@lcamtuf I had a similar discussion with a family member last night who still uses FB.

Since, globally, capitalism is destroying not just the environment but culture, and all forms of media, at this stage, are ingrained in capitalism, I break it down like this:

You are born with a single resource that has value: Your Minutes. Everything you will ever do is based, simply, on how you use/spend your minutes.

There are just over 1500 billionaires in the US. They did not get there via hard work. They became billionaires from taking minutes. All forms of media are designed to exchange your minutes for an interaction. Some are far more destructive and consume the most (FB, X, AMZ, et al) and some are a high value (Fediverse, wikipedia, archive, a phone). The ones who are barely survive are the most beneficial to me. The others, pure cancer.

The easiest, least life disrupting, highest ROI action anyone can take to stop the billionaires, save minutes to spend elsewhere, and recoup personal and societal social/mental health is to simply stop wasting minutes on any of their shit. If even 30% of the subscribers to any monthly fee thing stopped, right now, their "wealth" would crash in months. They remain in that slot because they are betting on people staying glued and giving them minutes. Reading a book or wiki article, meeting a friend for lunch, learning literally anything new by reading a book, taking a class, practicing, etc. is better for your life and a wiser spend of the minutes.

Could you get your information from something like wikipedia, any of these sources: https://www.trustworthymedia.org/list-of-independent-media/ and walk away from the AI shit show?

I have zero subscriptions, haven't for years, have no other social media than this acct, make art while listening to music, audiobooks, or watching movies or TV (btw, archive.org has a littany of old tv and film and an inconceivable amount of music and reading material). If I need to learn something new, I generally call a friend or ask around until I can find someone willing to teach me enough to get me started. Or I just keep at it until I sort it out. And, quite honestly, my only regret is not walking away back in 2000 when I bitched about this very thing happening.

The greatest boondoggle capitalism every pulled, and is the root of all of its evil and issues, is convincing people that if they were not working for pay for someone else their time had no value. Baked into societal mindset is the brainwash of "I'm not doing anything right now. So the time is useless." Social media is born of that. Lack of motivation thrives in that. What better way to get people to give up their minutes than convince them they have no value at all. They'd not be billionaires and not be actively trying to keep it, if they could not convince you to give them your minutes.

You can stay here without engaging with the shit and still have value and advancing yourself. Or the cabin, to me, is a beautiful way to go. Everyone dreams of longer vacations to "get away". But they try to convince you that living like that daily is useless. That lie is just their fear of losing access to your time.