Embrace the change
This post acknowledges something important: the topics I’m covering in the educational section aren’t easy. Change is never easy and rarely feels comfortable, unless you find motivation so powerful it overcomes discomfort.
For me, that motivation came from a commitment to social justice and global solidarity, along with this profound moment of clarity when I realized I wasn’t simply failing to adapt to technology. Rather, I discovered I could hack the system instead of being used by it.
What gave me true inner power wasn’t just resisting manipulative design, it was turning the game rules completely. I found joy in understanding how these systems work and then consciously subverting them for my own purposes.
Instead of being a passive consumer whose attention and data were harvested by greedy capitalists who see me as nothing but a wallet, I became an active participant who uses technology on my own terms.
This ability to navigate around intentional addiction triggers, to repurpose tools meant to exploit me, and to maintain my independence of thought: this is what has transformed my frustration into liberation.
The system expected me to be a blind sheep, but I chose to be a hacker of my own digital existence.
Missing root cause
Our society, blindly following the one vision for technological progress, has been overlooking deeply rooted issues embedded in it for far too long.
By rooted issues, I mean social and environmental injustice, resource exhaustion, child labor in manufacturing, human rights violations, discrimination, mass surveillance, and the environmental impact of AI’s rapid development – from its massive energy consumption to draining groundwater resources for cooling data centers.
These problems when you look at them as a whole can feel overwhelming, paralyzing even.
They’re interconnected in complex ways, woven into the fabric of our daily digital lives. Every smartphone, every casual scroll through social media, every “convenient” cloud storage solution – they all connect back to these larger issues in ways we often prefer not to think about.
My role here isn’t to overwhelm you with these challenges but to provide tangible solutions that can help you actively stand against these practices.
Think of each suggestion you will find here as a small act of resistance, a tiny gesture of global solidarity.
While one person switching to an ethical email provider or using their phone for an extra year might seem insignificant, these choices ripple outward when made by many. They become statements, votes cast with our actions, small but meaningful pushbacks against a system designed with limited awareness of its own impact on society and environment.
Seeds of changes
The advises you’ll find here are like seeds – it’s up to you whether and to what extent you’ll allow them to grow.
The very fact that you’re here, reading this article, proves that your mind is already open to alternatives. That’s a good sign. It means the soil for these seeds is fertile and ready to absorb.
Also please keep in mind that I myself am a radical example. I use open-source solutions, face all Linux bugs on my laptop with grace, avoid mainstream social media, develop locally this Digital Sanctuary instead of posting content on social profiles. I am also using the same smartphone I’ve had for 9 years – in black and white mode with all notifications turned off.
That is why in a world where our digital sphere is dominated by a few big players, and there is a lack of radical examples of how things could be different – I am honored to share with you a glimpse of this alternative world, as proof that it’s accessible and achievable. The only thing standing in its way is your ultimate choice which path you want to follow.
This moment where I am now, has been a years-long journey, made possible only through consistency and staying true to my values. Like everyone, I’ve had moments of weakness – like for instance strong craving to check my ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend on instagram. But whenever this happened, I examined it and tried to understand what emotion was hiding behind that impulse. Because as it is commonly known, technology has found its comfortable place in our unconscious impulses rather than deep reflection and contemplation.
Conclusion
So here’s my promise to you: all the advises I will posting here will be as simple as possible and provide with broader context so you can understand the long-term implications of implementing these changes. The only thing I ask from you is trust. Stay with these practices until they become your new normal, until they feel like your natural way of being.
As through these simple steps, we can collectively begin to gain control of technological progress and guide it in a direction that supports us – not the opposite. By opposite, I mean the current state where our emotions, time, and attention are being exploited and treated as resources in a world where profit is placed before people and nature.
JO ✮⋆˙