Why I Left Social Media (and how you can too!)
- Ash Hutchings
- Oct 21
- 24 min read
Updated: Nov 25
NOTE: This piece is split into two parts: an introductory essay, followed by a guide on how to reduce/replace common apps from predatory companies. The essay begins here and the guide here. There's also some further reading recommendations here.
Introduction: You and the Basilisk
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fixated on tapeworms. There was this TV show, Mr Meaty, a Nickelodeon kids’ sitcom-turned-accidental-horror about two teenage fast-food workers. A very 2000s premise. And it features an infamous tapeworm episode which seems to have scarred every kid who viewed it. I was one of them.
Mr Meaty’s central duo consists of a spotty, skinny rake of a boy called Josh and the fat, pig-looking Parker, who gets the tapeworm in ‘Moochmaster P.’ Again, it was the 2000s. The episode’s entire first half is devoted to a cheap and offensive spectacle: Parker rampaging through the mall, snatching and scoffing snacks off anyone he can. Parker is sloppy, drooling, feral. Eventually, he tires of his klepto-gastro binge and falls into a food coma, rounding off the first act.
He awakes to find his next victim: an innocent burger mid-microwave cycle. The meat is still semi-raw. Still, his eyes light up and, of course, he can’t help himself; he gulps it down. And that’s it: he’s all fired up for another buffet but every time he’s about to chow down, the food disappears clean out of his hands. Josh records him, slows down the video, and they discover the culprit lurking inside. It’s nightmarish, the way the tapeworm bursts forth from Parker’s open mouth, totally alien, a set of teeth behind teeth.
But not to worry. Josh knows how to handle this the ‘scientific way’; he ties a sausage to the end of a fishing rod, lures the tapeworm to bite, and then reels in. Parker writhes around as Josh yanks the line and tears the parasite from his gut. On some level I’m sure I knew that a simple antiparasitic would be enough to flush a real worm out. But the surreality and grisliness of this spectacle – its allure – stick with me.
I don’t want to have a tapeworm. I really, really don’t. But I have to confess: I’m a little tapeworm-curious. Something about the visceral horror, the alien wonder of it, captivates me. What would it feel like to have something unknown writhing inside your gut? What’s worse, the paranoid ignorance of the early stages or the disgust of the revelation? Who would I be, when I become the kind of person who gets a tapeworm?
Now I have my answer. In the 2010s, social media became our tapeworm. In 2025, it has grown into a basilisk.
********
Like most of us, I first felt it wriggling in 2016. I was fifteen, the age of insecurity, and I was on the cusp of leaving secondary school, just as Britain would soon leave the EU. After emerging virtually alone, I felt the need to reinvent myself in sixth-form. So I found friends, I joined school clubs, I rediscovered my natural brightness and energy. But beneath it all there were murmurs of nausea.
I’d had Facebook for four innocuous years, but now Instagram was becoming relevant, and Snapchat. You had to have Snapchat. Some people had WhatsApp but they were mostly Europeans; why did Europe all use WhatsApp? Weird. Looking back, the whole ‘platform capitalism’ thing was weird. But it seemed all my new friends were burying themselves in heaps of apps so, if I wanted to be liked, I’d better grab a shovel.
Yet social media never stuck with me, not really. Every time I posted something I felt this nagging sickness, this urge to check like counts, comments, replies, whether I wanted to or not. It was all so public, every last move so fucking consequential. I grew angry with myself; I read books, I cared little about my appearance (at first), I was supposed to be above this sort of thing. As it turned out, ‘this sort of thing’ would, over the years, broaden until it became ‘everything.’ The platforms stole everything.
Holidays spent on edge. Did I message enough people to say ‘Happy X’ or ‘Merry Y’? Birthdays disrupted with my Facebook feed at the back of my mind. Did I have as many messages as my boyfriend had received? I was vulnerable, still learning to like myself again after years of shutdown, and the social media boom swept me up. While I was worrying, the worm was feeding.
