I've made big changes to my digital footprint this year.

I'm part of a “micro-generation” the internet refers to as “Xennials.” A “Xennial” describes elder Millennials like myself who feel a little more like they were squeezed out at the tail end of Gen X. As such, my weird brain remembers a pre-internet childhood, spent in the analog world: playing in expansive backyards, catching lightning bugs, roller skating, and riding bicycles until the street lights came on. But I also spent my teenage years and young adulthood in a rapidly changing digital world. I'd already gotten hooked on video games thanks to the original Nintendo Entertainment System that my entire family enjoyed playing, so it's no surprise that, later on, I fell in love with computers and technology. And, of course, the internet. You better believe I was in those crowded AOL chat rooms and instant messages while simultaneously taking care of my Neopet by the time I was 14!

In the decades that have passed, we've seen the rise of social media platforms. Though I recall my days on LiveJournal having a good bit of built-in social functions, MySpace was truly the first social media behemoth. Do you all remember the first time you were crushed when someone removed you from their Top 8? Though they had lengthy experimental phases in which they were only available to college students or work colleagues, it wasn't too long before Facebook and Twitter were unleashed upon the public. And many of us never looked back. I was maybe more addicted than most. I loved seeing new content from my friends, family, and co-workers. I loved getting to make content for them, too. And don't we all get at least a little thrill when someone “likes” our stuff? To say that I'm “chronically online” would probably be putting it mildly.

But lately, things have changed. Social media was originally meant to help us stay connected, even when we couldn't physically be near one another. Now it feels a little like trying to navigate a landmine of bad takes, misinformation, and proprietary algorithms deciding what I should see versus what I want to see. At some point, I started to realize that my feeds weren't mine anymore. Content that I cared about was buried by engagement-hungry outrage bait and an increasing number of ads. And while I don't have a whole lot to hide — since I have a personal policy of not doing anything on the internet that I wouldn't want my family to see — I don't exactly feel comfortable with the likes of Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg digging around and selling my data to the highest bidder. Not any more than they already have anyway.

So in many cases, especially after the latest U.S. election cycle, I decided to shut down or step away from the platforms that concerned me the most. And in many of those cases, I've already found their replacements!

What I left behind...

Facebook and Twitter (now ridiculously called “X”) were my first casualties.

The former was surprisingly the easiest decision to pull the trigger on. I used to view Facebook as being essential to socializing in today's world. While I always found it admirable that there were people who could resist Facebook's siren song for so long, it felt almost akin to not owning a telephone. Though I always struggled with seeing outrageous posts, comments, and opinions from people that I was supposedly “friends” with, I felt that Facebook kept me “in the loop” with long-lost friends from high school, old co-workers, distant relatives, and so on. So what do you mean you aren't on Facebook?

After the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election though, I finally had enough. Politically charged and sometimes outright disgusting conversations from people I was supposed to actually like reached an all-time high. It would only be a few weeks later that Meta would make sweeping changes to many of its policies including discontinuing fact-checking services, doing away with its DEI hiring practices, removing LGBTQIA+ protections and inclusivity, and much more to align itself with the far-right agenda. I had to make my exit. To be real, I know that the people in my life that care to remain in contact already know where to find me. So I requested a copy of my information from Facebook to keep locally and then deleted my account swiftly and silently.

Other platforms were going to be a little tricky. Twitter/X was, for a time, my favorite of the bunch and was the platform where I had grown the most. I didn't want to just leave the connections I had made there high and dry. I also didn't want to just vacate my “@jiggyflyjoe” username and let it get potentially claimed by a bot or bad actor who might have hacking or extortion or some other devious plans for it in mind. So once again, I requested a copy of my info from what I'm now calling “Xitter” (pronounced like “zitter,” because I'm petty AF and can only imagine Elon Musk would hate it), and saved it to my archives. Instead of deleting the account, however, I used an excellent automated third-party tool called Block Party to wipe out all of my previous content on the account to discourage Xitter's AI bot Grok from learning and training with them. Then I threw up one final post letting folks know where they could find me going forward and bid them adieu.

