The Tech Reclaimers
I've been working on this one for a while and am thrilled to introduce the Tech Reclaimers! We are a not-for-profit community aimed at helping us all reclaim our digital lives and our futures from Big Tech.
In fact, one of the big lessons of the Opt Out project is don't work alone!
On the one hand, that's because it's difficult to do, and isolating if you go solo. Behavior change takes time, and positive reinforcement. It helps to have a buddy system. It also helps to feel like you are part of a community. There is no one path to better tech: knowledge sharing and a wealth of accumulated experience benefits us all.
On the other, this is really a movement about reclaiming our connections, our time, our trust, and our attention. We should connect with each other as we go, invest our time and attention and trust in something other than immoral oligarchical corporations. We are not a resource to be mined!
So it seemed to me -- and a few friends and fellow travellers -- that what we needed was a step further than just an individual Opt Out site. We need something like a community Bicycle Repair Club for the Internet. A skills-sharing opportunity. A community connection. Peer-to-peer learning. And a support network while you make the switch to stay accountable, share your lessons learned, and get support.
And if we think beyond our sense of individual responsibility to make a change, something greater is afoot here. The Big Tech systems make it hard -- if not impossible -- to feel like we can resist alone. They want it to seem like our responsiblity that we cannot resist the behaviorally addictive and social engineering techniques they use to entrap us.
In the meanwhile we are no longer their users, or even their product -- we are their mine, and their miners.
They mine our data to fuel their AI systems, and our own hapless scrolling and interactions trains their machinery.
We feel like we are flailing out for connection. In reality, we have fallen into a connection trap. One that is designed to keep us flailing.
Enough. Opting out doesn't do anything if it's just a bunch of individual conscientious objectors trying to purchase more responsible tech. This is a digital labor movement, and we might as well build the solidarity so that we can act like one.
I will still post my experiences and expertise here on the Opt Out Project blog. You can still find me via my mailing list. I am expanding to other sites as well, in an effort to meet people where they're at. That's a fundamental premise of the Reclaimers as well.
But you'll now find an expanded community posting their experiences to a forum, sharing their ideas and latest projects, wondering about alternative tech and getting answers. You can find us here:
- Tech Reclaimers Website and Resources for getting off Big Tech, together
- The Forum -- for people posting and sharing information
- A Signal Chat - for realtime discussion about digital alternatives and working through the Cybercleanse and activities together
- A Discord Server -- for archived discussion and collective opt out activities
- Our Mastodon and BlueSky accounts - for general up to date activities and information sharing
The opt out project, now with more interactivity! Join us and join in!
