I figured this may lead to an interesting discussion in the comments.
How has your use of Technology changed in the past year? I’ll start.
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Due to the rise of streaming services and Sony/discovery removing content from libraries, I downloaded all my iTunes purchases onto a 2TB SSD (which I’ll soon need to get another).
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Like many, I’ve stopped using Reddit outside of Google search.
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I’ve reduced my subscriptions to just two. (Apple One and Google One)
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I’ve purchased DVDs/Blu rays of my favorite uncensored shows (Family Guy and American Dad) and ripped them and watch them through Cloud storage (Google Drive via Infuse for Apple platforms, and Kodi for Windows)(I’ve also purchased MakeMKV just because it is so damn useful)
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I’ve used Google App Scripts to bypass some Gmail limitations to make filters that I otherwise couldn’t. For instance, in Outlook.com, you can block email addresses and domains before you have ever gotten an email from them. In Gmail, you can’t. The best you can do is create a filter that deletes them. In my case, I’ve created a Google App Script that runs every hour and looks for (@.mil) domain emails and marks them as spam. (I am in college, and I fucking hate that they give my email to recruiters.)
- Switched to Linux
- Switched to Firefox
- Set up email forwarding to a new account on Proton Mail
- Finally upgraded my PC
Aye, congratulations on the new/upgraded PC!
- deleted my Reddit account. Only use it if I land there from a web search
- Started using Firefox containers - keep Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc in their own containers
- Deleted my Dropbox account when they started deploying AI tools late 23. About to delete Google Drive.
- Migrated to paid Protonmail. Intend to wipe my Gmail data in next couple of months
- Migrated to paid data backup service
- Bought a steam deck, connected it to my living room TV and now PC game in my living room (had a steam link but never got into it before, but steam deck has changed how I play)
- Cancelled most streaming services
- Started using Freetube software and Libredirect to escape YouTube
- Installed fdroid open source store on my phone and switched to many foss and non cloud apps.
Basically mostly I’ve started taking my privacy and data much more seriously. I was already privacy “aware” but the explosion of so called AI tools in my industry (healthcare) has made me realise the value and importance of my data, and how much of it is being stolen and exploited by private interests. There are also examples of how private data is being extracted from this bullshit AI tools.
I’m increasingly understanding how important it is now to actively protect my data and also fragment my internet presence as much as possible.
What backup service are you using if I might ask?
Not OP but I’ve been using duplicity for over a decade. Zero lock-in to any particular cloud storage, uses rdiff and gpg for the incremental computation and encryption… it’s awesome.
Just this month I’ve switched over from S3 to Dropbox for cloud storage due to price, and other than the large first backup, my backup script worked flawlessly.
I can’t recommend it enough.
I’ve stopped trusting anything online due to AI being a cancer on the internet and it’s only going to get worse.
My trust in anything on the internet has eroded over the last ten years. Information, news, offers…it’s all pud-pulling capitalist circlejerking and the most cynical propaganda imaginable.
I don’t trust what you just said
Good! You’re learning.
Or… are we!??
I don’t know!
Deleted my Twitter account and switched from Reddit (accounts are not deleted) to Lemmy.
Switched from Chrome back to Firefox after more than a decade.
Dropped Windows in favor of Linux Mint.
Unsubscribed from Netflix, Disney+, etc. Now I only torrent the films, series, etc. that I know I’ll watch more than once, for stuff that I only plan on watching once I use Stremio with the Torrentio add-on.
Started using my old Facebook account after several years just for Marketplace.
That’s all I can remember at the moment.
EDIT: Oh yeah, ditched PornHub for NoodleMagazine.
What’s NoodleMagazine and why is it better or freer?
Free porn site, full videos.
Self hosted a lemmy server for myself
Switched to Firefox
Got a VPN
Using said vpn to share my dad’s YouTube TV(only works on my TV though, not mobile)
Started using copilot which improved my productivity at work
I got married, so now im sharing more online accounts
Kudos on getting married!
Ditched Windows for Linux, man, feelin’ free like a bird. No more Microsoft bullshit, nah. And instead of Google Search, I’m rollin’ with SearXNG. It’s like Google but decentralized, no data sellin’, straight up respectin’ my privacy. Open source all day, every day, that’s my way now.
I’ve done mostly the same thing! Good to know I’m not alone in doing that stuff this year
I quit Facebook for good, almost quit Reddit and am enjoying reading more books and exploring fediverse a bit.
Also protectively try to get less and less screen time, using the morning time which usually was lost to doomscrolling to do zazen.
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Stopped using reddit & facebook
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started using the fediverse
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Got my own domain and set up an email via proton
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vanced->revanced->greyjay
How’s grayjay compared to revanced?
It’s pretty good actually. No ads and you can access videos from a lot of platforms in the one app (including premium ones if you have a subscription to them). It also makes it easier to follow a single creator across platforms. Also, lets you download videos for offline access, allows casting, PiP and a bunch of other stuff.
