a life with no social media and phone, having more DIY, Punk, hacking style and stuff, how is that possible in current years? my ideas are having so low or no use of social media, using Linux or BSDS, having a custom rom at phone (or dumphone) and using alternative sites like image boards, IRC, old/niche forums, going to punk gigs and raves, learn music instrument, learn about cybersec, download music and movies, piracy in general, dress alt, make a personal webpage, using less javascript and using alternative's to crapitalism.

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    13 days ago

    most stuff you can just do, as the only thing stopping you is you... weighing the convenience of doing what's easy vs the slower, energy intensive process of researching, learning and changing.

    i will say i developed a lot of DIY skills being broke, underemployed and living in different parts of what Phil Neel refers to as the "far hinterland" of the US for a number of years. more or less the places on the map nobody drives by or conceptualizes as existing, but none the less contain pockets of humans in the shadow of current or former extractive processes that made our glittering metropolises possible. basically by having the option for convenience eliminated as a characteristic of place, i had to confront most tasks myself and connecting to the support networks of those similarly placed. nearly everybody knows a little about keeping a lot of different things working and effortlessly shares what they know to anyone interested, as the interdependence of people in proximity is a lot more obvious when there are so few.

    counter intuitively, some of the most creative older tinkerers i've met with information technology and home brew/DIY gadgetry are people with deep rural ass roots. it took me too many years to see that it's all just tinkering, time, and access to materials.

    • JustSo [she/her, any]
      ·
      13 days ago

      it's all just tinkering, time, and access to materials

      often recycled or street found materials if you're in a city. you can go a long way these days with the shit people don't see value in anymore. I have a wall of dormant computers, I paid for maybe 2 of them in the ~20 years I've been collecting and scavenging them.

      that said the newer shit, middle-gen raspberry pi type arm boards etc are fucking fantastic for low power devices. certain types of old android tablets and phones are especially useful for repurposing as control interfaces. when stuff breaks I take it apart and salvage shit. I just launched a street-found nano drone that had been discarded because of its dead battery using a logitech wireless keyboard's lipo into my wall and broke a prop because I was being careless. but it was funny so it was worth it. the personal self defense drone project will continue lol

      the real battle is in the mind. do you really want to do something COOL in CURRENT YEAR and not document it, monetize it etc. Obviously yes, but my point is there's a lot of implicit pressure to be visible, to gain recognition, to make money, etc that make the hegemonic platforms attractive and fighting those base impulses is fucking hard when money is a potential (if, tbh, unlikely) outcome of joining the masses in the walled gardens.