#low tech

i have watched the internet decline so steadily in my lifetime. every “innovation” i’ve seen online in the past few years has filled me with dread. i was on tiktok in 2018 but got off of it right before they introduced tiktok shop. i spent more than half of 2023 without touching social media because of the introduction of short form content on everything, and only returned because i checked instagram on a whim in early 2024 and found out a classmate from high school had died, and realized that if an old friend dies, someone i don’t talk to much anymore, instagram will be the only way i learn.

watching as every social media site tries new things to steal more and more of my life away in pursuit of endless growth, watching more and more of the social media be inundated with endless advertisement, to the point that i often scroll past multiple ads in a row these days, watching ai slop flood everything, watching terms like doomscrolling and bedrotting emerge and become mainstream (and jokes, at that, not serious issues that need to be addressed), watching as the internet becomes this grand corporate evil, when it is capable of such good, makes me feel fucking sick.

now i’m watching the whole thing play out. make something amazing, make it profitable, make it addictive, make it more addictive, make it more profitable, rinse, repeat. and now they’re adding requirements for age that are going to use your fucking legal identification to make sure you aren’t doing anything they deem inappropriate for your age. because god fucking forbid a 12 year old pretend to be 13 to read percy jackson au’s and reblog supernatural gifs. because god forbid a 15 year old knows what a boob looks like. (and yes, i’m aware that young kids can find porn and that that can be damaging, create issues, etc. my younger brother did. my parents were able to intervene because they were fucking parenting him, and he agrees that total censorship would not have been a better option. kids have been stumbling onto porn since forever.)

i got into low tech in early 2023 and got a flip phone in late 2024. i need to make something clear: if youtube asks me for a picture of my fucking driver’s license to proceed to my 12 minute weekly update about fast fashion legislation in europe or my 5 hour long analysis of some childhood movie, i am logging the fuck off and picking my book back up. watching my buffy dvds. going to the library. giving in is not a requirement.

The room where I paint and use the computer is pretty chilly in winter. Right now it's 64F/18C; not glacial but too cool (according to my metabolism) for sitting quietly. Perfect for moving around, though! When I have to sit and focus on a painting, I get a flat rock that I keep on the woodstove downstairs and wrap it in denim. My feet can be on that, and I'll stay comfortable. Yesterday I was on my second-to-last work session for a commission, and the hot rock kept me happy the whole time.

I've gone back and forth for years on switching to a more low tech lifestyle. This is what I've done to ease the transition.

delete any social media with an algorithm. this is broad and can be case by case as to what effects you. for me this was fb and instagram. basically, get rid of any social media that's keeping you in the rat race. if social media isn't your job, you don't need to be in it.

get rid of the cell phone. I know. tough one. but if you were addicted to drugs you wouldn't carry them around in your pocket and just will yourself not to use it. you'd throw it away, distance yourself. we've been lied to about the necessity of constant connection. I promise you don't need. throw. it. away. (or sell it, whatever).

find other hobbies. WOW there is a lot of time when you're not wasting the average seven hours a day on a screen anymore. now you get to create again and remember how wonderful that feels when there's not something constantly pulling you away. I'm reading, writing, and have joined several local classes from soap making to pottery.

get a landline. you should probably still be reachable. your job and family will appreciate it lol. US mobile has a super cheap plan.

in case of emergencies: keep a flip phone in your glove box. I'm a sahm with two little kids. If I get stranded on the side of the road, more than likely, in my small town, someone would have me fixed up and headed home in basically no time at all, but the ability to call 911 or my husband is still a comfort to have.

digital camera!! they are so cheap nowadays, you don’t have to miss out on those memories.

read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport and The Opt-Out Family by Erin Loechner

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.