#Onlineclones

Am I becoming an online clone? Should I be concerned about that? Should I resist it?

It is amazing what goes through my mind on an early morning bike ride.

I have just been reflecting on a 10 day camping holiday down in the depths of Cornwall with my family. In many ways it was far from the society norm. In many way camping is a contrast to modern day living - no electricity in the tent for a start. It is a real change and we love it - we love roughing it to a degree.

However one big issue was keeping our mobile phones and tablets charged. The whole family at one stage or another complained about running out of battery.

This morning I was thinking the grip online increasingly has on us. Are we all gradually doing the same things through the same few companies?

We all use Google to search and many other things. Facebook is all pervading. We use Amazon as the default place to shop. We all seem to get our news from BBC online. These companies are getting bigger and bigger and ever more dominating. How many times a day do I check my E Mails? Am I being CLONED ? Yes I think I am !!

This is what I am going to do from this moment!

1) I am going to change my search engine away from GOOGLE.

2) While I might use AMAZON for research I am going to try and reduce buying directly through them.

3) I have resisted joining Facebook but as I have admitted before I have been hypocritical - I look at Facebook. From now on FACEBOOK is out of my life.

4) I cannot give up BBC NEWS - but it is clearly important to get news from other sources too. I have been on to that for sometime. I look at The Guardian online a lot. I need to broaden.

5) I am going to check my E mails 4 times a day max. That will be hard!

5) It is not quite the same thing but our local mega store is TESCO. I cannot stand the company and their ethos. They treat us as mugs. I resist them whenever I can - I need to do so more.

Am I cutting off my nose to spite my face? Possibly - but I think it might be healthy to try!!