I eventually made similar moves on Instagram and Threads to get Meta completely out of my life.

Thankfully, alternative platforms have cropped up around the internet. These alternatives aren't controlled and censored by “broligarchy” tech billionaires or founders who have made messy blunders one right after another. Many of them are decentralized. That means that, since they aren't controlled by a central organization or company like Meta, it'll also be difficult for a billionaire with nefarious plans to swoop in and add them and their users to their digital arsenal.

Which alternatives?

I'm so glad you asked!

Initially, I set out to write this post as a means to share where I've landed across the web and instead, I wound up writing this entire manifesto about why you should leave these platforms behind and find better. Here's what I've been using lately:

Bluesky & Mastodon

Bluesky and Mastodon are both decentralized micro-blogging platforms that operate very similarly to Twitter/X and Meta's Threads. I prefer Bluesky, which recently hit a record 31 million users in the wake of unpopular changes to X, but I often find myself cross-posting most things to my Mastodon account and engage with users on both. Bluesky and Mastodon both feel extremely similar to how Twitter did in its early days, which is definitely a good thing. Very much the “internet town square” vibe that Twitter aimed to curate before Musk's ownership. They're both more community-driven and have a lot less of the algorithm nonsense that plagues X today.

Pixelfed

Instagram was one of Meta's properties that I was really apprehensive about letting go of because I just didn't know if any decent alternatives existed for it yet. Then I found Pixelfed, which is exactly what I needed to make that final jump from the Zuck. Pixelfed is still very small (as in less than a million users small!), but it is still under active development and has a user experience that's nearly identical to Instagram. If you need a new home to host your photos and other media, this is the place to do it. It is also decentralized and built right on top of the same protocol as Mastodon.

Signal

Unfortunately, Meta also owns two of the most popular messaging services between Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. It looks like the founder of Telegram may have been up to no good as well. And that's all on top of the FBI's warning that simple text messaging between phones is nowhere near as secure as we used to think it was. This is why you should be using an end-to-end encrypted messaging service like Signal instead. Not only is it free of ads and trackers, but privacy is also the default on its open-source protocol. Allegedly, not even Signal's developers can access your messages. Their CEO, Meredith Whittaker, also recently said they're willing to exit from Sweden if new government policies force them to make messages less secure!

Ghost

In the original version of this post, I had recommended Substack — where Jiggy's Journal was formerly hosted — before I realized that they had some rather alarming ethical issues that I wasn't cool with. That's when I discovered Ghost instead, and let me be among the many to tell you that it is miles and away better in every way. It is open-source, independent, and completely funded by its users and thousands of new publications are being launched on the platform every week. Like Substack, Ghost combines traditional blogging with email newsletter tools, but Ghost also includes powerful analytics, doesn't take any fees from monetized authors, and you actually own all of your work! Talk about several birds with one stone.

Lemmy

If you're as much of a nerd as I am, you might sometimes enjoy scrolling through Reddit and their seemingly endless posts, threads, and communities about basically any topic you can think of! I will often find myself searching Google for some niche hobby or interest, only to wind up in a lengthy, in-depth Reddit rabbit-hole that's just waiting for me to fall into. Reddit is a big techno-corp though, so thankfully, I just recently discovered Lemmy. It's very similar to Reddit in structure but it's decentralized and censorship resistant.

Proton

I am admittedly very integrated into Google's ecosystem. Their Pixel line of smartphones has been my go-to since swapping from Samsung years ago. My immediate family shares Google Drive and YouTube Premium perks. My “jiggyflyjoe” handle even originated as my Gmail address. I've loved and admired Google for decades — their former motto even used to be “Don't be evil” — so it's hard for me to consider the possibility that I may need to start de-Googling my life. It would honestly take a lot of time and effort.

