Getting offline / searching for stillness / in-person as premium
Having convinced a lot of us that we don’t want to go out and have unmediated contact with other people, Silicon Valley is now telling us we do not want to do our own thinking, creating or communicating with other humans.
What technology takes from us – and how to take it back | Rebecca Solnit
I’ve been flying internationally and locally for fifty-five years and it has never been safer, as convenient, and inexpensive as now. A lot of what gets thrown into the “it all currently sucks” label is that a lot more people are doing it, including the plebes, so everything is more crowded.... See more
The process all works rather smoothly though, until it
Is it Really So Much Better Now?
We want connection. We are social animals. The “personal connective tissue” is gone. So much of the modern world makes you feel like a widget on a conveyor belt, as our fetishisation of efficiency has begun to corrode our souls. We have offshored the personal, and people, a deeply social animal, aren’t built for that.
Arthur C. Brooks writes that the drive to feel important often breeds anxiety, while relief comes from recognizing ourselves as part of something much larger. His argument affirms what nature makes clear: Value is not derived from scale . We are participants in a universe more vast than ourselves, whether or not we are central to it.
We are... See more
We are... See more
Embracing the Beauty of Insignificance | Atmos
The problem with modern technology isn’t that it exists, but in how we use it, especially in highly individualistic societies such as the US, which is to go off on our own, into even more solitary lives, removed from community. It is an accelerator of an already existing problem. You can see that in Asian societies with a long-standing cultural... See more
Modern life is good actually
Technology is not the issue. It’s how we use it. Ask most people and they want more tech, not less. It’s only the elites that want less.
It is in Weber’s language, disenchanting, and I agree with the critics of modernity that a fulfilling life requires enchantment.
Is it Really So Much Better Now?
The solution to technology is not more technology. The solution to loneliness is each other, a wealth that should be available to most of us most of the time. We need to rebuild or reinvent the ways and places in which we meet; we need to recognise them as the space of democracy, of joy, of connection, of love, of trust. Technology has stolen us... See more
What technology takes from us – and how to take it back | Rebecca Solnit
We are social animals who need to be with other humans, whether it’s at a carnival or funeral or the ordinary times in between. There is a sense of belonging that goes deeper than words when we are with people who care about us, and even more so when we are in alignment, whether it’s two people falling into step on a walk or a dozen dancing... See more
What technology takes from us – and how to take it back | Rebecca Solnit
We have a culture of hyper efficiency and efficiency isn’t the only metric of a fulfilling life. While you can choose to opt out from a lot of it, certainly from ordering food online, you can’t so easily, or at all, from other essential parts of life — like medicine, work, education, and even finding a partner in life.
Cultures, even those with... See more
Cultures, even those with... See more