The smartphone is one of the greatest inventions of our time. It provides 24/7/365 access to the Internet, allowing you to connect with people from across the globe, get directions to any place, and access vast entertainment options— all while fitting in the palm of your hand.
Unfortunately, the smartphone can also be a bottomless, endless, inexhaustible distraction tool.
(more…)Three weeks ago, I wanted to grow up.
A while back, I turned my iPhone into a dumb phone. I had no access to Internet browsing or app downloading. I have been using this method over the years to wean myself off of smartphone addiction. It works. Out of sight, out of mind. It feels better too.
But a few weeks ago, I thought it was time to grow up and get my smart smartphone back. Everyone else is doing just fine with a fully functioning smartphone, so why not me, I thought. Just put the phone down, right?
Wrong.
(more…)You live.
Saturday. It’s 1 in the morning, cold with light snow covering the ground. My ex and I have just returned from a super fun party a bit early, and I’m sober. We bundle up to go for a walk. No, we’re not crazy. I live for challenges, and I need to go on this walk.
We walk downtown. As we’re crossing at an intersection- cars approaching in the far distance- my ex turns to me and asks if I want to lie down in the middle of the road. I do, so we do. It’s quiet. Peaceful. I feel the vibration of the cars approaching in the far distance. A very new feeling. We get up a few seconds later. We keep walking.
(more…)“How are things in America?” my mother, who lives in Canada, asks me; just like she does each time we talk on the phone. By things she means COVID numbers. I tell her, like I always do, I don’t know, I don’t watch the news.
She laughs and tells me my aunt, who lives in Ethiopia, has been telling her about the millions of COVID cases being reported in America. “The news finds you even from Ethiopia,” she laughs again.
I quit the news in 2016. The news still finds me.
(more…)After years of effort to spend less time online, and an intense loathing for the digital world, I still remain entranced by its trappings of entertainment, novelty, and escape.
The Internet hasn’t been enjoyable since 2016. It’s as if somebody programmed it with a set of scripts, on repeat on an endless loop, and forgot the code to make changes. It’s been the same ol’ mind-numbingly boring storyline for years now, and yet I can’t look away. I can’t resist the Internet.
(more…)There are a million and one reasons to spend less time online.
The more one learns about the attention economy and its psychological and social consequences, quitting social media or switching to a flip phone seems the most obvious course of action. And we should all consider getting off social media and making phone calls important again.
That’d be the easiest part, anyway.
(more…)You win some. You lose some.
Five ways I spent less time online in 2021.
After three glorious years without social media, and seven years away from those IG streets, I signed up for Instagram in mid-2020. Why? To share the most important message of our time: Unplug and spend less time online. Instagram won. I was spending way too much time on the app, trapped in a vicious cycle of mindless scrolling. #Fail.
Instagram: 1
Me: 0
(It will make sense)
I had a thought recently: where did everyone go?
I laughed because, living in a big city, I’m constantly surrounded by people. Spending so much time around way too many people, how could I still be longing for, craving, wanting for human connection? A small talk about the weather, a chat about grocery prices at the store, a quick vent session about life at the train station? It used to be.
The answer came to me just as quickly: Everyone is here, online; talking about the weather, complaining about grocery prices, and venting about life on the world wide web.
I’m just not here. And it sucks.
The loneliest place has billions of people on it.
The loneliest place promises to connect us with these billions of people worldwide, at any given time of the day.
The loneliest place is where we spend the majority of our time.
The loneliest place is full of noise, chats, arguments.
The loneliest place is supposed to make us feel less lonely.
Not long ago, I used to spend a lot of my time at the loneliest place; engrossed, addicted, alone.
(more…)
Quick question: pro or anti-vax?
Pause.
Pay attention to the feelings that questions arises within you.
Anyway.
This isn’t a post about wrong opinions on the internet. After all, someone, somewhere is always wrong on the internet.
Instead, it’s about what one can do when someone is wrong on the internet.
(more…)An experience for one: experiencing something, a moment, a thing, an event, without the need to capture, share, or post about it online.
The idea occurred to me while at a cottage enjoying the beautiful view of the lake. I should take a picture, I think; maybe share it on my blog, or on instagram, or you know, for memory sake. The last part is a lie: I got over 10,700 pictures in my camera roll that I rarely, if ever, look at to confirm.
But, I decide against it. This is an experience just for me, I think, and enjoy the view, the moment, the feeling. It’s all good.
(more…)
ምሕረት ብሩክ 