Ask Lemmy

Not really, no. In fact, I feel that free and open source tech is the only means we have of fighting back against big tech corporations and technofeudalism.

I think about the fact that I can use tailscale (or headscale, or even a DIY wireguard mesh network) to create a WAN that allows me to log into my home server and access an entire collection of music, shows, games, utilities and projects that I care about from anywhere in the world and I realize that I actually don't have much use for the "world wide web" anymore outside of work, shopping and social media.

Corporate social media, I should add, is becoming increasingly useless as it fills up with more bots, slop, and unhinged people, making the importance of the fediverse and self-hostable FOSS alternatives that much more important. While it's not always easy to get people to move away from corporate social media, the first step towards a more healthy future for society is, at least, the existence of an alternative.

The web itself is poisoned.

Why do you need "the web" at all? What websites and services are you using on a daily basis?

For me it's mostly the fediverse, a little bit of browsing reddit (i no longer comment or participate), github/gitlab, youtube, youtube music, twitch, amazon and the occasional other online store.

I have a script running on my PC which "backs up" all of my favorite youtube videos and music. I clone interesting repos to my home gitlab. I'm weaning myself off of reddit more and more all the time. I use the *arrs to through a VPN to get access to shows that I want to watch. I play some online games, but mainly ones that work peer-to-peer or have self-hostable servers. Unlike most people, I have basically zero subscriptions.

Reddit is already garbage and gets full of more and more AI slop every day (i really only continue to check it out of addiction/habit, and only to read from a bigger pool of comments when some fucked up shit happens). The minute youtube becomes useless to me for discovering or acquiring new media, I'll be done with it. I only check twitch for the network effect of the few small streamers that I like there, and usually only once a day.

I don't find that I need a lot from the corporate internet anymore.

Browsers are turning into tracking engines.

The great thing about FOSS is that there will always be someone who rips out the AI slop and tracking shit, even if that person ends up being you.

Sites rely on manipulation and dark patterns. Social media is full of misinformation and ragebait.

Stop going to those sites.

It feels exhausting to route around a web that’s already been captured.

The part I don't understand is why you feel that the problems of the WWW are at all relevant to your WAN?

So Facebook, Reddit and Youtube are a disaster... but what implication does that have on your private technology stack?

Why not trade the illusion of digital control for actual peace, get a dumb phone, a CD player, and check out books, movies, music, and games from the library as my entertainment?

Sure why not? Nothing wrong with that...

But why not also take those things from the library, rip them into a digital format, and store them on your server?

The "internet" is certainly in a death spiral. But I'll be fine because I understand that technology isn't the enemy, large corporations are. FOSS technology belongs to the people and we can wield it for our own benefit without any corporate or government gatekeepers other than our ISP (and maybe not even them...).

Even open-source projects are being pulled under corporate influence (ex: Firefox adoption of AI).

It's open source... just fork it lol (or use a fork someone else already made)

get a dumb phone

Dumb phones have less privacy and security compared to Cheap Moto Phone + LineageOS

a CD player, and check out books, movies, music, and games from the library as my entertainment?

If you don't own a house that you intend to live in permanently, like if you are a renter for example, its much more painful to move when you have an entire bookshelf of stuff vs just a few hard drives that can fit in a backpack.

(Edit: Also, if you can get "free" stuff online... if you know what I mean... 😉)

Tech is here to stay, tech is not a bad thing, we should direct the effort to be "how do we retake control?"

The future is: FOSS, Open Hardware, etc...

Don't relinquish control and go amish.

Don't bring bow and arrows to a gunfight.

Why try to reconnect? Everything you've listed is (more or less) true. If you'd rather not contribute to that shit pile, then don't. You don't need to be in control of a bunch of this stuff. If you'd like to opt out, then you should. It sounds like that would be more fulfilling to you.

It's OK to touch grass.

I am wondering if it would be cheaper to buy a small patch of woodland than buying a new GPU when mine dies. Make a little shelter and play a few small steamdeck games perhaps and leave it at that.

It all really depends. If you're worried about corporate control of everything, we are actually in a really good place, and the future is looking up. Linux is easier to use than ever, and open source adoption is increasing. EU countries are in the midst of weening themselves off of closed-source software from US tech giants like Microsoft. Additionally, self-hosted software is mature enough now to provide genuine alternatives to paid close-source services (Jellyfin instead of streaming, Immich instead of Google Photos, etc).

While I hate AI for a multitude of reasons, users are starting to push back on it, and the eventual bursting of the related financial bubble may take care of the problem for us. Companies will start listening to users again and de-shittify their products when they start losing enough money.

I think the major thing that has changed, and which may be affecting you, is the overall attitude toward the Internet, big tech companies, and technology in general has changed. As a millennial who lived through the rise of home Internet and online communities, I used to have a ton of optimism toward the Internet and big tech companies like Google (remember "Don't be evil"?). There was so much promise and opportunity in the Internet and most people thought that it was changing society for the better. In hindsight, we were we wrong. Big tech companies became just as evil and greedy as big companies in other industries. They used their power and influence to corrupt and enshittify the Internet and related tech for their own ends. And don't get me started on social media.

The good news is that there are still pockets of light on the Internet, populated by tech-savvy users, who tend to be on the higher end of the intelligence scale. It's why I'm on Lemmy and not X or Facebook. My advice to you is to spend your time on the Internet in places that enrich you, especially smaller communities and forums. As for your meat-space friends and relatives, become a tech-evangelist and show them that there are open-source and self-hosted alternatives to the enshittified products offered by big tech companies. We have more choice now than ever.

I'm not about to give it up but I'm reducing it by a lot.

I really hope this becomes a trend, I'm really tired of smart phones and everything in our lives having to go through them.

You know what? I'll start leaving it at home more often. Most times I'm at a walking distance from home.

For me it really was the fediverse that saved my opinion of tech, at least at the start. From that I found HackerNews (which I don't use anymore for reasons), then omg.lol, and went down a rabbit hole of self hosting that ended with me finding my love for tech again. Because it is disheartening, and a lot of how tech is now is just... Bad for you (and, admittedly, fedi's no different there).

I also just... Disconnected from how a lot of tech is being run. While, yes, I'm doing this to avoid big tech, it's also just fun for me, and I'm not gonna have Google being evil ruin a hobby that's been with me for life.

That being said, I do a lot more analog stuff now, or stuff that's digital but removed from the internet. Knitting, writing (though that is on a computer), journaling, boardgames, I'd even class about half of how 3d printing works in this. It's about finding a balance that works for you