Since then, a lot’s happened. The Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed just how little privacy we had… on Facebook. So we switched platforms. Snapchat (temporarily) fell off because of the prevalence of paedophiles and stalkers, but it came back pretty soon. Still, some of us switched platforms. Twitter destroyed public discourse, facilitated the spread of misinformation, and then got bought by a Nazi billionaire with a strange fetish for the twenty-fourth letter of the alphabet. So many of us, again, switched platforms. And nothing got better.
You’ve felt the tightening in your guts, right? The swelling of something growing bigger as we feed it with ever larger pieces of our souls? Everything feels off, and you know why and I know why, the news keeps telling us why and we’re still hanging around in the rotten nooks of the Internet like chunks of plaque between teeth. So many TikTok jokes about brain rot from TikTok. Tweets mostly complain about Twitter, or how people behave on Twitter, or some drama happening on Twitter. Where are the people who actually ‘touch grass’? Has anyone checked if there’s an outside?
You may think I’m being melodramatic. If so, good. The only way to achieve something these days is melodrama, is to care in passionate, messy excess against the obsessive anxious tide of ‘chill’ under which these platforms seek to drown us. Make no mistake: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube et al are all histrionic places. But they make money off the idea that drama is funny, that mess is cringe, that imperfection is embarrassing. While you are meant to fight with faceless Russian bots, you are also meant to aspire to the ideal of ‘chill’ – a watery, Milquetoast tolerance towards anything and everything in art, life, and politics. ‘It comes and it goes, man.’ Is this what you want to be?
The question may be rhetorical and your answer may not matter. Thanks to AI, it’s looking more and more like social media, work, leisure time will all boil down to computers talking to other computers. Any actual humans involved will have their entire online lives stolen, copied, churned up, and spat back out at them with vanishing coherence. Think of it: your entire digital footprint excavated and examined to extrapolate data. You may still walk, but to AI you are a fossil. And the worm inside you grows bigger, stronger, scalier.
*****
In 2010, a user named Roko posted a thought experiment to the discussion forum LessWrong. They posited that someday an artificial superintelligence may arrive which will punish everyone who knows of its existence but refuses to do everything in their power to assist it, including those who refused to help bring it into being. This is Roko’s Basilisk.
Just like with Parker’s tapeworm in Mr Meaty, the reality of AI is more pedestrian and insidious. Our basilisk is not a HAL or a SHODAN, some sci-fi monster of cold silicon. It is not one machine taking over the world, but an unjust system of money, power, and incentives, which a load of tiny little machines and their billionaire fathers perpetuate. It spins further and further away from identifiable reality and spirals into trauma, loss, and destruction.
I’m done. I’m reaching into my guts and tearing out the basilisk. And I would have much sooner if big tech made it easy.
But they don’t. Most of us (myself included) are not very tech literate, and we’re profitable that way. Even if we know that social media is owned by a few private companies and individuals, it’s near impossible to feel that truth when these platforms are so public. But just as private ownership is not the only way to organise a company, it is not the only way to develop technology. In this essay, I will run you through a slew of open source and privacy-friendly alternatives to platforms you enjoy, and give some advice on how to manage the transition away from old habits, based on my own experience.
Open source platforms are community-made and their source code is publicly available, meaning that anyone who wants to fix bugs or add features is able to do so (if they can code). Such software is almost always non-profit, almost always free or quite cheap, and always more ethical than the big-name private alternatives.
My intention in writing this is not to make you feel ashamed or force you to my way of thinking. If you read this whole article and decide not to change your online habits at all, thank you for reading. All I want is for us to think more critically about what we engage with, and for each of us to make an informed decision. That, to me, is liberation.
Although I have never really been a social media person, I still found this move difficult. It required a lot of time and emotional investment. If you decide that you’re on board with what I’m saying, but just can’t bring yourself to make all the desired changes, that’s okay. All that matters is to work on what you can and try your best to limit harm. Far from being uncritically ‘chill’, trying every day to be a little bit better than yesterday: that’s the best any of us can do. Be kind to yourself.
