How to Take Back Control of Your Life from Addictive Internet Algorithms
Practices and apps you can use to reclaim your attention and privacy — from simple to radical, and everything in between
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Having now spent more than two decades of my life online — I attended an early e-high school while still on dial-up — I’ve come to the conclusion that the internet is like God: the experience isn’t the same for any two people.
Sadly, for most of us, the internet has become a highly-toxic, anxiety-inducing, privacy-eroding, sleep-robbing, work-distracting, ad-blitzing, time-devouring wormhole to nowhere. (Or, you know, believing the earth is flat.)
The fact is that we’re simply no match for the addiction algorithms that now rule the web. We’re too weak for the internet… or rather, the internet is too strong for us. Is it possible to flip the switch?
Is it possible to create a lifelong internet experience that’s enjoyable, private, low-anxiety, and time-controlled, with zero ads and minimal tracking, that actually contributes to your bottom-line life goals?
This step-by-step article will show you exactly how I did it.
Make the Internet a Tool, Not a Toy
The reality is that all tools use us. A hammer literally cannot hit a nail without using a human. A saw cannot cut through a board without using a human. A phone cannot deliver ads without using a human.
Once we understand that tools use us instead of the other way around, then we can start to figure out what sort of a tool a cell phone actually is. To do that, we have to ask a very uncomfortable question:
What is a smartphone’s primary commercial purpose?
It isn’t a trick question. Based on total revenues, the answer is clearly “to serve advertisements.” The phone’s secondary commercial purpose is to sell apps. Its tertiary commercial purpose is to get you to upgrade your phone every few years. That’s how the FAANGs became trillion-dollar companies.
In the same way, social media sites can’t make money by delivering ads and/or Russian propaganda…
