Beginning on Independence Day and then on the first day of every month, let's #stopthescroll. Log off from corporate platforms for the day. Spend the time investing in healthier habits and more ethical, responsible, humane systems. Together we can leave toxic tech and reclaim our right to a better digital future.
We all know we should do better at protecting our privacy online, but it seems so difficult to get started. The best way to change your habits is to interrupt them. You don't have to do it all at once! Just choose one issue to work on each month. Switch your email away from from Google. Disable your Facebook. Unfriend on Insta. Refactor your digital life one habit at a time.
If you feel like you don't have the willpower to stop scrolling, that's on purpose. Armies of user experience designers equipped with the tools to hack human psychology have built addiction into our devices and services. From constant notifications to the endless scroll, it's time to unplug from the Zuckerverse and other unhealthy sites and reclaim our precious time, attention, and relationships.
Social media makes money through site engagment. And according to ex-Facebook employee Tristan Harris, the only measurable relationship between emotion and engagement is through provoking outrage. The algorithms on "social" sites are fundamentally anti-social, putting us in situations where we feel triggered, angry, and insulted. Enough, already.
Everything you do on social sites is tracked, traced, and monetized. The collection and use of such an enormous data dragnet is bad for society. You don't need Big Tech to mediate your relationships with your friends and family. Reclaim your data and your identity besides. They don't need to listen in when you talk to your friends.
Much of the internet is now inhabited by bots and sludge. On many platforms, every time you talk to your friends, search for something, even write an email, you are training AI systems that threaten our livelihoods, our creativity, our connections and our environment. Your relationships should enrich you, not feed the robots.
Personalized advertising in the data economy means that you only see what systems think you want to see. You're less likely to hear new ideas or learn from others' experiences. You are also more likely to be subject to extremist content and propaganda. Online echo chambers isolate us from each other and are harmful for functioning democracies.
Countless studies indicate that social media is bad for our mental health. That's not the Web: it's the experience of being constantly extracted and exploited, falling prey to algorithmic attention, and distorion of what's real, possible, or healthy. Take a break, smell a flower, go for a walk, call a friend. Your identity and your sanity will thank you.
Many new services and tools offer us the chance to connect with privacy, security, and peace of mind. Without bots and outrage machines, without middlemen spying on our every interaction. These tools are growing in popularity as they offer a respite from toxic tech. Find better tools and exercise your right to choose.
You can connect with your friends without being "friends." You can engage without "engagement." You can connect with your communities without joining an online "neighborhood." And you can socialize without "social" media. Log off to reconnect with a world that urgently needs your attention more than Big Tech does.
What we have now is not the future -- we are in charge! Inspire your imagination. Build up your tech skills by trying something new. If you know how to code, get together with your friends and build something better! Or join in a project and contribute to an ecosystem of healthier technologies and stronger societies.
We are a growing grassroots movement, a non-profit seeking to help us all reclaim control over the technologies, devices, and services that dominate our lives.
We love technology. But today's tools are not delivering a faster, more efficient and reliable automated future; instead they trap us in products that can feel impossible to exit or change.
We believe it should be easier to leave the platforms that no longer serve us or our communities, our neighborhood businesses and our governments, to find replacements that do not compromise our connections and do so feeling empowered, not isolated!
We are building a community to connect each other with better technology, better systems, and more control as you make the transition to a different digital world, amid like-minded people seeking independence.
We don't want tools that exploit us, mine us, and prey on our weaknesses. Instead we embrace tools that support our strength, resilience, and power.