Before the Tsunami Comes： 8 Tips for Using Internet
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Though called the "web", people are more likely to attach the Internet to a tide. I still remember when I study in primary school, I read an essay titled My Family Has Entered the Information Highway. At first, the internet helped a lot. Now it is evolving into a tsunami.
An innovation starts spoiling as soon as people find it profitable. I'm not saying earning money from the internet sucks, unless, of course, in an extreme way.
One day when I was searching for how to deal with my tiring eyes on Zhihu, a popular Quora-like platform in China, I even couldn't find a user's real experience but medicine promotion(usually in an unconscious way).
I also heard that Google Search users like to add a "Reddit" keyword after each search to get a real experience.
In fact, decentralization is far away from us. For some reason in China, it can even be hopeless. So I want to share some tricks of living in the Internet world.
1. Stay calm. The Internet is, actually, creating more information gaps but eliminating them. Let's say you are gonna buy a new book and soon you find a netizen saying"xxx is awesome, just buy it". Usually, comments like these make decisions for us. In this case, the gap is filled with background and personality.
2. Use RSS and Newsletter. These information sources help you avoid being fed with something you like. It can also filter ads. Alternatively, you can disable "Personalized recommendation" on social media, if possible. This illustration shows how RSS works:
To get started, you can try the Innoreader RSS reader.
3. Always reject cookies any websites asking for. Cookies are first used to keep user sessions after they logged in. But soon website owners found it can also track users'journey, so they offer paid cookie share privilege to other sites. This explained why google ads suggest your favorite drinks to you though you never"told" them.
4. Keep caution when sharing your photos. We say the Internet is immortal just because anything you upload won't disappear. You can"delete"it for you but not for the web. Embrace mosaic, it's a really reliable privacy protector.
5. Books age much slower than the internet.
6. Choose open-source software if you can. Open source software is those that make source code public, such as Telegram, Firefox, and Ubuntu(OS). For this reason, they can get more frequent security updates and will not collect your privacy. Unfortunately, users living in China's mainland can hardly find an open source alternative for often used apps like Wechat and QQ. But you can still consider using an open source operating system and browser.
7. Use an external password manager. A malware can decrypt bookmarks and passwords saved in all mainstream browsers (except Safari).
8. Use a blocker. If you are using Chrome, try installing the uBlock Origin Extension. It helps block track URLs and ads. BTW, it's open source.
If you live on China's mainland, I will tell you to uninstall RED, TikTok, and Weibo. They are now the largest home for information gaps, useless arguments, and anxiety.
In a nutshell, judge any content you receive and review any content before you send it on the internet. You can find a safe house before the tsunami.