2025-02-26
Apple, big tech, lock-in and the corporate colonization of life experience
Over the past few weeks, months really, as I've been considering the state of the world and the US (as many have) I've found myself increasingly of the mind that it was time, probably past time, to more specifically redefine my use of computing technology. I've written about the most recent kick in the ass that finally got me moving and that was Apple's recent decision to renew it's advertising with a Nazi-owned social media company.
Of course, this is happening in the context of a far larger problem. Cory Doctorow speaks and writes of this larger problem often. Call it enshittification, call it capitalism, call it tech oligarchy, it's all of these things. But specific to my computing, the hardware, the OS, the apps and the internet, I'm making a renewed effort to further disentangle myself from those that can only view humans as consumers and customers. Which is to say, I want capitalists to have as little control over my life and my experiences as possible. Why give them that? No, I'm done.
It's become increasingly obvious that the US is a full-on oligarchy. It's not been a democracy for decades and in truth, it was never a democracy. It was a republic with a thin veneer of democracy via representation. And what semblance of democracy that did exist was bought and paid for by corporate lobbyists who don't just influence legislation but often write much of it. All this to say that as we watch a truly new reality emerge in the US (and in the world as it responds), I've decided not to just go along for the ride.
The people of the US have forgotten the power of collective direct action. Be it in street protests, general strikes or otherwise. Collective action is the way to force change from the bottom up. It can take many forms be it the above mentioned gatherings of thousands to millions of people together in streets but I would argue that it can and should also happen in our daily "private" choices. What we do in our homes as individuals and families, if done in conjunction with public statements can be another kind of movement. Simply put, it is the boycott. We support companies when we purchase their services and products. We support harmful industries when we repeatedly use larger categories of products (fossil fuels, meat, etc).
Much of my life is a never-ending effort define and redefine my ethics and to put those ethics to use in how I interact with the world. A part of how that is observable is the long list of things I boycott. I quit eating meat in 1989 because of concerns about animal welfare and then, later, affirmed by concerns about climate change. More recently I quit Facebook in 2015. I should have also quit Instagram but I only did that at the end of 2024.
Ethical choices under capitalism are nearly impossible because at its core capitalism is a system that disregards the public good in favor of maximizing private gain. And so the boycott is ongoing, a process of trying to minimize harm and, if possible, build alternatives that value the public good. In the case of computing and the internet, multinational corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Google and Twitter have only ever attempted to maximize profit by mediating, owning and controlling our experience, our time in the world.
Over the next few months I'm hoping to continue writing about the specific process of migrating from Apple to Linux but I intend to also write a bit more about what we can be doing to support and build the alternatives. because it's not enough to boycott those things which are causing harm. What are the pathways to better, more ethical computing choices? Hardware, operating systems, apps, the open web, social media are all a part of the problem and the solution. But, also, how we might serve in our micro-communities, be they families, neighborhoods or any other social sphere we move in? Perhaps it's time to be more open, more vocal about why such choices matter and to also offer help to those who might be interested in making such moves but who lack the knowledge to do so. I don't want to be pushy but I do want to bring it into conversations and I want to make it a point to offer assistance to those interested.
I don't have comments but I love email or you can find me on Mastodon.