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.
Thanks Clara - That is an important element to add. The price of our conveniences is paid not only through the distortion of our relationships to reality, but also by those who slave to produce this technology.
Thanks for sharing this book - teaching our children about these topics makes them not only appreciate the environment as a whole but also understand how much is needed to make these unsustainable devices.
Blue light of the morning Sun is our greatest dose of dopamine in the morning, rather than the artificial blue light of our phones:
Interesting link. I do see the sunrise but where I live it is behind trees and neighbors house and I can't actually stand in the light until later, when it is higher up. My family did a project last year where we shut off the electric panel on fridays. We called it Fridays for the future (spoof on Greta's movement). We used the woodstove to cook and candles for light. It really made us more aware of many of the things mentioned in your article. Of course, to change our lives it would have to extend beyond once a week.
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.
Yes, that is an excellent point Dixie! The Removal and Recognize seem to be reciprocal steps, as one is needed to prompt the other. I very much appreciated your post on "unplugging" and the feeling of "waking up to a self I thought was no longer there". When observing scenes like the one I described by the bus stop, I feel that people are deeply mesmerized, not realizing that their true identity is being eaten up by their digital selves. Will keep your point in mind...
Yes, that was the most surprising part of the experience for me, that waking up. I thought that I was already awake (especially when not on my phone for a few hours). Not so.
I'm glad you liked it! I look forward to continuing on in this discussion.
Depression makes sense as well since blue light shifts prohormones like pregnenolone, which create other hormones like growth hormone, to cortisol (stress) instead:
Fascinating! Yes, I'm convinced that the blue light itself does indeed create problems, as your article seems to show (will have to go back and read the whole thing)!
But I wasn't really trying to say being over-teched causes depression (although indeed, I think it is clear that it does!), but rather than it is like depression. The thing itself -- whether depression or tech addiction/overreliance -- is characterized by a difficulty to see beyond it. So you can't get out.
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, it is a strikingly fitting quote. I agree with your point "we no longer think about what kind of progress we want". Most of us are being swept along on the digital wave, merely because it is so ubiquitous and mostly unquestioned. The more we question "norms" around tech the sooner we can begin to make deliberate decisions that help us stay firmly rooted in reality. And I also agree with your note about being careful with substack - it is a powerful social media app, in many ways more potent than others exactly because it draws deeper engagement.
I agree. Substack is the only social media I’ve used, and even here, amid generally civil company and intelligent conversation, it can have entangling effects on the mind.
I'm three years free from social media! I recognized within a few days of quitting that it had become an addiction. Just by the amount of times I picked my phone. After two weeks off social media, I knew I wouldn't turn back. I was free. Now to tackle the "Remove" phase...
That is great to hear! It's interesting that when stepping away from social media we feel "free", which shows how captured we feel when our minds are entangled in it. Seems like you have already completed a major -and likely the most pernicious - part of the "remove" phase. All the best:)
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:
Thanks Roman! I was trying to visualize a return without just listing it with words. This painting by van Gogh has been meaningful to me since my teen years, and captures that all of these changes will need to start with small seeds and hard work.
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!
Well, the encouragement is mutual. I think your multi-generational homestead is inspiring and hope the mention will serve to encourage others to consider the value of living together with parents and even grandparents :)
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.
That is well put Anneliese, "not very flattering". You can include me in this. I love conversations and interactions, and chatting on substack is engaging; yet it is not the real thing. I thus left Notes. All that remains is comment sections, that I use in the mornings, but even so I still feel an unnecessary pull. I find that I have to draw myself a line and commit so that I can be a believable example for my children. In order for this to work I have to put my laptop away in my husband's office. If I had a cell phone I would switch to a flip phone so that I would not have to battle to constant temptation. As long as there is wifi on a portable digital device and it is in reach, it is unreasonable to expect that we can simply resist, otherwise the discouragement is continuous.
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!
Yes, I think giving priority to relationships, in the ways we talked about in the article, is not really new, yet easily overlooked. Relationships can be hard. Material things are comparatively easy.
In the app, when you are looking at a post, there is a play button at the top right – if you tap that, it will usually play as text to voice conversion. It doesn’t work for all Substacks but I find it works for the majority – I still have to record mine if I want to voice version though. That said, given everything you both discuss, there is obviously an irony here, which has made me stop and think about using the feature and what I miss in so doing! Most times I will read posts, but when I am doing things, I like to listen to newsletters (like an audiobook or podcast). It’s obviously completely different when the author records a VoiceOver version (which I’m sure you know you have the option to do). Happy Sunday to you both!
I didn't realize that function existed. I thought there was only a voice option for those authors who actually record it. We have mused that it might be interesting to do a conversation-type post (sometimes our dinner table sounds like a live substack discussion, with our kids chiming in their views as well). Will reflect on the voice option. Thanks Jenni :)
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
Thanks Clara - That is an important element to add. The price of our conveniences is paid not only through the distortion of our relationships to reality, but also by those who slave to produce this technology.
Thanks for sharing this book - teaching our children about these topics makes them not only appreciate the environment as a whole but also understand how much is needed to make these unsustainable devices.
Blue light of the morning Sun is our greatest dose of dopamine in the morning, rather than the artificial blue light of our phones:
https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/lightpyramid
Do you see the Sunrise often?
Interesting link. I do see the sunrise but where I live it is behind trees and neighbors house and I can't actually stand in the light until later, when it is higher up. My family did a project last year where we shut off the electric panel on fridays. We called it Fridays for the future (spoof on Greta's movement). We used the woodstove to cook and candles for light. It really made us more aware of many of the things mentioned in your article. Of course, to change our lives it would have to extend beyond once a week.
