A really good feeling hit yesterday. It was the memory of life before smartphones. I could feel it so well that I forgot what having a smartphone was like.
This was triggered by a re-watch of a television show. I hadn’t seen it in 10-15 years but The Wire really got to me in the way the characters treat and use technology. Almost everything is done by hand and it put my brain in a moment of time before tech came for us all.
The question, “what would I do if I didn’t have this?” came across my mind. What would I be doing with my day or my morning? What would I be doing if I wasn’t typing this now?
We’ve crossed a line with computer technology where we don’t understand the benefits any further. A human being cannot operate a computer smaller than a smartphone so then we said “where else can we put these?” and the smartphone automobile was born.
We’ve reached the end of what computers can do. AI was just computers predicting the next possible step. Prediction. Is there anything else a computer could possibly do outside of carry out the present or predict the future? Data storage is the past. It sits and doesn’t do anything.
I feel like this is the beginning of the end for how we view computers as an important aspect of our society. There appears to be more human growth away from technology.
…? I guess I’m one of these ppl for whom the phone is a tool, and I don’t carry it everywhere I go, and use it (and the ipad) when I need it or I’m bored (like right now). Otherwise, books, the paper, magazines, tv, the radio, the gym, walking, biking, going to concerts, going to hockey games, working, running errands, doing chores, stuff like that.
Books, my steam deck, wife, projects around the house… actually most things. It’s more like the backup default if I don’t have anything else to do rather than the primary.
A return to pervasive daily communal routines/activities in free third spaces, like parks, just walking around community spaces, affordable coffee spaces. Loading them up with print media would help, like news papers, also games. Just reverse the enshittification of third spaces where they made everything shittier and cost way more. We gotta stop expecting parents to put their kids on leashes, too. Letting kids wander a bit is good for them. Skaters turned into functional members of society, people need to lay off the younger people (kids, teens) when they’re hanging out. If they’re hanging out they’re not getting radicalized online. Same with adults. We become feral when we don’t socialize, just like our beloved dog friends.
I don’t ever think about my phone. I mostly don’t look at it other than when I wake up and go to bed, unless I am receiving a phone call. I often leave the house without it and I only bring it with me if I am going for hours or need navigation.
But it also has the negative consequence of everyone thinking I hate them for not replying to their text within 30 seconds. I have been repeatedly lectured by friends and family how ‘irresponsible’ and ‘asshole’ I am for not being accessible 24/7 and having a Pavlovian response to check my phone every time it makes a noise.
Almost … anything? That’s why my phone makes noises when I need to be reminded of it!
Sex generally does that. We use our phones a bit, but for the most part the two of us are the only two people on the planet.
I’ve been pushing my way towards creating the tech world I was promised back in the aughts, if only for me and my family. I’ve begun using older tech with upgrades and simulating it where I can’t. Hacked 3ds to play games instead of phone games, they were built to be fun where most phone games are built to be addictive. Built a new flat screen into an old console TV, then used the extra space in the back to make a small server to stream my own shows. No more scrolling through shows, the collection contains only things I chose to watch and went out to get. I’m working on a way to turn cheap drives into cartridges so my pc games can be physical. No more browsing steam, I can pick my games before I even turn on the screen.
Some things I can’t escape yet. Lemmy I’d my only social media, I spend a lot more time than I want to doom scrolling here but I found I was far less happy in the social vacuum that deleting it left me. My social group is in our 30s, we don’t have any time to communicate these days. This place gets me the social I need and self control lets me haunt the few places that I genuinely enjoy. c/gaming, C/funhole, Etc, though I do wish there were a bigger bonsai community here.
I do have one game on my phone that I play a lot now, It’s a full stable port of original Diablo 2 with a few mods. All offline, all original assets, literally uses the pc install and I got to use my original CD keys to activate it. That’s what phone games should have been, dungeon crawling a level or two while I wait for an appointment feels so much more than some 5min roguelike or ad riddled arcade game. No big splashy thing, no FOMO for seasonal content, just the steady progression of a well made game from my youth with the promise that all that loot will wait patiently for me like it has for the last 25 years. SOJs don’t need double loot weekends or raid planning to feel special.
I think the biggest part has been doing things with intention. So much of the world is served up to us now that it’s easy to just eat and never think about what it is. It’s right there, it’s easy, so what if it’s not the best or our favorite? Why say no when it’s right there? But a glut of easy eventually feels flavorless and leaves you craving more. The work to reach something I genuinely enjoy has been far more filling than anything I’ve ever been served. Say nothing about actually eating it. That’s been my goal. I’m trying to live with intention, in what I do, what I choose, where I go, how I spend my time. I’m not a pet to be fed, I’m a life to be lived.
I’m not thinking about my phone when I’m thinking about anything else. If I’m watching a movie on the couch, don’t expect to hear from me until it’s done. I’ll look at my phone when I have a cigarette after the movie.
