Im somewhat similar, also younger and have a fair amount of big tech/google stuff. i am fairly aware of the dangers and try to compromise safety and security with convenience. my dad is MUCH more serious about security and privacy than me or the rest of my family, and does IT stuff for all the linux computers at a univerity near me. he of course has all linux stuff, buys the dumbest tech possible, etc. I wont sign up for threads purely because of how much data they want to collect, and would rather interface with it over the fediverse.
There is a lot of simple things you can do that wil greatly increase privacy/security without sacrificing ease of use or UX. firefox + ublock origin will eliminate 99% of tracking, data collection, and ads on the internet. that is most of the actual software stuff i do, other than just not signing up for an excessive number of things and giving too many people my data (even this i dont do super hardcore.)