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No problem. I get really down about what the internet has become because I remember what it was supposed to be back in the early days. We were gonna communicate without social barriers, end prejudice, save the rainforests and the whales, you know...?
But the very nature of the medium is impermanent. Every protocol and technology that underpins the internet is flexible, changeable. It's changed significantly from the early days, back when people were optimistic and hopeful about what it meant for us, it can change again. But it won't until we disengage from it. As long as we're hooked, we feed the beast.
I think it's good to talk about our dissatisfaction with what online spaces have become, to encourage people to pull back, consider what they're doing, and to look for alternatives. We can't pretend that it isn't a part of our reality, it's out of the bottle, the box is open and so forth, but it doesn't have to touch the whole of our existence, it doesn't have to shape every part of our reality.
I tell people to take a single small step. Leave your phone at home so you're not tempted to cheat, then go to a book store and buy a book, pay cash for it, and don't use a rewards program. Don't ask for suggestions or look up reviews, browse the aisles and pick one based off the blurb on the back cover. Unless the cashier is a friend of yours, no one knows you own that book except you. No one was paying that much attention, I promise.
Owning that book will be something private, something only you really know about, so it can be any book you want. It's a small act, but it's one that's utterly free of judgement, analysis, and intrusion, which makes it something profound in this day and age.
EDIT: Bonus points if it's a local bookshop, but do the best you can.
You sound like a really wise dude. When you put it that way, it’s sooo true, I can’t believe that the simple act of buying a random book in cash is the antithesis of how consumerism works these days (we go online, read reviews, get tracked, get recommended books based on our search query and our “profile”, etc)
Also, may I ask what kind of games you’re into? That was a huge dilemma for me in the past. Like, should I run Linux or Windows. In the end, I gave up PC gaming after a lifetime of being a hardcore PC gamer and moved to console for simplicity sake.
Thanks. I don't know if I'm wise, but I'm definitely old enough to have a little experience and cranky enough to resent someone being in my business all the time. Social media pushes us to share everything with everyone, so it can be fed into surveillance advertising, but there's some peace of mind in having time and things that are only, or at least mostly, yours.
As far as gaming goes, I was a PC gamer for a long time as well. I used to play mostly RTS titles, but got into online games and MMOs in the vanilla WoW era. I'm not beholden to a particular type of game, and these days I play most exploration and story driven games with less of a combat focus where I can relax and complete at my own pace like Stray, Firewatch, Jusant, and Death Stranding. I replay old favorites a lot. Portal and Portal 2 still hold up really well.
Outside of issues with AI, a decline in quality, and privacy, the Windows vs. Linux choice really comes down to looking at the software you use and the games you play. In a lot of cases, there will be something that's equivalent to common windows software, but works a little differently, Libre Office instead of MS Office, etc. So you have to consider your desire to relearn some common tasks as well. If you do try it, I'd get a second hard drive if you can, install Linux on it and dual boot or just keep the Windows drive around in case you decide you want to switch back.
I like Linux, I started using it after taking a class on it back in the early Win 10 days. I don't do anything extreme or crazy with my set up, I mostly run Debian or Ubuntu based distributions like Mint, PopOS, MX, and so forth. I haven't tried Bazzite yet, but I've heard good things. But if you want to tinker, go nuts, you can customize about anything if you have the skills. It's never been 100% trouble free for me, but neither was Windows, and for the most part it's run really well on my older hardware.
Linux gaming is a lot easier these days, and for the most part if you're avoiding big AAA online only titles, you can run just about anything you want with minimal hassle. I bought the Steam Deck for simplicity's sake, I was running most of my games through Steam with Proton on my desktop anyway, and it was cheaper than upgrading or replacing my old PC. Valve isn't a perfect company, but they seem to be much better than most of the competition these days, and I like that they're working to provide a solid alternative to Windows in a market that's been dominated by one company for far too long.