I believe in an open internet, FOSS, privacy by default, etc. I migrated away from Google by self-hosting Nextcloud. I prefer messaging apps like Molly, SimpleX, Threema, Matrix, etc. over standard SMS. I love the Fediverse (Lemmy, Mastodon, etc.).
But everyone I live with and everyone I know simply refuses to take part. I can’t interact with them socially because they’re all on Facebook. I can’t communicate with them because they all use group texts for SMS/RCS. I feel like I’m living in a different part of the world and am completely disconnected from everything that’s going on around me (with the people I want to interact).
My question is: does anyone else experience this, and how do you reconcile it? I want to share photos and clever posts with my family but they aren’t on the Fediverse. I want to communicate securely with them but they only want to SMS. I want to share documents but they only use Google Docs.
There are people I’ve met on the Fediverse and through some secure messaging apps with whom I’ve struck up a rapport, but these are still (predominately) strangers, and I’d really like to involve the people I care about in these exciting new times. They just wont participate.
I feel like I’ve invited everyone in my family to go on a great, grand vacation away and I’m the only one who’s packed.
It’s not that big of a deal. You live your life and you let them live theirs. It’s what I’ve done. If they want to continue to use the corporate stuff, that’s on them. Hell, I don’t even harass my wife about it. Just let people be. If it bothers you, go where they are. If it doesn’t, stay here and enjoy what makes this part of the internet great.
That’s easy to say, but it feels to me as if I have to make a choice between engaging and interacting with the people I love or adhering to my beliefs about how I should manage/protect my information. It’s a difficult spot to be in and it’s neither fair that I should have to make that choice nor fair that I should have to force it on others. That’s what’s bothering me.
I’m gonna tell you what you’ve probably been told a million times before. Life ain’t fair. Never has been, never will be. You know it, I know it.
You always have choices to make and each choice bears with it consequences that you must be willing to endure. In the end, you have to decide what’s more important to you. Do you care more about interacting with your loved ones on the internet or your private information?
It’s a loaded question in either direction. Of course my original comment was easy to say and difficult to exact in practice. That’s what it means to have principles you stand for.