For now, at least, it's easy enough not to live that way. You just: refuse to. Like, don't put your pictures on the cloud. Just be like: no, those go on my hard drive. Problem solved.
There's a big problem where the default photo apps on your phone push cloud storage with dark patterns that defeat most people. Then third party apps that don't do that will eventually rug pull you with ads or paywalls - probably just greed but my tinfoil hat tells me a non-zero number of these are done to undermine the concept of third party apps in general. At the very least the "automatic updates are always on" system is designed to aid these kinds of scams.
Photo storage of a problem because we take way more pictures than we used to and are too lazy to make physical albums anymore.
So then you need your own physical storage (which is incredibly expensive in 2026) plus some sort of software that makes it decently easy to find stuff. Most stuff that tries to compete with a Google Photos doesn't come close.
I don't know, man, maybe stop taking a photo every time someone sneezes. If you have a million photos, you kind of don't have any photos; it's just a mess of data sitting in a digital garbage can.
They add up over the course of 20+ years. Plus, when you have kids it's easier to take 20 pictures at a time since it's a pain to get them to smile nice, etc. So you end up with huge amounts of pictures sitting around of the same thing unless you go back and delete all but the best.
Every time I take eight pictures of my kid trying to get him to smile, I immediately delete the seven worst ones. I mean, that's just basic hygiene. That's like brushing your teeth.
It’s gatekept on the intelligence to use a computer in the 90s, but if you can do that, you can opt out of the subscription world. I’m not a total Luddite, I’ve got some smart lights in the house and modern TVs but it’s all firewalled from the internet entirely. They can’t spy on me as they don’t have a path to phone home.
I’ve been pretty open about my piracy rules of if it’s not worth my dollars it’s not worth my time. I don’t do subscriptions though. I will not subscribe to access movies, TV, games only while I still pay. It’s asinine. Either I can purchase it in such a way that it can’t be revoked or in most cases, I guess Steam excepted, it doesn’t get bought or consumed.
My biggest holes being Steam which I buy on as last resort, and my Xbox library, which is pretty much all things I bought before 2020 when I unsubscribed from the world. I’ll occasionally get a free trial of something but they won’t get my dollars. I’m very diligent about not accidentally forgetting to cancel such things. I’ve amassed quite a collection of physical movies and TV, mostly all older stuff, and I’ve recorded a lot of old sitcoms and westerns and such off OTA TV for nothing.
On the plus side, I also don’t spend much money, at least not in the required obligation sense. That’s my greatest financial strength is that my required monthly expenses are the same as about an average 25 year old but I don’t have to live like one to sustain it. It’s just that everything I have for the most part was a purchase not an agreement to make payments.
For now, at least, it's easy enough not to live that way. You just: refuse to. Like, don't put your pictures on the cloud. Just be like: no, those go on my hard drive. Problem solved.
There's a big problem where the default photo apps on your phone push cloud storage with dark patterns that defeat most people. Then third party apps that don't do that will eventually rug pull you with ads or paywalls - probably just greed but my tinfoil hat tells me a non-zero number of these are done to undermine the concept of third party apps in general. At the very least the "automatic updates are always on" system is designed to aid these kinds of scams.
All of that pales in comparison to the lack of SD cards on flagship phones. That was done singularly to force people to rely on cloud storage.
Photo storage of a problem because we take way more pictures than we used to and are too lazy to make physical albums anymore.
So then you need your own physical storage (which is incredibly expensive in 2026) plus some sort of software that makes it decently easy to find stuff. Most stuff that tries to compete with a Google Photos doesn't come close.
I don't know, man, maybe stop taking a photo every time someone sneezes. If you have a million photos, you kind of don't have any photos; it's just a mess of data sitting in a digital garbage can.
They add up over the course of 20+ years. Plus, when you have kids it's easier to take 20 pictures at a time since it's a pain to get them to smile nice, etc. So you end up with huge amounts of pictures sitting around of the same thing unless you go back and delete all but the best.
Every time I take eight pictures of my kid trying to get him to smile, I immediately delete the seven worst ones. I mean, that's just basic hygiene. That's like brushing your teeth.
It’s gatekept on the intelligence to use a computer in the 90s, but if you can do that, you can opt out of the subscription world. I’m not a total Luddite, I’ve got some smart lights in the house and modern TVs but it’s all firewalled from the internet entirely. They can’t spy on me as they don’t have a path to phone home.
I’ve been pretty open about my piracy rules of if it’s not worth my dollars it’s not worth my time. I don’t do subscriptions though. I will not subscribe to access movies, TV, games only while I still pay. It’s asinine. Either I can purchase it in such a way that it can’t be revoked or in most cases, I guess Steam excepted, it doesn’t get bought or consumed.
My biggest holes being Steam which I buy on as last resort, and my Xbox library, which is pretty much all things I bought before 2020 when I unsubscribed from the world. I’ll occasionally get a free trial of something but they won’t get my dollars. I’m very diligent about not accidentally forgetting to cancel such things. I’ve amassed quite a collection of physical movies and TV, mostly all older stuff, and I’ve recorded a lot of old sitcoms and westerns and such off OTA TV for nothing.
On the plus side, I also don’t spend much money, at least not in the required obligation sense. That’s my greatest financial strength is that my required monthly expenses are the same as about an average 25 year old but I don’t have to live like one to sustain it. It’s just that everything I have for the most part was a purchase not an agreement to make payments.
I guess the barrier to entry for vpn+bittorrent is too high for normies. Though if it became easier, there would be more of a crack down.