I've already written about this but it bears repeating: if you do not have control over the tech you use, you should assume that it can – and probably will – be used by those who control it or later gain control of it for nefarious purposes.

This is why I have never owned a smart speaker, smart doorbell, or other such devices, and why I am constantly wary of using an iPhone or a conventional (“Googled”) Android phone.

I understand that my iPhone is not truly mine. Apple ultimately decides what software I am allowed to run on it and they have the ability to completely brick it or turn it into a surveillance tool without my knowledge or consent.

So why do I keep it? Because I'm expected to use a phone for work and church purposes, some of the apps I need to use do not run on de-Googled Android, and from my perspective, “Googled” Android phones are even more of a privacy nightmare than iPhones. So it's a situation where I have to choose the lesser of the evils.

To mitigate risk, I try to use my iPhone only for the purposes required, and I have a second phone running de-Googled Android with OS-level tracker blocking (/e/OS) for everything else. It's not perfect, but it's better than doing nothing.

This is just one of many adjustments I have made by assuming that tech I don't control can be used to spy on me.

Beware of the dangers of using Imperial tech and make adjustments accordingly. Every change you make, no matter how small, makes a difference.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 129) #tech #privacy #AI #smartphones #internet

There are several different free DNS providers who can do this, but I went with AdGuard for now. I reviewed their Privacy Policy and they make it clear that they do not process personal data via their public DNS.

Below is a link to instructions on how to use AdGuard public DNS servers on your devices. You can either use their apps or configure DNS manually.

Connect to public AdGuard DNS servers

I've already noticed the lack of ads in a few apps that are notorious for them and it's been wonderful. I'm going to set it up on my wife's phone next.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 110) #tech #internet #smartphones #privacy

I'm reminded of the old addage: “never put all your eggs in one basket.” Yet it seems that is exactly what we have done with modern internet infrastructure. And so outages that impact web-based apps and services on a global scale have become the norm.

Today's Cloudflare outage took down X, ChatGPT, Spotify, AWS, PayPal, and scores of other popular products and services.

In an ironic twist, I found that both the website and web app of Element – a free and open source messaging application based on the Matrix protocol – was impacted by this outage.

Their website, when it is up, contains such statements as:

We've built Element on the Matrix open standard so you're not locked-in to a proprietary vendor.

and

Stay independent of proprietary platforms outside your control.

Now, I get it. And I'm not going to tell everyone to stop using Element over this. Despite their clearly stated core values of an open and independent internet, if Cloudflare is really the only vendor doing what they do on the scale they are doing it, Element has little choice but to use them.

But is Cloudflare really the only option? I really don't know. But if they are the only option, why? And if they aren't the only option, why use them? They are an obvious, serious potential (and actual) point of failure that can take down half the internet

I know it's easier said than done, but isn't it obvious we need to work on decentralizing our internet infrastructure ASAP?

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 107) #tech #internet #decentralization

The word community is used in our day to describe people who connect with each other via the internet to form online groups around common interests. But that is not the definition of a community. That is a club. Like a chess club. Or a computer club. And clubs are, by their very nature, exclusive – some more than others, depending on how tightly their leaders and members want to run things.

A community is very different from a club. Clubs can exist within communities. But, at least before the Internet Age, the word community described people with different interests, backgrounds, etc. living and working together despite their differences. As Neil Postman wrote back in 1999:

Think ... of how the words “community” and “conversation” are now employed by those who use the Internet. I have the impression that “community” is now used to mean, simply, people with similar interests, a considerable change from an older meaning: A community is made up of people who may not have similar interests, but who must negotiate and resolve their differences for the sake of social harmony. Tocqueville used the phrase “an ethic of reciprocity” to delineate what is at the heart of community life. What has that to do with “a community” of Internet users? As for “conversation,” two (or more) people typing messages to each other are engaged in an activity quite different from what is usually called a conversation. To call messages that lack the presence of the human voice and human faces a “conversation” seems odd to me. (Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the 18th Century, p. 53)

We have been seeking human connection, belonging, and validation online in places like social media platforms, instant messaging groups, forums, etc. when they can provide none of these things in a deeply meaningful way.

A group of fans of a Twitch streamer or channel is not a community. It's a fan club. Calling them “communities” gives us the wrong idea of what it really means to be a community.

You will find more fulfillment and purpose by seeking to build and strengthen real-life communities in your family, neighborhood, and city than you ever can online.

Internet-based tools can help strengthen and connect real-life communities, but they can never replace those communities.

Discuss...

#internet #SocialMedia #Twitch

I seem to vaguely recall having a print newspaper subscription in the early years of my marriage (it's our 20th anniversary this summer). I think it was just a Sunday-paper-only subscription mainly for the coupon section. And the comics, of course. But we eventually cancelled our newspaper subscription like most everyone else, because why pay for a clunky print paper when you can just check the news for free via the Internet any time you want? Well, things have changed a lot since then. I've changed a lot. And I've felt for a few years now that I'd rather get my news via good old-fashioned newspaper again for a number of reasons.

Things Have Changed

Internet news was much different 20 years ago. There were ads, but they were not intrusive. If there was any tracking, it was page views and other general stats, not individual user behavior and preferences. And the website layouts were more text-oriented and less image-oriented, so more information was visible without having to scroll or click.

I'll show you an example from from KSL.com, one of Utah's most popular news websites. For the purposes of this comparison, I used Microsoft Edge with the screen maximized on a 1080p monitor. Average maximum resolutions for computer monitors in 2006 were indeed smaller, but I want you to see what it would be like to view a news website built to 2006 standards using modern technology.

Here's how KSL.com looked on June 19th, 2006 (thank you, archive.org!):

I'll zoom in so you can see the content better for this example.

