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.


Leaving IT. Gardening. Trading pc nerdery for soil science nerdage.
What of you’re in IT and are ready to leave but don’t like gardening or woodworking?
I still like electricity. Maybe I can be a part time electrician.
Check your local IBEW to see if they have any apprenticeships.
You too? I don’t have any soil so my garden is all in pots, but it’s doing good. The tulips were glorious - I love a tulip - my first rose flowered yesterday, my opium poppies are thriving, and my tomato seeds finally germinated.
These days I only use a computer for minimum essential work stuff, and my steam deck. I work outdoors too. I have less money but I’m fitter and happier.
Edit - if you’re into soil science, two words - compost toilet. Total game changer.
I’m actually debating between bokashi or traditional composting; probably going to end up doing both. Pretty sure my wife would veto a composting toilet.
Today’s our wedding anniversary so maybe I’ll ask for a composter and bokashi starter kit to celebrate 11 years.
Here’s some of our gardens and a WIP greenhouse.