Personal Digital Autonomy part 2

I'm not a tech person, I am not trained or educated in any of this. But I feel compelled to do something, and to encourage anyone listening to also do something. As a response to what I was talking about in the previous post, I've changed how I live online. I've had to re-imagine my digital life and how I use these tools to safeguard my sanity and whatever passes for privacy.

This can be understood as the difference between diet culture and changing your relationship with food – the former is wildly popular but will hurt you in the long run but the former requires a lot of thought, conscious effort, and the grace to forgive yourself if you screw up. Let's run with this concept now.

Digital Diets Vs. Intuitive Posting

Colleen Christiansen is a registered dietitian who promotes intuitive eating and “no food rules” as an alternative to diet culture. Her posts came across my tiktok ages ago and I've followed her since. I like her cheerful persona and skits, but I really like her commitment to non-judgement about food choices. She does not support carte blanche eating or gorging, but instead encourages people to pay attention to their bodies' cues which I struggle with myself. So I made her part of my regular rotation and I continued to follow her on other platforms when I left TikTok.

In her blog and the rest of the content she creates, she shares principles of intuitive eating that can be helpful in maintaining health and resisting a diet-fixated, damaging culture around food and eating.

She's pretty big on “no food rules” to help people recognize and actually change unhealthy attitudes about eating. There are no “good” or “bad” foods, there is recognition that everyone is going through health and emotional concerns that are not always apparent to others, and there are no tabulation systems to keep people constantly aware of their intake and second guessing themselves. With “no food rules”, she encourages people to not just listen to their bodies and emotions, but learn basics of how nutrients function in the body so they can make informed decisions about food rather than reactions.

In thinking about how I use tech and specifically social media, I keep thinking about Christiansen's approach and I think it's a spectacular way to help us consider the place of this technology in our lives. “No food rules” makes the “user” gently conscious and encourages agency around food. Maybe we should start treating social media in the same way and making more active choices rather than constantly convenience-consuming.

Don't get me wrong, I read the news, I know what's happening at a wildly alarming rate. Part of me literally wants to burn it all down and go back to Windows 3.1 and make everyone build their own webpages if they want to participate. But that's not realistic any more than stereotypical New Years' diet resolutions are realistic.

Again, I'm neither educated nor trained in this, I am a schmuck with an internet connection, but given the recent political hellscape, I sat down and had a talk with myself about how I use social media. I'm sharing what I do here in case anyone who is in a similar position is having the same thoughts. You don't have to be a techy person to start to take control of how you use technology. One of the best places to start is taking inventory of habits and modifying them. These are things I do, they may or may not work for you, too. In no particular order:

• I log off. Physically hit “log out” buttons as often as possible. No more 24/7 connectivity.
• I'm on multiple places and let friends know where else to find me, so I don't become dependent on one platform.
• Delete the apps. You can use social media through the browser. Yes, this is more inconvenient. That's the point. I don't want this to be something I open just because. The more steps I put into accessing these sites, the more I have to think about the time I spend on them.
• Back up media. The photos, videos, posts, etc. (except for small things like Bluesky) have to live elsewhere. My life should not only be stored on a Meta product.
• I extended this to Google Drive. I still like it and I use it for work, but I had to go cold turkey for personal stuff. It's a great service, but if Google takes a wild hair, I loose all my writing, photos, etc? No way!
• I don't fill 0ut all info and I'm often coy with what I do fill in. I don't put my workplace on personal socials, I don't use my real name, I also try not to discuss plans in advance as much as possible. This is not out of paranoia but to make sure I don't start “reporting in” out of habit.
• I've slowed down posting photos and I never tag people. It was great fun at one point, but it's so hard to manage your own photos and modify tags if needed it's not worth doing any more.
• I block early and often. I don't care. If I get a new follower I don't know in meatspace, I'm checking for signs of life, a varied post history, evidence of hobbies, and interests, and an erratic normal-people post schedule. This goes double if they're talking about politics. Too many troll farms, bots, and #resist@nce grifters are too slick these days. If someone doesn't pass the smell test, block.
• For that matter, I asterisk or mess with the spelling of certain terms like what I did with “resist@nce” in number 6. Say I do want to vent about something, I don't want bad actors who are searching on these terms to harass me or anyone I'm talking with. People definitely do this.
• I rarely post into hashtags and I think several times before popping off on anything I am heated about, because it's all too easy for jackasses to start harassing people and I don't feel like dealing.
• I ask myself “do I need to post this?” all the time. I think extra hard about how and where I should express myself. Does a thought or observation need to be on social media? Who's my audience on what platform? Can I substitute using something that is not a giant corporation?

What this boils down to is that I've made sustained efforts to change how I exist on social media. I've expanded my palette of where I am online, I've tried to change my habits to make doomscrolling and 24/7 connection harder to fall into. I'm trying to literally be more mindful and make choices with regards to social media instead of just bellying up to the bar. Very wealthy people have invested a lot into convincing us this is the only place social activity can happen and you know what, I decline. I don't have all the answers and I don't even necessarily have the best practices, but what I have here is a start and that's good enough for me.