If you’re going ahead with the Degoogle, as it’s often called, now is a great time for it. As the AI arms race approaches terminal velocity, more and more influencers and public figures are critically re-examining digital services. Videos of burgeoning vinyl and DVD collections abound in these early stages of a physical media comeback. Fed up with their device’s toxic omniscience, some are switching back to ‘dumb’ phones. For long-time social media sceptics, to say we feel vindicated is an understatement.
The cultural tides are beginning to turn and a new wave is rising. Come ride it before the old one crashes to the shore.
Disclaimer: I am not a technophobe
Before I get into my tips, a clarification. In our all-digital, tech-driven world, it’s easy to misunderstand any articles critical of current technology as a call to throw out our computers, burn down our houses, and return to the wild. This is not that.
Let me be very clear: I love technology. All the writers who influenced this essay love technology. When you love something, you want it to be as good as possible, even if that means rethinking your relationship with it. We don’t want tech to go anywhere, we just want the power to choose how we use it.
The following list offers few wholesale replacements for our devices. At no point will I be telling you to ‘touch grass’ (ugh), nor will I scald you for screen-time usage. That’s not to say these can’t be problematic, but they’re not what I’m interested in here.
In short, I am not trying to be sanctimonious. Yesterday I spent three hours playing L.A. Noire instead of writing this, and a further hour fucking around with my computer’s system settings. I am no different other technophiles and I wouldn’t want to be.
Now, let’s talk about change.
How to Change Your Online Habits for the Better
Step 1: Do Your Research!
Here it comes, the ‘boring’ first step (which I loved).
You’ll have heard a lot of tips to reduce screen time or change your habits: “Set time limits on your apps. Plan outside time into your day. Have you tried the Pomodoro technique?” These suggestions aren’t bad, they’re just advertised wrong. Each individual tip presented here and elsewhere is one small drop in the ocean of habit-forming; vital in one or two specific contexts, but let’s face it, merely going for a daily walk is not a cure-all.
The problem with silver-bullet solutions is that they treat you like a machine, not a thinking, feeling, curious human being. Only when you have a clear idea of what you’re working towards can you harness your motivation so indulge that desire to learn! If you don’t deepen your knowledge, the changes won’t stick.
If you’ve read this far, then there’s probably already a particular aspect of the current digital landscape that doesn’t sit right with you. It may be privacy concerns, the rise of AI, predatory monetisation tactics, lack of child protection and safety, exploitation, mental health concerns, lack of user-friendliness, or any number of other issues.
For me, it was these platforms’ destructive effects on communication and the social fabric that pushed me over the edge. But whatever your particular objection is, it’s a good starting point. Pick the thing that makes you most uncomfortable about the state of things online, and begin your journey there. Anger can be a good catalyst for change.
I’ve included an Appendix at the bottom of this post with a whole lot of videos, articles, podcasts, and books which impacted my thinking here. Have fun with it, check out whatever interests you. There’s no optimum time period to be researching for, it’s as long as you like.
For me, I had years of minor doubts, but it wasn’t until May, when I began research for a different essay, that I became convinced. I was reading all sorts about the impact of social media and popular platforms on society and politics. After I breezed through The Shallows by Nicholas Carr and Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier, I knew I wanted things to change.
You can do this. You just need to find your groove.
Step 2: Make a List of Alternatives
Now that you know why you’re changing things, you need to decide what you’re changing. Which apps will you stop using and what will you replace them with?
In making this decision, I found two sources especially useful. Far and away the best inspiration has come from the r/degoogle subreddit. Here, users post criticisms of Google and other major tech companies, and offer advice and support for those trying to move away from the surveillance internet. This post was my starting point, but feel free to browse.
