of free time or personal revelation. I'm still bumbling around trying to make the best of whatever the hell "life" is, just like everyone else. But I no longer feel like my attempts to do so are being hijacked by someone else's demands for my attention every waking moment of every day. Significant portions of my time are spent doing things no device can track.
It's fantastic.
--