There’s also Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. Highly recommended.
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Interesting to hear different people’s takes on this.
Having grown up before cels were available, and hence being in the habit of leaving the thing in my pocket when I’m out and about, I find smartphones miraculous. So much that was difficult BC (“before cels”)—finding a payphone, carrying physical books around and losing them, taking a briefcase of cassettes to work every day to have enough music—is now a non-issue. I literally couldn’t run my little business half as well as I do if we were back in the days of landlines and answering machines.
This is definitely an issue I have too. It’s not being out in the world with the phone, I can leave the phone alone … it’s when I’m home alone and keep checking the forum here, to feel some sense of being connected to a community. Having rude distant neighbors and working from home, I don’t get enough daily contact with real meat puppet fleshy humans.
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I was born when Led Zeppelin 2 came out and I have to say I had a great outdoor childhood filled with musical excitement that shaped me today.
In the late 2000’s as I watched communication technology develop, in crept this stagnation that would eventually ruin most of my so-called friendships. While supposedly connecting us, I realised that this convenience technology was an apathy that was driving us apart. I fought hard against this, to keep friends connected, but I failed… then out of the blue, social media came in and struck like a bowling ball, taking out the remainders.
I have had to readjust my life completely. It can often feel desaturated and it has this underlying cynicism running through it, but weirdly it comes in waves. Although I am creatively lonely, I have been creatively successful in my job. I am extremely productive, happy and fulfilled.
I blame the smartphone for a lot of this. Yet I own a smartphone and I am thankful for the maps, the banking, the shopping, the chatbots, the forums and especially YT for what I have learned… but I can’t forgive it for the distance and wedges it has driven between us. It saddens me deeply.
It snowed here this week (an uncommon event) and the bubbling elation from strangers that was shared reminded me of a time I have now lost, with more spontaneous conversation, less suspicion, without layers of hurdles and gates to climb over just to be the sociable human that I am.
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At the end of the article I sense a tad of bitterness, though
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Understatement.
Only in the Guardian could a journalist be angry at Christopher Walken because they don’t like their job.
I think said journalist should shut the fuck up and go get a better job. Bitter little passive aggressive pipsqueak.
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reminds me a bit on my grandma … when she moved beyond her 80th birthday she used to say, for what is all that stuff? why investing in anything in my room for furnitures or new technology like a mobile … I guess she realized that time is precious at that stage of life
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Different strokes tho … my mom’s 87 and I think she feels a lot of empowerment out of being able to get around the technology and do things with it. If you’re old but still living independently, being able to handle cel/net/computer is kind of mandatory for paying the bills, keeping connected to people, etc… She knows she’s near the end but chooses to take care of her health and live as fully as possible until she can’t, I respect that. If someone else doesn’t want to be arsed with it, I respect that too…
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I’ve been rocking a combo of iPad + dumbphone since 2018. Wouldn’t have it any other way to be honest. iPad only has wifi, so when I’m out and about, I’m mostly without interent access.
Aside from the odd stares I sometimes get from a busdriver when showing my bus ticket on an iPad, I get by jus’ peachy
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at this point I’ve talked about before, I showed her my tablet and she immediately used it like children when they discovering something new … but back in the days she moved far nearer to us than ever. I guess preferences are changing with age 
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Smartphones are incredibly useful and convenient, main problem lies in social networks (forums and Youtube included), because they’re addictive and at the same time always available in your pocket. It helps a bit to make them less convenient to access by uninstalling dedicated apps and using browser instead.
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I wish this was true, because then I wouldn’t be able to remember how everything used to be so much better.
Unfortunately I can remember it all too well.
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In spite of all the convenience smartphones bring, I think life is/was just simpler without them.
I just left it at home one day to go about my errands (not work related) and felt a strange sense of freedom I hadn’t experienced in a long time.
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There’s a Ray Bradbury short story (in The Illustrated Man iirc), where everyone teleports everywhere, even to places in the same neighborhood.
There’s a kid who instead goes outside, and walks everywhere. His parents and teachers are super worried about him being outside, walking alone. One of his teachers ends up taking a walk with him and—surprise—really digs it. Sunshine, trees and greenery, quiet (no cars of course).
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It is hard for me to imagine my life during the last 48 hours happening without my phone. I am currently out of town dealing with a family medical emergency. I used navigation on my phone to drive to long term parking at LAX. I checked into my flight on my phone. I communicated via text message with a family member at my destination. When I landed, I realized there was no airport van service, so I downloaded a ride app and was sitting in the back of a car 10 minutes later. Now that I’m here, I’m using my phone to communicate with other family about my sick relative. While making my sudden travel plans, I sent emails and text messages to people I’d made time commitments to, canceling our meetings or rehearsals.
I lived in Hong Kong 1996-1998. I didn’t have a cell phone while living there (nor could I think of a reason to have one), but most of my friends who were Hong Kong natives owned mobile phones. Note: cellular phones had been rolled out on a very limited scale at this point, in mostly large and densely populated cities. One friend predicted that the legacy of cell phones was to facilitate the changing of plans. No longer would it be necessary to make a plan, then stick to it. In other words, cell phones were destined to make people flaky.
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I listened to this episode of the great simplification (highly recommended podcast in general) recently and realized I had built up a bunch of bad habits, especially related to phone use. So I stopped using social media (feels good) and now realized that most of my phone screen time is spent on elektronauts. I’ll log out from my phone and plan to only occasionally check what’s going on here from the laptop.
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My iphone 7+ is closing in on retirement age.
I’d always said I’d get a dumber privacy phone next. Now I’m spending time looking at options the Mudita Kompakt is looking like a front runner - does anyone here have experience with it?
I like the minimalist e link type screen, it looks calming and has privacy kill switches on the device.
As it operates outside of Apple/Android stores, I’d probably be able to keep updating Signal messaging even if those stores are eventually not allowed to host those apps.
I want to retain a qwerty keyboard of some kind but im open to other options if anyone has alternatives.
Still worth a watch.
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looks nice, I’d never heard of this. thanks 
I’ve seen that in the meantime as the guy from the social delimma was a guest on the great simplification as well.
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