digital wellbeing

THE TOOLBOX

a round up of the links provided on this page, as well as some other bits. if any links are broken please let me know!

website blockers

• ★ leechblock - a FREE website blocking browser extension. it is highly customisable and flexible. it works on chromium based browsers and firefox.
• ★ forest - a smartphone app with a browser extension version which allows you to pick an amount of time to focus. in this time, you are growing a virtual tree. if you leave the app (or on desktop, access a banned website) your tree will die. brutal. student me owes this app a lot lol
• ★ hide twitter trends- removes "whats happening", "who to follow", and "topics to follow" from twitter. for chromium based browsers. link no longer works.
• ★ unhook youtube - allows you to remove features such as recommended, comments, likes, and more on youtube. for chromium based browers, firefox, and edge.
• ★ ublock origin - blocks adverts, popups, and some tracking. you can also use it to block elements on a page, for example, follower counts. works on a variety of browsers.

privacy

• ★ nordvpn - a well trusted but paid VPN
• ★ free VPN services + some to avoid
• ★ spyware watchdog article catalogue - while i dont necessarily agree with this sites definition of spyware, i do think its worth checking out their list of web browsers, search engines, messaginging clients, social media, and other services and how they collect and use your data.
• ★ data big tech companies have - a simialr link to the one above, its good to check out the detail theyve collected about the data google, facebook (includes instagram and whatsapp), amazon, apple, and twitter collect on an individual
• ★ how to install and configure ungoogled chromium - ungoogled chromium is what it says on the tin...google chrome but without all the google tracking ur whole life
• ★ duckduckgo - private search engine alternative
• ★ 10 minute mail - a disposable email address
• ★ temp-mail - a disposable email address
• ★ justdeleteme - a directory of websites and how to delete your accounts from them... well, if that site allows you to, of course...
• ★ alternatives to big tech platforms and programs - a compilation of alternate OS, search engines, browsers, and many other facets of everyday internet use. i hope to check out more of this stuff myself soon.

making a website

• ★ htmldog - html and css beginner tutorial
• ★ w3schools - amazing site for html, css, and other languages tutorials and tools
• ★ ezgif - gif maker, and how every gif on this site was made
• ★ image colour picker - upload an image, and get the hex code of any colour in the image
• ★ website inspiration - check out these sites i follow on neocities and get inspired :o)

read/watch/listen list

• ★ the social dilemma - a documentary with commentary from many ex-big tech workers and outlines the consequences of social media's design. mirror 1
• ★ how a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day - tristan harris aka my favourite whistleblowing master of human persuasion ex-google employee
• ★ cal newport's digital minimalism - how to philosophically approach how to have technologies in ones life
• ★ the dangers of data collection - a brief summary of what can happen to the data you put online
• ★ the great hack - an exploration of how data company cambridge analytica used social media to help influence the 2016 US election. mirror 1 mirror 2
• ★ an introductary video with olia olania on archiving the early internet and some history if youre new to neocities and dont know about geocities...maybe send 2 friends who dont know shit

• ☆ join a library - (UK only) in the UK, you can get a free library membership and take out books for free. you can also get books in from other libraries for £1. you only have to pay this fee, and any late fines. might vary across UK

• ☆ james clear's atomic habits - a book about how to build and breakdown habits. useful not only in a digital wellbeing context, but in all aspects of life.
• ☆ marie kondo's konmari method - i mentioned how i follow her philosophy of discarding anything that doesnt spark a genuine joy inside you, and though her philosophy is mainly used in decluttering homes, i believe it can be applied to anything in life, including one's digital habits. she has videos, a best selling book, and a brief explanation here on her philosophy.

other

• ★ playlist randomizer - a site that you can input youtube playlists and have them actually be shuffled as youtube seems incapable of doing it well. the playlist must be set as "unlisted" or "public" in order to work.
• ★ youtubemp4 - a site to convert youtube videos to mp3 or mp4 files. you can also input playlists - you cannot download the playlist in one go, but you can see all the videos so it frees the time you would've taken finding each individual link.
• ★ ytmp3 - another site to convert youtube videos to mp3 or mp4 files.
• ★ yt1s.online - another converter cos u can never have enough. use with an adblocker.
• ★ wayback machine - visit snapshots of websites throughout history, including sites that may no longer exist
• ★ video game music - a place to listen to and download video game music. you can download individual tracks free, but for entire albums, you need an account.