Thoughts and writings 🕮

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

I haven't made a proper blog system yet. For now, miscellaneous writings are collected on a single page.

My relationship with technology

As a teenager, I was excited about new technology. I was always looking forward to using the latest new thing! I don't think that's true anymore. As I've been slowly trying to organise my life over the last few years, I keep finding ways in which they're holding me back. In general, I still believe in the project of improving our quality of life through technology, and I'd probably still call myself a futurist; my issue is with the way it's implemented in society, never the innovation itself. Computers and the internet still hold a vital place in my life, and they can still help me, but I'm having to filter out all the sources of attentional capture to make them work for me. There is an intentionality to my choice of technology now, so maybe that's just part of growing up?

I apply high- or low-tech solutions varyingly throughout my life:

• Phone 🖁 I use a flip phone to reduce distractions, but it's not exactly old tech as it runs a locked-down version of android. This allows me to sideload what I need, but using apps is clunky and discourages me from spending too much time on my phone.
• Maps 🗺 I've gone back on this one, I pretty much only use paper maps. I live in a small city that I know quite well, and over time my navigation skills have massively improved. It's given me a sense of relative distance, but when I used digital maps I would just aimlessly track from A to B like in that one Doctor Who episode.
• Music & TV 📾 "I stream nothing, and I am happy." Ever since I set up my own media server, I haven't really needed streaming services, particularly for music where I get everything by ripping CDs or downloading FLACs from the internet. I don't even really need the server for that as it all fits on a 128GB SD card on my phone - now that is a helpful modern technology!