Theory Of No Hope: Go Offline

When we search for ways to protect ourselves and data online we get a number of results most of which provide very informative how-to guides that we can follow. But, what if we didn’t have to do all there is to protect ourselves online, what if we could live without passwords? What if we could live without a VPN, what if we didn’t need a password manager?

Did you hear about WhatsApp’s latest terms of use? Where you choose between security and the app? Most of us gave in, we still use WhatsApp because most of our friends and family still use WhatsApp because most our friends’s friends and family still use WhatsApp.

This is mainly because most of us aren’t informed. Some simply give in and ignore reality. “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, right?”. If it doesn’t affect me directly it’s nothing I should worry about, so we think.

We never read the terms of use, some of us have never heard of these latest updates, it’s like nothing happened. We just go with the flow, we go for what’s trending. Every Social Media platform is a new opportunity for you to create a new profile, share more photos, send more videos talk to more people and make new friends and followers.

This reminds me of the programs that we use on our computers. Honestly I’ve never read the Terms and Conditions of most of the apps I have on my computer. I rely on the information that is already published online about certain programs and services. I rely on reviews that other people have done.

Your Social Media contacts are your Friends because that’s what they’re called on the platform, followers because they like what you do and conversations because that’s what it seems like. But, it isn’t always so. It isn’t always real this made up reality seems to work in our favor but it doesn’t, not at all times anyway. It keeps us in a bubble. One we take as a home of our own.

When The Topic Is Money

We’re suggested to use it wisely, buy only what we need, budget, invest or as some say use our money to make more money. Something that is hard to do. Theoretically easy to understand but, the process is more of a pain not impossible, it takes some practice.

What if we used the same mindset to determine what we do online, would it work?

Log in… Only when we have to.

==> This would cut off all the long hours we stay online for no reason at all, we like and comment so much that Facebook knows exactly how to keep us entertained and keeps making suggestions.

==>We open every suggested video on YouTube it ends up creating a playlist. The more you’re into the suggested content the better the algorithm understands you.

Use Only What We Need

==> Are you on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tik Tok, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Quora and Reddit? What else do you do, how do you have time for all this and have a life out of these platforms? We use most of these to communicate with friends all over the world but, do we need them everywhere? Online less is more.

Invest

==>Use money to make more money remember?

Well, we can definitely use what we have to gain more and it isn’t necessarily money, not always anyway. We can use the internet to learn trough tutorials, courses, free and paid. If we benefit from it somehow it is an investment is not?

Go-Offline for Good

This isn’t ideal for most people we have a lot going on online, I can relate. Such a change would affect you personally and professionally depending on what you do for a living and how you do it.

Can you imagine what would happen if the internet went offline for whatever reason? Chaos would come in to play billions would lose their jobs, crypto wallets, trading platforms, websites, freelance activities and a ton more.

The idea is not for us to leave every Social Media platform there is but take back control, make our own choices and choose where we do some of the very same things that we consider doing. Not all Social Media platforms define us, so we surely don’t need to be everywhere.

Purpose

Every decision we make and the steps that we take come with a consequence or two. And, of course results may vary depending on our motives. If you run a business and you’re everywhere you’re probably making sure you get the most you can from these platforms visibility, reach, potential clients, and sales.

A business isn’t always the case though, reasons? We only have so many which is why we must make sure we remember why we do anything and everything that we do.

This story was previously published on Medium https://medium.com/secure-words/theory-of-no-hope-go-offline-4669f86f6664