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?
Just tell them (the truth) that their emails are read, their keystrokes are sent, their messages are not safe either, tell them that they have no online privacy and America sees it all (that America that is currently shooting people for recording a video). Older generations, I found, expect privacy and they usually are shocked to find out that it is breached every moment they use their mail, os, phone, etc… It is the same with my parents. The change is not fast, we always talk about one particular area (like messaging) and then they ask me themselves what they can do to fix it (like installing signal).
You’re lucky there, my experience is the polar opposite and more aligned with “I got nothing to hide” It’s quite frustrating.
There is a great video from Naomi Brockwell who basically lays out all the arguments why “I have nohing to hide” is such a bs. I’d recommend watching it and arm yourself with good arguments. That said I partially agree with the other reply, if they don’t won’t, don’t force it. Usually its better to say your arguments for why it matters and then leave them to think about it. Often times they here it here and there and they come asking more later.
Let me give you the perspective of your parents - it’s frustrating being forced into changing everything I know and is working perfectly fine for no obvious negative consequences of keeping things as they are. The entire thing seems purely ideological. Why change everything and make things break and make me basically start from scratch learning all these new things?
Instead of wasting time changing people who do not want to change, why not focus the time and effort on people who are bit more modern, tech-sawy, aware of the situation and at worst, evaluating the switch but still unsure? Instead of walking through a creek, you are frustrated because you try to drill a tunnel through a mountain.
I partially agree with you. i think it is crutial to discuss and argue when there is a chance. Politely, not forcefully. Even people that don’t want to change things they may eventually change their mind. From my experience, when they hear it from more sources they become interested. And sometimes if its repeated enough they will begin to see it as truth. Doesn’t always work, but I saw it work with some pretty stubborn people 😀
Change happens in waves - first come the early-adopters and enthusiasts, then the curious, then the majority hits, then after the majority come the initial sceptics until everyone is there.
If you apply the same logic in the past, our parents were probably the sceptics who initally said why would they install an app to communicate when they already had perfectly fine cellular calls and SMS, and they had no reason to use WhatsApp.
The same tech we try to move them from, were the same tech we probably spent the same amount of effort trying to get them to use it in the first place.
My dad is smart he doesn’t use Facebook or Google messages or have a social media account. He only uses sms and Hotmail. My mom is everywhere and when I talk to her about moving to signal she just finds any change too complicated. I love her but she’s spending 10 hours a day on Facebook. She is literally rotting her brain at 76.
My whole family is left leaning, 100+ people, but almost none of them use alternatives like Signal Lemmy and whatnot. They’re almost all on Facebook daily…
My mom was also hanging on facebook way too much. Then they asked her to upload selfie video and her ID and she was like “no way I am gonna give them that” and that was that, problem solved I guess 😀 The issue with older people I find is that they are sceptical or even cynical, or they just think it doesn’t matter because they are reaching the end if you know what I mean.