It’s not so much capitalism as it is a weakness of human nature. There are plenty of non-capitalist governments that desire to control, spy and manipulate their citizens.

A change of relationships takes time. At first, the old relationship still has a persuasion-pull upon someone, but as time moves on that all changes.

(TDLR: Technology (in its infancy) was something new, exciting, fun and enjoyable. Today, it is manifested more as an overlord whose primary capacity is to spy, intrude and take your personal information in order that they might gain from it.)

I grew up in a world before all of the modern day technology took over. They were good times, but when technology did eventually begin to develop, it effects were initially benign. It was initially adopted by those who were considered ‘geeks’ and people who were willing to spend money on it (even IBM clones such as the Tandy 1000 were going for $1,000 back in the day).

I remember when pagers were coming on the scene and allowed people to reach out to each other if they weren’t at home or at work (which were the only places they had access to a reachable phone number). It gave greater freedom for those who were in positions where they were on call 24x7 - it allowed them to go places and still be reachable instead of being stuck at home and waiting for a phone call that might never come.

Of course, things grew from there which provided many other benefits including access to a huge repository of information. Nowadays, that access to information has become a means of harvesting information from the very individual seeking to obtain it. The innocence of what was once revolutionary has been been upended by and ideology that has figured out and embraced how to consume its own consumers.

I spend more time today figuring out how to keep my data and personal information private and secure. Using Linux on my computer, running GrapheneOS on my phone as well as other considerations all in an attempt to keep at bay invasive companies and their ever evolving techniques in order to pry and spy upon me. It’s a shame that what was once fun and exciting is now something to be feared.

Avarice and a will to control.

And I’m sure the new mods being installed will have an even stronger alignment with Reddit’s philosophy and direction which will only make life in that place more hellish.

I’m glad I jumped ship when I did.

I’m right there with you.

I just quit Reddit cold turkey. For me, I needed to be rid of it as I found myself spending an inordinate amount of time on it. I went ahead and deleted my account. I feel much better now that I have removed it from my life.

You’re right, but I was speaking from the standpoint of someone who needs to be connected to Discord (although I admit that I probably didn’t make that point obvious). In those cases, a client such as Webcord, can block things such as telemetry, fingerprinting and third party website access which help lessen the information Discord can actually collect on you. Granted, it’s not ideal, but it is a better option for those who just can’t live without Discord in their lives.

Reddit is not what it ought to be. It’s overwhelming toxic environment just ruins what could have been a great forum. But it is what it is and for that reason, I’m out.

Going back at this point would be like returning to an abusive partner and thinking that the relationship could actually be better this time.

From a privacy perspective, I use and prefer Matrix/Element. I also admit that setting matrix up isn’t the easiest thing to do and could keep people from adopting it.

I’ll only accesss Discord if I can find a good third party app that respects privacy. On my computer I use Webcord for this, but I haven’t found anything similar to use on a phone.

I’m from the same area, and my wife and I want to move somewhere else as well. We can’t stand South Florida.