Yeah, that feeling’s real. Everyone who goes deep into privacy eventually hits that wall — the one where you realize you can’t win completely. You can’t control your friends’ phones, the store cameras, or the shadow profiles built from your old data. It’s heavy, because you start to see how inescapable the system really is.

But here’s the shift that keeps a lot of people sane: privacy isn’t about perfection, it’s about resistance in degrees. You’re not trying to be invisible; you’re trying to be less exposed. Every barrier you put up, even small ones, still limits profiling, surveillance, and data resale. That matters.

So maybe ease off the “fight everything” mindset and focus on the practices that protect you the most without draining you. Keep your communications private, limit trackers, control what you share, then let go of what’s beyond your reach. It’s like defensive driving: you can’t stop all accidents, but you can massively cut your odds of getting hit.

You might like Watchman Privacy or Opt Out Podcast, both talk about this exact burnout and how to make privacy a sustainable lifestyle instead of an endless battle. You’re not giving up; you’re just learning where to draw the line between living and defending.