nicerdicer

If you feel that you need a new phone, but your recent one ist still working (no cracked screen, still sufficient battery life) it could help to tweak the UI settings. Change the appearence of the clock, pick another highlight color, delete apps you don't really use, rearrange apps, change the wallpaper, etc. This way, your phone will feel new to you, despite being still the old one. Also, maybe a new phone case could help.

Try to unclog the charging port with a sewing needle. Switch off your phone and pick dust and lint carefully with the needle. Try not to touch.the contacts inside the port.

I did once. It was back in the days when all of my software was pirated - even Little Snitch (where you had to add Little Snitch itself to its blocking rules, to prevent it from phoning home). As far as I can remember, it was too expensive to buy - at least for a permanently broke student at that time. Later I discovered Radio Silence. I wrote that I had RS from 2021 onward, but I think I already had it in 2018. Not 100% sure.

Radio Silence

This is an outbound application firewall for MacOS that allows you to block applications from phoning home. It blocks outgoing traffic rather than incoming traffic, which can be toggled within the firewall settings. It has a time-limited trial period, but I did the one-time-purchase for 9 $ and it served me well since I bought it in - I think it was in 2021 - originally to keep a not-so-legally-obtained Photoshop Suite from connecting to their servers. The app is not intrusive, no annoying pop ups or the like. The app launches automatically at system start up. Occaional updates (bug fixes or to match with the latest OS version) are included with the licence.

Today I use it to block a pirated version of SketchUp (the only remaining software I have installed that has been pirated) from calling home, als well as Affinity 2 (and, probably in the future) the now free Affinity 3 (since it was aquired by Canva).

I consider this app worth its money.

12 € per year for my email provider.

I rather donate for software projects that I find useful for me. I donate towards the fediverse foundation for covering server costs for my home instance, and (irregularly) for open source software that I use myself, like VLC player or LocalSend. This time I wanted to donate to FreeTube, because I used it very often in the past year, but unfortunately they only recieve Bitcoins. I don't have a wallet, nor want to create one just for this.

As a dog I can tell you that I don't lie on the internet. Being a good boy doesn't come from nothing!

Constantly, until the day I moved out completely. Privacy only existed on paper. My room occasionally was searched while I was absent, and I only noticed because it was done sloppy (things were arranged differently). This was especially the case for all school related things, but included the occasional search for cigarettes and alcohol.

I'm really glad that the whole computer/ internet/ mobile phone/ social media thing started to happen while I was becoming an adult, and thus was on the brink of moving out. Maybe this helped me to spark a general interest in online privacy.

Sometimes at work we do have interns from a nearby school. They participate for two weeks, in order to prepare them for entering work force in a coulple of years, and to find out what these students are interested in. These students are around the age of 14 - 17 years old. To gain a school licence for our software we use at work, we make them to register with the software vendor to obtain such a temporary licence. This involves to register with the email adress they recieve from their school. Many of these interns struggle with that, because they cannot do this on their own, either, they don't know how to, or, because access within their phones is restricted by parental controls. One intern told me, that their parents regularly search their phone - and the worst part ist, that this is seen as completely normal to them! They already have been conditioned to constant surveillance that it would be weird to them if they were left unattended regarding this matter.

If my parents would have had access to my online activities (if availiable back then), they certainly would have had a field day.

I jokingly used to say: If we [my parents and I] lived in the GDR [Eastern Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain], we woudn't just have had a car, but also a telephone. [The reason for this is that citizens who were actively involved in the suveillance of certain people, along with the spying of their neighbors and own families, were often members of the StaSi, and thus were rewarded for their loyality towards the party with a car whitout the long waiting time, and those who were within the party also would have had an own telephone at their homes as a reward for their loyal services.]

I wouldn't call it a "mask", because it implies deception. Depending on who you are around, you show (and hide) different treats of your personality: In an employment setting you do not act the same way you would act when you hang with your boys (or girls, respectively) - you show different aspects of your personality while you are with your significant other, rather than with your parents. Also, your online behavior would be different from your offline behavior when navigating public situations.

Different people around you and/or different social settings make you filter things regarding your personal beliefs and/or personal traits.

Best Christmas I've had was when my girlfriend and I first spent the holidays all detached from our respective families. No expectations that have to be met, no yelling, no surpressed needs, no fake happy harmonic family bullshit, no driving around - just silence and a few chill days together without any obligations whatsoever.

Since then we spend each years Christmas like that. A time dominated by tranquility and good food. Right now my girlfriend is playing computer games, I am scrolling the fediverse, perhaps watch a movie later.

My Youtube feed via FreeTube for videos, and Mastodon for (mostly) news articles, as well as news outlets present in my country.

My father-in-law and I trade beer as a christmas tradition. We live in opposite parts (north - south) of the country and when I am visiting him with my partner he recieves a six-pack of Pilsner from a local brewery in my city. As exchange I recieve a six-pack of wheat beer from a local brewery at his location.

I don't clean regularly, given that I have neither children nor pets. When I am expecting guests over, I just make sure that the toilet and sink are clean and that the kitchen is cleared up and dishes are done. And, of course, vacuuming the floors.

After all, an appartement (or house) is a place where someone lives, and thus, things are in use constantly and lying around. It's not supposed to be a furniture-store display.

Two years ago I was gifted a green Rick-and-Morty Pickle Rick coffee mug with Rick's pickle face one one side and the words "PICLKE RICK" on the the other side. I use it almost daily.