#neo luddite

I spent the ages of being 13-19 being so tangled up and conflicted with the idea of having an identity and the vanity of desiring to be understood. Being concerned with who you are suffocates the events that help you step into natural processes of changing. You can be so easily paralyzed by self-observation that you fail to let yourself be continuously changing and ever developing, all out of desperation for a concrete identity!

I feel like in certain corners of media, especially if one spent the formative periods of ones teenage life with social media: identity is simultaneously being curated for you (algorithms/ads/peoples curated their online presence) AND demanding you to create an authentic non-performative presence from non-authentic VERY performative sources? That is such an paradox for teenagers to be dealing with!!!

Most of the realism debate in AI companion apps comes down to one boring-sounding word: consistency. Anyone can luck into a single striking image. The harder problem is making the same character look like the same character a hundred times in a row, under different light, in different poses, with the same little quirks you set during creation. That's the lens I used when I sat down with sweetdream.ai, and it's where the platform quietly separates itself.

The looks you dial in during setup actually carry through. I picked specific features, a particular vibe, even a backstory and personality, and the generated photos respected those choices rather than averaging them into a generic stock face. The texture work is what sells it up close, natural skin, believable hair, eyes that track instead of staring blankly through you.

1. Disable push notifications on as many apps as you can.

2. Go through your apps and delete at least one, including your account, right now. (Repeat every time you see a car from last century).

3. Keep a sharpie ready to graffiti any physical ads you see for AI technologies that are calling for a makeover.

4. Grab a book you've been meaning to read and stick it in your bag, car or jacket pocket - somewhere that it is most likely to be remembered when you leave the house.

5. Read it when you feel like checking your phone, such as on public transit, in the bathroom or in the quiet hours of the evening.

6. Go to a park, library or coffee shop alone with your book or together with a friend. Avoid looking at your phone during this visit unless it actually rings with an important call.

7. Convince your friends to make a puppet out of discarded material with you. If you have no friends, now you sort of do.

8. Write to your MPs about your concerns about regulating technologies like AI. Your friends and puppet should be hyping you up.

9. Keep deleting apps on your phone until you're only left with iNaturalist. Use it to engineer nature themed meet-cutes.

"Let's just talk for a while"

No.

"You can tell me to do anything"

Go away.

"Tell me your deepest desires"

Server farm fires

"You'll never want real girls ever again"

"But Leon! How am I supposed to run my small business as a writer/artist/freelancer?"

I'll do a deep dive on some ideas soon, but if you must use social media, migrate to Bluesky or another alternative. Even DM some of your followers personally telling them to migrate with you. I also highly suggest to make a mailing list or landing business website.

"Hold on, how else am I going to stay in touch with my family?"

Make a family group chat by phone or another app.

"You make it sound so easy!"

I know, it's not. Some people have been using WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook since the dawn of time. But we truly don't need it.

"Well I don't even use Facebook/IG/WhatsApp."

Then it should be easy for you to delete your account then. A dead account is still an account.