’Denmark Switches.’ A national campaign to collectively move off Big Tech. March 20th is Big Switch Day. I’ve named my goal now. I’m already almost deMicrosofted, except for my photo archive. I moved to Libre & Tuta mail and have been purging photos as I await the release of Tuta drive. Now I’m committing myself to just get the photos off OneDrive and on to my computer, that I own, in my house, by March 20th. Then I’ll delete Microsoft. Then I’ll boast about it on the Fediverse.
@CiaraNi I've long been a believer in booking directly, for all the reasons you've noted. I've even stumbled through booking a stay at a French farm via a phone call, relying on my extremely limited French and the structured way such conversations always tend to go. Great place, well worth working through my awkwardness.
AirBnB seemed like a decent idea when it really was "use my couch" or even spare bedroom. In its current form, it just soaks up what should be housing stock. Never used it, never will.
I stopped using Booking.com ages ago, tired of the spam and Big Corporateness of it. Now I only book directly with hotels. Every time, it's cheaper and the experience is better. If I need to contact a hotel, I communicate with a human. When I needed to make a date change not covered by the booking: 'no problem!' They changed it instantly for free. I'd forgotten how actual customer service used to be. I also forgot to actually delete my account. #DanmarkSkifter reminded me. I just deleted it.
I'm enjoying the results of disenshittifying my digital life so much that I need a more celebratory word for it than 'disenshittifying'. So far, every solution I’ve switched to is better than the Big Tech one I left. Not ’better’ as in ’not enshittified’, but better designed. LibreOffice: does what I need and only does what I tell it to do. AntennaPod: much better features than Spotify. Tuta: functional and calm and 10 months later, I still haven’t received a single spam mail.
I've added a new 2026 Digital Resolution to my 'Denmark switches from Big Tech' goals.
I had already switched from Patreon to Steady. Thanks to @JohanEmpa for making that possible after he added Steady as a Mastodon.green payment option.
Now my Microsoft subscription is the only thing left on PayPal and I'm almost deMicrosofted. So I'll be cancelling, not renewing, that. So now I commit to deleting my PayPal account. Today. Inspired by @oldrup, who just did this.
Before I could pick my 2026 goal for #DanmarkSkifter, I did a digital status. I was mildly surprised when I saw my 2025 digital changes together. I looked at the list and thought: ’Tell me you hang out in the Fediverse without telling me you hang out in the Fediverse.’
From Outlook to Tuta From Office to Libre From MS Authenticator to Ente Authenticator From Google Play to F-Droid From Spotify to AntennaPod From Firefox to Vivaldi From DuckDuckGo to NoAIDuckDuckGo And I bought a back-up drive.
”42% of Danes want to try alternatives to Big Tech. 68% would like to reduce their screen time. But far fewer act on it.
Habits hold us back. Network effects bind us to the same platforms as everyone else. This only changes if we shift collectively. When we shift together, new habits become easier to maintain.
When enough of us shift simultaneously, alternative platforms gain the critical mass they need. When we act collectively, change is possible.”
@kiesa@CiaraNi Hmm, something I never thought about. My family (2 adults, 2 kids) had no problem booking one room in non-fancy hotels or motels when I was young; perhaps one bed was a rollaway.
But that was many years ago. Things might have changed, and larger families would have issues my family didn't.
@CiaraNi@jeridansky I completely agree there are issues with thr Airbnb model. However, regular hotels are pretty horrible for families. It’s almost impossible (in the US) to find rooms with 3 beds and connecting rooms are rarely guaranteed (plus, if you read the agreement, they want one adult in each room). Also, booking two rooms is almost always more than an Airbnb plus we don’t get a kitchen so also end up spending more on meals.
@jeridansky That's it exactly. AirBnB went fast from peer-to-peer couch-surfing to capitalist ventures that are more harmful than regulated hotels and real B&Bs. Soaking up the housing stock: yes, this is a terrible consequence of it.
