2026-07-21 00:29 UTC
"If you're not paying for it, you're the product."
Wrong.
A product is finished, shipped, and left alone.
You are not the product. You are the mine.
Your attention is drilled into daily. Worse: every scroll, pause, and rage-click trains the machinery on exactly where your richest seams are.
Stop allowing yourself to be extracted.
Become an owner instead.
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/p/you-are-not-a-product
Replies (3)
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@jredlund@social.linux.pizza 2026-07-21 00:54
@Daojoan@mastodon.social Well, maybe we are the ore or the nuggets. The platform is the mine.
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@utf_7@mastodon.social 2026-07-21 04:02
@Daojoan@mastodon.social >"If you're not paying for it, you're the product."
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@dotyk@mastodon.social 2026-07-21 07:51
@Daojoan@mastodon.social Most anti-productivity essays belong in an ivory tower. They preach a pristine, theoretical autonomy that smells like a new form of puritanism. Real subjectivity isn't sterile; it’s human and irrational. My Middle Way? A large teacup of wine on Wednesday mornings. It’s an unoptimized, imperfect ritual that anchors me to reality. You aren't a product, but you aren't a saint either.