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

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You're suffering from withdrawal, really.

Since most culture has been subverted by capitalism, media has become exploitative to a fault. Most media made today, wether it's film, music, video games, etc, are assembled by committee to figure out how to exploit your baser senses, your impulses.

When being submerged in this exploitative media over a longer period of time, much like doom scrolling, your brain has gotten used to the incentives your brain produces, creating a habitual cycle. It's also important to note that if you have to use your brain, most likely the media is not exploitative enough, which is why Hollywood produces mindless schlock - because it makes you feel good.

So your choice is either

Abandon all media, for a longer period of time and return sparingly (detox), or
Winding down the media consumption and only choosing ethical media (decrease dosage incrementally).

Treat modern media like drugs, because they are.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Exactly this. @[email protected] trying to cut big tech out cold turkey is laudable (quite admirable actually), OP should also realize that getting the feeling of missing out is normal at first and not stress too much over it. Taking it at a comfortable pace, trusting yourself and keeping the goal in mind will make the need for big tech slowly fade away.

I usually get rid of things when they inevitably turn sour from "enshittification". For example I abandoned FB Messenger when they killed the Lite version of the app. I abandoned Reddit over 3 months, and by the time I wrote my last post swearing off it, I was only checking it a couple times a week and I was fully on the Lemmy train.