How to Take Back the Internet by Choosing the Internet Less Traveled

"Many are concerned today that the Internet has become over commercialized and unfriendly to individuals. We frequently see stories in the news media about the effects of Facebook's misdeeds and issues surrounding Internet walled gardens in general. Some of us lament our lost online privacy and free speech. Few seem to acknowledge, however, that the solution to this problem is simply to realign ourselves with the forces that created the Internet in the first place. Escape from the over-commercialization, exploitation, and control of the Internet is within reach of all individuals who have allowed themselves to be corralled like cattle into online pens. Tools have been created to support the efforts of those who wish to free themselves from the corporate-dominated Internet. I can already anticipate the objections. "That is just naive." "It will never work." My response is that it will work for each person who chooses the Internet less traveled."

"What individuals have created, individuals can modify or destroy. They can do this simply by choosing to use or not use particular parts of the Internet. Those areas of the Internet that individuals choose to use will grow. Those that they choose not to use will shrink and perhaps disappear completely. We have already seen this with Compuserve, AOL, once-popular social media platforms like MySpace, and many others.

This means that the solution to the over-corporatization of the Internet is simple. Individuals must choose to use commercial websites less and other parts of the Internet (the Internet less traveled) more. If we do not like being tracked around the Internet, being de-platformed by social media websites, and being subject to onerous terms-of-use "agreements" that declare that the content we create belongs to social media website owners, then we must stop frequenting websites that engage in these practices. If we don't like the way Facebook and Reddit treat us, we must stop using them and move elsewhere. If we don't like Google spying on our email, we must use other email providers that don't."