Another important element in the conversation I have with my kids includes discussing where these phones come from and where e-waste goes to. A book 'Cobalt Red' looks into the horrific slavery and exploitation that brings us just this one essential rare earth metal. In one passage the author describes the sun going down on a mine and the exhausted workers who mostly have never even seen a cell phone trudging home, and then contrasts with, in North America the sun is just now coming up and many people are reaching for their phones in a world where increasingly they believe that it is not possible to live without one.
I'm not doing justice to this powerful passage, but anyway, the horrors that bring us the ability to afford this technology would disturb us if we knew more about them. The fact is, it is very silly to think that we cannot live without them. We are participating in a temporary delusion of a minority of very rich folks when we accept this as a fact.
I am so happy to see the elements of "unmachining" laid out like this. I think many (most?) people have achieved some level of "Recognize" but don't know how to proceed to "Remove" and "Return."
One thing worth considering, however, is that I don't think you can fully Recognize the actual extent of how tech changes us until you at least get into the Remove stage, and maybe even more into the Return stage. Hence my essay to which you link (thank you!): I thought I knew well how bad constant internet was for me and my family but I actually had no idea of the extent to which it prevented me from experiencing my authentic self.
So those programs or experiments that get people on board for a specific practice or for unplugging for a length of time are more important than they might be if it were relatively easy to come to these conclusions on your own. They will get people to the space where they *can* Recognize fully.
It's kind of like when someone is in a clinical depression. The depression itself prevents that person from recognizing what they need to do to get help and getting them to act upon it. Depression delights ol' Screwtape because he can use it to tell people they aren't really depressed, everybody else is just the problem.
So with phones: the shallowness, emptiness, and distraction we experience keeps us from realizing that our healthy norm is actually *far different* from this, and we need to take action to get back there. We think instead that we are doing fine because we can manage to put the phone away for dinnertime.
Love that Mere Christianity quote. I think the issue with technological progress isn't that progress is bad, but that we no longer think about what kind of progress we want. Progress in the form of greater computing efficiency and power has become the end in itself that we enslave ourselves to, and progress in the form of healed relationships and communities are forgotten in our fever.
I'm not Amish or Mennonite, but there are many in my area and I think they should be recognized as valuable communities to learn from by Christians as a whole. They ask questions most of us don't.
For anyone on the fence about giving up social media, I can say that for my wife and I it was a positive experience. We gave it up years ago and never looked back. I even try to be careful with how I use apps like substack, because I don't want to feed into the negativity I saw in the past.
Yes! Yes! Yes!! To all said in this very well written piece! I thought of quoting you on many great points but feel that I would have ended up quoting the entire article. 😁
What a wonderful resource you've created here Ruth & Peco. I especially love the "Return" graphic you've put together - it creates an empowering future of "having" something, and lessens the focus of only "taking away" a toy that we're all addicted to.
Somewhere humanity did go off course - and I find a trend with wars and the collective trauma societies experienced, with a response to quell their shock with consumerism.
For ex: the Age of Electricity and telegraph began after the Civil War, radio along with WW1, radar with WW2, satellites in the cold war/ vietnam, and 5G in the post 9-11 war of the individual. Anxiety began with Freud and electricity:
Thank you for including me in your resources! I’m honored. This is such an incredible article: I love how simply and profoundly you state the truth about this digital age and its dangers. Whenever I’m tempted to fall back into social media black holes, I reread your work and find renewed conviction!
I appreciate your thoughts here and will have to return to them again when I can read more closely. I find that the process of recognizing is not very flattering. Have been doing a lot of contemplation on the nature of addiction and where those patterns form and how to walk back. I’ve been thinking about tech’s addictive parallels to all sorts of eating disorders. What makes it so incredibly tricky is that complete sobriety is not practical. One needs to eat and exercise in order to be healthy, but taken to extreme it becomes illness. In our current world it is quite impractical to eschew all technology, but how do you interact without being sucked in, especially if you’ve got an area of vulnerability. It’s the nearest parallel I can find. Other addictions are more cut and dry in some ways. An alcoholic has a clear measure of sobriety. So perhaps that means defining “sobriety”. I don’t know. I’m just frustrated with my own patterns and feel that I’m in the “ugh this is worse than I thought and bigger and I’m discouraged” phase. I want to change and also don’t want to at all.
Excellent piece I like the use of the word upheaval. I am not sure how much research you may have done into the geomagnetic shift of earth. The consensus is that it is cyclic about 6,000 12,000 24,000 years. We're admits a 12,000 year shift. There will be much change and a possible end to all technology ( a judgement from the heavens? ) and family and community will be vital. As all my Grandparents said the best family is the one you do not know yet. 🙏
This post has been able to articulate my purpose behind The Endeavor better than I have up to this point. When I started “The Endeavor” I picked that name because it sounded cool and that life is indeed, an Endeavor. But lately I have been thinking to myself, the Endeavor to what? This post has provided clarity. The Endeavor is not the journey away from Digitla Technology. It’s the journey towards embodied, human connection and relationships. You unintentionally provided me with much needed clarity. Thank you!
It’s interesting that all the things discussed here have been echoed for centuries by vipassana meditation. For many however, the overlay of some religious connotations to meditation keeps these ideas hidden from view, especially when Christian cultures feel threatened by heretical viewpoints like vipassana, so it’s understandable. The only reason I bring it up was to mention the strong parallels to your ideas and this type of ancient philosophy. Thank you for your essay!
Another important element in the conversation I have with my kids includes discussing where these phones come from and where e-waste goes to. A book 'Cobalt Red' looks into the horrific slavery and exploitation that brings us just this one essential rare earth metal. In one passage the author describes the sun going down on a mine and the exhausted workers who mostly have never even seen a cell phone trudging home, and then contrasts with, in North America the sun is just now coming up and many people are reaching for their phones in a world where increasingly they believe that it is not possible to live without one.
