Obviously this state of affairs can't continue, I need to change my email address, but there are a couple of problems with that:

  1. So much of my life is tied to this account. I have an android phone (so all my contacts are stored with google), I use chrome as my browser, it's the backup email for my work/school email, I've used it to sign in to so many random websites, etc. I mean, you know how google is.

  2. How do I even find an email address I like? So say I take the plunge, figure out how to transfer contacts, change everything else that needs changing. The number of already-taken gmail accounts must be astronomical. How do I find one that's not like "69420communist_theydy42069" or something equally ridiculous?

Halp pls.

  • Good_Username [they/them,e/em/eir]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I would like to do this. The problem is, of course, that google isn't just an email provider. Given that I have a google pixel for a phone and have stored way too many passwords for things in my browser (chrome), getting google out of my life is damn near impossible. It's probably worth trying though, because they sure are an evil company.

    • mayor_pete_buttigieg [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Time to compartmentalize your technology. Make an email account with a random name (420_communist_edgelord_xxx of course) and use that with your phone. Make another crazy email to use with Google Drive/ Youtube, and whatever, make a regular email with a service like Protonmail for professional stuff, and make a spam email account for signing up to services. All of the secondary emails can forward to the professional one.

      If you do this, you'll want to use a password manager, Bitwarden is free and good.

    • Galli [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      The passwords can also be migrated to firefox or another password manager

      https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-chrome-firefox

      The google account is account is integrated into your phone primarily for play-store access but it doesn't have to be used for anything else. There are alternatives to this too, but they are more involved.

      • Good_Username [they/them,e/em/eir]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah, firefox looks wonky on my computer currently because I use arch and haven't spent the time to make it look nice. Which is not a problem with firefox, it's a problem with me being lazy. But now really is the perfect time to see how far away from google I can get. Thanks for the encouragement and links! This is going to be quite a process, but ultimately for the best.