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Breaking up with Big Tech

A club to help you through it.

Concerned about how much of your life runs through a handful of tech companies, but not sure what to actually *do* about it? Let's figure it out together!

A weekly club for people ready to make small, values-aligned changes to the tech they use.

In this club, we're not going completely off-grid. It's about getting more intentional with the technology tools we're using on a daily basis- figuring out which tools actually fit your values, and what's realistic for you to change, with support and a little accountability from the group.

Mostly virtual, with two in-person bookends. Meet over lunch from your desk or couch, plus two in-person sessions at MLK Library to kick off and close out the series together. Expect the virtual sessions themselves to use some of the alternative tools we're exploring- it will be a great opportunity to assess and test them.

Schedule

Why now?
October 4-10 is National Digital Inclusion Week- a perfect time to think about the technology embedded in our lives and how to make it better serve us all. Privacy, misinformation, sustainability, and opaque algorithms have been concerning consumers for years. AI's rapid rise is amplifying those concerns and making these questions harder to ignore, so this is a good moment to pause and reassess the tools we rely on every day.

FAQ

• Is this a course?
  • No formal instruction- it's a club. We'll have guided discussion and content, not step-by-step tutorials, because there's no single right alternative tech tool or system for everyone; it depends on your goals. Looking for a formal technology class? See our web calendar.
• What are the days and times?
  • First and last sessions: Monday evenings, in person at MLK Library.
  • Everything else: virtual, over lunch. Register to get the join links.
• What if I miss a session?
  • This club builds on itself and on the group you meet. Please plan to attend as many sessions as you can.
• Do I need my own device?
  • Yes, bring whatever you use most (phone, computer, or tablet). DCPL will not provide devices.
• What do I need to install?
  • Nothing required. You're welcome to create accounts or try apps/extensions at your own discretion.
• What skills do I need?
  • Basic comfort with email, texting, social media, video calls, file sharing, and creating accounts. You won't have to try everything but come willing to experiment. We will not be instructing on basic computer skills, but you can find other opportunities for that at DCPL on our full listing of upcoming classes. Beyond that, all experience levels welcome, including longtime alternative tech users who'd like to share about their experiences and build community.
     

To get a better idea of what this club will cover, here are some of the resources that will inform our sessions:

• Privacy Guides:"Privacy Guides is an impartial, non-profit organization that is focused on building a strong privacy advocacy community and delivering the best digital privacy and consumer technology rights advice on the internet."
• Tech Reclaimers & The Opt Out Project: "RECLAIM CONTROL over your digital life, devices, services and data."(the author of The Opt Out Project went on to form Tech Reclaimers with collaborators)- practical resources for building digital autonomy.
• Surveillance Self Defense from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: "Tips, tools, and how-tos for safer online communications."
• New Public: "Reimagine social media. We are researchers, engineers, designers, and community leaders working together to explore creating digital public spaces where people can thrive and connect."
• What would you add to this list? Let us know when you register!

Image credit: Marcin Wilkowski / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Image description: A large man smoking a cigar (as depicted in the 1925 cartoon 'The Subsidised Mine Owner - Poor Beggar!'), is partially obscured by a pixelated white-and-grey cloud. In the background, part of the Wheel of Fortune can also be seen. The goddess who usually turns the wheel is hidden by the man in the foreground. Four characters (perhaps depicting the same person at different points in time) sit on the wheel. The character with a crown on top is holding two globes/trophy and has treasure on his lap. To his right, one character extends his hand towards him, while another looks on from the left. The fourth character is already falling. Two black, dotted, squares outline the large man and the wheel. To the left of the wheel, in the background, there is a pixelated yellow-orange sun. To the right, are some sparkling, pixelated yellow stars.

Artist's statement: In order to consolidate their power and funding, elites, tech companies and organisations promote technological hype and the discourse of inevitability. Although this process is often presented as a natural phase of innovation, it is actually an intentional instrument of techno-authoritarianism which exaggerates the positive effects of technology while downplaying the negative ones. Through socio-financial speculation, accelerationism, and socio-technical fictions such as AGI, they evade democratic oversight and social regulations, transposing the socio-Darwinian mechanism of economic survival into the social, political, and cultural spheres.

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