Discord, definitely!! It might be hard to ditch but it’s worth trying. I was never a big fan of it so it was kinda easy yet I still miss being able to contact some people on there. But the more people continue using it, the harder it will be to change things.
Spotify and Chromium, I agree on both as well. Try the options mentioned above concerning Spotify. And yeah, Music streaming is a hard one… I have a dedicated mobile device for Music streaming platforms of this kind if I feel the itch as well as a modded ipod for on the go. Highly recommend getting into a habit of buying Music (digital/physical) and listening stuff you actually own on desktop. Simple cmus or sth will do the job.
Maybe Librewolf or other Firefox fork for Browser.
Edit: typo. Edit 2: I’d keep a chromium-based Browser of some sort, you might need it sometime for something. Just use different Browsers for different things.
How? Maybe its helpful to take a step back and reflect a bit on what everyone can do. We first need a good basis. Sure, yes, while some can help with developing more specific things, other’s can’t, and thats exactly the point.
some ideas to start
Spread awareness and talk about all kinds of topics involved in this problem with your family, friends and everyone else, and don’t give up. Best, in such a way they don’t feel overwhelmed with the topic or as if you want to teach them anything. A good conversation starter is maybe just asking how they feel about X or how they perceive Y. I feel like we do not have enough conversations about what is going on, be it politics, tech or the current media landscape, unfortunately its all connected.
If people are stubborn, maybe watch movies with them that portray life conditions during regimes, idk times under Stalin or Hitler or whatever suits the country you live in, provide people books and articles to read and then try to have a conversation based on that.
Take time to teach people around you about tech, basic stuff or more advanced, doesnt matter. Explain in small portions, one topic at a time. Help your parents out for instance, but in a way they actually understand how to do it themselves. We especially need people working in IT and so on to help those who aren’t familiar all too much with what kinds of technologies they interact with on a daily basis. Idk if this is the bubble I’m in but I realized that a lot Gen Z’s for instance are pretty aware of what is going on, but feel pretty overwhelmed with the topic and nobody has a clue what to do about it. It’s actually frightning how often people admit they don’t have any clue about anything tech-related. Education is Key, so more people are able to protect themselves. No way around this. You can invent a new whatever, it all doesnt help if people dont know what to do with it or worse: don’t even know about it.
Think about how you can contribute to reaching that goal, especially in regards to in the area you specialized in, your profession. Or think about the waya in which privacy-invading companies affect your job area, do something about it. It also helps to keep you sane as you feel you actually (can) do something about it.
Connect with other privacy-minded people online and your area, especially the latter.
Finally cut that last trash platform you are still using because peer pressure and start pressure yourself, be stubborn about the ways you can be contacted in the future
Create communities on topics that interest you here on lemmy, so it will maybe be easier for others to make the move to here as there’s actual content. Or make accounts elsewhere on the fediverse and invite poeple you know. Look for different platforms to consume whatever content you need to
get into politics or similar
ask questions. think twice.
add your ideas to the list