I got here of my curiosity for safety. I lost some good fortune on the recent FTX collapse.
Though I had passively heard little on such risk but it has never been detailed and explanatory. It was always directed to cases of individual(s) whose account(s) are suspended for further KYC on few occasions, which I merely viewed as person's found guilty of illegal activities on the exchange, and assumed such wouldn't ever be a risk for all. Not to think of a total collapse of such might.
To settle this curiosity, hence the following questions:
1. How can I keep my Bitcoin safe?
Get a wallet that you can have total control of like having your privatekey and mnemonic phrase. Or better yet, look for open source as well.
2. Is there an alternative to centralized exchange?
Yes, someone already mentioned Bisq.
3. I would appreciate suggestions that are less technical as I'm not grounded in tech.
I would suggest you at least be more attentive, not necessarily technical as it you can read the code or something. But understand how everything works specially in a wallet, like private keys and mnemonic phrase and how you are going to protect it. Might come in handy as you go along with your bitcoin journey.