DeGoogle? Well, it's a start.
By Edward Willis (
gopher://encw.xyz and
http://encw.xyz)
Published Mar/13/2025
DeGoogling is a fad today. If you deGoogle, it is said that you can reclaim
your privacy and independence. I guess that's true to some extent. But what
about other service providers? Google isn't the only data hoarding big tech
tyrant.
Better than deGoogling is going cloud free. Don't buy things that require
internet connections to function, and self-host your own services on your own
network.
But better still is lessening your dependence on computers altogether. Do you
actually benefit from a digital calendar? Digital notes? Wouldn't a paper
calendar, and paper notebook do the job, with a lot less complexity and trouble?
No one on the internet can see your paper notebook, and it doesn't matter what
they do. Your paper calendar isn't being spied on either. Want a private
journal? Paper. You get the idea.
Want to securely delete data? Fire. Poof, gone, reduced to smoke and ash.
Shredding works too, though it is a less complete method.
Computer and software companies have done an excellent job selling us on
computers for just about every task you can think of. Whatever job it is, there
is some marketer trying to sell you on an overly complex computerized solution
that you probably don't need. Computerized solutions are often more cumbersome
and time-consuming than the things they replace.
To make matters worse, computers are addictive time sinks. Ask yourself: Are you
using your computer, your smartphone, whatever it is, more than you need to? Do
you use it because it makes your life better or because you're addicted to it?
Computers were supposed to be about efficiency; they were supposed to make time
for people, not consume time.
Are you missing out on life to stare at a screen? Read a book. Learn to play an
instrument. Learn to knit. Whatever it is you've been putting off. Do that
instead.
Degoogle? Well, it's a start. Better to decomputer.
