Perspective
I think you’re like me, you know? I think you see it. Do you? Looks like all bets are off. That’s probably a good thing, right? There is one problem, though. It’s like a broken portal. You opened it years ago, when you decided to let people connect with you in a new way. It spawned a shadow industry: the economy of you. An industry so fundamental that commerce, media, and even politics now depend on its fuel. How did we get here?
They said it’s all free, but we’ve been paying all along. Just not using the type of currency with which we’re familiar. Every website, tool, post, every fucking word is designed to get something from you. Something you didn’t even know was GOLD until very recently. They gave it a name, “Data”, but that doesn’t really capture what you’re giving them. Your information, parts of your identity, pieces of yourself, they can use to predict what you’ll do next. To control it. Everything you buy, watch, comment on, respond to, or vote for, they want to influence all of it (Remember Cambridge Analytica?). Their control brings them everything: profits, power, luxury, you name it.
Everything about you is up for sale and can be used in some fucked-up ways, and the entities using it all have every incentive to do so.
You want out, you’ve wanted it for ages, so do I. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m done relying on others to make it happen.