However, the privacy-focused Proton aims to make a few steps of that process easier. Proton provides users with an account that gives them access to encrypted email, calendar, and cloud storage options that one could feasibly replace Google's Gmail, Calendar, and Drive with. Proton takes it a step further by also offering a VPN, password management, and digital wallet services. I've signed up for a free account to check it all out and it seems pretty slick. If it sounds like it might be up your alley, or something you might even just use as a back-up, be sure to check it out.

And a few extras!

Okay, admittedly, the following suggestions aren't exactly “social” in nature, but having tech selections available to you aside from Big Tech is generally a good thing! That being said, here are a few more great alternatives:

Vivaldi

Chrome is another hard Google product to quit. Except for the dedicated Firefox users among us, I think most of us migrated to Chrome over time once Internet Explorer started showing its age. Websites just worked on Chrome! And they were a lot faster and snappier! Plus Chrome has extensions and all these other cool bells and whistles that you don't always find in web browsers. But you also have the downside of Google tracking your every move, alarmingly even in Incognito Mode! Thankfully, the Vivaldi browser is here to help. Vivaldi takes privacy seriously by blocking ads, trackers, cookies, etc. It's also completely customizable, from the actual look of the browser itself and its toolbars, to tab tiling and stacking. Vivaldi also has an email client built-in, as well as an entire community based around it. My Mastodon profile is even hosted on their Vivaldi Social instance! And if Chrome extensions are a deal-breaker, no need to worry: Vivaldi is based on Chromium, so most extensions still work with it, too!

LibreOffice

Imagine getting the popular Microsoft Office suite for free. Now that you've imagined it, make it a reality and download LibreOffice! As the successor to Apache's OpenOffice (and StarOffice before that!), LibreOffice is a free and open-source suite of productivity tools that is completely compatible with the same file types that Microsoft uses in Office and Office 365. That includes .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, and .pptx files! LibreOffice is also open-source and has attracted a large community of talent actively developing the software. Unlike Microsoft's proprietary software though, LibreOffice is available on more than just Windows!

Affinity

Unlike my previous suggestions, this alternative will run you a few dollars. But for the creatives out there, it just might be worth it and will save pennies in the long run! Affinity's Designer, Photo, and Publisher programs cost about $165 total, but get this — there's zero subscription fee! That's right, after the initial purchase, you own that version of Affinity's software forever. And you'll get a sweet discount on future iterations on top of it! That's practically a steal from Adobe's popular Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign apps which, when combined with the rest of the “Creative Cloud,” typically run users about $60 per month! Unfortunately, Affinity doesn't currently offer any video editing software comparable to Adobe, so instead we have...

DaVinci Resolve

Adobe's Premiere Pro is one of the most popular video editing software suites on the market. Most editors are taught with Premiere and therefore struggle to find comparable software without the hefty subscription fee. Fortunately, Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve program is a completely free download (with a premium upgrade, if you so choose) that can not only take the place of Premiere, but it also features color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio post-production, so say goodbye to even more expensive Adobe apps like After Effects!

What's next?

Ultimately, the decisions you make about your social media and tech options are up to you. Maybe the idea of people like Zuckerberg and Musk doing whatever they want with your personal information doesn't rattle you as much. I have mentioned before that there is also a case to be made of staying put, holding your ground, and being one of the last bastions of truth and kindness on a platform. I just can't be that person.

But don't you feel like social media and the rest of our digital tools should serve the user? The people who are using it? I understand that advertising can be a necessary evil to keep the lights on, but they shouldn't cater to what the advertisers want to see happen. It also shouldn't be controlled by one power-hungry billionaire CEO or a mad king who withholds services from his detractors. And they definitely shouldn't reward engagement farms. That's how we wind up with some of the more repulsive internet personalities. If you can even call some of them a “personality.”

And if you're uncertain, know that I was, too. Remember that I used to think that going without Facebook was like going without a phone! I was obsessively doomscrolling on Twitter as little as 6 months ago! Now I can barely look at the links provided to me by friends and family still on those platforms without seeing something that makes me cringe. That's how truly awful it has become. And it all made it that much easier to switch.

So what do you think? Are you sticking to Big Tech or do you think you'll join me where the grass hopefully remains greener?