Technology Manifesto:
"The more people stared at their phones, the more money these companies made. Period. The people in Silicon Valley did not want to design gadgets and websites that would dissolve people’s attention spans. They’re not the Joker, trying to sow chaos and make us dumb. They spend a lot of their own time meditating and doing yoga. They often ban their own kids from using the sites and gadgets they design, and send them instead to tech-free Montessori schools. But their business model can only succeed if they take steps to dominate the attention spans of the wider society. It’s not their goal, any more than ExxonMobil deliberately wants to melt the Arctic. But it’s an inescapable effect of their current business model.”
“The truth is that you are living in a system that is pouring acid on your attention every day, and then you are being told to blame yourself and to fiddle with your own habits while the world’s attention burns.”
Johann Hari from Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again
PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY MANIFESTO
Computer: I have an older refurbished MacBook Air. I do not download any extra apps onto it, I only use what it came with. I use the computer mainly for blogging, personal accounting, journaling, writing, storing documents and pictures. I do not set any daily times limits as long as I am being constructive or creative while using it. I turn the computer off and I do not use it at all from Saturday morning until Tuesday morning.
Watch: I have a Garmin Forerunner. I hike a lot and like to track my miles. I also like to check my step count. And track my runs and bike rides. I don't have notifications on my watch or anything else that would be related to my phone like weather or music.
YouTube: I watch YouTube only on my computer and never on my phone. I have turned off all of the settings that allow for tracking and suggestions. I have turned off the autoplay feature. I do not "like" or "dislike" videos. I do not want to feed the algorithm. I block all channels that pop up that are "polarizing" either to the left or to the right.
I want to watch the videos that I want to watch and not the one's that any algorithm suggests. I am only subscribed to four channels because I want to see all of the videos that they post. Yoga With Adriene, Cozy Plant Lady, Reflections of Life, and my friend's channel. I sometimes watch how-to videos when I need to fix something. I recently fixed the toilet after watching a YouTube video. I also very rarely post videos, usually they are videos that I want to save or videos that I want to share with someone in particular but are too large to share via text. I'm not trying to get views or likes or followers.
I used to watch way too much YouTube and I would go down all sorts of rabbits holes. I would lose hours, if not days. After changing my settings I no longer do that, I watch what I want to watch and then I stop.
News: If there is a certain news story that I want to read more about I will google that specifically; only on my computer as I never read or listen to or look at news on my phone. I read the local daily paper. I listen to NPR on the radio. I am not subscribed to any news media. I prefer to read articles by the AP, BBC, and NPR. I avoid many mainstream news outlets but sometimes I will read Fox news articles so I can see how they are presenting the story. I am liberal and like to hear the conservative viewpoint. I want to understand even if I don't agree.
Social Media: Instagram is the only social media account that I have ever had. I have never had and will never have any other social media account. Period.
I have had an Instagram account since 2014. I always start out with the same intentions. I set my account on private, disable like counts, only follow friends and family, only post pictures that make me happy, never push the magnifying glass icon and have a 5 minute per day time limit set...
However, it never works out and I always get sucked in. Rabbit Holes. I can get lost for hours; literally watching cat videos. I deactivated my account 5 days ago and I've deactivated it before. I always start with a 30 day social media detox but end up feeling so happy after the 30 days that I usually don't turn it back on for much longer than that. At one point I had it deactivated for 2 years, then pandemic. Usually I start to think that I am missing out, FOMO, and I turn it back on. And I always have good intentions and I set my rules and they work for a little while and then quite suddenly the rules don't work anymore. And I feel overwhelmed and I'm always distracting myself and not getting things done and not reading books and not being creative and not going for walks or doing yoga THEN I deactivate it again. And again.
Blogger: My blog is my creative outlet. It is where I share my writings, photography, and occasionally videos and drawings. One day I would like to learn watercolor painting and share that on my blog. I am also learning the djembe, maybe one day I will post the music that I make as well.
Cell Phone: I have an iPhone SE which is a basically an iPod that is a phone. I've never had any other iPhone so I don't know anything about the fancy features. I really like using my phone to take pictures but I think that may tie me to my phone in a way that is detrimental so I am thinking about getting a pocket digital camera. So as part of my technology manifesto that is currently in the consideration process.
Kindle: I have a kindle to read books. Enough said.
On my iPhone I have two folders of apps: Growth and Stuff.
In my Growth folder I have the Clock, Insight Timer Meditation, Garmin, Podcasts, iBooks, Audible, Good Reads, All Trails, Voice Memos, and Neorythm.
In the Stuff folder I have notes, weather, maps, two banking apps, car insurance app, airline apps, uber, and an app to pay the rent.
