I cut the "big five" tech giants from my life. It was hell.

Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple -- goodbye, big five! [Gizmodo]( February 7, 2019 [I cut the "big five" tech giants from my life. It was hell.]( [A couple of months ago, I set out to answer the question of whether it’s possible to avoid the tech giants. Over the course of five weeks, I blocked Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple one at a time, to find out how to live in the modern age without each one. To end my experiment, I’m going to see if I can survive blocking all five at once.]( [GOODBYE BIG FIVE]( [I cut Apple out of my life. It was devastating.]( [Apple is my gateway to almost all things digital. I am physically touching an Apple device for the majority of any given day. Being asked to remove Apple from my life was like being asked to remove a part of my body that was incredibly useful but that I could live without, like a finger or an eyeball.]( [GOODBYE BIG FIVE]( [I cut Microsoft out of my life—or so I thought]( [If you’re like me and exclusively use Macs, you might think you don’t use Microsoft very often. But it operates the workhorses of social media—LinkedIn, Skype, and Github—as well as a big distraction from work in the form of Xbox. During the block, I can’t use any of them, nor can I connect to websites and apps hosted by Microsoft Azure, its rapidly expanding cloud business.]( [GOODBYE BIG FIVE]( [I cut Google out of my life. It screwed up everything.]( [I’m apprehensive about entirely blocking Google from my life because of how dependent I am on its products; the company has basically taken up residence in my brain somewhere near the hippocampus.]( [GOODBYE BIG FIVE]( [I cut Facebook out of my life. Surprisingly, I missed it.]( [After Facebook’s hell-year of scandal, and its unabating erosion of our privacy—a topic I’ve been covering for over 10 years—I never thought I’d miss the social network. But here I am, staring at my screen, feeling strangely alone.]( [SPONSORED]( [Save 25% On Your First Month Of Bespoke Post: Individually Curated Boxes For Guys]( [Bespoke Post is a subscription club for men delivering goods from small-batch brands in categories like barware, apparel, travel gear, and more. Simply take the lifestyle quiz and Bespoke Post emails you on the 1st of each month with a full view of the box contents. Get 25% off your first month,...]( [GOODBYE BIG FIVE]( [I tried to block Amazon from my life. It was impossible.]( [Amazon is not just an online store—that’s not even the hardest thing to cut out of my life. Its global empire also includes Amazon Web Services (AWS), the vast server network that provides the backbone for much of the internet, as well as Twitch.tv, the broadcasting behemoth that is the backbone of the online gaming industry, and Whole Foods, the organic backbone of the yuppie diet.]( [GOODBYE BIG FIVE]( [Want to really block the tech giants? Here's how.]( [Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple move more money than many medium-sized nations. Their extraordinary profits are won through extraordinary reach—this is not a secret. That a few companies are afforded unprecedented and shamefully unregulated access into our homes is now an unremarkable fact of living with tiny computers everywhere.]( [YOU MAY ALSO LIKE]( [JEZEBEL]( [Hayden Panettiere Hasn't Seen Her Daughter Lately]( [Hayden Panettiere has been estranged from her 4-year-old daughter, Kaya, though sources are being weirdly vague as to why that’s the case.]( [DEADSPIN]( [Report: The Pelicans Invented A New Kind Of Tampering And Used It To Exact Sweet Revenge On The Hated Lakers]( [It looks increasingly like the Pelicans have no real intention of dealing with the Lakers ahead of tomorrow’s trade deadline. The Lakers have made their whole damn team available in offers for Anthony Davis, and the Pelicans apparently haven’t made any concrete counteroffers, and the only observable effect of all...]( [JEZEBEL]( [Jemima Kirke Had to Really Prepare Herself for Sex Scenes With Jamie Dornan]( [Jemima Kirke went on Busy Tonight to talk about her new movie with Jamie Dornan, Untogether, and after she gives Busy Phillips a marker tattoo on her wrist (it’s a cigarette and it says “Oui!” under it), Phillips asks her if it was “intimidating” to shoot all those really hot sex...]( [DEADSPIN]( [Bring Forth The Trades]( [It’s NBA Trade Deadline Day, that day basketball fans all get extremely excited about each February despite it reliably sucking shit like six out of any seven years. The trade season already has produced many delights. Kristaps Porzingis to the Mavs, for poop! Otto Porter to the Bulls, for somehow...]( You made it to the end. Thanks for reading our newsletter! [Visit Gizmodo]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( [Terms of Use]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Unsubscribe]( © 2019 Gizmodo Media 114 5th Avenue, Floor 2 New York, NY, 10011