Kashmir Hill stopped using the ‘big five’ tech giants, one at a time. For the final week, she stopped using them all. She relayed her experience for Gizmodo.
I went through the digital equivalent of a juice cleanse. I hope I’m better than most dieters at staying healthy afterward, but I don’t want to be a digital vegan. I want to embrace a lifestyle of “slow Internet,” to be more discriminating about the technology I let into my life and think about the motives of the companies behind it. The tech giants are reshaping the world in good and bad ways; we can take the good and reject the bad.
[Update: August 3] The quote above and main link (below) is from the first time Ms. Hill conducted this experiment, in 2019. She has since reflected on it for The New York Times.
Check It Out: Going Cold Turkey on Apple, Amazon, Google,Microsoft, and Facebook
The equivalent fo a juice cleanse? So, you used phones that don’t work and are the tech equivalents to snake oil?
Yeah, that’s worth doing. 🙂
I think geoduck nailed it. Lumping Apple into those other companies, however much it might make a point, is unfair to Apple.
Getting away from ALL tech, now that would be an even-handed way to lump Apple into the pot of tech companies.
Interesting because other than going to a Feature Phone, it had nothing to do with Apple. I’m not sure she mentioned Apple outside of the intro. This shows all the talk of Apple as part of Big Tech is a bit disingenuous. Google, FaceBook and Amazon are in everything. Apple sells devices. The first three track your movements, sell your data, mine your activities, and spy on you whenever and wherever they can. Apple sells device. The first three use your data as their bread and butter. Apple sells devices.
Other than being BIG, Apple has nothing to do with the other three.