Assuming no nuclear wars or whatever, here are my weekend plans…
Teach Aikido
Go to skateboarding event, lunch, and Half Price Books with my wife
Relax
Read
Work on D&D
Take the dog for an excellent walk with my wife
Play D&D
Relax
Read
Work on Traveller
This person is running a website but not on any hosting service.
They have a small computer, in a box, in their garden, running server software and a simple site, powered by solar. Is it on all the time. Well, not necessarily, but it has been doing pretty well.
So, last night. Went home from work. Had a nice conversation and chill with my wife as we discussed some stuff with the sitting next to me.
Then took the dog for a walk.
Then had dinner and helped clean up as we talked.
Then we watched a Rush concert on TV for the rest of the evening. I checked social media on my computer for about 30 minutes, put it away, and spent the rest of the night finishing the book I was reading. That’s it. No more social media.
I am finding, already, that I want to check social media less and less.
Slowing breaking the chains.
Last week I removed all social media from my phone. Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Mastodon, Twitch, Discord. Even my micro.blog app for my skateboarding blog.
Yes, I can still get to all that stuff on my computer, but there is something about removing it from the phone that already feels liberating. Sitting at a computer I can still get to Instagram, but it really doesn’t work well on a computer. So I’m not really using it anymore. I can get to Facebook on a computer even here at work. I never use Discord from a work computer, so removing it from my phone means I’m not really using it much at all.
So at this point I think removing all that shit from my phone has been noticeably positive. I’m not checking social media in waiting rooms, in the restroom, etc. At night, after dinner, I look at it for a little while and then I pick up my Kindle or an actual physical book and read.
I know at least a few of my readers have made this kind of change, or a great change, already. Friends, I am right behind you. I’ll catch up. I’m working on it.
There can be little doubt that the “smart phone” is the worst technology ever invented – until AI. They go hand-in-hand.
Modern idea of prosperity…
Most people can easily afford stuff that doesn’t matter – TVs, phones, games, etc.
They can’t easily afford the things that matter – a home, medical care, healthy food, education.
It’s almost like we are seen as profit centers, not people.