With the recent developments in AI technology, we are entering a new era of manipulation through captology. Mainstream websites/apps are well known to utilize captology to manipulate its users. But now captology is AI driven and will reach a new dimension of manipulation. In the very near future, every mainstream OS will be AI infested. This means, manipulation will start as soon you turn on your PC/smartphone.
The internet and computing in general is no longer a harmless activity. Now it is objectively a great danger for the users mental self-determination to use mainstream websites/OS/software. Because I honestly don’t believe, that anyone can outsmart AI driven Captology. People who claim this, probably also believe they can consume heroin without becoming addicted.
This is why I believe, that now is the last chance to escape from this pernicious trend. This means, now is the time to fundamentally rethink and reorganize our habits of using the internet and computer technology.
I don’t claim to know the perfect way out, but I can only share what I am doing. I believe that some kind of off grid computing is the solution.
-My tech: Laptop with Linux Mint, Nokia Dumbphone, FM tuner -No home internet connection. I only use public wifi. (Psychological reason, to keep me from mindless surfing)
A few years ago, I would have called someone with this lifestyle an insane luddite. But today, I prefer to be an insane luddite, than to be a dopamine addicted consoomer who is being controlled by AI driven captology.
I think that’s bit extreme. I prefer to instead look for where I’m dependent/addicted and make corrections instead of avoid anything that could be addicting. For example:
And so on. Here’s my tech stack:
In other words, I’ve found I can effectively detect and control my behavior. I still spend way too much time on things that don’t matter, but I did that as well as a kid without a phone or consistent Internet access (we had dialup), so I don’t think cutting things out is the solution.
My process is to set aside time to review how I spend my time at least once each year, and I’ll review my phone apps more frequently (about every other month). My phone’s launcher only shows 8 apps:
That’s it. If I want something else, I have to go look for it, and I rarely do that.
When it comes to AI, I really don’t have much exposure to it. I buy video games based on recommendations from people, not web services, and I generally only play single player games without microtransactions. I only open a streaming service if I already know what I want to watch. And so on.
This works for me, so I remain pretty connected, but in a controlled way. If you want to try it, set aside time to do some introspection on why you’re doing the things you do. Are you mindlessly scrolling because you’re bored? Try a hobby so you have something you’re excited about! Do you find yourself in stupid arguments on SM? Set aside a fixed time each day to use SM (there are apps that disable apps after a certain amount of time spent).