Sometimes we are faced with doing something that is faster or easier or just in some way less of a pain in the ass to do if we use Instagram, Amazon, AI, or whatever. Each of those is a moment, a small moment perhaps, but important, where you can choose to do the right thing instead of the easy thing.
There are all sorts of old sayings about how many small actions add up to big changes: a drop of water is nothing, but a drop of water, repeatedly, over time, will break a boulder, for example. These sayings exist because they are reflecting a universal truth. So, when you are presented with the moment of choice, it is easy to say “oh, it doesn’t really matter” but, in fact, it does. The more of us who make these small choices, do these small things, the sooner the bad stuff will change.
Often, these choices are to stand up against something that “people” say is a good thing when it really isn’t but the “people” are famous or cool or have power or money so we give them authority when we shouldn’t.
Back in the day, I stood against Creative Commons as being a boondoggle–created by Lawrence Lessig out of his massive ego-driven need to be right when he was wrong. I said CC would devalue creative work and, guess what, it did. The prices of licenses have not kept up with the values of the uses.
NFTs and blockchain? Samesies. Total BS that only served to devalue creative work while putting money in the tech snake oil salespeople’s pockets. Companies that claimed to “help” creatives protect their work by “putting it on the blockchain” quietly disappeared or at least stoped touting the tech, after raking in millions from creatives.
You know who stood against these companies? The harms of these technologies? Women. Non-white folk, especially Black people and especially Black women. See, for example, Timmit Gebru.
Here’s a little trick: if a white guy, especially a cis-het white guy, says it’s a good idea, do more research before jumping on the bandwagon. If anyone Black or female (and especially the combo!) says it’s bad, believe that it is almost, if not absolutely, certainly so.
Look, you don’t have to fix everything, or anything, actually. But thinking about more than yourself, about how using this or that makes your life easier, regardless of its downstream effects on others (and society at large–like putting money in the pockets of people like Musk or that Orange thing!)–maybe just take a beat and think first. Then, hopefully, you will choose to do the right thing, instead.