#analog tech

How To Rip Your Smartphone Apart With Your Teeth

I'm not hating on the analog bag trend, I think it's cute, but the best way for you to begin to move away from your smartphone is to dissect it like a little bug. Your smartphone is a small computer that can do literally anything. And as long as you have it, you are resisting the urge to do literally anything - that's why tech has become to addictive. If you start to replace every app on your phone that you actually find yourself using with an analog or low-tech alternative, you take the power of your attention back from that phone with every successful transition.

Once you've transferred what those apps could do to other devices or items, you can successfully transition to a dumb phone (more on that in another post coming), but you'll have more success with taking it slow.

Start with an app on your phone and ask yourself these questions.

Is this app a website?

Was this app once a gadget?

If Yes to #1, you can probably log into it on your laptop at home, add it to your favorites bar, and delete the app. This can include anything from social media to your work schedule, depending on how offline you want to be.

If Yes to #2, you can go back to the gadget. Get a watch, a pedometer, a physical credit card, a small notebook. Get a digital or film camera. Grab your old DS for games.

And I’ve specifically chose not to exaggerate the median number of dvds I see people buying on TikTok or Instagram because it should be seen as absurd to buy FIFTEEN movies at once.

We cannot not let social media warp our perception of what is normal to buy.

And the reason I’m bringing up consumption is because this analog trend is based on consumption.

It’s hardly just about getting off of social media when you have 5 unread books at home and you’re buying MORE (not to say I’m not guilty). Or you just bought a dvd player and ten dvds in one day without thinking about if that’s actually practical for you. Or a cheap cd player off of amazon.

You’re being shown cool pictures and aesthetic rooms that are made to make you want to buy. Even if it’s not directly from corporations or ads or influencers telling you to buy.

Capitalism isn’t just companies, it’s the basic set up of American life (I’m not saying it’s only here, I just can’t speak for other countries). The social system of the united states is money, buy, get rid of, repeat.

And we all encourage each other to participate BEVAUSE ITS ENGRAINED IN OUR WAY OF LIFE even if we don’t notice it. Hauls, trends, day in the life, grwm, fit checks, ALL OF IT. Even if those videos aren’t made to sell you something, we are taught to think that way. So I’m not saying the landfills are every influencers fault, it’s the system. And there are people who are trying to change it.

Back to my thesis

Even if you’re showing the things you do to oppose capitalism or screen addiction, people will still see that as a reason to buy a puzzle, a brand new bike, a knitting kit, instead of looking at what they definitely already have at their disposal.

Also, buying something from a thrift store doesn’t make it better. I know we like to pretend buying second hand and donating is SO MUCH BETTER but really it’s a minor difference and only if you’re buying at a normal pace.

Buying thirty thrifted items you’re going to throw away by July is still a problem for the countries our shit is being shipped off to when we’re done with it.

AND LET ME ADD THIS LAST THING

analog bags are stupid. And not a thing. It’s a fucking bag. People have always carried their books, music device, cell phones, and cameras at the same time. It’s just rare now because everything is on our phones.

Go look up a what’s in my bag from 2008. These are from Flickr from 2012, 2007, and 2005. PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS CARRIED THEIR STUFF.

Wild Japanese Retro Futurism From the 1960s

Unlike Western retro-futurism, which often leans into sleek, chrome-heavy, space-age aesthetics, Japanese retro-futurism is a mix of neon cityscapes, chunky analog tech, and dramatic, multi-purpose robotics.

when you look back at your memories, sometimes you only remember that in-betweens.