Sometimes, I wish I could turn back time
Impossible as it may seem
But, I wish I could so bad, baby

-Backstreet Boys

Of course, I left Wordpress comforts for my well-worn friend of a text editor to funnel my thoughts online. Don't disregard the realization that your content is going to stick around via a flat file—especially in the context of this dynamic feed world. This continues yesterday's theme of what it was like to be online in the 90s. Back then, it was less...manufactured. Like Jesus Jones sang, "Didn't know it could feel this good to be alive."

Instead of an algorithmic monstrosity clanking my life together as a profit-driven, portly-goggled, dystopian director laughing maniacally behind the levers of the mechanical beast (I really ought to visit Mountain View, CA), I choose to take the reins to define my existence and be. What do I mean by that? Let's recall, Facebook's 2012 experiment to modify 689,000 users' emotions, I get a real sense that we don't have as much control over our thought space as Big Tech implies, even in a context where we appear self-centric, snapping away with our narcissistic Princess Selfies. Content is being rendered to target you, generated by entities that determine what you should see, whether influencing your behavior or your knowledge. How often have you hit the second page of a Google's search results? Could there be a possibility that more ideologically-favored search results might rise to the surface? And all of this is well-and-good IF everything is in line with our beliefs, but I find that as a rule, I break the line of whatever is popular in California right now. Just sign me up on the OTHER side of what folks are saying out there!

I wouldn't be so paranoid if "winning hearts and minds" wasn't EXACTLY the campaign that not only was waged in the wars of this century, but in the second half of the last as well—it's just what we do! And of COURSE, this happens in the commercial space. It's the game we've all played: if you want this TV content, you've gotta endure a couple of minutes of a persuasive argument. Just less sodium pentothal.

However, it's a markedly different game when, instead a pitch broadcasted to the masses, it's tailored specifically to YOU, your demographics filled in with information pulled from your own emails, posts, searches and location tracking—it's not that far of a leap to then cross-reference that loc with other users and all the ramifications thereof, you bird of the same feather!

Grab all of that data, and let AI stitch together behavior modification, something in which I hoped remained as innocent as laundry detergent. Unfortunately, we know that this hasn't been the case (think the 2016 political season) and I'd have to cling tightly to my naiveté to think any differently.

And can you see why I might hearken back to that tech space of the 90s? Back then, when Minority Report came out in 2002, it was just a fun scf fi flick and not something that mirrors something we are beginning to see today with biometrics.

Yesterday, I dropped off Google—not that I have any inclination that they will actually delete my data. Generally, these things are about cutting access off from me while I blithely bounce away with my life.

I wiped my phone and used a 3rd party app store; installed Brave across my platforms; began running with DuckDuckGo; and became a subscriber with Proton Mail, so as to setup domain email with end-to-end encryption—not that it matters at all when I talk with Google users, of course, but I have a peace of mind that when I receive those ads for Xero Shoes, my Inbox is for my eyes only. BTW, the great thing about having your own domain email is that you can name it EXACTLY what you want instead of an awkward cryptogram. You can find me at moose.

But, you cannot call me Al.