Heard a zoomer say “low key” irl the other week and had an anthropological moment like “ah, so it’s the equivalent to the millennial ‘literally’. Fascinating.”
Like where this person said “No but low key you can just do ____.” I would have said “No but literally” etc etc. Both of these linguistic quirks irritate my mother.
For those of you with android devices, you can use the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) standalone app control program to get rid of all the bloatware, data mining, and AI crap - no coding needed!
There are also Android-based alternatives like GrapheneOS and LineageOS, which are pretty easy to install. These are unfortunately available for a more limited range of devices (Graphene is ironically Pixel only, while Lineage supports more), but it's very worth checking out whether one of them might work for your phone.
GrapheneOS is a security and privacy focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility.
LineageOS Android Distribution
Typing this from Graphene now, in fact. But, both of those take the Android Open Source Project, without all the bloatware--and largely de-Google the whole thing. They give you much more control over privacy and what the apps you choose to install can do and access on your phone.
I know Graphene sandboxes everything, including the optionally installed Google Play Services which a lot of apps unfortunately require to run. (Lineage uses an alternative to Play Services instead.) So, you can install what would normally be unacceptably intrusive apps and just lock them away from pulling any funny shit with your data, or phoning home. Including the couple of Google things I do still keep around.
I also prefer running much more transparent, privacy-respecting open source apps where possible. Besides the transparency, I'd rather avoid the shitty tech corps entirely where I can. There are pretty good alternatives available for a lot of the usual suspects.
AlternativeTo lets you find apps and software for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Android Tablets, Web Apps, Online, Windows Tab
An alternative app store:
F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy
thinking about fandom etiquette again and one thing that comes to mind is keeping fandom to fandom. why do some of you want to involve the actors/creators themselves? why do you want to tell them about what happens here? are you not terrified of being discovered? what the hell man.
People on the internet love to criticize work by Some Guy putting stuff up online for free like it's made by Disney Studios, and talk about Disney movies like they're made by their personal friend Amy, who is just trying her best,
the thing about media literacy is that understanding why the author chose to specify that the curtains are blue is the same skill set as understanding that the way the author characterizes all black characters as angry or all chinese characters as meek and silent is racist. it is the same skill set as being able to identify when a news source is biased or when someone is feeding you propaganda. the ability to ask "why did this person choose to present this premise in this specific way?" is a critical skill in a world full of misinformation. why are the curtains blue? maybe it's a characterization detail. maybe it's extraneous worldbuilding. why is this character written as being right all the time? maybe you're intended to disagree with them. maybe it doesn't matter. maybe you should still ask why.
I love when you go on a date with someone and you’re like. well that was neither wonderful nor horrendous. You seem Fine. I’m sure if this was the 18th century and we were gentry arranged married to secure our fathers respective land interests we would care for each other in our way. you would buy me nice horses that I really had no interest in but would admire how gentle you were with them and when I died in labor during my third pregnancy you would tell our surviving heirs that their mother was a handsome woman who never drank too much and embarrassed herself in company