In the olden times, the good times, the bad times, the 60’s, the computer was a tool used only by those who knew how to use it because knowing how to use it was a somewhat difficult task, and those who qualified as knowing how to use it didn’t make up a very large portion of the population. Today, such is not the case. Rather, everyone and their grandmother uses a computer, often several a day. So this must mean that the technology has offered such a great advantage as a tool to the human race at large that necessary training is taught to everybody, right? Right?

This article is meant to be able to be read by somebody who doesn’t know how to use computers. Somebody who doesn’t know what a filesystem is, or how to do anything outside of their web browser. Hell, even if you don’t know what a web browser is. Computers, and the software run by them, dominate your life just as much as they do mine

So I ask you, dear reader, why do you think it is that nobody knows how to use computers anymore? Even in the 90’s, if you used a computer, you knew how to mess with the files on your computer. But today, ask most teenagers to create a file on their computer, and they’ll be totally lost (This is not old person syndrome. I am one of said teenagers). This is in large part because the corporations that make money off of spying and creeping on every morsel of every single person’s life are incentivized to. More easy = more people use product = more data harvested from these people.

A common complaint I hear from my friends, family, peers, and strangers, is that privacy is dead, so why should they care about their privacy at all? The thought that such a crucial, basic human right is being violated so outright, and people not only know about it, but don’t even care sickens me. Your privacy is your right, and the tech monopolies that have abused consumers for decades have taken that from nearly everyone. Sitting back and taking it is letting them win, letting them have control and take over our lives, our governments, our communities, everything.

Google sells Chromebooks to almost every school in the United States, has them on contracts with Google Classroom, have the schools issue out Google accounts for students. Microsoft has contracts with nearly every hardware manufacturer on the planet to install Windows on their computers. Apple has created a walled garden suite of software and hardware that is extremely difficult to break out of because they convince their customers that Apple products are simply the best out there, and they condition their users into being comfortable with the notion of not knowing how their phone works, what’s running on it, or having any control at all.

But that’s what they want, isn’t it? Control? That’s what these ginormous tech companies have fought for over the course of decades, spent billions of dollars on, is to maintain control. Control over your hardware, your software, your autonomy, everything. Apple will disable parts of your phone if you get a third party repair. When Microsoft knew it needed to kill software that treated users properly, like linux (an operating system that grants you actual freedom to use your computer how you would like), in order to stay afloat, they adopted the internal phrase Embrace, Extend, Extinguish to describe their plan to kill user-respecting, open standards.

These are things villains do!

And yet, people are resigned to allow Microsoft, Apple, Google, and all of the other tech companies to take your freedom, your privacy, your right to own what you buy, your control, and turn it into sweet, green dollar bills to fill their fat pockets, all because “there’s nothing I can do about, so why bother.”

You are letting them win.

The victim of abuse is always convinced by their abuser that there’s no way out, that they must stay, and they must resign. But there is a way out. It’s what they’ve been fighting for years, curb stomping into the ground: Free software. Free software is truly free, not necessarily in price (though they are typically free of cost. I haven’t paid for a software license in many years), but in the abilities they give you.

By using free software, you are fighting back against the heartless corporations that want nothing more than to suck you dry of your rights and turn you into a mindless, ad consuming, media obsessed slave. By using free software, you become truly free. You learn more about how to use the computer, which governs the lives of every single person on the planet now. You rid yourself of the evil spyware implanted into everything you’ve used up to that point. The feeling is intoxicating, unlocking a state of being that is truly euphoric.

So please, I ask you not as a free software advocate, or as a computer nerd, but as someone who wants to protect the basic human rights of everyone on the planet, please use free software, and give the finger to the corporations profiting off of your misery. Switching isn’t difficult, mind you. You can start small. Stop opening up Chrome and download the Firefox web browser. Stop using Photoshop and look into the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) or Krita. Maybe someday you’ll be prepared enough to stick it to Microsoft and make the leap to Linux. I did only three years ago, and I’ve never looked back.