The second influence on my journey was this website I found while trying to stop using Amazon. It lists a whole bunch of advice for changing your Internet habits (and life) to be a bit more ethical. Just as with everything in this article, I recommend you do as much or as little of it as suits you, but the whole site is a life-saver.
Once you know what you want to change, it’s time to do it! Don’t worry, I’ve got your back here too.
Step 3: The Alternatives
This is by far the longest section, and I suspect many readers won’t want or need to read the whole thing. I’ve included this table of contents so, once you know what you’d like to change, have a look at what I recommend:
I should also say that I am no authority on this process. I’m just one person and what’s most important is for you to research your options and choose what best suits you. Agency is the answer!
Change your Browser (Edge/Firefox/Chrome/Safari → LibreWolf)
Let’s start with a pretty fundamental one. Convenient as Chrome and the others may seem, all of them are owned by a different company which has an interest in selling your data. To allow them to be your gateway to the internet is to give them unbridled access to all your online habits. They present the illusion of convenience while refusing to offer a truly secure and efficient experience.
I know this because I now use LibreWolf. It’s an open-source browser based on Firefox. LibreWolf beats Firefox out though, because it comes with a plug-in called uBlock Origin pre-installed. This plug-in is both an incredibly good ad-blocker and actively works to block data-harvesting processes as much as possible. It’s seamless, it never throws up any pop-ups or makes its presence known; the Internet is just nice now.
When you open it up, the first thing LibreWolf does is give you a couple of recommendations for how to keep your data more secure, even from them. I’ve never seen an app that cares so much about personal privacy and user dignity. It also lets you import all your data (bookmarks, passwords, history etc.) from any other browser, so the switch is seamless.
Download LibreWolf for Windows here. If you’re a Mac or Linux user, you have to take some extra steps, which the help page can guide you through here (Mac) or here (Linux).
Change your Search engine (Google → DuckDuckGo)
Hands up if you use Google. I’ll go ahead and assume it’s everyone but me.
If you’ve installed Librewolf, it uses DuckDuckGo as its default browser, so no change needed. Otherwise, the link is here.
There are a couple of other privacy-focused or ethical alternatives, such as the Tor browser which allows you to surf the Deep Web or Ecosia, which plants one tree for every 45 searches. However, DuckDuckGo outperforms both in terms of user-friendliness and security. Tor is a massive pain to set up and Ecosia’s search ranking is crap, plus it’s plagued by some controversy around alleged greenwashing.
Change your social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc)
This might be the one that loses a lot of people. I haven’t yet found an alternative social media platform that I’m completely happy recommending. Many of the most popular alternatives have their own issues, and my favourites are too small to be lively. Increasingly, I’m coming to think we ought to just leave social media to the history books.
I know that deletion sounds drastic and frightening. However, the social media companies happen to be the most insidious, profitable, and dangerous, so quitting them does a lot of good. But going cold-turkey is not easy.
However, if you want to make it easier, back up any photos or posts which you’d like to remember, either by screenshotting them or saving them onto your device where possible. Delete any accounts you own but no longer use. Delete any posts you want to and any that are older than 1-5 years depending on your preferences. Some apps have an option to auto-delete all posts after they reach a certain age. If you search ‘[app name] auto delete old posts’ in your browser, you should be able to find the steps. Deleting old posts doesn’t do much to stop Meta, X, or Apple from accessing data on them, but it does at least make your digital footprint a little less visible to third-parties and potential employers.
[EDIT 25/11/2025: Even if you delete data from Facebook/Twitter/Instagram etc., the platform holders may still have your information from other people's profiles. See this article for more information and to find out how to delete this too: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/komando/2023/04/16/delete-your-personal-data-info-from-facebook/11659380002/]
If you want to delete the apps but absolutely must have your social media fix, here are some possible replacements:
Instead of Facebook, try Friendica for advanced privacy or Trust Café for better fact-checking.
Instead of Twitter (never calling it X!), try using BlueSky, though I think BlueSky is pretty awful too. Mastodon is best for an ad-free, private, well-moderated experience.
