Installing Linux, Mate, Firefox, clearing cookies, learning tricks to use or get around biases, etc. I can make my computer more or less "mine". Mine in the ways that are worth it to me.
But your point is well taken in that the way the computer and the stream of data isn't owned by the average user has a serious impact on society. The way the Youtube algorithm pushes people towards extremism is the most extreme, obvious example.
People with the weakest filters seem like they're the victim of this stuff. But overall, the problem is the situation doesn't teach people to have filters.
> But overall, the problem is the situation doesn't teach people to have filters.
Filtering and ranking (and their visual presentation to the user) are the most prized aspects of Google, Twitter and Facebook for their impact in advertising and activism. Everyone wants attention, attention is money and power. Attention is the value system on the internet.
So of course they don't want to share it, not even with the user. But we want to have a say about content evaluation as well, we have our own values.
Perhaps the best way to neuter Google, FB and Twitter is to spin out the ranking/filtering/presentation part and make many of them. I don't care about the indexer too much, it can stay in one piece. But for ranking and filtering I'd like to select other settings than they allow. Maybe settings proposed by EFF or other NGO's I trust more than a for profit company.
It used to be that we only had the option of a few channels to watch and newspapers to read. You could switch but they would be very restrictive in the choice of content. Internet gave us freedom and a high variety of options, but now ranking and filtering take them back. They want to take choice from us and impose theirs.
I know how to take these steps, too, but it's not possible on cutting edge hardware. You're mostly stuck on slower lower-res stuff that's usually made out of plastic.
All of the really good hardware is cryptographically locked to software that you can't alter.
But your point is well taken in that the way the computer and the stream of data isn't owned by the average user has a serious impact on society. The way the Youtube algorithm pushes people towards extremism is the most extreme, obvious example.
People with the weakest filters seem like they're the victim of this stuff. But overall, the problem is the situation doesn't teach people to have filters.