It feels like all the joy I used to feel from being an enthusiast has been completely voided as computing has become the modern vector for fascism and surveillance. I find myself recoiling from all online spaces, even independent and open source ones that I’d loved and supported in the past.

It’s been an exceptionally strange impulse to go from having an elaborate online presence to now feeling like the only acceptable way to engage with the network is to have as minimal of an online footprint as possible.

This especially hurts when it feels like an issue of skilling, where I know how to do certain tasks with computers, but have to teach myself for the first time the analogue alternatives that my parents and their parents likely already knew well.

How have you chosen to deal with it? Do you find yourself moving away from computing and the internet, despite formerly loving it as a hobby? Have you replaced things that computers used to do for you with analogue replacements?

I’m curious how other people are experiencing this.

  • BabyVi@lemmy.world
    16·
    37 minutes ago

    Self hosting, trying to get progressively more serious about privacy and security.

    I’ve gotten into Amateur Radio, you need a license to transmit but you gain access to a lot of cool stuff. The Ham bands are a non-commercalized space where experimentation and the sharing of technical knowledge are highly esteemed. There’s no ISP or hidden tech bro to moderate the experience, your limits are your skill, equipment, and the privileges of your license. On High Frequencies there are propagation effects that cause your signal to travel thousands of miles enabling the potential for worldwide communications given proper conditions.

    • TotallyWorthLife@lemmy.world
      2·
      12 hours ago

      Not OP, but, thank you for this, I will take a look at Amateur Radio.Got any advice (or more like pointers) for self hosting, privacy and security? To me, it seems like a huge effort, both to learn and to keep it up.

      • BabyVi@lemmy.world
        2·
        6 hours ago

        My biggest pointer would be to look at it as a journey rather than a destination. You’ll never be a ghost online or self-host everything. But you can mitigate a lot more than you might imagine. Get an old pc to use as a server and experiment with a few services. Start with Jellyfin in a Podman container and then maybe try Pihole. It can take a lot of time to setup initially when you dont know what you’re doing but it gets easier.