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Any suggestions for overcoming addiction to capitalist big tech social media and streaming etc? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by Fisherman75@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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I've tried getting into peertube to have something to watch. I'm exploring copyleft music on open audio / funkwhale. I'm on here in lemmy as of this week. I'm playing with mastodon and the fediverse. I've tried studying psychology and psychology-adjacent territory like Deleuze and Guattari and Foucault and Derrida so I can break down what the Facebook algorithms are doing to me, how pop and mainstream music is designed and produced in conjunction with advertising to screw with our heads and make us buy things, how YouTube music suggestion algorithms screw with my head and ultimately make me buy things, and I've tried to start learning to code on a basic level at least so I can convert my chromebook to Ubuntu and hopefully my android phone, which I've paid off completely, to some kind of fully open source OS.

I've let my Netflix subscription wither away after just not paying it and try to not care about it anymore. I have no idea what to do about Amazon or Amazon Prime. I have some very important movies like 'Unhinged' and 'Donnie Darko' on there. I need to buy certain things in the present framework of my life right now, things that, in a small town with a particular disability keeping me from driving, I can only get on Amazon.

I'm doing a lot. But I still find myself jonesing for that death consciousness of mindlessly scrolling through Facebook totally vulnerable to an AI superpower extracting maximum profit from me perpetually. Moderation no longer seems remotely realistic. I can't shut the machine out. Has anybody found anything else I could try? I'm trying to find as many little strategies as possible.

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[–] squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Sit quietly in a room and meditate. Every time you want to reach for a device, meditate for 5 minutes. Just breathe.

Or just go for a walk without any tech.

Edit: separate the capitalist bit from what you're going through. Dependency is an individual experience, and there are dealers out there, but it's all about choices you make for yourself.

[–] WeeSheep@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't think that capitalism is the only means of entertainment. Socialism brought us libraries. You can rent books and DVDs.

[–] squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago

I completely agree. The post kinda combined the two ideas and I was trying to suggest separating them. Anyone can get harmfully hooked on anything.