You are constantly being fed preferences for things to want and do by people you don't know based on information you didn't mean to share with them. We have all decided this is ok for a bit, but we need to remember the AI behind feeding our preferences is getting better and better. As we get more and more of what we want, we will spend more and more time staring at our phones. When our chins are always down and we have eyes only for our phones, we are really just being the automatons that the big companies that profit from our attention want us to be. To be fair, they are allowed to harvest our data, yes, because we let them. But you are allowed to fight back against the system, too. Here are some simple steps to help prevent yourself from becoming a subservient automaton: 1. opt out of saving your location history on your phone 2. delete apps you are not using 3. go to platforms that tell you which companies are sharing your information with who 4. turn off your phone when you are not using it. And you can also vote for this idea that says to the big social media companies: From now on we want to opt in to sharing our private information, not have to opt out.