We’ve been discussing algorithmic radicalization for a few years now, but what about being radicalized away from platforms? Noticing they feel so terrible, ubiquitous, and full of personal data that you’re not comfortable with them any longer? I don’t think I’ll ever be a 100% private storage, Linux based, internet-free luddite – but I’m no longer comfortable with Google or Meta just because my friends and family use them. Here’s what I’ve been weighing:

They’re getting worse. Google and Meta are putting “AI” into everything, disregarding social, environmental, and functional consequences. Google search is declining, and I’m convinced shortform media is inherently flawed.

The collective action problem. I’ve been hearing people compare social media to smoking, not necessarily something we need in our lives. My holding pattern has been seeing snippets of my friends and family, bombarded by forgettable short form content and ads, then generally regretting time spent on social media. It tends to fill empty space to cover up boredom, quiet, brain fog or otherwise negative feelings, without properly addressing those negative feelings. The scary thing is, most people agree when I talk about this, but the fear of possible social isolation is perceived as worse than staying on a platform. If more of my close friends left at the same time, would that fear of isolation still apply? Is that isolation even realistic?

FOMO on friends. I like seeing my friends, and I like compliments. I think most people do. But the reasoning here is partial: social media is not a social life, there are better ways to connect with people. If I like compliments, then compliments from people I care about, in person, will be more impactful than text on a screen. I can share my life and art in a way that doesn’t build value for a tech company, and also fills my need for connection.

FOMO on work. Unfortunately since 2012, Instagram’s benefit to my work is almost non-existent. No one has stumbled across my page then asked me about editing or producing. I’ve never posted jokes or a performance that has grown my accounts. There’s always been a small hope that something I post does well, or gets noticed by the right person, but if it hasn’t happened yet, I doubt it will.

I’ve interacted with other filmmakers, but those interactions have been brief, and usually not as impactful as time spent at festivals (where I also get to properly see and discuss their work). People still say Reels is just low-quality TikTok, so if I wanted to put my career in the hands of an algorithm, wouldn’t that be a better one anyway?

So what’s the plan? Google and Meta own a lot of my digital footprint, but beyond diversifying my data, I plan on less of it being out there in the first place.

Alternatives

To local targeted ads: Reading and subscribing to local newsletters, walking around my neighborhood for current events, or asking my friends what they want to check out.

To Instagram: Again, social media is not a social life. I’m going to see friends more often, and make hanging out more normal: IE walks, chores, and simple things, not just events. I can document my life in more personal ways, free from concerns about the platform I’m using.

To memes / shareable content: I’m open to screenshots and publicly viewable links, but if I receive a video that’s locked behind an app, I unfortunately just won’t watch it. I don’t think this is a huge loss. I’m also on Bluesky and have really enjoyed it so far.

To Whatsapp: Probably just texting and phonecalls. Open to Signal if enough people ask me about it!

To YouTube: I’m still a diehard YouTube consumer, but I don’t think it’s the primary place I can grow as an artist. Other types of editing and creative work appeal to me more. I’ve been posting there since 2010 and have basically de-coupled my creative process from how my work is received.

To YouTube Music: I’m going to produce and sing more, attend more shows, and build a CD collection to support my favorite artists. Will keep researching good smartphone music apps.

To Google Maps: CityMapper and Maps.Me have been promising.

To Google Photos: I’ll be backing up to personal drives, as well as printing more photo books and physical albums. I plan to finish a family lineage project that will be helped by the face-sorting algorithm, then I’m probably done.

To Google drive and email: I want to get back to a free storage plan. I already pay for Frame.IO through Adobe, so large videos for work can end up there.

Will follow up on these by end of the year!

Implications

Monopolies charge more for worse products. Unbelievable amounts of data have been collected to support Google and Meta’s business practices – and though there are brilliant people working for them, their brilliance is rented until the company loses interest in the employee, the product, or the customer in any combination.

A recent slow season of job hunting made me miss my social life, and I realized how toxic social media felt when FOMO became AMO: actually missing out. This was different from COVID, during which I focused on my classes while my other hobbies (theatre and going out) had stopped locally. But recently, I just missed my friends, and though I could have made new ones, I was in a weird limbo knowing I would move back to Vancouver anyway.

Distance isn’t the only thing that leads to missing out. Checking a phone while missing what’s in front of me creates another huge reason to stay off social apps. Zooming out further, there’s self-image warping, misinformation, overstimulation… the reasons to quit feel much more compelling than reasons to stay.

Posting has definitely lost its spark for me. I don’t want to build value for a platform that has no interest in my well being, let alone interest in paying for my work. But even if I had full trust in a platform, shortform posting and consumption isn’t a great use of my time. Am I making a diary? A greatest hits of my life? How authentic can I make the performance, or does it all simply not matter?

Quitting these two giant companies can have far-reaching and unpredictable effects on both my work and personal life. But I care about my friends, family, and colleagues enough to fight for something better while opting out of what’s no longer good for me.

To use a metaphor, a great gardener can plant anywhere. It just so happens that walled gardens were built around us, and we deserve to say whether we wanted these walls in the first place.

Data

One final note on data. I linked this Modern MBA video earlier, but it’s worth digging into: “AI” appears to be the latest trend the tech industry is using to justify extensive data collection. “Big data” was the previous trend, sold on the promise that having enough consumer data would allow the prediction of future behavior, resulting in a more stable business model.

After years of analyzing data, corporations have now moved the goalposts to say humans actually can’t parse this data, while machines can. If we sufficiently train AI models, we’ll have the tools necessary to capitalize on data, to perfectly predict consumer behavior and, I don’t know, build the perfect market?

There is no indication that tech giants will slow their collection of personal data. If anything, they’re increasing capacity to do so, all because of the industry promise (and fearmongering) of artificial general intelligence. I’m skeptical AGI will be achieved in the coming years, but that doesn’t change companies’ desire for more data than they know what to do with. Data should be anonymized, but now fingerprinting exists. We can legislate against these things, but there will be economic pressure to find new loopholes. Businesses are not ready to admit that individual data will never truly predict human behavior, but merely allows educated guesses based on past behavior.

A house of cards is built on the premise of predicting human behavior, and there have been startling examples of this seeming to work. The success of Squid Game. The TikTok algorithm. The re-election of Donald. But for every success story of data collection, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of failures: start ups that failed to launch, politicians that fall flat, artists you’ve never heard of, even though all of them play the same data game as larger entities.

Conclusion

The United Nations states that “Privacy enables the enjoyment of other rights: the free development and expression of an individual’s personality, identity and beliefs, and their ability to participate in political, economic, social and cultural life.” This almost sounds quaint, even incompatible with the modern data-driven landscape. It’s considered old fashioned to create a good product, or solve a particular problem and allow word-of-mouth to make a business profitable.

Google and Meta are advertising giants. Google started by solving the problem of search, and Facebook started by solving the problem of anonymous social networks. To remain competitive, these companies have tried every avenue possible to create tools for data collection, whether the tool is practical (gmail, docs, maps), or is arguably a waste of time (engagement bait, incentivizing addictive content, ad saturation). They collected this data to remain valuable to advertisers who paid for space on their websites, using data to create more targeted advertising.

Even if the AI bubble bursts, targeted ads will remain standard. It’s unclear if there’s a better replacement, as print and legacy ad design is a smaller arena. We can’t assume expensive, “broadly-appealing” campaigns work anymore. So in the meantime, we wait and see.

I’ll continue engaging in the ways that make sense to me, and right now that involves adjusting my approach.