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.

    • Fisherman75@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      35·
      2 years ago

      It’s not extremist to point out how messed up this massive tech supermachine is and how it’s milking us all mercilessly for every last dollar and cent and calorie. If you think that is radical then you are unfortunately quite deep in the machine. Things have to fundamentally change.

  • PlantObserver@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    Get a library card and go to town on some books. I’m using reading to replace my social media/Netflix/YouTube time. Aiming for one book every two weeks for 2024 since I’m a pretty slow reader.

    Bonus: If your library has Libby you can rip the DRM using calibre and build out your collection on your ereader. My library offers free music streaming and 5 DRM-free mp3 downloads/day from “freegalmusic”. They also offer free streaming services for movies and TV but I haven’t used those since the point is to read more not watch more bullshit, but could aid as way of weaning yourself off after cancelling other subscriptions

  • taanegl@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    2 years ago

    You’re suffering from withdrawal, really.

    Since most culture has been subverted by capitalism, media has become exploitative to a fault. Most media made today, wether it’s film, music, video games, etc, are assembled by committee to figure out how to exploit your baser senses, your impulses.

    When being submerged in this exploitative media over a longer period of time, much like doom scrolling, your brain has gotten used to the incentives your brain produces, creating a habitual cycle. It’s also important to note that if you have to use your brain, most likely the media is not exploitative enough, which is why Hollywood produces mindless schlock - because it makes you feel good.

    So your choice is either

    1. Abandon all media, for a longer period of time and return sparingly (detox), or
    2. Winding down the media consumption and only choosing ethical media (decrease dosage incrementally).

    Treat modern media like drugs, because they are.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      Exactly this. @Fisherman75@lemmy.world trying to cut big tech out cold turkey is laudable (quite admirable actually), OP should also realize that getting the feeling of missing out is normal at first and not stress too much over it. Taking it at a comfortable pace, trusting yourself and keeping the goal in mind will make the need for big tech slowly fade away.

      I usually get rid of things when they inevitably turn sour from “enshittification”. For example I abandoned FB Messenger when they killed the Lite version of the app. I abandoned Reddit over 3 months, and by the time I wrote my last post swearing off it, I was only checking it a couple times a week and I was fully on the Lemmy train.

  • droopy4096@lemmy.caEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    don’t stress out about it - you’re on the right path, so just keep exploring. For music, depending on your location, there are various internet stations that broadcast indie and other stuff that is not mainstream. Also go to local concerts and buy CDs from artists - they actually need it. You should’ve been prepared to forfeit ownership of anything on amazon prime, kindle etc, for amazon has long history of denying people access to stuff they assumed they owned. For movies we collect DVD/Bluray disks as I don’t trust any of the streaming providers, nor do I want to share with them my viewing habbits (downside: you need storage space for those). For podcasts I love AntennaPod on Android. For books we always opt for unencumbered epubs, sometimes pdf which are abundant. Audiobooks through librivox are a thing as well. I will repeat myself: don’t stress out. Take it as a wild safari and go hunting for new and exciting things that are not entangled with big corps that suck the soul out of everything : artists, consumers, employees, shareholders, etc.

  • vivavideri@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    2 years ago

    I find music and the outdoors do right by me. If you need tunes I’m sure myself and other lemmyfolk can hook you up with genres you like without helping corpo wallets. I’ll start: if you like industrial, check out The Birthday Massacre. Great Canadian band. I think their website has free downloads and they’ve got merch if you choose to support them.

  • iopq@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    1. You can just download the movies, don’t let some service hold you hostage. But if you need to buy Amazon stuff, there’s no problem with that

    2. You can also try Nostr, I’ve scrolled around the whole feed before and found interesting stuff

  • maness300@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    2 years ago

    Focus on older stuff and recognize that most people are just trying to fit in with other losers.