Ask Lemmy

Avoiding contributing to the economy as much as possible.

Doing business under the table, never eating at restaurants, never spending money on digital entertainment I could be getting for free.

I'm honestly a lot happier than when I was consuming.

The only commercial social media I use anymore (or at least post on) is Bluesky, and I'm getting weary of that, too. I've switched completely to open source operating systems and workflows in the past year or so. During that time I've also become vegan and am trying not to go to any sort of shop at night. That last one has nothing to do with the state of things at this very moment, but I don't want to give companies more reason to force people onto late shifts when working in retail/customer service already sucks and even full time won't get you close to a living. The last thing anyone needs is their sleep thrown off, as I know from struggling with it myself. I may not be able to stop buying things, but fuck working when you should be sleeping. Unless you're literally an essential worker, in which case those shit shifts should be cycled between people, not consistent.

...I didn't mean for that to become a rant lmao

Been boycotting Wetherspoons (a popular chain of pubs in the UK, owned by a Brexit supporting prick) for over a decade now.

Since July I've been boycotting US companies. I've gone as far as setting up my own self-hosted home server for document / bookmark / media storage, which is actually fantastic and I wish I'd done this sooner. All streaming services have been cancelled. I only buy from European brands, and only directly from their own website (no Amazon, etc). This was the first year in a long time where I've declined a phone upgrade with my network - I'll just keep my current phone as long as possible. All my smart home tech is being gradually phased away from Google / Nest and towards Matter / Home Assistant. Windows has been wiped from my PC and I've moved to Linux. I cancelled my Adobe subscription in favour of FOSS alternatives. My family and close friends have all switched to Signal (though we did this years ago).

While I still use social media (I make digital art), the only thing I ever post on Facebook/Insta/Threads is my artwork. I don't post anything personal anymore, because that's my data.

Despite all these "sacrifices", I don't really feel like I've lost anything. In fact, things are arguably better now I'm unshackled from US tech giants. I'm saving a ton of money too from all the cancelled subscriptions.

Sounds like a fed question

Well we could all gently suggest to people that are having a crisis in continued existance, first that we want them to remain with us, but if you must go, why not take some trash out with you? If only we could tune in somehow, we could all play the new mario brothers game multiplayer and drop out of politics.

Trying to build community resistance

I put bologna on their car so it eats holes in the paint. 😤

I use Linux on my laptop and a GrapheneOS on my phone. I use almost all FOSS software, so they're not getting most of my data and selling it like they used to. In the grand scheme of things, it's not hurting any of the bigtech.

Posting here for ideas, in trying to up my engagement.

Anticonsumption. And as a logical extension of this: not reproducing.

Encouraging others to do the same.

Nice try.

By being very good at my job.

I built an encrypted, secure, takedown safe network called Tenfingers but during the roughly 10 years of building, honing and polishing it, only 2 persons have ever tried it and one was a friend. So I guess it's not really what people want 😅.

I learned a lot though.