How to switch your tech habits to escape the techno-feudalist takedown

All the tricks and hacks for exiting the META/X/etc death spiral

I promised to put all the shares from this Community Thread: Tech tips for sticking it up the broligarchs in one, neat spot. The “softer” tips for dialling down tech dependence (at the bottom) should not be dismissed. In fact, I think they are the more urgent switches to be implemented, for reasons that extend to being prepared for the kind of emergencies much of Europe is now warning its citizens to be mindful of (the next post will cover this). Thank you to everyone who chimed in!

I have resisted using LLMs for any of my work to date, but gave it a try for ironic purposes just now. I asked it to: “Create an image of what life would look like if we didn't have social media.” Seemingly we would all be white and dress at GAP.

In contrast, when I asked a standard search engine for images of the same, it coughed up this.

The major app swaps

• As a starting point, reader

  Hamersley
  shared this detailed Cyber-Cleanse from The Opt Out Project which shows how to switch out from big tech. “It walks you through the best order to make the switch, what tools to use, and how to protect your data long-term”.

• Leave WhatsApp (owned by META) and move conversations to Signal. Also, use Signal groups for deep discussions instead of relying on Facebook [just not for discussing war plans - Sarah.]

• Instead of Instagram, use Pixelfed. It’s like old-school Instagram. It is an open source project, no ads and privacy focused aka they are not selling your data.

• Use cash instead of card or phone payments. You can read Brett Scott’s guide on defending cash transactions and watch his video "How to defend cash in under 5 minutes."