Your Phone isn't Evil
There is way way too much focus on devices when it comes to tech wellness.
I get why. For non-technically trained people, doing anything beyond using a device in the most stock way can be intimidating - and companies pay a lot of money to make you think it's bad to do so.
But consuming more ultimately redirects our efforts away from the people who create and profit off of these issues, encourages wasteful conspicuous consumption, and adds yet another paywall to mental and physical well being.
I really think that a lot of the people buying dumbphones and flip phones in an attempt to use theirs less would be better served by simply making privacy a central tenet of how they manage their phones and stop using streaming in favor of local files which fosters better curation.
If you want to help your community, one of the things we need most now are people willing to watch tutorials and figure out how to do things like install custom OS on phones, jailbreak ereaders, make copies of DVDs and Blurays, setting up home servers, and switching a laptop to a Linux OS. These things aren't that difficult objectively but they are more time consuming than some people in our communities can manage right now.
And while we have some folks who've been carrying the torch for a long time, we need more people reviewing and recommending DRM-free books, music you can actually buy and own from places like Bandcamp, and talking about what FOSS (free and open source software) they love using.
You cannot downgrade your way to better relationship with tech alone. You also don't have to at all if you don't want to. The shifts we need are in user control. We don't get their by just picking up other devices we don't control.
