One of the things I learned from living through the pandemic was just how toxic my relationship with the internet had become. Scrolling had turned into doomscrolling, and the more time I spent on certain internet activities, the worse I felt. That led me to start cutting back. Initially I missed the addictive feeds of social media, of course - they are, after all, precision-designed to hold one’s attention. But as I noticed how much better I felt when I was off them, I cut back further.

Almost all of the software I use these days is Open Source; Free code runs this blog, most of the applications I use every day at work, and many of my hobby projects. While it’s great to get all of these power tools at no cost, I do try to support the ones I use a lot. In a few instances, I’ve actually been able to contribute little bits of code myself, but more often I try to pitch in where my skills are strongest: writing.

I’m not on Twitter anymore. Please add this page’s RSS feed to your favorite reader to follow future posts.

Keep using it. But not as a Mac. Apple is in the business of selling new hardware, and while their computers often last longer than cheaper Windows machines, they still suffer from the planned obsolescence endemic to the tech industry. For Macs, it happens in stages, as described on Apple’s page about “Vintage” and “Obsolete” devices. My mid-2011 MacBook Air is well down the latter list, so if any of its model-specific parts break, it’s unrepairable.