And all that data probably takes up less room than a few pictures, could easily be stored locally, and encrypted locally before backing up on a server. But why give individuals control and privacy over their own behavior and history when you can sell it to anyone and keep the profits for yourself? /s

scruffy-seconded.gif

I've been surprised by how effective it's been to say, respectfully, "this is important to me," maybe adding "here's why." Got all my siblings, mom, SO, and best friend on Signal, that's a vast majority of my online conversations.

reddit is orders of magnitude bigger then lemmy, but I find lemmy high quality and has more people with similar values- more than i could ever keep up with.

Back when Adobe went subscription-only, I stopped using it on my personal work and devices even though a lot of my previous work depended on it. Had to switch to different tools, but now there are better options. Not only has Adobe stagnated, but they caused an even bigger exodus when they messed with the ToS to train ai on user data.

I switch to linux a few years ago and now when I have jobs that use windows I realize how clunky it actually is, and it's only getting worse while linux has been getting better.

I'm fully degoogled (also a graphineOS user). It took me years to eliminate each service, but I was sick of these giant companies that could never give me the things I wanted because in interferes with what they want (ad revenue). The only thing you can do is take it all back. Participate as little as possible. These companies will not stop getting worse while people continue to use them.

It can be inconvenient, time-consuming, and hard, but there are options, and it is a lot easier now than it was a decade ago. I see no reason why it wont continue to get easier and more accessible. That's why it's important for tech savvy folks to do what they can, now, and make it easier for those who come after them. Personally, I've done a lot for myself, but need to learn more about hosting securely so I can offer close friends and family better alternatives that they can easily access.

I wanted something similar from a remote company I was working for. They were pretty good about fulfilling requests, but when I asked for a good kvm switch they said they had trouble in the past and instead recommended a usb hub that can toggle between machines. Then connect both machines to the same monitor and toggle the input. Not ideal, but low cost and functional. Might not suit your needs (would be annoying if you have to frequently toggle back and forth), but if you're just trying to share your desk space between a work machine and personal, and the monitor input is easy to toggle, it's worth considering.

I don't think they have the ux advantage that their wealth suggests due to misaligned incentives. A good portion of their investment is getting users to see as many ads as they will tolerate. Try to modify any privacy settings, for example, and the ux is as garbage as amazon.

Fediverse and self hosted, open source alternatives are still relatively new. Folks have to expect some turbulence. As things grow and more bug reports and contributions can be made, the ux could be superior because they can give users what they want instead of maximizing monetization.

Misskey is a federated facebook alternative I heard about on mastodon recently. I'm not too familiar with it myself, but seems worth mentioning.

It has a "groups" feature that might avoid the "instance per person" lemmy workaround you were thinking about. According to this comparison misskey doesn't have a like button, but a few of its forks do. Not sure about the upload experience; may depend on the app. I didn't see any clients listed on their site but did a quick search for an iOS app, which exists, so i assume android, too.

Sorry I don't have more info, but I hope that's useful. Best of luck! I'll be looking for a similar solution in the near future.

And libro.fm for audiobooks. It's harder and harder to own media. Just look at movies and television. Got to support it if we want it to stick around.

Idk what your feed looks like but if it's like mine-- posts hyping ai juxtaposed with posts from artists that are (rightfully) upset that their work is being used without their consent to train generative ai in a push to replace artists or devalue their work-- linkedin can feel pretty dire and soul sucking.

Wanted to 2nd and add to some of the comments, and ask a question (no expectation of an answer).

Spiraling. Many, if not all, have been there and it's an awful place to be. It will pass. You say you feel toxic, in that state you can be toxic to yourself, hence the suggestions for positive affirmations. It's a way to form a habit of not beating yourself up; getting stuck in- or compounding- your lows. If every time you make a mistake you think of all the things you do right, instead of all the things you do wrong, that mistake feels like a fluke rather than confirmation of a negative self image.

Focus on the basics: eat, sleep, move. Adhd is much worse when you're forget about the basics. I've been developing a habit of having low-effort healthy snacks around and eating more frequently and it helps (saying this now reminds me I should have some fruit and a protein).

Journaling can give a sense of relief, like what you wrote here. In time you may notice your triggers or common struggles and that can help develop systems to mitigate those issues. You mentioned not prepping your safety glasses or prepping lunch. Evening prep the night before is a great wind-down activity. You probably know this and just forgot or got distracted. It happens. Writing/reflecting like you did serves as a good reminder and can help build that habit (another downside to negative self talk: it can bury that info).

You mentioned you're losing hope medication can help. Are you currently taking medication? You may want to talk to your dr. I started medicating recently and the first one i tried took me in the opposite direction. The 2nd medication was good as i was increasing, but then introduced some issues (so I'm now trying a lower dose and if that doesn't help I'll have to try a 3rd med). The journal can also help recognize patterns, timing, when you took what and how much.

Thank you for sharing your struggle. It's not unfamiliar. Good luck on your journey. Wishing you the best. It'll get better. Keep at it.

Edit: typo

💯 There's more software, games, movies, music, people, etc than I'll ever be able to interact with in my entire life. So much good to be found when you don't waste time on all the extractive, disrespectful, enshittified BS. Edit: dropped word.

Same. Lots of systems and a place for everything. EG if I leave the room and want to remember what I was doing when I got back, it'll be the one thing that's out of place and somewhere obvious. Unfortunately, it's easily thrown off by others who forget to put stuff back.

What's your relationship with travel? I struggle to pack up and mobilize so many systems. It's been getting better as I develop travel-specific solutions (like having a dedicated toiletries bag that remains packed).

Potassium is also an important electrolyte for heart health, so have a banana with your salt water, if you can. source: https://www.cdc.gov/salt/sodium-potassium-health/index.html

Side note: the game "Baba is you" was named after this effect, and features a character named kiki.