Concrete Lunch

Last week I removed all social media from my phone. Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Mastodon, Twitch, Discord. Even my micro.blog app for my skateboarding blog.

Yes, I can still get to all that stuff on my computer, but there is something about removing it from the phone that already feels liberating. Sitting at a computer I can still get to Instagram, but it really doesn’t work well on a computer. So I’m not really using it anymore. I can get to Facebook on a computer even here at work. I never use Discord from a work computer, so removing it from my phone means I’m not really using it much at all.

So at this point I think removing all that shit from my phone has been noticeably positive. I’m not checking social media in waiting rooms, in the restroom, etc. At night, after dinner, I look at it for a little while and then I pick up my Kindle or an actual physical book and read.

I know at least a few of my readers have made this kind of change, or a great change, already. Friends, I am right behind you. I’ll catch up. I’m working on it.

There can be little doubt that the “smart phone” is the worst technology ever invented – until AI. They go hand-in-hand.

We have a Nintendo Switch, so obviously we also have a subscription to whatever their service is (ugh – another damned subscription to cancel). Therefore, I am on their mailing list.

Last week I got an email with the subject line “Bring your games with you, anywhere you go”, and the attached image…

After spending a lot of time thinking about current and future technology use, the way online activity interferes with concentrating on more valuable activities (like reading, writing, skateboarding, the list goes on), I couldn’t help be think when I saw this email “Why is it good that people can take video games with them anywhere? Is it good? Is it desireable?”

Like the cursed cellphone, I think this kind of thing isn’t really good. I know it sounds like I just don’t like video games, and that is partially true. I’m not into them really, so I don’t really value them much. I understand, however, that they are entertainment and people like them so I’m not voicing this opinion just to crap on someone else’s fun.

A book is portable too. Why do I view that differently? Well, I think reading is a better thing to do when I’m sitting in a waiting room than playing a video game. Making video games portable is an example of what my niece calls “the Poison of Convenience.” It’s also a way of keeping people jacked-into the content machine and reinforcing the digital addition. It’s not even a conspiracy. It’s just Capitalism doing what Capitalism does, extracting value from the humans and nature.

The same goes for the damned cellphone. Harvesting your attention and the irreplaceable and valuable moments of your life to sell another product.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t play video games. I think video games can be amazing and fun entertainment. I’m talking about our ability to disconnect and be alone with the wonder and the horror of our own thoughts, in silence. The power to concentrate on something like a book, or sit and listen to music with no other sensory input.

I like having my Kindle with me at all times. I keep it in my backpack, along with some pens and a couple of notebooks. I like to write in journals. Before the Kindle I would usually have a physical book in there. Sometimes I’ll throw this Chromebook I’m typing on now in there too. But again – what do I really want to carry with me? Isn’t a book enough? At least the Kindle, while it can get on the web, makes it hard to do so.

Anyway, yeah, been considering how much portability is too much.