It has been a year since I shared my reasons to ditch ebooks and get back to printed books and it just occurred to me that it works. It’s works wonderfully.
Since I made that switch back to print neither Amazon or Apple, or anyone else for that matter, could tell what I’ve been reading, or study my reading habits. They don’t know, and that’s how it should always have been.
The same goes with our listening and watching habits. We have canceled all our subscriptions. The last one running is for music and it’s only because it was already paid for. Once it’ll run out it won’t renew. We watch DVDs and listen to our locally saved music files, or to CDs. Doing so, our musical preferences can’t be used to shove more ads down our throat.
Yeah, but your smart TV is spying on you, so they know what you watch.
We don’t own a TV, smart or dumb. We have quit watching tv in the early 00s when my spouse and I decided we had enough of being required to pay good money (and waste our time) in order to watch always more in exchange for very little quality content.
Yeah, but Amazon still knows what books and music you buy, right?
For some, yes as I still occasionally buy on Amazon. Last year, I purchased no CD and one DVD on Amazon, I also bought less than ten books. The others where either purchased in local book stores, in thrift stores or directly to people reselling used copies. I also borrowed some from the public library—which is keeping track of what I read and listen to, alas.
It’s worth keeping in mind I have no issue with ebooks or with streaming content. Those are very fine techs I would love to use. My issue is only in the way tech giants have hijacked those techs in order to milk every single cent out of us (and out of our habits) and in doing so how they are quiclly destroying any semblance of privacy in our democracies.
What’s great with printed books, DVDs and CDs, with most physical media in general is that they don’t require internet access to be used. And we don’t need to ID ourselves in order to access them. They’ anonymous, and they’re ours. We own them. No one else should be concerned by the way we use them. No one.
Which is why the cynical in me is seriously wondering for how long will we be allowed to enjoy offline and untracked content? When will big techs manage to persuade our elected representatives (most already eager to believe them) that offline content is somehow suspect and should be made illegal—like any claim to privacy? Not long, I imagine but I may also be complete paranoid.
Paranoid or not, I know for a fact that privacy is fundamental in a working democracy. Without privacy (aka real private and intimate space), democracy will quickly be eaten away by a never satisfied lust for more profit, and by an obsession with always more control. They both will be pushed for or own good, obviously no one would doubt our representatives have nothing but our best interest in mind, and not their own. The promise of always more comfort and more features in our techs, and of more peace in our lives, and who would not rejoice in getting rid of violent criminals, terrorists and sexual predators… those modern days witches.
The thing is that I don’t believe in witches. And I don’t think safety is worth getting rid of our freedom or independence. What I do think, is that ‘witches’, old and modern alike, were a great excuse and a efficient way to keep most people inline and under tight control—being lynched or burned to ashes never was a fun prospect, right? But it’s true I’m getting old and probably don’t understand much.
Published: 2025/01/24