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

submitted 9 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] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

If you're worried about missing certain shows, I would honestly recommend piracy. It's remarkable how much nicer and less anxiety-provoking it is to watch shows, movies, play games, etc when you don't have any restrictions on what you can use, and you don't have to think about whether you're getting value out of your subscription fees.

I would recommend realdebrid + stremio + mullvad vpn, but there are loads of options. You can look up a piracy community, they'll usually have a wiki to explain how.

And I don't think these things are inherently manipulative. They're made by artists who are genuinely invested in making good things. It's the middlemen that corrupt a lot of it.

I also watch youtube with adblock and sponsorblock on, it's a much nicer experience.

And if you want something worth paying for, I can also recommend Dropout.tv. They have incredible improv comedy shows and actual play TTRPG shows.