Instead of Instagram, try Pixelfed. Like many of these apps it’s woefully underused, but gives all of the best features of Instagram without inducing suicidality and burnout in its users!
Instead of Pinterest, try… building a creative network. Again, not telling you to touch grass here. It’s more that there aren’t as yet any good Pinterest alternatives I know of. While it may seem harmless, Pinterest is up there with Meta as one of the main data-harvesters and exploiters. If you are creatively-minded and looking for inspiration, building a network by finding events and groups for creatives is a more robust and fruitful way to improve your skills and get your work out there.
Delete TikTok. There are no ethical replacements for TikTok. I don’t think such a thing could even exist.
Change your messaging apps (WhatsApp → Signal)
For many of us, myself included, it may not be possible to get rid of WhatsApp entirely due to work or community chats based on the app. This is a great loss to privacy as it’s owned by Meta. Even though the app’s promises of ‘end-to-end encryption’ are accurate, Meta can still access metadata from your messages (including location, time sent, and even message length), meaning that it’s not as private as the advertising implies. If Meta is hacked, much of your data would still be vulnerable.
The most widely-used privacy-focused messaging app is Signal. It’s far more secure and reliable than WhatsApp, so switch as many of your chats over as possible. With friends who don’t want to download another app (totally fair!), switching to text is also better than WhatsApp.
One other app I recommend if you do keep WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. is Beeper. Beeper lets you sign into your social media accounts and integrates all your direct messages onto one platform. Therefore, you don’t have to keep opening apps and checking them all independently.
While you will still be using Instagram, WhatsApp etc. when the messages are in transit, Beeper still protects your privacy because it obscures the fact that you’ve logged onto the app. Because you’re not opening any of the apps, you’re shielded from targetted advertising and data harvesters.
Change your video hosting platform (YouTube → FreeTube/Grayjay)
YouTube is Google’s most widely used service and some of the best stuff on the Internet is posted there. The good news is you can give up YouTube without giving up YouTube videos.
The tricky thing is Google really hates its users exercising freedom. It’s not profitable to them for us to be free. As such, they constantly update YouTube’s infrastructure in order to shut these apps down. I would like to recommend FreeTube as an alternative but, since it is down at time of writing, I will instead tell you about GrayJay.
[UPDATE: As of 21/10/25, FreeTube is working again! Download it here.]
GrayJay is a platform that syncs any video streaming accounts you own onto one platform. Let’s say you have accounts for YouTube, Nebula, Twitch, and Patreon. Ordinarily, you’d have to check each of these web pages separately to see what’s been uploaded. However, with GrayJay, you have all of your online video subscriptions in the same place. All you have to do is open the app and you can see everything your creators do on each platform.
It’s free-of-charge, ad-free, private, and allows you to import all your data quickly and efficiently. You can also get it both for desktop and Android. Honestly, apart from it sometimes being a bit slow to load, there is no reason not to make the switch from YouTube.
But let’s get back to my one true love: FreeTube. Though I recommend installing both, FreeTube is my primary platform to keep up with YouTubers. It may only contain creators from YouTube, but the app itself is ad-free, features a customisable interface, and includes a very reliable sponsor block feature which I recommend turning on. Their Sponsor Block automatically detects and skips all sponsored ad reads on every video. I used FreeTube for at least two and a half months and not once did this feature bug out.
FreeTube also respects your time and attention. As well as shielding you from YouTube’s algorithm, it also features tonnes of ‘distraction-free’ options which you can use to try and stop yourself from procrastinating. Both Grayjay and FreeTube are open-source, humane platforms that respect your time and privacy.
Changing your shopping habits (Amazon → Specialist shops)
Amazon is getting worse, and sometimes it’s not even cheaper.
Have you ever had that experience of searching for what you want and having to go to the next page to find something related? Or been so bewildered by options that you buy the cheapest one and it breaks after a few weeks? If so, you’ve been the victim of paid Amazon ads.
