rob<p>I am—and have been for a while—going through the process of <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/demeta" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>demeta</span></a> and <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/degoogle" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>degoogle</span></a> my life as much as I can. For reasons too numerous to mention, but you‘ll be able to think of the main ones. An appraisal, so far…</p><p><a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/Meta" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Meta</span></a></p><p>✅ Stopped using <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/Facebook" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Facebook</span></a> years ago but have finally deleted all posts, photos, likes, follows, and interactions I ever had on there (going back to 2007). Batch delete was hardly “batch” so this was laborious (and I know delete isn't really delete but it felt good to see stuff disappear!)</p><p>✅ Deleted all of my photos from <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/Instagram" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Instagram</span></a>. Now I just use <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/Pixelfed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pixelfed</span></a>. On my phone, I use the <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@impressia" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>impressia</span></a></span> app. The next step is to run my own, single-user instance on a <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/RaspberryPi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RaspberryPi</span></a> at home (as I do with Mastodon) and get off pixelfed.social</p><p>❌ <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/WhatsApp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WhatsApp</span></a> is tricky. I'm in groups where I know I have no chance of converting everyone to an alternative platform. Cutting myself off from the herd (of IRL friends) isn't an option. Will reluctantly live with this for the time being.</p><p>✅ Don’t use Messenger; never used Threads.</p><p><a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/Google" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Google</span></a></p><p>✅ Switched from Google to <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/DuckDuckGo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DuckDuckGo</span></a> for search on all devices. Deleted search history in Google account.</p><p>✅ Migrated mail and calendar from Google to <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@fastmail" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>fastmail</span></a></span>. I was briefly considering either self-hosting with <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/Citadel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Citadel</span></a> or using <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/iCloud" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>iCloud</span></a> Mail, but Fastmail was the better option for me. Very pleased so far; thanks to <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://social.lol/@tekphloyd" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>tekphloyd</span></a></span> for sending me in the right direction!</p><p>✅ Switched from Google Authenticator to <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://fosstodon.org/@ente" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>ente</span></a></span> Auth for <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/2FA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>2FA</span></a></p><p>✅ Switched from Google Maps to Apple Maps.</p><p>✅ No longer using Google Analytics on any personal sites; currently trialling <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@Matomo" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Matomo</span></a></span> which is <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/FOSS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FOSS</span></a> and self-hosted.</p><p>✅ No longer using Google Fonts on any personal sites.</p><p>✅ Removed Google’s Gboard as the software keyboard on iPhone; now using the Grammarly keyboard.</p><p>✅ Deleted a bunch of old Gmail accounts that hadn't been used in ages. Now using masked email addresses, so don't need these kinds of accounts now.</p><p>✅ Don’t use Chrome, only Safari.</p><p>✅ iOS since the beginning of smartphones; never used Android.</p><p>✅ Already using iCloud+ for photo library sync and any file cloud storage/mirroring; no need for Google Photos or Drive.</p><p>✅ Still old school MS Word/Excel for me, so don't use Google Docs.</p><p>❌ I don't upload video but I do watch a lot on <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/YouTube" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>YouTube</span></a> and—as with WhatsApp—I‘m not willing to cut myself off; no current viable alternative.</p><p>❌ My <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/SmartHome" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SmartHome</span></a> setup has quite a lot of Google: home wifi mesh and voice assistant, plus <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/Nest" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Nest</span></a> cameras, doorbell, and thermostat. Hmm. TBD.</p><p>…</p><p>✅ And of course I left the bird site in the great migration of Nov ‘22 and came here. As of 2024, I’m self-hosted so my data physically lives in my home office on a <a href="https://rstokes.uk/tags/RPi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RPi</span></a> with full and incremental backups running to an external disk. Planning to upgrade from SD card to SSD in 2025.</p><p>Happy with my progress so far! 👍</p><p>N.B. I have my reasons for not completely deleting some of the above accounts; they will remain dormant.</p>