Why I Traded My Smartphone for an Ax

I notice when I have my phone available, I have a strong inability to nap. I will object in all sorts of ways - usually because I feel like I am not being productive.

Sunday naps, however, are incredible, and being detached for a whole day allows me to get the rest my body actually needs. And I have a ton of clarity returning to work on Monday.

"Tell our readers about a problem facing American society—and, more importantly, how you would fix it. The problem could be technological, cultural, political, or social in nature, or something else entirely. But we are especially interested in problems facing young Americans that older generations have misunderstood, missed, or maybe even created. In 2,000 words or fewer, please illuminate the problem and how your generation might break out of it."

So he wrote about how he was addicted to tech, and what he did to get un-addicted. It seems reasonable.

Learn an instrument, make your own music; read a map, navigate for yourself; don't call people, talk to the people you're with; don't pay for shit, you've got enough of it already. Doing this one day a week sounds like an excellent idea to me, and if it sounds like a hardship to you, perhaps the author made a point.

> I am now going into my junior year at Midland School. Whenever I am home, I find myself on my phone much less, and then only to catch up on my favorite TV shows and to talk to the numerous lifelong friends I have made at school. Midland helped me change how I live my life. I’m no longer dependent on a smartphone.

For another, going entirely without a smartphone for awhile is a completely alien concept to a large segment of the population. Expanding your horizons is rarely a bad thing.

Sharing an experience like this is a great thing.

What would be an acceptable thing to be addicted to, in your opinion?

On the topic of the article, I think the general skill one needs to remain in control of technology is managing context - specifically the ability to keep your own context rather than letting technology define yours for you. An axe is still technology, as is a chainsaw - the key is operating tech so that it serves your own goals, rather than being lured and lulled by it into serving someone else's goals.

Taking on more physical tasks helps expand your context (as per the OP). Having a life and goals outside of computers helps. Setting your own criteria that are contrary to the surveillance industry's siren song helps (eg libre software). Having full-sized input/output devices helps. Having many devices for different purposes such that "time wasting mode" is explicit helps.

The thing I worry about with abstinence based approaches is that they don't teach the skills necessary to moderate your relationship with technology. So even though your context is larger, when you end up entering the technological context (which society will inevitably force you to do for some aspects of your life), you're still completely unprepared.

Looking at Midland's website I see the article's characterization is a bit myopic (there's a picture of a group setting up solar panels, and a picture of someone with a laptop). But I'm speaking more about this general theme of anti-technology that involves romanticizing an axe (seemingly minimum viable technology) rather than say a chainsaw (which gets useful work done without addicting you).

Supposedly the average student receives $48,000 in financial aid, so the average cost per year is $25,900, but that still makes this high school substantially more expensive than a highly prestigious college degree [2].

[0] https://midland-school.org/admissions/affording-midland/

[1] https://studentservices.stanford.edu/my-finances/tuition-fee...

[2]. https://financialaid.stanford.edu/undergrad/how/index.html

Really though, that's unfortunate. It seems like a really great experience but unavailable to most. I wonder what it would take to do this as a summer camp program without the liability of overnights. I would have loved something like this in my teens (also now in my much olders)

My phone is my agency. I use it to access information, and to communicate.

Why on earth would you subject yourself and everyone you know to arbitrary limitations like that?

My mind is plenty free and I use the tool when the circumstances warrant, and not as a mental fidget spinner.

The trick is to not install (m)any apps. There are utility apps like maps/navigation, banking, etc. I use Uber Eats more than I should. But I minimize any social media/infinite scrolling apps. Only recently, I reinstalled WhatsApp because some people didn't know how to reach me, even though my phone number hasn't changed in decades. I presume they upgraded their devices and re-establish their digital contacts but not their 'analog' ones.

I think my daily average screen time is 10 minutes (according to Digital Wellbeing), with less than 10 unlocks. Advantage being that I'm available/able to call somebody in an emergency or I can use the utilities on it when required (maps, translation).