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  • Internet vs “internet,” and non-internet things

    I am on the Internet.

    In fact, I write this blog post and publish it online to share with whoever may read it because of the Internet. My work, an absolute dream come true, also requires me to be on the Internet; mostly to send communication emails, save files to shared drives, and search up important information to get my job done. The Internet is also where I look up grocery flyers and recipes, book tickets for shows and museums, and schedule my doctor’s appointments- all from the comfort of my couch. The Internet gets me places too; far and wide- from home to foreign places and back home again. In fact, the Internet is an absolute dream come true. Forgive my naivety, but how did anyone ever live without the Internet?

    (more…)
    June 4, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • S( )R

    “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.“

    — Viktor Frankl

    If you wrote this quote as a formula, it might look like this: S( )R.

    (more…)
    May 16, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • Evenings spent in solitude

    I feel stagnant, life is going so well. When I make my complaints to my co-worker they kindly advise I try going out and trying new things: “But that’s the problem,” I groan, “I go out too much. I need to stay home.” And so, I commit. This month, I’m spending my evenings at home, especially weekends but definitely weekdays too, tuned into the deafening silence of evenings spent offline, alone, in solitude. What can I learn from this moment? What can my solitude teach me? What is so bad about being alone— not “alone” while on the internet, but alone alone— anyway? What is so bad about my own company?

    (more…)
    May 2, 2023
    time spent offline

  • Celebrating time spent offline

    I love it here. No, not here here, but this little life of mine that the world said was impossible; impossible to disconnect, impossible to unplug, impossible to spend time offline. And do what? Too late, they all shrugged and said, this is life now. Well, this is life for me now and seven years later, there’s no going back. I have made my bed and I must celebrate.

    (more…)
    April 24, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • 31 apps and other personal reflections on my dumb-smartphone

    Last post, I declared my love for my smartphone. We didn’t always have such a healthy, functional, and respectful relationship. In fact, it wasn’t until I set very firm boundaries that I learned to love, respect, and appreciate all the good my smartphone brings to my life: Turning my smartphone into a dumb phone remains a popular post. I’m glad I didn’t believe the lies, and there are a lot of lies; “you need social media,” “you need a smartphone,” “you need to be online,” lies, lies, lies. The truth is there are no rules, only consequences.

    (more…)
    April 18, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • 24 hours spent in reality

    A few lessons, realization, tips, tools and tricks from spending Friday evening and all-day Saturday without my tech gadgets.

    1. I love my smartphone. I love GPS. I love my music apps- Hoopla and Apple Music. I love looking up the weather and knowing before it’s too late. I LOVE THE UBER APP— more on this later. I love iMessage and trying to beat the text bubble appearing before my punch line. And I love brain-dumping in my Notes app. That’s about what my dumb-smartphone can do.
    1. Yet, I can leave the house without my phone and be completely okay. I don’t need it. It’s just nice to have.
    (more…)
    April 4, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • What is social media for?

    This past weekend, I get a text from a friend asking to send her a picture of myself. I reply jokingly, “you got a man for me,” but I send her a selfie anyway. It’s a selfie another friend took of us back in September. I rarely take selfies; and do what with it? I see my face every morning, night, and in between. Later, I figure I probably came up in a conversation and my friend wanted to show a picture, to say this is the person I’m talking about. Usually, people pull up a person’s social media and say, here this person, but I’m not on social media. Maybe not. She texts me afterwards, “I need you to get on social media,” and I reply, “that will never happen,” followed by laughing emojis. I get to thinking. Will I ever get back on social media?

    (more…)
    March 27, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • time spent wandering

    Nothing fun happens on the internet. So, I learn little by little, I get used to getting used to. I get used to spending weekday evenings out because the alternative isn’t social media reels that keep me entertained and feeling connected until I pass out from exhaustion. It’s plenty of time, space, and void; ample, endless, unrelenting. It demands to be filled, with anything, so I learn to find stuff to do, and make the effort to do them; after work, before a workout class, after an evening out and the night is still young. A fitness instructor once told me, you either learn to love the pain or love the result. Can you love both?

    (more…)
    March 20, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • Information killed the cat

    (I hope/ the world loves you today)

    It surprises me how much I know. Maybe it’s years of scrounging the internet for answers. Maybe it was the Media Literacy course in university I paid way too much money for; in fact, I’m still making payments on, and perplexed by infatuation, I barely pay attention but it’s enough to save me later on. Most likely it’s my parents. I hate to admit it, but culture, tradition, way-of-being that dates back thousands of years, it hurts to even fathom it and I run away. It never lets me get away. It knows me better than I know myself. I know it better than I know myself. The internet it too young to understand these things. Even more likely, it’s all the lives I had to live, 13 years there, 5 years here, another 5 years over there, and I think, I didn’t have much say but all the same I had to live it, each of it, one day at a time, year after year, compartmentalized so much, I don’t know what mattered most, what mattered least, what didn’t count for a damn thing. (Ah yeah/ fuck the judge/ I made it past 25)\

    (more…)
    March 14, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • Beyonce vs. ChatGPT

    There are things one can understand without knowing, but I’ll try to explain myself anyway. Here’s a practical tip to start us off with (because I feel I’ve become too sensitive, overly emotional; my curse and blessing, of being a Cancer, being a woman, being this and that [they said it first, I picked it up afterwards]): I use the SelfControl app to block the “internet” on my laptop— the mindless, time-wasting websites— from Monday thru Saturday. On Sundays, I unblock everything for a short period of time; dedicated time for wasting time. It is just as crucial. My phone is dumb and useless at distracting me. You’re welcome?

    (more…)
    March 6, 2023
    digital minimalism

  • A day spent offline: Get curious

    Not long ago, I used to leave the house and go about my day in the wilderness of the city without a phone, without internet, without the ability to reach someone “in case of an emergency.” It was a time before portable internet and smartphones. It’s a funny thing what you can get used to, and forget there ever being a time without: Without smartphones, without internet, without, without, without. It’s not like I haven’t tried to be without since, here and there, but it came out of frustration, annoyance and spite even, of an economy that turned my attention for sale to the highest bidder. I was simply young, idealistic, angry: It passes with time. Lately, through the passage of time and learning it’s mostly inconvenience rather than actual emergency that make connectivity on the go such a necessity, I find myself curious about a day spent offline. In fact, I have learned to love my smartphone and the internet these days,, but something about going out into the world without, when being without seems impossible, out of the question, even transgressive, that piques my interest, my curiosity to unplug.

    (more…)
    February 28, 2023
    digital minimalism

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