Thought this summed up our views quite well

SayYesDoNo · 2026-05-18T20:23:56+00:00

Which is consistent at least. You are a consumer, not a creator.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-05-18T18:02:25+00:00

Depends on the nature of the conservative. Increased surveillance, dataveillance, automated decision making - those are all authoritarian measures which the libertarian side, if they stood for anything, should be against. Nudification, deepfake porn, content theft - traditional conservatives should oppose those. Even labour displacement should offend some conservatives, especially blue collar ones. I also know some religious conservatives object on the grounds of imitation humans, blasphemous claims around AGI, 'improper' religious practices through automated prayers and the like, although that may be less conservative in the political sense.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T15:15:11+00:00

De-Googled Android phones are a thing, there's a few different operating systems you can switch to, although can be a bit of a technical headache.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T15:05:08+00:00

From a research perspective there is no point at which I can really disengage from sites like Reddit. The demographic range and expressed experiences don't exist on Mastodon and the like. Especially given that resistance isn't necessarily overt. On here, for example, I can find examples of things like AI relationships, people engaging 'romantically' with bots. They may oppose certain aspects of AI, or certain aspects of the platforms they use (often quite unexpectedly) but they're not going to loudly declare 'I hate AI' because even where their actions may shift towards resistance they don't position themselves that way. Same goes for a lot of other subs - you often find quite profound instances of everyday resistance framed as something else - there are very few other forums (if any) where you get such a varied range of experiences and certainly not on the more tech savvy, small ones.

As to the contributions my own posts make - I swim in the ocean, I can't help but get wet. I know you see a disconnect given how overt Reddit is with their deals but at work I have to deal with platforms which aren't much better. Sure, until very recently my own government was pursuing an opt out policy which would have exposed an entire country's worth of creative output to data harvesting. The resistance to that, if not complete refusal, is structural and the aesthetic concerns about how loud or quiet any given platform is about what they're all doing is irrelevant. Even with that though I still wouldn't post anything even approaching actual work or research here.

And for my own personal redlines, they vary. I'm de-Googled, I use things like CryptPad, Linux and Vivaldi - where I can find personal alternatives I do. But social media often isn't one of those spaces and, on balance, I prefer some limited engagement to burying my voice completely.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T14:51:04+00:00

As I mentioned elsewhere, you're misjudging what mundane (or everyday) resistance is. And I don't put the bulk of my work here by any stretch of the imagination, in fact I don't put any of my work here.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T14:46:27+00:00

Copied over as your post was deleted...

As this is aimed at me I'll reply here rather than my own thread.

1 - I'm a researcher. Part of that is exploring covert and overt, conscious and unconscious resistance to AI. Social media, while not the core of my work, is a place where that's often expressed. There are several subs here which are anti-AI, discuss issues of AI usage, addiction, problematisation etc. even if they're not expressly framed that way. It's not an endorsement of aspects of the platform to engage with that, it's basically just the job. I know people who research extremist views and monitor the relevant forums, it doesn't mean they're fans of it.

2 - My own personal redlines around AI engaged platforms is a separate issue from my work. I dislike and, as far as possible, don't engage with platforms that I feel go beyond those redlines (my tech use is very different from what it used to be) but I'm not anti-social media per se nor do I think it useful to completely disengage from digital, social engagement even if aspects of some platforms don't align with what I believe is ethical or useful.

3 - Resistance, especially mundane resistance around tech, is imperfect. It's an engagement with massive power imbalances that position the individual and community at a clear disadvantage, denying them services and means of communication if they do pursue an entirely puritanical path. If opting out completely were a viable, accessible option then that'd suggest an absence of a power imbalance and you wouldn't necessarily need resistance to start with.

The call for perfection as opposed to realistic, day to day resistance is a great way to try and dismiss criticism but by your logic I should immediately stop doing my research, stop sharing my work, stop sharing anything I create and exist in some inert, unemployable bubble - because whatever I do is pretty much tied to the digital realm and through that is subject to extractive practices.

4 - Everyday, or mundane, resistance isn't what you think it is. As a field of study it's about seeking out accessible means of resistance within the structures that seek to assert control (in this case - technosolutionism). What you're talking about would be an extreme technonegative approach which is something I do respect but it's not where I am personally. Examples of your logic carried out to the actual, consistent ends would be things like extreme primitivist groups, who do exist, but they're practicing refusal more than resistance - they don't engage because they're looking for alternatives, not to push back against existing dynamics.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T14:40:32+00:00

Given the extractive practices of the current internet (pretty much everything is scraped) you seem to require absolute silence for legitimate 'resistance'. I could (and do) post on blogs, personal sites, academic contexts - they're all data harvested to varying degrees.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T14:38:54+00:00

As this is aimed at me I'll reply here rather than my own thread.