I'm not doing justice to this powerful passage, but anyway, the horrors that bring us the ability to afford this technology would disturb us if we knew more about them. The fact is, it is very silly to think that we cannot live without them. We are participating in a temporary delusion of a minority of very rich folks when we accept this as a fact.
Clara
I am so happy to see the elements of "unmachining" laid out like this. I think many (most?) people have achieved some level of "Recognize" but don't know how to proceed to "Remove" and "Return."
One thing worth considering, however, is that I don't think you can fully Recognize the actual extent of how tech changes us until you at least get into the Remove stage, and maybe even more into the Return stage. Hence my essay to which you link (thank you!): I thought I knew well how bad constant internet was for me and my family but I actually had no idea of the extent to which it prevented me from experiencing my authentic self.
So those programs or experiments that get people on board for a specific practice or for unplugging for a length of time are more important than they might be if it were relatively easy to come to these conclusions on your own. They will get people to the space where they *can* Recognize fully.
It's kind of like when someone is in a clinical depression. The depression itself prevents that person from recognizing what they need to do to get help and getting them to act upon it. Depression delights ol' Screwtape because he can use it to tell people they aren't really depressed, everybody else is just the problem.
So with phones: the shallowness, emptiness, and distraction we experience keeps us from realizing that our healthy norm is actually *far different* from this, and we need to take action to get back there. We think instead that we are doing fine because we can manage to put the phone away for dinnertime.
Love that Mere Christianity quote. I think the issue with technological progress isn't that progress is bad, but that we no longer think about what kind of progress we want. Progress in the form of greater computing efficiency and power has become the end in itself that we enslave ourselves to, and progress in the form of healed relationships and communities are forgotten in our fever.
I'm not Amish or Mennonite, but there are many in my area and I think they should be recognized as valuable communities to learn from by Christians as a whole. They ask questions most of us don't.
For anyone on the fence about giving up social media, I can say that for my wife and I it was a positive experience. We gave it up years ago and never looked back. I even try to be careful with how I use apps like substack, because I don't want to feed into the negativity I saw in the past.
Yes! Yes! Yes!! To all said in this very well written piece! I thought of quoting you on many great points but feel that I would have ended up quoting the entire article. 😁
What a wonderful resource you've created here Ruth & Peco. I especially love the "Return" graphic you've put together - it creates an empowering future of "having" something, and lessens the focus of only "taking away" a toy that we're all addicted to.
Somewhere humanity did go off course - and I find a trend with wars and the collective trauma societies experienced, with a response to quell their shock with consumerism.
For ex: the Age of Electricity and telegraph began after the Civil War, radio along with WW1, radar with WW2, satellites in the cold war/ vietnam, and 5G in the post 9-11 war of the individual. Anxiety began with Freud and electricity:
https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/hysteria
Thank you for including me in your resources! I’m honored. This is such an incredible article: I love how simply and profoundly you state the truth about this digital age and its dangers. Whenever I’m tempted to fall back into social media black holes, I reread your work and find renewed conviction!
Ruth, I will be putting the 3Rs into conscious effect today with my family- it is time. Thank you for the perspective and link to other resources.
I appreciate your thoughts here and will have to return to them again when I can read more closely. I find that the process of recognizing is not very flattering. Have been doing a lot of contemplation on the nature of addiction and where those patterns form and how to walk back. I’ve been thinking about tech’s addictive parallels to all sorts of eating disorders. What makes it so incredibly tricky is that complete sobriety is not practical. One needs to eat and exercise in order to be healthy, but taken to extreme it becomes illness. In our current world it is quite impractical to eschew all technology, but how do you interact without being sucked in, especially if you’ve got an area of vulnerability. It’s the nearest parallel I can find. Other addictions are more cut and dry in some ways. An alcoholic has a clear measure of sobriety. So perhaps that means defining “sobriety”. I don’t know. I’m just frustrated with my own patterns and feel that I’m in the “ugh this is worse than I thought and bigger and I’m discouraged” phase. I want to change and also don’t want to at all.
Fantastic article. I can't wait to hear more of this insight. God Bless you.
Thank you for this beautiful, meaningful guidepost!
Excellent piece I like the use of the word upheaval. I am not sure how much research you may have done into the geomagnetic shift of earth. The consensus is that it is cyclic about 6,000 12,000 24,000 years. We're admits a 12,000 year shift. There will be much change and a possible end to all technology ( a judgement from the heavens? ) and family and community will be vital. As all my Grandparents said the best family is the one you do not know yet. 🙏
This post has been able to articulate my purpose behind The Endeavor better than I have up to this point. When I started “The Endeavor” I picked that name because it sounded cool and that life is indeed, an Endeavor. But lately I have been thinking to myself, the Endeavor to what? This post has provided clarity. The Endeavor is not the journey away from Digitla Technology. It’s the journey towards embodied, human connection and relationships. You unintentionally provided me with much needed clarity. Thank you!
It’s interesting that all the things discussed here have been echoed for centuries by vipassana meditation. For many however, the overlay of some religious connotations to meditation keeps these ideas hidden from view, especially when Christian cultures feel threatened by heretical viewpoints like vipassana, so it’s understandable. The only reason I bring it up was to mention the strong parallels to your ideas and this type of ancient philosophy. Thank you for your essay!
FYI, you accidentally link to Matthew Crawford here as well: "Katie Marquette experiences travel without phone"
What a thoughtful and, if I may say, magisterial essay! Your contribution will serve as an important resource moving forward.
What a wonderful resource, thank you both so much for putting this together. Truly inspiring – I listened to the post yesterday, and meant to comment.