My only real complaint is that the recommendations aren’t very good yet, so I end up going back to YT/revanced to discover new stuff, and there currently isn’t any way to use sponsorblock with it.
Still, considering it’s in alpha, great stuff.
Only real downside is the inability to comment but otherwise it’s great.
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I completely gave up on Google Search and started using Kagi which has changed the way I find things on the Internet.
Switched from Chrome to Firefox.
Dumped reddit, Google, streaming, android apps and Facebook. Replaced with proton, Plex, Lemmy. Grapheneos, kagi and mastodon.
Android apps?
switched to linux, ditched vivaldi for firefox, quit reddit, quit youtube and started using invidious. probably a lot more that i can’t think of.
I wish I could use/get used to Firefox, but Vivaldi really has spoiled me. I use Microsoft Edge for PWAs (due to sleeping tabs) and Vivaldi as my main browser, and the customizable interface, easier CSS theming (in my experience) and community around it make it such a pleasure to use. Command chains are so useful too!
i admit it has been difficult to get used to ff, especially the android version with its terrible homepage. but seeing how tracking and spying is increasing, AI getting better, and constant data thefts, i feel that i have to minimize my footprint so i can’t trust any chronium based browsers anymore…
I’ve done and tinkered with many things in 2023 like most of us here (migrated to lemmy, degoogle, unsubscribed to streaming services, linux, etc). Some things that are less known that I think worth to mention are:
- Using shift+right click to open the full context menu in Windows 11
- Finally set an Address bar shortcut for searching reddit content with Google. No more typing “site:reddit.com…”
- Anilist with TachiyomiJ2K(mobile)+Taiga(desktop)+Mal-Sync(browser extension) for maximum anime/manga tracking automation!
- My only shame in 2023: Creating a Facebook account (anonymous account) for the messenger and local hobby groups. All I can say is Facebook seemed to intentionally obfuscate its setting/option menus because they’re all scattered in different pages and just a plain mess. f u zuck
Ty for shift+right click suggestion
and fuck MS for needing the shift+rclick tip in the first place
- No longer using imgur for hosting images
- Reddit use reduced to specific communities. Former use cases are migrated to Lemmy
- Changed mobile browser to Firefox
- Using a searxng instance as my search engine
Ditched centralized social media and started a personal diary
What exactly do you write in a diary? I’ve tried it so many times and yet can’t keep it up
Don’t try, just write in it whenever you feel like it: congratulations! You have a diary! That could be several times a day, or once a month, depending what you need and want out of your diary. But realistically if you’re just starting out it will probably be diary meta, like about the writing you’re doing in the diary lol.
For me I find it useful for
- jotting media reviews.
- nurturing my stationary fetish.
- an excuse to practice my cursive.
- relaxing at the end of the day, or week.
- reading over to gain insights into my moods (like how I was always sad after drinking)
- purging “negative” feelings (anger, insecurity, etc) - just get them out of my head and on to a page.
Anyway, here’s an example of me just talking about Quake 2 and having trouble focusing at work:
At the end of the day, I just like making marks on the page.
I tried something like that once. I was going to write about a weird nightmare I had. Ended up creating a “short” horror story that I write on days I’m feeling a little more angry — you can read that as violent if you want — and down. It isn’t done yet, that’s the reasons for the quotes, but I hope to get to the end sometime.
That’s cool. And if it continues to be useful / enjoyable to you, then you don’t necessarily need to “end” it ever, unless you really want to.
For sure! But i feel I’ll probably make many short stories instead of just stretching one out. As an aspiring author i guess I’ll use this as a kind of practice
Ah yeah that makes sense. I’m an eternal hobbyist with different creative things (art, games, stories, etc), so I get the challenge of just finishing something.
PS feel free to send me what you’ve got if you want a totally impartial “beta reader” or whatever that’s called
Really just reflect on everything that happened that day and think about how things made you feel, and just write that shit down, no filter. It might seem silly when you end up emotionally analyzing mundane situations, but over time you become so much more aware of yourself and your mind.
Excellent advice. I’ve sat down to write about a boring day, only to be shocked at the shit that was festering just below the surface. Like negative attitudes and resentment to people in my life, that would have just kind of hung around in the back of my head totally unknown and unacknowledged, but still there and unchallenged until I took a few minutes to consciously follow my own thoughts and feelings.
Anyway 10/10 would recommend the examined life.
Personally I like the 5 Minute Journal (and their app). It’s easy to keep up with and helps me focus on gratitude
Got rid of all of my centralized social media accounts apart from YouTube, moved from Proton to Migadu on my own domain (unlimited aliases! when signing up for a service I can just make up a new username and it gets organized into a folder in my inbox!), and moved my homelab and laptop to NixOS