As Amazon has grown and sought further growth, they’ve started throwing a lot of shit at the wall to see what sells. Contemporary Amazon is therefore now flooded with dodgy products, scam listings, and AI-generated copy. To ditch Amazon is not only ethical, but mentally healthy too.
There is no single website I can recommend when it comes to Amazon alternatives. This site is probably the closest; it offers a search tool specifically for books that shows you a variety of ethical stores, and has recommended sites for other, non-book products.
My general advice is to go straight to the source when buying. For books, use the search tool on the website above or World of Books. For other media (DVDs, CDs, games) and general hardware, eBay is the way to go. For clothes, I recommend finding brands or designers (preferably ethical ones!) whose work you like, and checking out their websites. There’s also Vinted, of course.
As time goes on, you’ll stumble upon further alternatives. So get off Amazon and see what’s out there!
Changing Streaming Services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ etc → [REDACTED])
This is a tricky one. Where to watch your favourite films and TV shows? I have a few recommendations here.
First and foremost, two words: physical media. For the films, shows, and albums you really love, buying the DVDs, CDs, or vinyls is the best recommendation I can give you. Buying physical media new is the best way to directly financially support your favourite artists, while getting a bunch of bonuses. DVD special features and vinyl liner notes never went anywhere; we just got lost for a while. And even if you buy second-hand, while you may not be supporting the artists directly, you are taking care of the planet which is pretty important too.
But what if you want to watch a film but are not sure if you’ll like it? I can understand the hesitance to buying a DVD in this case; I usually wouldn’t. Well, there are other options for freely accessing media which I’m sure many of us already use. I won’t go into more detail here, but if you’re curious as to my thoughts on these options, please get in touch via the website enquiry form.
Your final option is to be more deliberate about what streaming subscriptions you have. I tend towards curated indie and arthouse services personally, such as MUBI or BFI Player. However, even here I’d encourage you to do your research; I cancelled my MUBI subscription after the recent revelation of their ties to Israeli defence investment. In general though, if you can find a streaming service with more thought and curation put into it (and especially if it’s publicly-funded!), you’re likely to have a better experience.
Changing your Music Streaming Platform (Spotify → TIDAL)
The rules here are similar to the previous entry: first and foremost, stick to physical media. Get a CD player on the cheap, or a record player on the slightly less cheap, and begin your collection!
However, one of the greatest joys of modern tech is being able to listen to music and podcasts on the go. If you still want the chance to jam while you’re out and about, there are better options that Spotify. My recommendation for music is TIDAL. It costs the same amount as a Spotify subscription but pays artists substantially higher royalties based on streams. It’s still not as much as buying from artists directly, but it’s significantly better than Spotify. Bear in mind also that many CDs and vinyls also contain a digital download code, so you can still take your faves out and about.
Like me, some of you may be podcast listeners. Well, not to worry! There are loads of options for podcast apps that are better than Spotify. My two favourites are Pocket Casts and Podbean, both of which are free to join and both of which are specifically for podcasts. But there’s many more, so shop around and see what you like.
Changing your Email Client (Gmail/Yahoo/Outlook → Tutamail/ProtonMail)
You didn’t think I’d forget about emails, did you? Google and Microsoft have all but cornered the email marketplace, with most people having a Gmail or Outlook account. But, like everything else they own, their email platforms are another excuse to harvest data and manipulate users.
For more private email clients, I recommend either Tuta Mail or Proton Mail. Both are privacy-focused but Proton Mail is free, a bit simpler, and also integrates well into your phone. On the other hand Tuta Mail is free but with paid subscription tiers, more durable and customisable, and more convenient once you master it. I’ve opted for Tuta Mail personally, but can recommend both.
Changing your Office Suite (Microsoft Office/Google Drive → LibreOffice)
Microsoft Office and Google Drive are wonderful, fast, reliable pieces of technology which have the single downside of being owned by two of the most evil, destructive corporations on the planet. We should do something about it.
