Break the Big Tech Cycle in 2026

January 19th is known as “Quitters Day," because it’s the day most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions as real-world routines reassert themselves. But most resolutions don’t fail because people don’t care—they fail because the systems around them don’t change.  

Maybe this year’s resolution doesn’t require more discipline, but more intention—breaking a cycle quietly reinforced by the device we carry with us every day.

The Quiet Cost of Convenience

For more than a decade, Big Tech has trained us to trade control for ease. Free apps. Seamless syncing. Personalized feeds. Phones that “just work.”

But the real cost has become harder to ignore. Our attention is monetized. Our behavior is tracked. Our data is harvested, modeled, and sold back to us—often without our awareness, and almost never with meaningful consent.

This isn’t about villainizing technology. It’s about recognizing a system that rewards surveillance, concentration of power, and dependency—and asking whether that system still serves us.

Resolutions That Change Systems, Not Just Habits

Most New Year’s resolutions are personal. But the tools we use every day don’t just shape our habits—they shape markets, incentives, and power structures. When billions of people rely on the same handful of companies for communication, navigation, work, and identity, choice quietly disappears.

Breaking that cycle doesn’t require going off-grid. It requires intentional alternatives.

That’s where a different kind of phone choice comes in. 

Choosing Technology That Respects You

An Unplugged phone isn’t about rejecting modern life. It’s about reclaiming your agency within it.

It’s for people who want:

• No third-party tracking by default
• Transparency about how their device works
• A phone that serves them, not an ad-driven ecosystem
• Technology aligned with human values, not extractive ones

Choosing tools designed for privacy, autonomy, and user control means fewer battles with settings, permissions, and hidden data extraction. It means you’re the customer, not the product.

A Small Act of Rebellion

It’s easy to cast Big Tech as overreaching oligarchs, but that evades our responsibility as consumers. After all, they give us exactly what we pay for—whether with our cash, data, or both. We must insist on new products that protect our privacy. As citizens and consumers, we must recognize our role in shaping the digital future we finance—and opting out is one of the few levers we still have.

This year, maybe the resolution isn’t to do more.

Maybe it’s to choose better.

Experience the Unplugged difference. Visit unplugged.com to break the Big Tech cycle and take a step towards digital freedom.