Rebellion

It is time for a rebellion.

The technologies that were intended to unite us, connect us, show us our common humanity and tear down walls and divisions have been coopted by bad actors to keep us fearful, angry, and misinformed so that as much monetary value can be extracted from us as possible.

Big Tech has become a synonym for no privacy, no decency, no security.

This happened not because tech companies got big, but because they discovered that it was more profitable to sell us to advertisers than it was to sell us products that empower us.

In the early days of the personal computer revolution, companies tried to make “bicycles for the mind”, machines that could extend our personal capabilities to create, to solve problems, and to make our worlds a little bit better.

The web arrived and gave us all global reach to publish our thoughts and connect with our fellow humans in ways we never before dreamed of, all based on free and open technologies, controlled by no single entity, and new ideas, new businesses, new communities, and new creations flourished.

But then came “the cloud”, a layer of proprietary, closed, corporate-run services built on top of the web in order to regain centralized control of the users and put an end to that pesky freedom that the open web had briefly threatened us with.  The cloud brought walled gardens, “social media” silos, algorithm-generated content feeds, endless subscription fees for things that were formerly purchases that came with ownership, and, most importantly, control of the way people think, talk to each other, and even what information they are exposed to.  Control was firmly re-established.  The biggest companies found that it was better for their stock prices if they innovated less and spent more time milking their human herds with planned obsolescence, meaningless incremental “upgrades” that solved no new problems, and a massive amount of manipulation and thought control masquerading as “For You” or “Discovery”.

Then AI came along to make the production of low-value, high-gloss, mass propaganda and slop into even more of an industry than it already was and almost immediately the cloud silos were filled with trash being spoon fed to us by algorithms that are finely tuned to keep us “engaged” even if that engagement is due to outrage or anger or pain or sadness.  The good of the planet, of the people on it, you, me, our loved ones, our animal companions, none of this is factored in to technologies being developed these companies anymore.

The only thing that matters is that we engage.  We give them our time.  We give them our attention.

We take the drugs they feed us.  That keeps the profit engine running.

We are the reason billionaires exist, even as we complain that they shouldn’t.

We give them our money.  We give them our beautiful, finite, invaluable time on this earth.

We make them.

We complain, we decry, we say how we wish that fascism and ignorance weren’t on the rise, we protest, we shake our skinny fists in the air, but then we unlock our phones and scroll, we let them feed our minds and our hearts, we let them “tailor” our experience, and they are oh so good at it, they are in the business of manipulation, none have ever been better and all they need is our time.  That’s where their power comes from.

We need to stop making fascists.  We need to stop feeding billionaires.  We need to stop being in silos where we can be easily exploited and farmed.

We have everything we need to make this happen except for the collective will to do it.

The web, the open and free collection of technologies upon which “the cloud” has descended, is still there.  Yes, 95% of the traffic and commerce on the internet is centralized around fewer than a dozen cloud silos but it doesn’t have to be this way.  Anybody can publish themselves without paying Meta or Google or Amazon or Apple or Microsoft or anybody else with either their money or their data.

Every “service” or app that is infested with spyware and tracking and manipulative algorithms has a counterpart that is free, open, decentralized, and better but the problem is that most people don’t realize it because Big Tech is really all about Big Marketing where as the free alternatives (both free speech and free as in beer) do not.

The way to start the rebellion we need is simple.  Each of us, individually, need to look at which apps and services we are using and asking ourselves if we are supporting the very people and institutions we are against and then ask, what could I do instead?  There are alternatives.  They may not yet be big, they may be small, but they exist.  Humans are still clever and ingenious.  The truth is still out there.  No matter how many political autocrats and corporate sociopaths there are, doing everything in their power to sap us of our collective will to resist, we are still the source of their power.

When you go online, don’t make it easy for them.  Use the site, not the app.  Use a browser that blocks tracking.  Always unsubscribe from every marketing email.  Opt out, always.  Abandon FOMO (fear of missing out) and embrace YAGNI (you ain’t gonna need it).   Don’t be a sucker.

Don’t pay for things when there is a better option available for free.  Don’t subscribe to software, period.  Don’t rent, own.  Buy the music you like from the artists you like, directly, instead of streaming it using some cloud service that will maybe, someday, if they are lucky, give them a penny or two.

Downvote AI content anywhere you see it.  Disable AI features in your software wherever possible.  Turn off the AI search results.  Don’t use technology that is based on theft and destroying the environment.

Spend more meaningful time in the real world where there are no algorithms deciding what you should experience.  When you engage, engage with all of your senses.  Engage with real people and real experiences.  Engagement is your most valuable asset, spend it wisely.

I’ve been very intentionally doing all of the above for the last year or more.  It has helped my sanity, my wallet, my happiness levels, my peace of mind.

I can’t help but think that if we all did all of these things, the cloud would clear.  Big Tech would just be tech again.  The silos would still exist but they would mostly consist of scams and ads being created by and responded to by AI-powered bots (which, let’s be honest, is pretty much already the case).  Ghost towns populated by nothing more than echoes of anger.

We have the power, each of us, to help starve the monsters, one little bit of attention at a time.

This is how we beat the fascists.  We stop using the tools that they use to feed us their messages.

This is how we beat the oligarchs.  We stop enriching them with our hard earned money and precious time.

This is how we reclaim free thought.  We use the web, not the cloud. We disrupt the “disrupters”.  We talk to each other.  We host our own platforms.  We make our own music, sing our own songs, write our own books, make our own movies, and we use tech that isn’t owned, controlled, or hosted by mega-corporations.

Anybody can do this.  You have the tools.  We all do.  The knowledge about how to do it is easy to find.  But with the majority of your friends and family and work colleagues all penned up in the silos, you have to accept that for a little while at least, for the time being, there are more people stuck in the cloud than there are on the open internet.  There are fewer places to shop since Amazon, fewer places to socialize since Meta, fewer places to search and discover information since Google, but that’s just how it is, for now.

The only way to change it is to change it one decision, one action, at a time.