Spend Time Offline
As we have seen in the previous theses, our digital environment:
Regulates our lives towards a smaller number of paths purposely designed by others rather than trails more fortuitous and exploratory.
Builds up a monolithic authentic self rather than a lush set of mutually-enriching contextual identities.
Is heavily focused on categorising people,
Robin Berjon • Retrofuturism
Kyla Scanlon • Language, Loneliness, and AI
Ginevra Davis • I Don’t Want to Be an Internet Person
I remember times when I was perfectly content doing things by myself - no internet required. I used to listen to music in the background, yes, the same CD would play in a loop while I got lost reading, making something, writing something, cleaning or tidying. Now I don’t have a CD player, music has most of the time been replaced by someone
... See moreCharlie Warzel • How to Leave an Internet That’s Always in Crisis
The Elegance of Digital Disappearance
objects tied to purpose - a kitchen for cooking, a bathroom for washing, a living room for reading & socialising - but the internet isn’t an object tied to a purpose; it’s everywhere, and you can’t really turn it off and walk away from it, which is why it’s so hard to disconnect. When the internet was limited to the family computer and you had to
... See moreUnless there’s something specifically about you or your job that requires it, there is nothing to be admired about being constantly connected, constantly potentially productive the second you open your eyes in the morning—and in my opinion, no one should accept this, not now, not ever. In the words of Othello: “Leave me but a little to myself.”
Jenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
As a dutiful member of a fairly soft generation of hyperconnected internet guinea pigs, I've had a fairly up and down history with the assorted feelings of malaise.