My recommended replacement for these services is LibreOffice. LibreOffice gives you the same suite as Microsoft and Google Drive (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.), but it’s free-of-charge, open-source, and use ODF files.
ODF stands for Open Document Format, so LibreOffice ticks the open-source box. In addition, ODF files are more flexible to use, can be read by a variety of machines, and easy to convert to different formats. You don’t lose out by switching away from Word; I’m typing on LibreOffice right now and loving it.
The UI is simpler and smaller so takes some getting used to, but trust me when I say it’s worth it.
Consider getting a VPN
Ever since Starmer and his goons decided to censor the Internet, Brits have become more familiar with VPNs. For those who aren’t, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, an app which connects your device to a virtual server in a different location. You can access the Internet as if you’re in all sorts of different countries, making it harder for you to be tracked. This boosts your online privacy.
MullvadVPN is my recommended client. At £4.99, it’s cheaper than a lot of alternatives and it’s privacy-oriented. If you’re interested in a VPN services with added security features, NordVPN and Proton VPN are both pretty good, though Proton VPN is more transparent.
Step 4: Stay in the Loop
Technology changes fast and new alternatives arise every day. Conscious tech usage is a lot like cleaning your room; one huge, Marie Kondo clean may eliminate a lot of issues, but you have to keep doing small tidies so things stay in shape.
Once you’ve found a niche that gives you advice you like, whether it’s a forum like r/degoogle, a podcast like Better Offline, or a writer like Cal Newport, keep up to date on what’s happening. Ethical computer use is a big field and freedom is always a work-in-progress.
Conclusion
When we think of moral improvement, we often think in terms of prohibition, repression, and abstention. Being good, we’re told, means not doing some of the things you want to do. I hear this sentiment a lot when I talk about ethical technology. “I know I should, but I’m just too attached. It’s too hard to give up.”
In my journey towards a better relationship with technology, it has been a great pleasure to discover just how false this notion is. I am happier now with my device usage not because I am using tech less, or even especially differently, but because I have apps that reflect my needs and values.
My internet is now a faster, friendlier, more human place. I have no experience with coding and will probably never contribute to any open source project at all. But reading these forum threads, participating in these groups, and seeing all the update logs as users bind together to create a better Internet is inspiring. These apps are for people, not profit, and, in our automated hellscape, it is a great comfort to know that my new habits are the fruit of communities rather than corporations. There is love and care among the silicon.
If anyone finds any apps they think I should mention, please contact me via my contact form, which you can access here. Thank you for reading and godspeed to anyone else who’s ready to take the journey!
Appendix: Media Recommendations
Books
Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism- The holy book for the tech-critical.
Jaron Lanier, Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now – While some of the writing is very 2010s cringecore, Lanier is forceful and persuasive. A wake-up call like ice-water to the face.
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows – Remarkably capacious and broad. Carr covers so much in surprising depth for such a short book. I recommend this if you’re interested in how social media has changed psychology.
Mindful, Practical Advice
Newell of Knowledge, ‘you don’t actually want to scroll, and i can prove it to you’ – This guy’s wellness vibe is actually calming rather then smug. A very nice breather which is a good first step.
easy, actually, ‘quitting your youtube addiction is easy, actually’ – Brief but important for reflecting on addiction to lesser-known sites. YouTube still counts!
Eddy Burback, ‘I hate my phone so I got rid of it’ – Eddy is characteristically funny, but there’s a yearning for something more meaningful than we get in modern life. Even more so than usual.
Polemics
Better Offline – Hands-down the best angry podcast about the tech industry. Host Ed Zitron has spent years in the industry, and it shows. Informed, passionate, and totally bullshit-free, this podcast cuts through the noise so you can really put the pieces together – even if Zitron’s ranting can get a little much.
