Opting out of captured systems

Is anyone else tired of being product? Tired of subscriptions? Tired of having the default be a form of market capture?

What im talking about is things like Windows and Facebook or Netflix. The value is not really to the consumer. It seems like my email is full of stuff i dont want or need and i cant unsubscribe fast enough. Your storage is full but have no fear, we will sell you cloud storage to keep all this useless crap! WHAT!! No! Absolutely no!

Im a little past my prime, and after being a windows user all my life im learning(well thats a strong word) Linux. I have a FB account still because i use messenger for my side work. I can move back to an old forum but i also use market place. That has netted me more sweet deals than i ever hoped or dreamed craigslist ever could.

Amazon is another one. Ugh, i hate that the shipping costs and the convenience are just too good to let go. Could i? Yes. But in tight financial times in my household, every bit of savings is critical.

But otherwise, I'm opting out of everything. Lol when i first heard about Nostr i got excited thinking this is gonna be how i can claim ownership of my online identity and data. Eventually nobody will be able to sell and profit off of my data. At least not without my permission which i will then gladly accept a percentage of profits.

Ive always been this way. I told a credit card processor i was canceling back about 15 years ago. I moved to paypal. They asked why, and i told em. You charge me 80 bucks a year for the account, you charge me a percentage of each transaction, and you charge a processing fee.

You get paid 3x in this transaction. You get money from me, the purchaser and your probably owned by the card company they use so youll get interest on that balance. No, this is wrong. If you want me to bring you customers, you can oay me to do it. Ill not pay you. And then i happily paid my 3% to paypal which saved me a nice amount over the years.

Is anybody else cutting the parasitic drain from their lives? Im trying to find every open source option i can. Will somebody let those folks know to accept zaps so we can support them? If i do it i will mess it up. This is a Mallers conversation to be sure. Sorry to name names, i dont want to disrespect all the hardworking people out there. Its a team effort to grow a community. We all do our part, big or small.

So am i alone in bucking the system? Anybody else shedding the dead weight? What are you doing?