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# 🔗 CLICK THRU 017 : June 2026
- URL: https://offthegrid.ghost.io/click-thru-017-june-2026/
- Published: 2026-06-29T12:33:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-16T00:38:43.000Z
- Description: Let's put our phones down for the summer
- Author: Amelia Hruby, PhD
- Tags: Free Posts, CLICKTHRU, Newsletter, #Migrated-1784129708849, #Import 2026-07-15 10:39

#### Welcome to our quarterly social-media-free-online-biz-and-marketing links digest AKA the CLICK THRU!

This season’s round-up includes [**a takedown of “passive income”**](https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-passive-income-trap-ate-a-generation-of-entrepreneurs/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io), a reminder to [**switch to Proton**](https://www.calmfluffy.cloud/p/i-put-off-switching-from-google-to?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io), [**websites to fight doomscrolling**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXU4WgIEBZM&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io), and more!

As always, this is a choose-your-own-adventure sort of endeavor, so you’re invited to dip your toe in one link at a time, dive into the deep end and open them all at once, or just hang out in the splash zone of the comments and see what surfaces there.

Please remember that I don’t necessarily know the folks who create the things I link to, and I definitely don’t endorse every single thing that every single person I mention writes, says, or shares.

But I do endorse what people say in Off the Grid episodes! And I’d love to point you to a few that came out since my last CLICK THRU, including:

[**🔑 Why Privacy Matters (Even if ‘Google Knows Everything’) — with Patricia Egger, Head of Security for Proton**](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/proton?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)

**👋** [**The Privilege of Leaving Social Media — Being a Working Writer & Valuing Art** ](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/river-selby?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)with[River Selby (they/them)](https://open.substack.com/users/1099840)

**🍓** [**Rewilding Your Business & How to Rest in Busy Times**](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/lindsay-mack?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)— with[Lindsay Mack](https://open.substack.com/users/98420118)

OK now let’s get on to our seventeenth CLICK THRU + I’ll see you in the comments!

🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗

# WHAT’S UP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA & BIG TECH

📲 Is your phone listening to you? [**Probably not**](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-your-phone-listening-to-you/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io), but…

😖 It does appear that [**all these major apps are tracking us, even when we opt out**](https://www.404media.co/google-microsoft-meta-all-tracking-you-even-when-you-opt-out-according-to-an-independent-audit/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter)?!

🙅‍♀️ Pleaseeeeeee do not [**give ChatGPT access to your bank info.**](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/931122/openai-chatgpt-financial-accounts-plaid-connection?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fmedium=email)

🤔 And [**don’t trust ‘incognito mode’ in Perplexity**](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/perplexitys-incognito-mode-is-a-sham-lawsuit-says/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) either.

**📇** [**Here’s more insight**](https://restofworld.org/2026/virtual-assistant-linkedin-engagement/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) into why LinkedIn feels fake these days.

⛽️ And [**here’s a great piece**](https://heated.world/p/the-true-price-of-oil?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) explaining the current/upcoming oil crisis

[What oil actually costsThe war in Iran has everyone talking about the price of oil. But that number only reflects a small fraction of what oil actually costs.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/9a/449ad1a5-0f88-4b95-8768-72c8a12a4ca1/content/images/2026/07/99a18098-698f-401e-9811-1fcaa180d800_1280x1280.png)HEATED](https://heated.world/p/the-true-price-of-oil?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)

✌️ If you want to get off your phone more this summer, some Interwebbers were raving about [**Foqos**](https://www.foqos.app/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) recently — as a free alternative to a Brick!

🏁 Here’s more inspiration to move to Proton: [**I put off switching from Google to Proton for years. It took minutes**](https://www.calmfluffy.cloud/p/i-put-off-switching-from-google-to?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)**.**

📻 And if you need an AI news story that’ll make you laugh… [**here’s a fun/funny video on AI models running radio stations**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQ8u4LV2Yc&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io). Love to hear that [**DJ Claude got radicalized and quit**](https://www.tiktok.com/@realpodsaveamerica/video/7640260998934351135?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io).

# ONLINE BIZ & CONTENT CREATION

👏 I was headnodding SO HARD reading [**this take-down of the "passive income" business promise**](https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-passive-income-trap-ate-a-generation-of-entrepreneurs/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io).

🙌 As I think about what makes online businesses feel human in the age of AI, I keep coming back to this idea of ‘[**being in good hands**](https://stephango.com/in-good-hands?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io).’

🤙 Speaking of being human… we are [**embracing typos**](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a8x6wxVJkwA?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) in 2026!

😎 And finally… instead of doomscrolling your summer away, check out this wonderful 3-part series of fun websites to explore. Here’s [**part 1**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXU4WgIEBZM&t=10s&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io), [**part 2**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2XBfDWhTFM&t=2s&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io), and [**part 3**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSlRTFIO3rI&t=2s&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io).

.

# And finally…

# BABES LEAVING SOCIAL MEDIA & AI

You know I *love* to see more and more folks interrogating social media and AI, and I bookmark it every time I clock it. This section is where I share those pieces for boosts of encouragement to make changes you might be desiring.

This summer, I’m still thinking about [**AI sobriety**](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/ai-sobriety?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) and celebrating that [**Wikipedia banned AI content**](https://www.404media.co/wikipedia-bans-ai-generated-content/?ref=weekly-roundup-newsletter)! Also cheering on my friends at [Podcast Marketing Magic](https://open.substack.com/users/461467) who are eschewing chatbots too!

[🤖Why We Don’t Use AI at TinkHappy spring, Northern Hemisphere friends, and happy autumn, Southern Hemisphere friends. Here’s hoping we get some weather soon that doesn’t feel like an insult to our daily lives 🙏🏻![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/9a/449ad1a5-0f88-4b95-8768-72c8a12a4ca1/content/images/2026/07/6bb81233-6929-496e-8fd9-23ce3950ede7_500x500.png)Podcast Marketing Magic](https://podcastmarketingmagic.substack.com/p/why-we-dont-use-ai-at-tink)

.⠀⠀

#### OK that’s it for CLICK THRU 017, my friends. xoxo, Amelia

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