I’ve been amazed at how busy my post-retirement life has been and am now attempting to reclaim some time for academic pursuits. I’ve returned to my blogging interest and am working through Dr. Andy Williams’ WordPress for Beginners 2026. I recently made the time to take Joe Kissell’s online course Take Control Live: Taming Big Tech – Why Worry about Big Tech?
Kissell’s course, among many other things, introduced me to two books by Cory Doctorow: Enshitiication: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It and The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think about Artificial Intelligence — Before It’s Too Late. I now have a much better understanding of the “shenanigans” of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, X, AI companies, and Apple. I’ve explored several new browsers and search engines, experimented with ad blockers, been introduced to a number of new email providers, and explored alternative YouTube front ends. I also enhanced my learning about password managers and smart devices.
Much to absorb! I definitely need to change many ways I have done things online in the past.