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Why I Traded My Smartphone for an Ax
- appplication 3y agoMidland is a pretty interesting concept. I could see why the kids seem to value it so much. I often think about how I don’t think I would have survived today’s social media environment were of around when I was a kid.
- opwieurposiu 3y agoThis kid can really write. Clearly he learned more then just how to chop wood.
- dwaltrip 3y agoI consider myself a half-decent writer. I remember looking back at some of my old high-school essays, and they were hot trash. Kudos to this kid.
- morelisp 3y ago[flagged]
- jazzyjackson 3y agowow I didn't click on that before you mentioned it, Grimes vs Anna Khachiyan moderated by Beri Weiss with special guest Tim Dillon lmao what an event I don't see what's grifty about it, all these people have fans who will pay to hear a conversation about the sexual revolution and is anyone who doubts that social media is a net positive suddenly right wing? I don't get your take at all
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- joenot443 3y agoSearching for an entirely unrelated reason to hate on an article written by a teenager is pure left-wing brain rot. Chef's kiss. Is the world not an incredibly exhausting place when seen through such a boring and cynical lens?
- hooverd 3y agothe article is fine. it just goes against their business model of drumming up outrage. so it's ironic. Nobody would know Anna or Bari if they took their own advice.
- appplication 3y agoI’m with you there. As someone who is pretty liberal, yeah it is exhausting. I get why people find it important to talk about all these things, but it really never stops. There can be a battle but you don’t need to be on the frontlines at all times. It is completely draining when every action can and will be scrutinized through some lens of ulterior motive, implicit violence or structural wrongdoing. Every wrong or misstep also does not warrant a public call to action and mass response. All said: it was a well written article and it’s not topical to bring up unrelated content on the site.
- morelisp 3y ago> it was a well written article Buddy, it is a combination of an ad and thinly-veiled trad agitprop.
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- klyrs 3y agoA broken clock is right twice a day. One can be opposed to right-wing whatever and still appreciate this student's writing and the notion of a technological shabbat.
- cousin_it 3y agoI used to carry a feature phone many years ago. When smartphones appeared, I switched to not carrying any phone at all. (I do have a very old smartphone, which mostly sits at home turned off. Sometimes I turn it on to receive a payment notification or something like that.) This way, at least when I'm outside or hanging out with people, my mind is free. Though my laptop still eats a lot of my time when I'm at home. Maybe it'd be better with an e-ink laptop.
- sw104 3y agoIs it really that hard to have a smartphone and just not install addictive/time-wasting apps on it? I think my daily average screen time is 10 minutes (according to Digital Wellbeing), with less than 10 unlocks. Advantage being that I'm available/able to call somebody in an emergency or I can use the utilities on it when required (maps, translation).
- pg5 3y agoDo you live in an area with great public transportation? My phone is a necessity driving anywhere unless I want to take twice as long due to random spots of traffic.
- lambic 3y agoI find my phone even more important using public transport, checking schedules and figuring out which buses and trains I need to get for my destination.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoGoogle Maps is good for that on my phone, in my area. The transit provider also recently introduced mobile fares, so sometimes I use my phone to board (QR-based.) Unfortunately, there is another fare overhaul coming, whereby they will make fares account-based prepaid, and mobile fares will be mutually exclusive with the linked NFC card option. So unfortunately I will need to ditch the mobile fares entirely, because I do not wish to be constantly tethered to my mandatory smartphone if I simply wish to ride a bus somewhere.
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- rubidium 3y agoI’ve adopted a concept in the article of a “sabbath” from my smartphone. It stays plugged into its charger one day a week. I’ve found it to be quite refreshing.
