Digital Veganism
05 Jun 2025Digital Veganism is a movement of which the Digital Vegan book, written by Dr. Andy Farnell is part of. This post is not a book review. It is about the movement, and the principles and ideas shared by Andy.
Digital Veganism promotes a deliberate use of technology, avoiding “toxic” (or unethical) products, similar in ways to veganism. In the words of the author, “[This book] is a call to disengagement and more careful, slower, deliberate and thoughtful relationships with technology”.
Surveillance capitalism, as described by Shoshana Zuboff is driven by a profit-making incentive, and arose as advertising companies, led by Google’s AdWords, saw the possibilities of using personal data to target consumers more precisely. Her book on the topic extensively documents the exploitative practices of Big Tech.
Research on the psychological effects of social media generally agrees (see note 1) on its negative effects, especially on teenagers. That is the subject of last-year’s book The Anxious Generation, from Jonathan Haidt. Facebook was under fire a few years ago about results from their own internal investigation. Don’t forget that tech moguls don’t let their kids use smartphones.
Closed platforms like Facebook and Twitter monitor and spy on their users (even outside of their domains with buttons embedded on other websites, example from this week). They collect the most information possible (even outside of their platform, even about people who are not users) and show the most engaging content (regardless of the physiologic impact on users or damages to society) to keep their users attention and show them the best adds possible, while at the same time making it impossible to consume their content outside of their platform. This is unethical tech and the type of tech Digital Vegans avoid.
Some action items for digital veganism, from the “Resources and Actions” chapter are the following:
- Always retain control over your technology (do not use software or hardware products from Big Tech companies who treat you as a resource to be exploited, instead of a customer)
- Boycott stores and services that use unethical digital products and algorithms.
- Use online resources created by whistle-blowers and ethical hackers to find which institutions engage in unethical practices. If you have time, use the law to make it difficult for technology abusers.
- Think about who makes and disposes of your technology. Buy ethical hardware if possible.
- Use cash and anonymous payment methods.
- In general, try to reuse older hardware and software which is simpler and time tested (boring is better)
- Experiment with digital detox.
- Most of all, educate yourself.
We need an escape from all this control. Technofascism is around the corner, and the only thing worse than a corporation that knows everything about you is a state. A database as rich as Facebook’s is useful for any authoritarian government to round up their opposition, and it is not hard for the data to fall on the wrong hands (as many data breaches have shown over the years).
There are alternatives, maybe not so shiny but certainly more respectful. Choosing better platforms is a way to act. I expect to write about these on future posts. Another way is to chose protocols over platforms (you can read here the seminal essay from Mike Masnick).
Why is it that we can email (a protocol) anyone with an email address, independently of their email provider (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, ProtonMail) but we cannot send an instant message from Telegram to our friend that uses WhatsApp (platforms)?
These closed platforms and walled gardens may seem unavoidable and inescapable today. “Everyone has an Instagram/Whatsapp/Gmail account”. But just 10 years ago Facebook was thriving with content from millennials, and today it is a desert. These platforms only exist while people use them, while we choose to give them our attention. We can divert away to places that treat us better.
This goal of this blog post is not to convince you to became a Digital Vegan. That requires you making your own research and the book from Dr. Andy Farnell does a much better job than ever could. He even addresses the main criticisms on the chapter “Objections”.
The goal here is to spread the message, to share with others with similar interests that we are here, resisting. Struggling to build a better future.
References
- Nagata JM, Otmar CD, Shim J, et al. Social Media Use and Depressive Symptoms During Early Adolescence. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(5):e2511704. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.11704
- Digital Vegan, Andy Farnell, 2021
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, 2019
- The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, 2024
- Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech, Mike Masnick 2019, https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech