Prev, you're right, i reblogged this as-is, and OP isn't exploring the question of "so what do we do" (which is fine).
But i feel up to addressing that a little so I'll try. I see the same question on posts about other social ills, and honestly I think the answer is the same. Yes, revolution would be ideal.
But the term "revolution" is poorly-defined and distorted by narratives from pop culture, which both fail to understand the nature of revolutionary action and are ultimately funded by organizations that have an interest in maintaining the status quo.
"Revolution" isn't an event like an asteroid impact. It's more like an avalanche. Even an edict from a dictator is only imposed through the willing acquiescence of all their underlings.
A post like this one points out the problem, it shows us the tragedy of the moment. And then you read it and you think...huh, yeah, that does suck, I wish it were otherwise. And then maybe the next time you have a choice, you do something differently. You share the sentiment with the other people you know. Maybe they choose to do something differently.
Working with your neighborhood to organize small forms of mutual aid is the foundation for change. Opting out of digital walled gardens when you can, opting in to decentralized networks when you can is the foundation for change.
I can't stop Microsoft from trying to lock me in to their company store. The systems of global power are too big. What I can do - am doing - is to stay alert to where they're building walls. I can put sugar in the cement at the base of the wall in the place where the cameras can't see. Maybe someone else will be able to take a sledgehammer to that weak point next year. Maybe the year after that a whole crew will have sledgehammers and we can take out that part of the wall entirely.
That's still a pretty metaphorical answer to the question of "so what can we do", so let me say specifically the ways I try to resist the digital walled gardens.
Trying not to let my phone be my whole world - i have some physical notebooks where I take notes about stuff, i could switch to a physical calendar if it came down to it
For #reasons, I wanted to measure the temp and humidity at different points in my house every day for a few years. I bought *analog* gauges, not digital, and i record the values in a paper diary. This is both so I'm not dependent on something that requires a digital company to exist in five years and so I'm not dependent on batteries. It's also so i have a reason to walk into different parts of my house each day and actually view and acknowledge the changing seasonal environment, to start getting closer to my local ecology
I installed linux on one of my computers, both out of spite at Windows not allowing me to opt out of updates and also as a way to encourage myself to build my digital literacy - the laptop can dual boot into either windows or linux, if i must use windows for something, but it defaults to linux
This is probably the most pointless thing ive done, but when windows solicited my feedback on a thing, i actually sent it. I wrote out some huge paragraphs about how frustrating and paternalistic it is that they have removed my ability to manage certain features and settings. It's basically just me standing on a rock shaking my fist at the ocean, but I won't go silent into the night, as it were
There are other little things in my life. The specifics *aren't* important. My life is different from others'. But we *can* do things. Let's do things! Together!
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