Going B-a-c-k

  It is daunting to read and watch the news and find out how big corporations on the internet are turning more and more... worrisome. Discord and Roblox with Pedophilia, Meta social media with every month having a leak of private information like your passwords and emails, and popular social media being bought by the elites to spread their right populist propaganda and make u buy their stuff. Kick is a gambling site with terrible streaming on the side... it feels that more and more we are getting overwhelmed by these things and taken advantage of in plain sight.

  A couple of months ago I debloated my windows11 (I know I know I have POP_OS on my laptop if that's any consolation) severely, as in, I was finally able to uninstall microsoft edge (HOORAYY) and tweak other things to avoid a slow desktop experience so I could focus on how it looked. More and more I saw people showcase their screens and how retro and aesthetic and bright they all looked. I loved it, but something called my attention. Some people had AOL, AIM and MSN Messenger.

If you weren't around, those were software people used to message each other back in the day. AOL and AIM were a bit too old for me, but I remember MSN Messenger, before Skype came around. I loved logging in and listen to the notifications sound, edit my interface, change the colors and backgrounds, and talk to people. It was amazing and I had a great time with it.

Unfortunately, the whole thing was discontinued for Skype, which at the time some people protested, but most just migrated. Recently, however, there's been news that Skype will be discontinued for Teams... which is so awful, it's actually become a meme. No one uses Teams unless your corporate overlords demand it. It's torture, it's confusing, and like EDGE, it's laggy.

I did what any sane person would do, and I delved deeper into the rabbit hole and found that there was a team keeping the flame alive, not only for MSN (or Windows Live Messenger) but also AIM/AOL. The website is named Escargot, and you need to make an email with that domain to use the softwares, but that wasn't a problem for me. I installed, followed the instructions, and was able to get the 2009 version of a software I hadn't used in almost 2 decades.

Sure, its pretty empty, most people just use whatsapp or discord, but I'll keep it. To me, all of these changes I've endeavored in are not just a trip to go down memory lane, but, well, I guess you could say a form of protest? And I add the question mark because in retrospect nothing I do will affect the world in any meaningful way compared to the elites, celebrities and politians ruling it, but I still want to do something. As small as it could be.

I'll deactivate my social media accounts after I download all the pictures I want to print to look back into. I'll deactivate my spotify right after downloading all the songs on my playlists to have fun on winamp (the skins are sooo cute) and maybe who knows, I'll make playlists to put on CD's and tapes like I used to. Doing a digital detox is no longer (at least for me) about minimizing your use of the internet, but getting back the ownership of your things. Everywhere I look its subscription this, installments that. You don't own nothing anymore.

But therein the magical words: If buying isn't owning then piracy isn't stealing. 

P.S.: For those interested, my escargot email is on the front page of my profile!