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.
Yes, that is an excellent point Dixie! The Removal and Recognize seem to be reciprocal steps, as one is needed to prompt the other. I very much appreciated your post on "unplugging" and the feeling of "waking up to a self I thought was no longer there". When observing scenes like the one I described by the bus stop, I feel that people are deeply mesmerized, not realizing that their true identity is being eaten up by their digital selves. Will keep your point in mind...
Yes, that was the most surprising part of the experience for me, that waking up. I thought that I was already awake (especially when not on my phone for a few hours). Not so.
I'm glad you liked it! I look forward to continuing on in this discussion.
It's the electronic version of 'soma' from Brave New World 😔
Depression makes sense as well since blue light shifts prohormones like pregnenolone, which create other hormones like growth hormone, to cortisol (stress) instead:
https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/the-1-emf-youve-forgotten-about
Fascinating! Yes, I'm convinced that the blue light itself does indeed create problems, as your article seems to show (will have to go back and read the whole thing)!
But I wasn't really trying to say being over-teched causes depression (although indeed, I think it is clear that it does!), but rather than it is like depression. The thing itself -- whether depression or tech addiction/overreliance -- is characterized by a difficulty to see beyond it. So you can't get out.
What a mess, right?
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, it is a strikingly fitting quote. I agree with your point "we no longer think about what kind of progress we want". Most of us are being swept along on the digital wave, merely because it is so ubiquitous and mostly unquestioned. The more we question "norms" around tech the sooner we can begin to make deliberate decisions that help us stay firmly rooted in reality. And I also agree with your note about being careful with substack - it is a powerful social media app, in many ways more potent than others exactly because it draws deeper engagement.
I agree. Substack is the only social media I’ve used, and even here, amid generally civil company and intelligent conversation, it can have entangling effects on the mind.
I'm three years free from social media! I recognized within a few days of quitting that it had become an addiction. Just by the amount of times I picked my phone. After two weeks off social media, I knew I wouldn't turn back. I was free. Now to tackle the "Remove" phase...
That is great to hear! It's interesting that when stepping away from social media we feel "free", which shows how captured we feel when our minds are entangled in it. Seems like you have already completed a major -and likely the most pernicious - part of the "remove" phase. All the best:)
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. 😁
Thanks for taking the time to read it Tanya - we decided that even though it was long, it should all be said in a single, coherent piece.
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
Thanks Roman! I was trying to visualize a return without just listing it with words. This painting by van Gogh has been meaningful to me since my teen years, and captures that all of these changes will need to start with small seeds and hard work.
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!
Well, the encouragement is mutual. I think your multi-generational homestead is inspiring and hope the mention will serve to encourage others to consider the value of living together with parents and even grandparents :)
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.
Wonderful that you found encouragement. Changes take time and patience, but we can start taking steps in the right direction anytime :)
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.
"...not very flattering." Exactly. It is unpleasant and reflects poorly on us. It's hard.
That is well put Anneliese, "not very flattering". You can include me in this. I love conversations and interactions, and chatting on substack is engaging; yet it is not the real thing. I thus left Notes. All that remains is comment sections, that I use in the mornings, but even so I still feel an unnecessary pull. I find that I have to draw myself a line and commit so that I can be a believable example for my children. In order for this to work I have to put my laptop away in my husband's office. If I had a cell phone I would switch to a flip phone so that I would not have to battle to constant temptation. As long as there is wifi on a portable digital device and it is in reach, it is unreasonable to expect that we can simply resist, otherwise the discouragement is continuous.
Fantastic article. I can't wait to hear more of this insight. God Bless you.
I'm impressed that you would like to hear more after such a long read! But believe it or not, we tried to keep it short....
I'm a sucker for good literature
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!
Happy to have provided unintentional clarity :) All the best in your continued journey on the Endeavor!
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!
Yes, I think giving priority to relationships, in the ways we talked about in the article, is not really new, yet easily overlooked. Relationships can be hard. Material things are comparatively easy.
FYI, you accidentally link to Matthew Crawford here as well: "Katie Marquette experiences travel without phone"
Thanks so much for pointing this out! Fixed:)
What a thoughtful and, if I may say, magisterial essay! Your contribution will serve as an important resource moving forward.
Thanks Vincent - very generous:) Glad you found it helpful, and thank you also for the mention on your recent post!
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.
You are very welcome Jenni :) Happy that you found it inspiring, and even even listened to it! (what function did you use for this?)
In the app, when you are looking at a post, there is a play button at the top right – if you tap that, it will usually play as text to voice conversion. It doesn’t work for all Substacks but I find it works for the majority – I still have to record mine if I want to voice version though. That said, given everything you both discuss, there is obviously an irony here, which has made me stop and think about using the feature and what I miss in so doing! Most times I will read posts, but when I am doing things, I like to listen to newsletters (like an audiobook or podcast). It’s obviously completely different when the author records a VoiceOver version (which I’m sure you know you have the option to do). Happy Sunday to you both!
I didn't realize that function existed. I thought there was only a voice option for those authors who actually record it. We have mused that it might be interesting to do a conversation-type post (sometimes our dinner table sounds like a live substack discussion, with our kids chiming in their views as well). Will reflect on the voice option. Thanks Jenni :)
Oh, excellent idea - I for one (and I'm sure others, too!) would LOVE that! And all the better for IRL family sounds and input! :)