(A New) Capitalism Ruins Everything Around Me
And Internet Cookies 🍪

Inspired by a particularly disturbing episode of On the Media and my previous viewing of The Social Dilemma, I deleted my Facebook account… then poured over Instagram‘s new Terms & Conditions, Data Policy, and information about their Ads with the hope of finding the means to feel okay about continuing to use it. Under an unconvincing guise of good intention, Instagram’s words were vague and not at all comforting. But Shoshana Zuboff’s words–their implications–thrashed loudly with a disruptive force only the truth can hold:

Just when natural resources are depleting from their finite origins–when the planet is ravaged by rampant consumerism, a new capitalism to rape yet another precious resource: You. Your humanity. Your emotions. Your thoughts. Because all of these things help to sell products. Surveillance Capitalism is a thing of dystopian nightmares… but all true and real and within our consent.

This morning’s sickening journey, one that I perhaps predicted on the back on my car in 1997, before we all hit “Accept,” (Question Technology) prompted me to action. So I made this list of tips for concerned users of Instagram as a starting point.

1.) Don’t Link your Facebook to you Instagram.

Both services working together produce more and more detailed data on you and your habits.

2.) Turn off Notifications.

Notifications are the Pavlovian ding that get us drooling. They get mixed up in your pleasure centers in a creepy fashion. Turning them off disables the mechanism that reels you in for more screen time. That means more data for them. Disable and work on more meaningful and enduring rewards IRL.

3.) Resist interacting with Ads.

Stopping at the ad, liking the ad, interacting in the comments of the ad (liking others’ comments that rip the ad apart, for example), recommending to another user, clicking the link to shop–these are all interactions. If the ad seems incompatible to you, that’s a good thing. They are still trying to figure you out. Just scroll on by. Genuinely interested in the product? Go to Duck Duck Go and search it yourself independently.

4.) Resist clicking stuff so much.

Your little finger is pretty powerful. Every move it makes is tracked and sold. Avoid subscribing to hashtags, searching through the app (use Duck Duck Go instead), excessive liking, playing games, interacting with ads… everything really. Check here to see what the site is tracking.

5.) Posts, Not Stories. Easy on the Hashtags.

Stories and their features were created as a means of getting more varied data from a user. In fact, whenever a new feature is created think of it as another way to get data. The more you post and hashtag, the more you are giving… and the more you are helping to get data from all users.

6.) Track Your Own Data.

Check in on your own habits in the Settings section of your accounts. Look at your activity and monthly screen time average. Seeing this data can help you think critically about your usage, create a limit that you feel good about or connect activity with more broader issues that might require your attention.