Category: Sovereignty

In today’s digital landscape, we’ve traded ownership for convenience, creating a state of perpetual digital insecurity. Our “purchases” are now temporary permissions that can vanish instantly.

My personal experience illustrates this: After years of building a digital Beatles music collection, a simple account transfer erased everything I’d paid for. I bought the catalog on iTunes, moved to Japan in 2017 (where it transferred fine), but upon moving back to Mexico and re-syncing, the collection was gone. Unlike physical CDs that would travel anywhere in a suitcase, cloud-based content is a fragile, revocable privilege.

The Rental Trap

This “shifting sand” creates constant cognitive load through disappearing features and devices dependent on corporate servers. If you can’t repair it, or if it won’t work without a server connection, you don’t really own it.

Hardware Vanishes Into the Cloud

The assault on ownership extends to our devices. Your “smart” TV is a terminal that manufacturers can brick by ending support. Even “offline” features are a lie. I once downloaded a library of cartoons for my kids for a trip. Despite having “downloaded” them all, the platform only allowed six to play once we were offline. Because we crossed a border, the licensing changed, and the files I “owned” were suddenly “unavailable in this country.”

What is the point of the internet if the rules are designed to fail you exactly when you need them most?

The Sovereignty Solution

We must reclaim the “Owner” mindset:

1. Local-first software: Saving files in open formats (.txt, .flac).
2. Physical or DRM-free media: Buying what cannot be deleted remotely.
3. Support “Right to Repair”: Choosing hardware that respects your autonomy.

This isn’t progress—it’s digital feudalism. The only resistance is to hold onto ownership wherever possible and demand that “buying” means actually owning once again.

The exhaustion you feel isn’t accidental—it’s the weight of constantly defending what should already be yours. Every disappeared album, every bricked device, every “unavailable in your region” message is a reminder that you’re no longer a customer, but a tenant at the mercy of corporate landlords. The promise of the digital age was liberation through technology, but we’ve instead built a system where our memories, tools, and creative works exist only as long as someone else profits from their existence.

The path forward requires both individual action and collective demand. Choose ownership when you can. Support companies and platforms that respect your autonomy. And most importantly, refuse to accept that this extractive model is inevitable. The future of digital life doesn’t have to be one where we own nothing—but reclaiming it requires us to remember what ownership meant in the first place: the right to keep, to repair, to share, and to pass on what we’ve paid for. Until “buy now” means what it says, our exhaustion will only deepen.

The Resistance: Essential Resources

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

• The Internet Archive

• The Repair Association

• The Slow Media Manifesto

In our first post, we defined the “Slow Web.” But a philosophy is only as good as its application. To escape the frantic pace of the modern internet, we must look at the tools we carry, the way we consume culture, and how we move through the physical world.

To navigate away from digital fatigue, we will be focusing on four core pillars:

1. Sovereignty: The Master Key

The central theme of this blog is digital sovereignty. For too long, we have traded our autonomy for convenience. We rely on platforms that can disappear, change their terms, or lock us out at any moment.

• The Goal: Moving from being a “user” to being an “owner.”

• The Mission: Exploring self-hosting, decentralized tools, and the mental shift required to detach from the “Fast Web” ecosystem.

2. Consumer Tech: Taking Back the Hardware

We are moving past the era of “disposable” tech and hardware-as-a-service. This isn’t about switching to “dumb” gadgets; it’s about making your gadgets work for you.

• Right to Repair: Championing devices that can be opened, upgraded, and fixed. If you can’t repair it, you don’t really own it.

• Local-First Computing: Prioritizing hardware that functions offline and stores data locally. No more “bricked” devices because a company’s server went down.

• Legacy & Longevity: Learning to use “older” high-quality tech that doesn’t track your every move or demand a firmware update just to turn on.

3. Offline Experiences: The “Real” World

Digital fatigue is often a symptom of a life lived through a glass rectangle. We need to recalibrate our senses.

• Travel: Moving through the world without a GPS-guided tether. Finding the beauty in tactile maps, local recommendations, and the serendipity of getting lost.

• Eating: Reclaiming the meal as a ritual. The focus is on the craft, the source, and the company, rather than the digital documentation of the plate.

4. Intentional Entertainment

The “Fast Web” has turned art into “content”—an endless, algorithmically-curated stream. We want to return to Deep Engagement.

• Music & Audio: Moving away from the infinite, low-bitrate shuffle. We’ll explore high-fidelity listening, physical media, and the intentionality of listening to an album from start to finish.

• Media & Games: Choosing films and series that demand your full attention, and games that respect your time rather than trying to hook you with “daily login” rewards.

The Connection

Everything is connected. When you own your data (Sovereignty), you choose better Tools. When you have better tools, you spend less time distracted, leaving more room for Physical Experiences and Art that actually moves you.