Also on my main screen I have my music app and a calendar app. I try to keep it very simple and uninviting. I've never played a game on my phone. I keep the Safari app off of the main screen. My only rules with Safari are: I have a one hour screen time limit set on the app and I never google medical symptoms. I have had google-itis before and it is not fun.
For my wallpapers I have cute family pictures that I change often on the lock screen and on the main screen I have my phone rules:
Do Not Disturb: 7pm - 7am
Sunday Sabbath
No News
No YouTube
Instagram = 5 min
I put my phone in a KSafe for two hours a day (I actually have two safes, one for the tv power cord and one for my phone). I usually put the phone in the safe for two hours in the afternoon as that is usually when I feel low and scroll for no reason. When I put the phone in the safe it motivates me to go for a walk or read a book or clean the house or do yoga or take a nap. All the things that get skipped if I end up mindlessly scrolling.
Sunday Sabbath = When I get up on Sunday morning I check my phone and do my Insight Timer meditations then I put it on Do Not Disturb on leave it on the charger until Monday morning.
I have all of the notifications on my phone turned off except for calls and texts. For calls and texts I have simple quiet dings. I have vibrations and haptics turned off. I have "dark mode" set on my phone. I have a goal of 1.5 hours or less of screen time every day. I have cellular data turned off for everything except for calls, texts, facetime, maps, and weather.
Most of my screen time on my phone is spent texting. That doesn't bother me too much except when there are so many texts that it distracts me. I mainly like to send out thoughtful lengthy texts to my far-away friends/family first thing in the morning. And just wait until the next day to reply. I do especially like getting baby pics from my brother; he can send those all day. And texting my husband throughout the day, "how are you" and "what sounds tasty for dinner".
I try to make old fashioned phone calls a couple of times a week; just to stay in touch with people. I move a lot and do not have many people locally that I am close to.
Email: I only have one email account. I don't have the app for it so I have to login on Safari. I have a 2 minute time limit set on my iPhone for the website. And I occasionally check it when I'm on my computer. I unsubscribe from everything I don't need immediately. Rule: If I don't have time to unsubscribe from emails then I don't have time to check my email.
Charging Station: I have a charging station set up in the entry way of the house. Phones, computer, watches, and anything else that needs charging is set there. That is where the Ksafes are. No electronics are ever allowed in the bedroom, I have an old fashioned alarm clock and my husband uses the alarm feature on his watch. No phones at the dinner table either.
Why so many rules; why so much thought? Because I don't want to get lost. Because I don't want to give away the only real thing that I have; which is time. I want to be here NOW. I want to do the things that make me happy. I want to go to bed at night and not feel like I wasted my day or my life. I don't want to distract myself from reality even, and especially, when reality is hard. If it is time to be happy then I want to feel that fully. And, if it is time to grieve or be sad then I want to feel that fully too. And I know that technology is addictive and it is distracting. It is designed that way by the same people that design slot machines. I have watched myself and the people I love fall into the abyss of screens. I want to be able to think clearly and creatively. Sometimes I think that I would love to just get rid of it all, but would I? I listened to my favorite song yesterday on my walk, my brother sent a picture of my niece first thing this morning, I'm sitting here typing this and feeling happy and like I'm in the flow state, and I'm looking forward to watching a couple of movies tonight with my husband (yes, today is Saturday). All I know for sure is that technology has made me happy just as much as it has made me unhappy. And, now, I would like to tip the scales in the favor of happiness. And use the amazing inventions for the gifts that they are; not like the addictive monsters that they can be. One day I will die and I know that I will not be amused by all of the hours that I wasted staring at screens; I will wish that I had instead gone for a walk or written a poem or cuddled with my husband more.
“To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external circumstances.”
~Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi~
“Choose your intention carefully and then practice holding your consciousness to it, so it becomes the guiding light in your life.”
“Lessons on balance.
1. The relentless pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain leads to pain.
2. Recovery begins with abstinence
3. Abstinence resets the brains reward pathway and with it our capacity to feel joy and simple pleasures.
4. Self-binding creates literal and metacognitive space between desire and consumption; a modern necessity in our dopamine overloaded world.
5. Medications can restore homeostasis but consider what we lose by medicating away our pain.
6. Pressing on the pain side resets our balance to the side of pleasure.
7. Beware of getting addicted to pain.
8. Radical honesty promotes awareness, enhances intimacy, and fosters a plenty mindset.
9. Prosocial shame affirms that we belong to the human tribe.
10. Instead of running away from the world we can find balance by immersing ourselves in it.”
Anna Lembke from the book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
