Why no digital vegetarianism?
Western societies accommodate various beliefs, particularly religious beliefs. Up to a point. The more long-standing the practices, the more they are respected, but this is not the only factor.
A lot of religions have dietary restrictions, e.g., on pork or beef, and these have spread out to form a belief system that isn't in the accepted sense religious: vegetarianism. Vegetarianism has some social sanction (though notably in Britain it is almost exclusively restricted to the bourgeoisie): it is accommodated in schools and restaurants nowadays in the West. In some other parts of the world vegetarianism has a much longer and wider history.
What Western society does not yet accommodate is people who want to opt out of the unhealthy digital habits prevalent in society:
- overuse of proprietary software, protocols and formats
- centralisation
- disposal rather than repair
- technologies which deprive users of agency
- technologies which undermine privacy
- not having to be reachable by advertising
- having to provide phone numbers and receive SMSes
(etc - everyone will have their own list)
There needs to be some way to persuade people that there should be an option not to have to go along with all this, the way there is now an option not to eat meat. I am not asking for this to be perceived as "high status", only for it to be tolerated and accommodated.