by Leigh Wingfeld
I think most people in this day and age, to some degree, have an unhealthy relationship with technology. Whether it be the busy mom constantly checking her phone for work calls, the grandpa who obsessively watches the news, the teenager who dooms scrolls on tik tok, and the Ipad toddler their time and energy have been sucked into these circuits of attention. I learned a lot about society’s relationship with technology this past semester in Professor Bailey’s DLM 110 The Craft of Writing: Computation and Society. We read two books for this class Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to A.I. by Yuval Noah Harari and The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff. One of the key take-aways for me is that humans can do just fine without invasive technology.
Many of us have grown accustomed to constantly having our phones on us. I find myself anxious any time my phone battery is low or I forget my phone at home. I use my phone as an adult pacifier for whenever I am anxious; in a way, it became a form of avoidance. After taking this class I decided one of my goals for the new year was to reframe my relationship with technology. As a member of the E-Sports team and someone who is self-proclaimed to be chronically online, I knew taking this on would be an endeavor. However, I’m only a few weeks into this challenge and I’m already noticing changes for the better and some hurdles to overcome.
In order to re-evaluate what technology I use when, I look at the issue the technology solves and ask myself if it has to be digital. For example, I used to play a lot of puzzle games on my phone in my free time, but I’ve instead switched to physical jigsaw puzzles, sudoku and crossword puzzles. This allows me to enjoy the same problem solving challenge without the use of a screen, and even if you don’t care about the screen, the physical puzzle is at least ad free . Gen-Z has grown up with technology, for a lot of us the digital version of an activity is default, but it doesn’t have to be. On the other hand, when it comes to my E-Sport, Marvel Rivals, I’ve taken a different approach as I can only participate in that digitally. While it is still on a screen, I decided that I would limit my individual play time to 2 hours a day. This ensures that I still get plenty of practice time in, while also limiting my time on the computer.
I also re-evaluated if I need certain pieces of technology at all and if I could “downgrade.” I’ve made the decision to switch to a flip phone. I’m currently working on some of the finer details, but the phone brand I’ve decided to go with is Sunbeam Wireless. They produce flip phones with some modern capabilities, such as wifi hotspot and gps, but do not have an app store or a search engine on them. While this may seem like an extreme step, is it? As a society I think we have gotten way used to every person being just a text away. I don’t want to be just a text away. I don’t want to have to worry about checking my phone. I don’t want to see the news notification or social media update. With the state of the world and the stage of life I’m in, I don’t need that extra stress. Removing the constant disruption generator that is a smartphone from my life, while may be challenging at first, I think it will be well worth it in the end. If you aren’t ready to switch away from the smartphone there is a device called Brick. It is a small device that you tap your phone on, like tap to pay, and it removes any app that you have designated as ‘distracting’, giving you space from the notifications while not sacrificing the smartphone.
These are the steps I’ve taken so far and I think I have been decently successful. By making my daily life more inconvenient, I make my life more fulfilling by not constantly swarming my mind with information overload. Next issue I hope to bring updates on this attempt at an analogue life.