Encounters like yours, stumbling through a foreign-language booking, are so charming and fun. I didn't use AirBnB either but did use Booking.com for a few years. I am enjoying not using it now. I am glad to be back to direct bookings and direct chats with humans.
@kiesa@CiaraNi Yeah, I don't think my brother and I ever shared a bed. Bringing in an extra rollaway bed is no longer an option? Not incredibly comfy, but probably better than pillows on the floor.
@jeridansky@CiaraNi You can still get two beds in one room pretty easy and I think they expect kids to share. However, that gets increasingly awkward the older they get. Plus, my husband and I have bad memories of having to share beds with siblings so we try to avoid making our kids do that whenever possible. When they were younger, we would use all the extra pillows to make an impromptu mattress on the floor for one kid but it was a bit awkward.
@CiaraNi Ah, you're giving me the push I need. I started deleting everything from my Dropbox account quite a while ago, but then didn't finish the job. (I think I have all the files elsewhere, but I need to be sure.)
I haven't used Dropbox in ages and don't pay for it, but I still should get rid of it. Goal for March 20, even though I don't live on Denmark.
While making the final preparations before cancelling my Microsoft subscription in time for Denmark's Big Switch From Big Tech Day (March 20th), I discovered I still have a Dropbox account. If I'd forgotten I had it, then I was just digitally hoarding and don't need it. So this was an easy one to walk away from. Took me less than 20 minutes to delete the files and delete the account. So easy that I should be embarrassed to name it as A Goal and boast about it, but I'm not.
Organic Maps. Another example of an app I found in F-Droid that turns out to be nicer than the BigTech one I switched from. Not disenshittification, but enhancification. It's great for walking & cycling. Nice to use. Works offline. Feels 'human-sized'. First time I used it was to find a bus stop. It showed me the right one & noted 'shelter + bench'. To compare, I looked the same up on Google Maps (web). The actual map was barely visible behind ads for local businesses.
And I (mostly) did it, before the deadline! I had to look at all the files I had in my Dropbox and decide if I could just trash them or if I wanted to save them (or their contents) elsewhere, so it took a bit of time. But it's done: removed the Dropbox folder from my Mac, removed the app from my iPhone.
Deleting my account may be a problem, though, since the email associated with my account is no longer valid, so I can't get the 6-character code they send after I enter my password. No easy way to contact Dropbox about this, but I did send off a request using the one form I could find.
@jeridansky I hadn't paid for it either, it was just the free version. Which made it easy to forget about when I hadn't used it for years. It also made it easy to delete. I like the idea that you are the international branch of #DanmarkSkifter. I don't think the nice people at the campaign would mind anyone, anywhere, filling out one of their Digital Resolution goal cards even :-)
@CiaraNi And Dropbox support was surprisingly helpful, temporarily removing the need for the 6-digit verification code on login (after I answered a bunch of security questions) so I could get in, change my email to my current one, and delete my account.
So it is totally gone as of a few minutes ago! Before the 20th!
Getting my photos off OneDrive was the last & longest thing I needed to do before shutting down Microsoft. It turned out to be an enjoyable process. I cleansed my digital hoard. I curated & kept what mattered. Now my photos are on my laptop, in my house, backed up on an external drive. I'd forgotten how streamlined & speedy it is to work locally, not in the cloud. Yet again, the process of disenshittification turned out to be enhancification.
@CiaraNi I have 231 entries in my password manager! Lots of those have an old email and I may try cleaning them up, but they aren't doing any harm, either.
Adobe (whose products I haven't used in years). Newspapers I used to subscribe to. Sites where I made a single purchase, years ago. My old website hosting company.
@jeridansky Brilliant work! I am still dredging up forgotten accounts like my Dropbox one as I clear up decades of digital BigTech-life. There are inevitably some with forgotten passwords and defunct mail addresses. They can continue to lie there defunct if they must, but good to know some companies will help to delete them. Such a lot of work it is though, disentangling ourselves from each of them individually.