Absolutely we should. You’re quite right about Youtube, it has a terrible history in many areas, especially predation on children, anti-science, and political radicalization.
There are, however, quite a few people who have looked into alternatives, so it’d be good to see what’s around. Maybe we can make a thread for “wholesome Buddhist-friendly alternatives”? Prioritize things on:
- open source
- transparent,
- no ads
- privacy
- non-algorithm based
- accessible UI
- discouraging greed, hate, and delusion
- responsible management
- non-monopolistic
There’s probably more. It’s not easy! I think Discourse fits all these, I think. Where possible I use Jitsi for video chat, it’s got a better record than Zoom (not that Zoom is anywhere near the worst).
We should, as people who care about an ethical life, at least make efforts to seek alternatives. For myself, regarding the Big 5:
- I don’t use Facebook, never have
- I don’t use Apple, never have
- Over the years I have ordered one or two things from Amazon, but I’ll try to avoid doing that ever again.
- I use a few Microsoft-owned products for development: VScode, Github, npm. (Non-programmers probably don’t realize how much of a programmer’s everyday tools have been bought by Microsoft in recent years.)
- From Google, I still use Gmail, Gdrive, Youtube, Android, Maps. I usually use Firefox (Chrome as backup) and DuckDuckGo for search. SC’s front-end uses Google’s open-source “lit” library; however I have to say that the peeps on that particular project are very cool.
We don’t have to get out completely, even if that’s possible. But the more we seek alternatives, the more we slow down the creep of monopoly and its attendant ills.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed or feel guilty because trying to “get out completely” isn’t always possible (for example, I’m in Panama right now and there was just no way around installing WhatsApp, everyone uses it here).