Be planetary

I see a lot of ppl doing it on social media, but not irl (ironic). People online who do it seem to mostly say they benefited from it and don’t want to go back, but people who post about it are 1) almost always among those who succeeded in transitioning to a dumb phone (they wouldn’t post if they failed) and 2) sort of inherently trying to sell it as an admirable and achievable lifestyle choice (not that that’s wrong or bad necessarily)

My thoughts are. Well i have a lot. Firstly it’s a really hard transition to make. Inconvenient. Can be more expensive. A lot of free entertainment is on the phone. Obviously social connection is an issue. I’ve also had jobs that required me to use specific apps. And doing 2FA a hundred times a day at work just to get into my email is hard enough with a smartphone.…

Secondly i think i’m getting to a point where i see the value in sacrificing convenience or even enjoyment for things like mental clarity, meaning, and wholeness, because i do think basically everyone with a smartphone is having essential aspects of their lives gamified or stolen out from under them (attention, emotional regulation, social connection, artistic expression and participation, serendipity, cognitive capacity, etc). I see this more and more in the younger people i tutor and it’s actually worrying to see how different teenagers are today than they were even when i was a teenager only 10 years ago.

I think rn having a dumb phone isn’t a priority or maybe even feasible, but i’m keeping that tab open because this shit cannot continue. It really worries me how much of my own life gets sucked away thru various screens. There’s this quote that pops up every once in a while that’s like eventually your life will be a sum of all the things you gave your attention to. I know i give away too much of it to things that don’t matter and that basically everyone i know feels the same way and that feels really bad!