Note the ads, their size, and their placement. In the header at the top I see an ad for a radio show, but it's to the far right of the page. There's a small ad for another radio show below the weather bubble. There is one large graphic ad, but it's to the right of all the important info. There is an “Affiliate Center” section below the graphic ad. And if you look really hard, you can see a “Sponsored Links” section at the bottom of the stock report bubble. The rest of the page is actual news content.

In addition to having a detailed menu at the top, I can see complete headlines of 7 news stories with a small photo or graphic and text blurb for each of them. I see current weather, stock market info, a link to the news site's road traffic page, a “Recipe of the Day” link, and few more links to other stories. All of this without having to scroll.

And due to the reading-friendly layout, you can easily skim the left side of the page and ignore the rest if you want.

Now let's take a look at KSL.com as of March 31st, 2025. I turned off my ad blocker extension for this example.

Immediately, you can't help but notice they have a featured sponsor today. Surely this is what you want to see when you go to a news website, right? Look at how much screen real estate the ad space takes up! HUGE banners on either side of the main content section, and a massive ad that spans the length of the entire content section. The amount of space devoted to ads is as much or more than the amount of space devoted to news, but the news space doesn't even have as much info as its 2006 counterpart.

They still have a menu at the top of the page, albeit with fewer options than in 2006. Less weather info. No stock info. They're not advertising their radio or TV programs, though. It's maybe less cluttered overall? But that means less useful info visible. Of the 5 news stories you can see, all of them have photos and headlines, but only 2 of them have text blurbs.

If you want to see more news, you're going to have to work for it. And that's what they want. The more you scroll, the more ads they can show you and the more money they make.

With an ad blocker the experience is much better, but it still makes you scroll more to see the info.

Granted, this is just one example from one website. Surely some news sites look better or worse in the past or today. But I think this is a good illustration of the trend, in general over the past 20 years. Some news websites today are practically unusable without an ad blocker.

Of course, some websites don't even let you view the content with an ad blocker enabled. You'll get a nasty pop-up message that hides everything and demands that you disable your ad blocker. Sometimes there are ways around this – switching to your web browser's Reader view, for example. But more and more websites are making it impossible to view their content unless they are allowed to serve you ads which track everything you do.

Or they just make you pay them. A number of news websites have resorted to putting their content behind subscription paywalls. Ad blocker or not, you can't view their content unless you pay up. And then they can still attempt to serve ads and track you.

Why Things Changed

The reason I chose to show you an example of a news website from 2006 is because that was before the first iPhone went on the market in 2007. The iPhone changed everything, some things for the better, other things for the worse. As soon as tech and media companies realized how addictive smartphones can be, they intentionally started engineering their products and services to be both “mobile friendly” and to steal as much of your attention as possible. Their intent is to hijack your attention so that you view as many ads as possible and, therefore, purchase as much stuff as possible.

Today's news cycle is 24/7. News websites rotate clickbait headlines throughout the day so that every time you check their site, there's a chance you'll see something “fresh” and new that you didn't last time. Sometimes they show flashy videos to grab attention. That's the same intermittent rewards tactic that makes gambling so addictive. It triggers a dopamine hit in your brain every time you “win” – all the social media, news, game, and media apps make use of this to hook you. Your phone is a slot machine. And now, potentially, so is every internet-connected device.

Done with Doomscrolling

I've noticed that my mental health suffers when I am compulsively checking the news throughout the day. Not only is it addictive, but it seems like the news has become more sensational, darker. Outrage gets views and clicks.

I want to stay informed, but I don't want to be tempted to check the news throughout the day, and I want to protect my mental health. I want to be more intentional about it and check it at certain times under tightly controlled conditions. In my case, I feel I need to stop navigating to news websites altogether and replace that habit with a physical newspaper which is only delivered to me twice a week.

I also plan to make use of RSS to keep up with a handful of specialized news sites and blogs that don't offer print editions and check my RSS reader only during a specified time once or twice a week.

I took advantage of a sweet deal today on a print subscription – $36 for 26 weeks of Deseret News. It includes two newspapers per week, five issues of Deseret Magazine, weekly editions of The Church News (which is news about my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and electronic editions of everything (which I do not plan to use unless there is a specific article I want to share with someone).

Aside from the sweet deal, another reason I chose Deseret News is that it falls right in the middle of the political bias scale and solidly within the “More Reliable” range on the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart. So the idea is that it should provide reliable coverage and balanced perspective.

It's my hope that at the very least, the next 6 months will serve as a “reset” for me when it comes to how I get my news. If I choose to end my print newspaper subscription down the road, I'll make every attempt to be intentional and careful about how I get my news via the Internet after that.

I'm done with doomscrolling.

Discuss...

#tech #news #media #internet #health

Topics of Focus

#faith – thoughts related to my religion #tech – self explanatory

Other Topics

#100DaysToOffload #accessories #AI #automobiles #Bandcamp #books #business #cassette #charity #Christianity #Christmas #ChurchOfJesusChrist #climate #community #compactDisc #contention #COVID19 #decentralization #DigitalMinimalism #economy #electronicMusic #EveryDayCarry #eWaste #family #FOSS (free-as-in-freedom and open source software) #friends #gratitude #haiku #health #hobbies #HomeOffice #humor #intentionism #internet #laptop #LessConvenient #libraryMusic #life #Linux #loneliness #media #meditation #mentalHealth #misc #movies #music #news #nostalgia #physicalMedia #planning #poetry #politics #privacy #prophets #retro #smartphones #SocialMedia #synthwave #travel #TV #Twitch #unity (not the game engine) #Utah #vaporwave #writing