CJ the X, Bo Burnham vs. Jeff Bezos – YouTube’s resident non-binary philosophy gremlin bless us with a 2.5-hour burst of passion. CJ’s argument is characteristically wide-ranging but, in targetting the way social platforms and memes have destroyed our politics, society, and souls, they offer up something really special. This blissful video brings you back to reality.
Some More News, … Can We Talk? – While not as strident as the previous entries, the SMN team’s analysis of the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination is nuanced and human. Cody Johnston and the rest carefully unpick all the ways a person’s death is being exploited, and how social media facilitates this and profits off division, while also critiquing Kirk’s shameful impact on the world.
Caleb Gamman, Cybergunk series – Gamman is a delightfully arrogant provocateur in every video, but Cybergunk distils some of his best arguments on technology to date. The series is a few years old now but still holds up so well. An eye-opening breakdown of the infrastructure behind big tech’s destruction of society and its false promises of progress.
Annalee Newitz, ‘Social media is dead – here’s what comes next’ – Finally, some optimism! Newitz’s insightful article drops a truth bomb and flattens the lie social media has sold us on. With admirable brevity, she articulates the early blueprints of a path forward.
Facebook Critiques
Tantacrul, ‘A History of Facebook’s (and Meta’s) Decline’ – An absolute banger from a man who never misses. What started as a music software channel has spiralled out into general tech-criticism in an elegant swoop. Tantacrul’s thorough research paints a damning picture of a company whose myriad scandals are hard to fathom when laid out so fully and plainly. He mixes in some personal experience to produce a history that centres on the humanity of the users.
AI Slop
Pillar of Garbage, Slop Economics – A clear-sighted and succinct analysis of why so many of our favourite platforms have been captured by AI and content farms. Well worth a watch.
Neon Sharpe, Reddit is (Increasingly) Fake. Here’s How to Spot AI Posts – A satisfying and informative explainer on how to spot AI writing (using Reddit as an example) so you can avoid being taken in by misinformation. It’s a little out of date now, but I recommend keeping up-to-date with the latest info on how to spot AI writing and video.
Some More News, What Are the Real Dangers of AI? – A thorough exploration of what risks and dangers AI really poses. Characteristically clear-headed and well-researched.
Spotify Critiques
Some More News, Why Spotify is Bad for Music – I can’t get enough of recommending SMN! Again, a great balance of robust argument and practical advice on why and how to ditch Spotify.
David Achu, are we lowkey going deaf? – Everything David Achu makes is pure gold, I cannot recommend him enough. His videos are always funny, stylish, and pacy, and are all relevant to this article. This one in particular is an eye-opener too.
Social Media’s Effect on Society and Discourse
Caleb Gamman, Yellow Paint – Another fabulous polemic, and one which I find personally very satisfying. I’ve long been disappointed by the way discussions of politics and culture are so narrow online. This digs into that and burns it all down.
Robert Tolppi, The Plight of the 7-Hour Video Essay – Tolppi is a master of logical sass. He’s very direct in his criticism and draws a few interesting parallels that highlight the issue with achingly-long YouTube videos.
Drew Gooden, Everybody wants to waste your time – Over the last couple years, Drew Gooden has become a prominent voice in tech criticism. In this video, he thoroughly and succinctly charts the rise in predatory attention-sucking time syncs. His video on new technology in general is also great.
Joseph Fisher, The downfall of Netflix is my special interest now – A whole new level of relaxing. Fisher’s videos always help me chill out, but I watch this one in particular and emerge feeling clear-headed about why I cancelled my Netflix subscription. This is an exhaustive and cathartic analysis.
Alex Hern, ‘”Never get high on your own supply” – why social media bosses don’t use social media’ – Finally, an article which in-and-of-itself should drive even the most ardent influencer want to delete their account immediately. In a relatively short article, Hern lays it all bare. He’s forgiving towards the habitual social media user, but far less so on the companies and the predatory incentives which guide them. Never get high on your own supply.
Love this take ❤️