Seanpm2001 experience with Google

---

Seanpm2001 experience with Google

I have a history with Google, it originally was positive, but the more I learned about them, the more negative it became, until 2018 when I began to actively go against them.

The earliest memory I have with Google is the usage of Google Maps on a GPS in family road trips. The second oldest memory I have was during my Angry Birds phase, where my family installed the Angry Birds Chrome web store application for me. The third oldest memory I have is using YouTube on iOS 4 to iOS 6. Finally, the fourth oldest memory was the creation of my original GMAIL account.

I began using Android on and off when my parents let me use their Android devices. I originally used an iPod Touch (4th generation) and later, a 5th generation iPod Touch, until I switched to Android in 2014, completely switching over in 2015 when I got my first personal phone (a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime) I have never done well with a mobile device that only has 8 gigabytes of storage, and I have always ran into limitations. This device was no exception, but a lot of memory foundation was laid here. I began playing Minecraft early on with a mobile device a few years prior, and it became more frequent with Android.

In 2015, I also started my period on YouTube. It led to some horrible habits and general stupidity, such as getting a bad schedule where I would go to bed before 8:00 pm and wake up between 3:30 am and 4:50 am to fulfill a daily goal set of producing statistic videos. It later became a bragging right that I had over 26000 videos on YouTube. The reason I made so many is because with the usual amount produced daily, I also created sped up and slowed down versions with the YouTube dashboard on PC, until the functionality was removed. I also was trying to mimick mass commentators on YouTube such as Justin Y. and I ended up writing a lot of regrettable comments. One notable one was on a Jacksfilms video, where I blindly wrote a pro-Chromebook comment, even though I was still highly anti-Chromebook at the time (this was also mentioned in the comment) YouTube also led me onto a regrettable edgy phase with iDubbbzTV, TVFilthyFrank, and MaxMoeFoe. My mindset was recoverable, and I reverted from this after a couple years. My YouTube career finally came to an end when I couldn't record with my screen recorder due to errors, and importing images into Windows Movie Maker became impossible due to errors. These bad habits finally ended, and my YouTube account has been dormant since 2018, although I did make some videos past June 2018.

When using Android, I became highly nostalgic for the early versions used, such as Android 1.5/1.6 on an early HTC phone, and Android 2.3 on a Samsung Galaxy S2. One of the reasons I eventually switched to Android was because of support for SD cards, which I for whatever reason didn't like during my Apple era. There were a few SD card failures, but this didn't deter me.

I began researching criticisms of Google in 2018 in depth, as I began to have problems with them. I became part of the privacy movement, and began DeGoogling. The first 2 things I switched out were really easy to alternate from. Google Search was replaced by DuckDuckGo, and Google Chrome was replaced with Mozilla Firefox.

I am still stuck with Android, and I went from 2 Samsung Galaxy Core primes from 2015-2016 to a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge from 2016 to 2020, then a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE from November 2020 onward. I also used Android on a Kindle fire early on, but stopped using it.

In my final years of High School, I became very against Google, and I actively protested Chromebooks and Google Chrome by going out of my way to not use them. Luckily, the school had Windows computers that had Firefox as an option, so I switched to that for the time being. In 2019, I also began to really love Linux, but I wasn't able to switch to Linux as my desktop operating system until July 9th 2020, after I stopped going to school.

I also became highly against Google Classroom, but was still forced to use it. Schools really need to give privacy-focused alternatives.

During my Windows nostalgia era from 2015 to 2019, I also began using Google Forms heavily to create trivia forms for various versions of Windows. I also created several sites with Google Sites, and worked heavily on these. Google Sites also was the precursor to the development of SNU, which changed completely in 2019, and was no longer reliant on a proprietary template engine.

I dealt with lots of bad ads with Google, and I was smart enough to start using an ad blocker early on. I used an ad blocker on my mobile web browser as well, but switched to the YouTube app for convenience, which is still a problem. One bad advertisement led to a scam app (Current, a money making scam app) which I knew from the start was a scam but I wanted the gold in AdVenture Capitalist bad enough that I went with it. It prompted me to turn off my developer settings, and that messed my phone up before I deleted it. I never got the reward.

In 2016, I switched to a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. It had a new operating system (Android 7.0 Nougat, later Android 8.0 Oreo) it originally came with Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) but I updated it. I disliked the interface heavily, and it was during this era that I became highly opposed to flat design, and even more in favor of SKeuomorphism. Over time, the 32 gigabytes in the phone still wasn't enough, and I began dealing with memory problems. I also had a failing battery and broken speakers due to constant usage, and also playing too many earrape videos on YouTube. I also broke every port on the phone due to overusage and the continued problem of using a device while it is plugged in, a bad habit I never broke that destroyed the charging port on 7 of my devices (but has never destroyed my laptops charging port)

In November 2020, I switched to a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. During the decision up to getting it, I was highly considering moving to an Android virtual machine to replace my phone, but this plan still has not come to fruition (as of 2021 October 5th) the phone was an upgrade in several ways, such as the 256 gigabytes of storage, the super easy screenshot functionality, and the 120hz refresh rate, but was a downgrade in some ways, such as the screen quality going from 1440p to 1080p, the forced upgrade to Android 11, the SIM card failures, the charging port breaking in the first 4 months, and the inclusion of 2 voice assistants (as if 1 wasn't already bad enough, also, why would you need 2 voice assistants installed at the same time? More importantly, why is the power button a trigger for the voice assistant? At this point, if you want to shove another voice assistant in, do something with the software or put a voice assistant button on the device that I am never going to use on purpose)

On my S20 FE, I also did a mass APK download of over 1300 apps, getting a complete history of every Android app ever installed in this family. I also did a massive upgrade to my contact system as well, customizing every persons profile with a picture, description, and custom notification sound, and sorting into several categories.

---

Sources

None. Sources aren't needed, this is an experience and opinion page. This page IS the source.

---

Article info

Written on: 2021 Tuesday, October 5th at 3:42 pm

Last revised on: 2021 Tuesday, October 5th at 3:42 pm

File format Markdown document (*.md *.mkd *.markdown)

Article version: 1 (2021 Tuesday, October 5th at 3:42 pm)

Article language: English (US) / Markdown

Line count (including blank lines and compiler line): 118

All times are UTC-7 (PDT/Pacific Time)

You may need special rendering support for the <dropdown> HTML tag being used in this document

---