AM I USING THIS TECHNOLOGY? OR IS THIS TECHNOLOGY USING ME?
We are not luddites. We have no choice but to use the internet and social media to work and socialize.
But we don’t have to pretend this is normal. The digital revolution that brought us the World Wide Web, social networking, and the platform economy is Chapter One of a much longer story.
The world order in 2100 will depend on what we allow to happen today, who controls our technologies and who they’re designed to serve. Fortunately, there is still time to change course. Because this is not the way.
As long as we lack compassionate, sustainable, and democratic digital infrastructure, we will disengage whenever possible by:
1. Boycotting extractive social media. Do not use social media that treats you as a product by harvesting your attention for profit. This includes Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and many, many more.
2. Abandoning platforms altogether. A platform is defined as a “private, for-profit company that is digital-first.” Whenever possible, shop brick-and-mortar or order directly from the seller. Never use Amazon. Take a taxi, walk, or use public transportation. Never use Uber. When travelling, stay with friends, stay in locally-owned hotels, beds and breakfasts, or hostels. Never use Airbnb. If you are relying on an app to solve a problem, ask yourself: is there another way? You may find that platforms supposedly designed to make our lives easier in fact complicate them with overwhelming options and exuberant fees.
3. Refusing interaction with ChatGPT, Deepseek, Claude, Gemini, DALL-E, Grok, Midjourney, and all forms of generative AI until its architecture and development is totally transparent, its use in the humanities is heavily regulated, and it can be powered sustainably. Using AI is not a politically neutral act. Every time you speak to a chatbot, you are helping it get closer to rendering human workers totally obsolete.
4. Acknowledging that oligarchs have no place in a democratic society. Boycott their companies, protest their political projects. Make art and tell jokes that ridicule and demean them. Most of these people are tasteless, unfunny and easy to make fun of. No matter what they say, they are not on our side.
5. Promoting healthy relationships with technology. Technology should enhance human life. Not become it. Therefore, use digital technology only when it unequivocally improves your life. There is no reason to be logging hours and hours of screen time every day.
6. Rejecting the notion that humans and computers are comparable. We are not machines. Human intelligence cannot be digitized. We are creatures who are bound to our genetics, our bodies, our biology, and our environments. Who we are as a species, and who we are as individuals, cannot be separated from our physical world. Any AI imitation of human consciousness will only ever be an approximation.
DISENGAGE
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