Alternatives

Here are some things I am trying to stop using, why, and what I’ve replaced them with; if they should be replaced. Some of them are for health reasons, moral reasons, or privacy reasons. I am not claiming that this is the perfect way to satisfy any of those goals, just what I am working on right now.

Social Media

Instagram

In its infancy, Instagram was pretty cool and was a fun way to see photos of what your friends were doing. Now it is some weird combination of Algorithm-served short videos designed to grab my attention, and the rare post from a friend from a week ago.

I use(d) Instagram for two very different puposes. I have a wildlife photography account that serves as a portfolio of sorts, and I have a personal accout that had the goal of keeping up with my friends. I will have two different sections of alternatives for these two distinct purposes.

Alternatives (socially)

• Instagram: I’ve turned off suggested content¹, which only shows me things from people I follow. As well as only use Instagram in the browser. But this is imperfect as the Algorithm is terrible at showing me what I want, and great at showing me what will keep me on the app as long as possible.

• Talk to your friends: It seems absurd that I have to even write this. But everything Instagram promises in terms of social interaction, can be done by talking to your friends.

  • Ask them how their trip was
  • Send them pictures of cool things that happened to you
  • Just like, be their friend

Alternatives (photography)

• Flickr: I really like Flickr. It has somehow survived the Algorithmization of social media. It is simple, serves as a place to post my photos and looks at others whose work inspires me.

• This site: I will likely add a portfolio section to show some of my favorite work on this site.

• Make projects: I am hoping to start making physical projects of cohesive photos I take.

• Read/view projects: Go to your library - they have loads of photo books to check out. Specifically from old renowned photographers who you won’t see on the internet.

Reddit

The more I use Reddit, the more I think I should just stop. Redditors are a meme for a reason, and you can get news and interact with communities of interest (see Flickr above) in other places. In these alternatives I’ll focus on the link-aggregation nature of Reddit.

Alternatives

• An RSS feed: After reading this article I have wanted to set up an RSS feed of things I would usually look for on Reddit. If I do, I’ll update this to reflect how that experience has been.

• Local new sites: I used Reddit a lot to see what was going on in my local area. This problem was solved in eternity past by the newspaper. Unfortunately, here, they only circulate monthly but all have real websites that stay up to date with local news.

Entertainment

YouTube

I don’t have much of a problem with comsumption-based entertainment. I think that TV, movies, and even something like YouTube can have its place. I think that the real problem, of which YouTube has also fallen into, is passive consumption. With autoplay, shorts, Algorithm-driven suggestions, etc, it is really easy to passively watch. These alternatives will focus on active consumption instead.

Alternatives

• Freetube: This is a YouTube client that allows you to turn off all suggestions. I have mine configured to show the newest videos from channels I subscribe to. It does not show shorts, and it does not show recommendations. It also, theoretically is more private. I haven’t done loads of reasearch on that, but currently YouTube is the only thing tying me to Google. Unfortunately, it also seems to be capped to 1080p playback, which is unfortunate.

• Add channels to your RSS feed: I don’t do this, namely because I don’t have an RSS feed, but I would love to get to a point where I have RSS+something like youtube-dl² to watch videos locally.

Streaming services

I am currently dependent on Spotify for my music, and TV streaming services for movies and TV. However, I would love to start buying physical copies of music, tv, and movies. Though, that is extremely expensive, so who knows if I will do it.

Shopping

Amazon

I really don’t like using Amazon, and honestly only get a few things there periodically. I should probably cancel my Prime membership. Amazon is anti-competitive, and treats their employees particularly bad. I would rather not support a business like that.

Alternatives

Shop locally: This is the best option. When I have the option, I always try to shop at a locally owned store.

Shop at real stores: Sometimes local stores may not have what I want, in that case I try to shop at a real store, even if it is a chain.

Order from other online sources: If I can’t buy something in person, I would rather order from a different online store than Amazon. For example, I buy camera gear almost exclusively from B&H (new) and MPB (used).

Kindle

For the same reasons as Amazon

Alternatives

Real books: Your local library will literally give you books for free. Go get them.

Other E-Readers: I have a pocketbook E-Reader that I love, but any brand that supports books not purchased through the Kindle store is great.

Misc Programs

Lots of things to put here, so I’ll try and keep it short and sweet.

• Adobe Lightroom: I really want to use Darktable because its free, open-source, and AI-free. But I haven’t been able to get it to work well enough for me.

• Windows: I use a Mac at home, but would really prefer to use Linux³. Apple definitely has its own anti-compete issues that I would rather not support. However, Lightroom doesn’t run on Linux, and Apple cares significantly more about my privacy than Windows.

• G-Mail: It’s so easy to use a different email provider. Specifically, I choose one I have to pay for⁴, as they are much more likely to value my privacy. Its also easy to set it up to use this domain.

• Google search: Google search has gotten worse, and they are adding AI summaries which I am not interested in. I use duckduckgo.

• VSCode: Microsoft classicly has a parasitic relationship with open-source, and I expect the same for VSCode eventually. Neovim is perfect for my use case.

• Google Chrome: I use Firefox.