Freedom is not a noun, freedom is a verb - something we make
Don’t quit the Net.
It’s all true, all of it, they really got you were they want you. The antenna on your phone does phone to the moder ship your every move, the pictures on your feed are engineered to cause anxiety, the search results are an echo chamber, the HR bot is sexist and you don’t own your stuff anymore. Look around other communities, other countries, look to the history books - you know this is not normal. Something caused it, we all know it, it’s right here in front of us. What is it that you hate? The phone company? The platform? The inventor? The government? Or all of the above? Who’s responsible here? What’s at play here?
If you answered all of the above, or some of the above, then answer me this: Is it fair to punish one self for the wrong doings of the enemy? Because that’s what some people do by quitting the Internet. To quit the Net seems revolutionary, it’s the I’m not gonna take it anymore approach, yet if one were to analyze the outcomes of quitting, he or she would realize that quitting is not an act of rebellion but an act of suppression. Instead of fixing the medium, you give up on it.
The solution to break free from digital media’s grip is not to ignore the medium, but to grow immunity to it by getting to know it better.
If we choose media illiteracy over media literacy then the algorithm already won. If Google, Facebook & Amazon are as disruptive as they claim, if they can control us to the extent they wish to do so, then we would accept domination by unplugging from the matrix. But we’re smarter than unconscious software, we can fix this mess. This bug will never be patched if we don’t code the solution. You might not code, but to submit to the internet means to be programmed, only with digital media literacy we can upgrade ourselves from programmed to programmers.
If you want to solve any issue regarding the Internet, issues like addiction, distraction, digital stress, marketing & manipulation, whatever problem you see online, that problem can only be solved with engaging with the medium. To save the town we must confront the dragon.
To be digitally literate means to create, modify, remix, share, distribute, organize, participate and contribute to online spaces.
In Richard Stallman’s own terms, to be free as in freedom you must first posses the four basic freedoms (to contribute, to distribute & to benefit from the communities contributions), but to actually enjoy the four freedoms you need freedom number zero: The freedom to run, execute, to enact; in other words, for freedom to become a possibility first we have to posses the capacity for creation, but for actually enjoying freedom we must create. If you want freedom then create, if you want slavery then consume.
By disconnecting you will give away your zero-th freedom, thus never achieving digital liberation - freedom is not a noun, freedom is a verb, to be free we must make it so - To do nothing is to be digital slaves to the material conditions of tech. To voluntarily give up your possibility to create & contribute online you’ll be left with one option, to consume. You’ll become passive, scrolling down the feeds, waiting for the next ping, buzz or notification from the algorithm. To be a consumer one must necessarily give up their freedoms, this is called programming, influencing some object with instructions to achieve the programmer’s goal. But to disconnect completely to never be seen again goes further, to quit the Internet for good docent make you a rebel, it won’t solve anything - If by ejecting the freedom to create you become programmed, by rejecting the Web you’d become discontinued.