Not April fools.
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@chu what about small stores that sell online? Not everybody live near the store they want to buy from. But plenty of small (local) businesses sell online too.
Email them? Is it possible to bypass the big ol' platform?
This is part of the problem
Can we divorce ourselves from their control? -
Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu Replace Whatsapp with Signal
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
For the majority of the population, meaning folks with mobility impairments, much of this means just going back to doing without
Yes, we have gotten used to having groceries, more than the once a month delivery we can get from a local charity. We have gotten used to being able to go places and not just stay on lockdown all the time
The fucked up thing is that these harmful technological innovations met large existing needs in our society
The alternative would be to meet these needs with governmental programs, but we have had 50 years of propaganda against that
(Or to meet them with mutual aid, but in addition to the propaganda problem, that has the vast history, and current practice, of discrimination. Only the 'deserving' poor get help, by whatever definition of 'deserving' the person providing help chooses)
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu I used to be able to take February off the internet but this has gotten harder and harder to do. I had to move to online bill pay because the mail is so slow in my neighborhood that I was getting hit with late fees even paying my bills right away. The last couple times I did an internet fast I gave myself like half an hour a week to do my online tasks (banking, skim-read emails for anything essential, maybe even download an album to listen to on my ipod later)
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu Which is also why tech bros are terrified of the 15 minute city concept: I live in one and I can buy from local stores, go to local restaurants and never need a car because everything I need is at most a 15 minute walk, cycle or public transport ride away.
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@chu This is most weeks for me just by default
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu Well, I'm from Bogota, Colombia, and all of this can still be done effortlessly.
Who knows how long it will last, but at least for now its not hard ask to do all of this here.
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@chu there is nothing else like Subway around, and even the "small businesses" are captured by these delivery services. there is a small take-out menu catalog that gets dropped in everyone's mailbox here a couple of times a year, and it used to be about as thick as a zine. now it's about five pages, and none of what's in it is of any interest to me. we used to get flyers for all kinds of local take-out, now we get just Pizza Pizza, Harvey's, or MacPuke's. the options just aren't there anymore.
in my region a lot of the smaller restaurants do seem to have their own drivers, but still outsource the delivery logistics/website bit to the corporates.
Online purchases are near impossible to avoid, even when using local businesses as many don't keep large stocks and use the website to offload stock control/ordering work to the customers (a few years ago I bought a couple of power tools online and the company was about an hours drive from me, but they don't sell directly from their warehouse). One problem is no one seems to want the burden of dealing directly with the public if possible (hence why Amazon etc capture so much of the market)
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu 6) Buy physical or indie-published media, instead of continuing your streaming subscriptions. Personally I'm partial to audioshows!
This one also hurts big media (Disney, etc), since at this point they're in bed with the tech bros!
For those who need somewhere to start, I reckon if you're a techie & haven't heard https://arsparadoxica.com/ you're missing out.
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu
Sounds like a normal day in my life.Add:
Don’t use any social media platform owned by a single organization (or at least don’t log in/comment/engage).
Don’t share any tracking links. Strip out anything past the question mark in a URL before sharing.
Report every promotional email as spam.
Use ublock origin in all your browsers (don’t use chrome)
Read a paper book instead of streaming something
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@chu
Sounds like a normal day in my life.Add:
Don’t use any social media platform owned by a single organization (or at least don’t log in/comment/engage).
Don’t share any tracking links. Strip out anything past the question mark in a URL before sharing.
Report every promotional email as spam.
Use ublock origin in all your browsers (don’t use chrome)
Read a paper book instead of streaming something
@chu
Ditch your mobile phone service that spies on you and sells your data; switch to Phreeli (you’ll probably pay less, too). -
Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
did anyone say, 'quit streaming?'
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
-
Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu Thanks for the list. I could (and should) get rid of food delivery apps.
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu
But you haven't considered that some people with disabities or seniors may well need such services. -
Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu Why just for a week? Of this list the only one I do occasionally is online purchases and that’s only when the product can only be had that way. Even then it’s only a few times a year I do that.
I would give allowance on delivery for people with mobility and health issues. Grocery and take out delivery has been a godsend for my father.
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@chu Why just for a week? Of this list the only one I do occasionally is online purchases and that’s only when the product can only be had that way. Even then it’s only a few times a year I do that.
I would give allowance on delivery for people with mobility and health issues. Grocery and take out delivery has been a godsend for my father.
@Chigaze @chu
I agree that most of these practices should be ongoing, where reasonable. I also order items online only occasionally, and when they can't be obtained otherwise. I appreciate that many stores have maintained the ability to order items to pick up at a specific store, a helpful option when items aren't readily available.
I have used grocery delivery during the winter months over the last couple of years, and it's been very helpful. -
@chu
But you haven't considered that some people with disabities or seniors may well need such services. -
Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
@chu Do a (little) music gig or theatre, etc., in a setting where cell phones are an unusual sight. Then it's unlikely to be stolen by them.
Maybe even organise such events, that sort of thing might become popular in a couple years.
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Not April fools.
Here's a screw a tech bro for a week challenge
1) don't make online purchases. Walk into a store or call /email a small business owner.
2) no using any food delivery apps, call a local restaurant and pick it up. The tech companies take a huge cut and you'd be doing the local small biz a huge favour by doing this.
3) no using Uber or Lyft. Call a cab if you need it
4) don't use AI tools. If your employer threatens your job, give them the slop they deserve, but nothing outside of that.
5) add in the comments anything else you think of.
I honestly wonder how painful this list is for many people. Is a week doable or have they fundamentally taken control of us so hard we already lost our old systems of living?
️. Amazon Prime is an example.
