Now that you have recalibrated your point of reference, it’s time to officially begin. It’s time to SUBDUE YOUR TECH. But where to start?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Solutions will differ from person to person, since we all vary in age, stage of life, income, number of dependents, and definitely in technical ability.

This page aims to provide an answer to anybody looking for immediate practical suggestions. I have tried to grade these suggestions by difficulty, where “difficulty” refers to the effort and/or technical skill required:

  • Easy mode = reintroducing a small amount of personal effort into one’s tech routines and reacquainting oneself with autonomy. Small wins.
  • Medium mode = Easy mode + significant steps away from tech slavery. Bigger wins.
  • Hard mode = Medium mode + complete overhauls of your personal digital infrastructure. Huge wins.

Easy Mode#

  • Review the privacy settings / app permissions on your phone.
  • Turn off location tracking on your phone when you don’t need it.
  • Turn off all notifications on your phone. Then only turn on the ones that need to be active.
  • Turn off all biometrics (fingerprint readers, face ID). You never needed it and you still don’t.
  • Cultivate a default opt out tech lifestyle. Turn opting in into a conscious choice.
  • Cut back on how much of yourself you give to tech/apps that you don’t own. Do you need to take all those photos / videos and store them on someone else’s computer?
  • Purge all unneeded apps from your phone. Stop letting literally anyone have access to you. (I’m sure you can think of the word that’s used to describe such people.)
  • Create tech-free zones in your home / tech-free times in your schedule.
  • Do not take your phone anywhere near your bed.
  • Stop using a smart watch, please.
  • If you have a child, get them off social media. Seriously.
  • Keep checking out subdueyour.tech, obviously. I hope to keep updating this website.

Medium Mode#

  • Begin to orient yourself towards a laptop/PC instead of your phone. Review your apps. If there is a website version of any app you use, use the website version instead.1
  • Whichever browser you use, install the browser extension uBlock Origin. Without getting into the technical details, this extension fights against yet another example of invisible abuse that’s secretly embedded in devices. Go and check it out.
  • Stop browsing and start downloading. Fight centralised information. Review your internet habits and identify what things you really should have your own copy of. 2

  • Start using cash for some purchases. Particularly for purchases that readily expose your inner self (e.g. books, medication)

  • Avoid all “personalised” algorithms. They are not friendly. They are seriously abusive.

  • Reduce your overall social media use. Put serious limits on it and stick to them. You’ll thank yourself eventually.

  • Begin using fake information in cases where you don’t need to expose yourself but you’re being forced to. This is not lying. This is a critical way of thinking about these issues and until you see it this way you will remain a slave that defers to evil corporations ahead of your own personal best interests.

Hard Mode#

  • Reduce your social media use even more. Specifically, avoid all infinite feeds. Restrict yourself into only visiting profile pages directly.
  • Change your web browser.
  • Use a VPN.
  • Change the operating systems on your phones/laptops/PC2
  • Read my page on alternative software and start trying things out.
  • Get off Apple completely. Apple makes their devices with extra restrictions that further abuse your freedoms.

Having said all that, honestly, the easiest thing to do is to just start anywhere.

I close this section with this quote from Joe Allen’s book, Dark Aeon: Transhumanism and the War Against Humanity:

" … to [be able to] retreat [from modern tech] is a luxury—one which most people … are unable to enjoy. Duty calls. For that vast majority whose responsibilities require remaining within the system, do everything in your power to impose your own will on that system … "

Gold. Joe Allen gets it.

  1. Phones generally force you into highly restricted and externally controlled experience, further enslaving you and allowing corporations to effortlessly have their way with you. A laptop/PC gives you far more control. Also the slight ‘inconvenience’ of using a laptop/PC can help to establish the activity as a deliberate action at a conscious moment in time, as opposed to the impulse-led half-awake experience which a phone encourages. Websites > apps. ↩︎

  2. If you read an interesting article, perhaps save it as a PDF instead of assuming the website will always be available and/or that (more importantly, perhaps) the content will never change. ↩︎ ↩︎