It feels like all the joy I used to feel from being an enthusiast has been completely voided as computing has become the modern vector for fascism and surveillance. I find myself recoiling from all online spaces, even independent and open source ones that I’d loved and supported in the past.
It’s been an exceptionally strange impulse to go from having an elaborate online presence to now feeling like the only acceptable way to engage with the network is to have as minimal of an online footprint as possible.
This especially hurts when it feels like an issue of skilling, where I know how to do certain tasks with computers, but have to teach myself for the first time the analogue alternatives that my parents and their parents likely already knew well.
How have you chosen to deal with it? Do you find yourself moving away from computing and the internet, despite formerly loving it as a hobby? Have you replaced things that computers used to do for you with analogue replacements?
I’m curious how other people are experiencing this.
Yeah I get it. I stopped posting on Reddit, and only will on the fediverse, but even that feels like a surveillance nightmare.
Honestly, these days I try and spend as much time just not on the computer, going outside, building physical stuff, and hanging with friends.
And I would say that, while still problematic, video games honestly feel like the least toxic part of computing these days. Buying a $60 game and playing the hell out of it with friends, (or a genuinely well written game like cyberpunk or control) is still rewarding and feels non toxic.