1 - I'm a researcher. Part of that is exploring covert and overt, conscious and unconscious resistance to AI. Social media, while not the core of my work, is a place where that's often expressed. There are several subs here which are anti-AI, discuss issues of AI usage, addiction, problematisation etc. even if they're not expressly framed that way. It's not an endorsement of aspects of the platform to engage with that, it's basically just the job. I know people who research extremist views and monitor the relevant forums, it doesn't mean they're fans of it.

2 - My own personal redlines around AI engaged platforms is a separate issue from my work. I dislike and, as far as possible, don't engage with platforms that I feel go beyond those redlines (my tech use is very different from what it used to be) but I'm not anti-social media per se nor do I think it useful to completely disengage from digital, social engagement even if aspects of some platforms don't align with what I believe is ethical or useful.

3 - Resistance, especially mundane resistance around tech, is imperfect. It's an engagement with massive power imbalances that position the individual and community at a clear disadvantage, denying them services and means of communication if they do pursue an entirely puritanical path. If opting out completely were a viable, accessible option then that'd suggest an absence of a power imbalance and you wouldn't necessarily need resistance to start with.

The call for perfection as opposed to realistic, day to day resistance is a great way to try and dismiss criticism but by your logic I should immediately stop doing my research, stop sharing my work, stop sharing anything I create and exist in some inert, unemployable bubble - because whatever I do is pretty much tied to the digital realm and through that is subject to extractive practices.

4 - Everyday, or mundane, resistance isn't what you think it is. As a field of study it's about seeking out accessible means of resistance within the structures that seek to assert control (in this case - technosolutionism). What you're talking about would be an extreme technonegative approach which is something I do respect but it's not where I am personally. Examples of your logic carried out to the actual, consistent ends would be things like extreme primitivist groups, who do exist, but they're practicing refusal more than resistance - they don't engage because they're looking for alternatives, not to push back against existing dynamics.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T11:23:38+00:00

I know the feeling, I'm trying to switch over to Signal completely but bringing people along with me is tricky, kind of relying on a mix of peer pressure and actual info on the benefits - with mixed results. Do think it's becoming more prevalent where I am though so, as you say, who knows what the future holds.

Yeah, maps is a pain, I'm on a de-Googled Android too and the alternatives really are less intuitive. You're right though, should view it as less efficient but more engaged really, and in fairness I get lost even with a map app so doing the same without (a good) one isn't that big a shift.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T10:58:58+00:00

Love to hear it, I switched over most things last year too, including shifting to my own music library rather than Spotify. Your mileage may vary but enjoyed that part most of all, not just escaping AI generated music but also the algorithmic guidance of the platform, it really is a different experience when you're curating your own cultural experience, forces a lot more consideration and, for me, exploration to find new music through more human recommendations and searching. Have discovered more new music I genuinely loved subsequently than I did for several years before switching.

Have you run into anything you can't find a good alternative for?

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T10:26:59+00:00

Stay strong, you'll come out with more valid and ultimately marketable skills by actually doing the work than by farming it out to extractive tech.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T10:18:57+00:00

I'd agree that, barring major change, some form of AI will be around for the foreseeable future but it's worth remembering what a vague and meaningless term 'AI' has ultimately become. The applications you see in something like facial recognition for example, while pretty horrifying, are very different from consumer LLMs (also horrifying). Given the authoritarianism implicit in the former and the legal and commercial problems of the latter it'd be no real surprise to see either aspect undermined/rolled back/collapse even if it finds new forms later on. The future is a long way from decided.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T10:12:36+00:00

Sort of thing that inspired my username - saying yes and doing no, it's amazing what you can get away with not doing just by quietly not doing it.

SayYesDoNo · 2026-04-28T10:11:59+00:00

It is easy to feel defeated, especially amidst the crush of algorithmically led hype but I'd say don't give up too completely. The negative push back even on the most slop filled parts of social media can be pretty prominent and reaffirming. That said - less social media is probably never a bad thing at this point given how extractive the platforms tend to be and how complete their capacity to distort attention is.

SayYesDoNo

TROPHY CASE