- ar_lan 3y agoMy wife and I are Christian and do honor the Sabbath. In practice, one of the things we do for this is to deload from our Smartphones (and really, all screens) every Sunday. I notice when I have my phone available, I have a strong inability to nap. I will object in all sorts of ways - usually because I feel like I am not being productive. Sunday naps, however, are incredible, and being detached for a whole day allows me to get the rest my body actually needs. And I have a ton of clarity returning to work on Monday.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- omega___ 3y agoI don't quite get it - is the author really expecting people addicted like him to fortnight, of all things, to read self-help articles online? The issue isn't with having a smartphone, but being addicted to apps on it. Having a smartphone and watching TikTok 12 hours/day on it is nowhere near having a smartphone and using it to listen to music, check public transport schedule, call people, use it as GPS or to pay for things, etc.
- klyrs 3y agoI didn't see the author expect a damned thing. He said he's personally seen the light and thinks that others would benefit from occasionally putting down the technology and having immersive real-world experiences. Learn an instrument, make your own music; read a map, navigate for yourself; don't call people, talk to the people you're with; don't pay for shit, you've got enough of it already. Doing this one day a week sounds like an excellent idea to me, and if it sounds like a hardship to you, perhaps the author made a point.
- googlryas 3y agoIt's an entry for a high school essay contest run by the site, with the prompt "Tell our readers about a problem facing American society—and, more importantly, how you would fix it. The problem could be technological, cultural, political, or social in nature, or something else entirely. But we are especially interested in problems facing young Americans that older generations have misunderstood, missed, or maybe even created. In 2,000 words or fewer, please illuminate the problem and how your generation might break out of it." So he wrote about how he was addicted to tech, and what he did to get un-addicted. It seems reasonable.
- amflare 3y agoIts an entry to an essay contest. He probably didn't expect more than the judges and probably his mother to read it.
- deadbeeves 3y agoOkay, but it's posted here, so the GP's reaction is not unwarranted. If it was not meant to be seen by anyone other than those people then it shouldn't have been posted.
- grouchomarx 3y agoTuition at Midland is listed at $73,000 for the 23-24 school year
- distortionfield 3y agoYou have to do your own chores and pay that much? A resounding fuck that lol.
- mindslight 3y agoFor $7,300/year, you can come over and cut up my trees. I might even let you use the chainsaw and log splitter. On the topic of the article, I think the general skill one needs to remain in control of technology is managing context - specifically the ability to keep your own context rather than letting technology define yours for you. An axe is still technology, as is a chainsaw - the key is operating tech so that it serves your own goals, rather than being lured and lulled by it into serving someone else's goals. Taking on more physical tasks helps expand your context (as per the OP). Having a life and goals outside of computers helps. Setting your own criteria that are contrary to the surveillance industry's siren song helps (eg libre software). Having full-sized input/output devices helps. Having many devices for different purposes such that "time wasting mode" is explicit helps. The thing I worry about with abstinence based approaches is that they don't teach the skills necessary to moderate your relationship with technology. So even though your context is larger, when you end up entering the technological context (which society will inevitably force you to do for some aspects of your life), you're still completely unprepared. Looking at Midland's website I see the article's characterization is a bit myopic (there's a picture of a group setting up solar panels, and a picture of someone with a laptop). But I'm speaking more about this general theme of anti-technology that involves romanticizing an axe (seemingly minimum viable technology) rather than say a chainsaw (which gets useful work done without addicting you).
- lolinder 3y agoSource [0]. For reference, that's substantially more than the list price at Stanford, which is $57,693 for 3 quarters in a year [1]. Supposedly the average student receives $48,000 in financial aid, so the average cost per year is $25,900, but that still makes this high school substantially more expensive than a highly prestigious college degree [2]. [0] https://midland-school.org/admissions/affording-midland/ https://midland-school.org/admissions/affording-midland/ [1] https://studentservices.stanford.edu/my-finances/tuition-fees/tuition-rates/2022-2023-undergraduate-tuition-rates https://studentservices.stanford.edu/my-finances/tuition-fee... [2]. https://financialaid.stanford.edu/undergrad/how/index.html https://financialaid.stanford.edu/undergrad/how/index.html
- nunez 3y agoFrom Midland's site in a page called "Affording Midland" > 2023-24 Tuition | $73,900 Get the actual fuck out of here. They would've been fine regardless.