Towards Digital Autonomy – What Am I Leaving Behind?
About a month ago, I wrote a blog post in which I confirmed one of my goals for this year is to eventually move away from US Big Tech and never walk back. I explained several reasons why I decided to do it, but I also hinted at some of the many challenges ahead. It all got started after I returned to work, having taken a 3-month-long compassionate leave at the beginning of the year, and had to admit to myself I no longer wanted to support, nor endorse!, fascist regimes with my money, attention, energy, effort and intent. So far, I can tell you, it’s been a fascinating journey, with lots of struggles though, lots of self-discovery involved, many lessons learned, a high price to pay, and, above all, an opportunity to re-think how I’d want to use digital tools from here onwards as well as define the kind of online life I’d want to engage with going forward. In a nutshell, #SovereignByDesign.
Where do I start? Perhaps by acknowledging what I’m leaving behind. Whether it’s for work, or personal life, during the course of the last few years, I have built a specific tools suite that allows me to be both productive and effective at work, but also manage my personal life easier and much more efficiently. So I thought I’d begin this series of blog posts detailing not just what I’m using from here onwards, but perhaps to share glimpses of the digital tools I’m leaving behind to understand where I’m coming from and where I’m heading to. It’ll be a great opportunity as well to explore the pros and the cons, the trade-offs, of each transition and whether I’m willing to live with them, or not. And, if not, what will happen then? Will I regret the move?
I find this exercise particularly useful to understand the poignant price I’m willing to pay when migrating away from US Big Tech. Like, for instance, I no longer use Slack, nor Zoom. What price am I paying? Well, having left behind two of my dearest online communities with folks I’ve known for well over two decades. They are not moving away from those two digital tools any time soon, not even thinking about it! I have, so it hurts big time not hanging out together with them anymore on a regular basis. In fact, it’s been months since I last conversed with plenty of them. Ouch! Like I said, that hurts, but at the same time, just like I don’t use Russian or Chinese Tech, why should I use US Tech? Aaah, that moral compass kicking arse, once again!
Let’s take another example: WhatsApp. The ever-popular chatting and messaging app, which pretty much has gotten the flair of being a religion in the country I live in, has been the hardest move of them all. The vast majority of my family and friends, and professional contacts for that matter!, still rely on it daily. Keeping in touch has become an issue, because I use Signal myself, they don’t, they still rely on WhatsApp, but I’ve reached the point of being exposed, on a regular basis, to plenty of emotional blackmail techniques, because they refuse to use what I use and vice versa. At this point in time, it’s emotional, it’s lonely, and not in a very nice way! I’ll talk more about this topic, since I realise there’s a lot more still to unpack…
Want another example? How about LinkedIn? Can you have a professional career without a LinkedIn profile? Can you find a job, or a client project for that matter, can you build an online reputation through social networking for business without it? Can you nurture and sustain a powerful Personal Learning Network without LinkedIn itself? Can people find you online without it? What are people going to think about you and your reputation if they can no longer find you there? What, and why, are you hiding away? Do you still even exist at all?
I know, I know, far too many questions going unanswered, right? Well, I’ll try to answer them over time, because that’s exactly the kind of thinking I’ve been going through over the last few months and still struggling to come to terms about the professional damage I’ve inflicted upon myself by nuking my LI profile altogether. Talking about professional hurt. Ouch!
“Oooh, hang on, you still have Social Media, don’t you?”, did I hear you say that out loud? Well, I don’t. LinkedIn itself was the last stronghold that attached me to the traditional social media tools landscape till December last year. I deleted my Facebook profile 16 years ago, about a decade since I also deleted my Instagram account. I never signed up for TikTok. WhatsApp, like I mentioned above, is a no-go. The moment Twitter became a nazi bar, I decided to leave the bar, for good. See the trend? Every single one of today’s social media tools that relies on a fascist algorithm we don’t / can’t control I’m out. I’ve learned my lessons, not going to repeat the very same mistake ever again.
Which brings me, perhaps, to the conclusion of this blog post when trying to answer this question: “What I am leaving behind?”
Heartfelt emotions and conflicting feelings. Lots of them! That’s been one of my key lessons learned thus far. I was a bit naïve, because I initially thought I was leaving behind a whole bunch of really good and useful digital tools. It’ll be easy to make the move and replace them, I figured, they are just tools, after all, aren’t they?, even though I realised I’d be paying for the downgrade with an inferior user experience with whatever the alternative, but I’ll talk more about that in an upcoming post. What I have underestimated a great deal of has been the emotional toll of leaving those social, digital tools behind, and with them, some family, friends and colleagues I’ve known since forever.
It’s been tough, to say the least, but I’m not giving up. There is no way for me to go back to the nazi bars. The party has moved elsewhere. I just need to find it, get everything ready, and, after that, bring in with me those I’d want to continue partying with, just like in the good old days of the early social software tools of the Web 2.0 era.
Do you still remember them? I do. Yeah, I know, there’s hope. In fact, I nowadays use several of the heirs to such a prestigious digital legacy and I just can’t wait to share them all with you, so we can all, again, enjoy the party!
Our party.
