Hey everyone,
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to help my parents reduce their reliance on American Big Tech (Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.). They’re not tech-savvy, and I don’t want to overwhelm them or make them feel like I’m forcing a radical change. At the same time, I’m concerned about privacy, data collection, and the monopolistic practices of these companies.
Any ideas? First of all I thought about ecosia, I see that it returns more similar results to google than Qwant.
I want to buy them Threema licence.
I installed Le Chat as chatgpt replacement, moved some documents to Synology Nas
What’s next?
Focus on the future, not the past.
Let your parents live like they used to, since they are probably not really impacted much anyway (until we are all impacted). Focus on teaching your kids who a) understand tech much more and b) will teach the next generations.
They are impacted more than you think. My mom uses chat gpt more often than I did.
Facebook, messenger, google as default browser and search engine. Even when she search for something she chooses „google” app instead of browser Google Chrome- so its harder to switch her to ecosia ;)
I see how much crap my dad and mom watch from facebook stories. Misinformation is on the other level there… (talking from Poland perspective, we have russian propaganda in our socials)
Is the problem the content or the platform? I thought it was the platform because crap content can be found everywhere, even in the non-US platforms. But I mean, as average people, what benefit do they have from switching their life? You would feel better, but what about them?
Agree with @huppakee@piefed.social comment here about the importance of setting a north star and seeing the big picture.
I started idcaboutprivacy for exactly this. It’s an open source repository of articles and discussions to surface the importance of privacy how it affects our lives.
I’ve found that connecting the offline to the online is really helpful in translating concepts and answering the “Why should I care?” question.
On a more tactical level, I like to start off recommending Privacy Guides. Though not everyone agrees with 100% of their software recommendations, it’s a really solid starting point, and they also provide justifications for each one.
This journey that you wanna put your parents on is also endless, and we gotta adjust as necessary as things change. It’ll never be static. So consider that. Stay lean, open minded, and willing to adapt when necessary.
I say Linux first.
My mom relies on office documents. We wanted replace office with libreoffice and that was painful for her :(
I gave her laptop with libreoffice and she still prefered to use old laptop with old office license
Yeah that’s tough. Libreoffice is definitely not polished. Two solutions, 1) you can fiddle with the settings to make it look and act more like MS office . With the ribbon instead of the drop-down etc. 2) You can run old office versions for free using Wine. From what I hear, haven’t done it myself.
