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It always feels such an anti-pattern this kinda stuff. Nothing stops you from having a healthy, limited relationship with the technology you have, however you d

It always feels such an anti-pattern this kinda stuff. Nothing stops you from having a healthy, limited relationship with the technology you have, however you define that to be. Buy a dumb phone because you feel some aspect is addicting to you rather than meaningfully addressing it. Get an ipod because spotify is bad rather than learning to play music files in some capacity on your phone. Start buying VHS tapes and dvds because netflix is clearly the only option. The list goes on, and all too often rather than fixing habits they just consume in a different sense until they lapse and go back to hold habits. By trying to be the opposite of 'thing' they still let 'thing' control them. Although the fact all this author's examples are still posting about it all on tiktok doesnt have me sold one bit on them healthily disconnecting.

0_____0 9mo ago
You turn the knobs you've got. If you have a problem, and "just try harder to do the hard thing" doesn't work, you have to try something else. I had to quit alcohol for a year+ before being able to reintroduce it in small and manageable ways. Some people have to quit forever. Not an unreasonable metaphor for device addiction.
palmotea 9mo ago
> Nothing stops you from having a healthy, limited relationship with the technology you have, however you define that to be. Plenty does. There's a trend in consumer technology to remove friction, like that's always a good thing, but it isn't. Sometimes an inherent limit it what's needed to keep some natural impulse in check. Remove the limit, and the impulse becomes problematic. And that's not to mention some technology is literally designed to be addictive, to hit the same psychological buttons as gambling. Basically, a lot of technology turns things into problems of self-control, but people only have so much. It's not reasonable to blame them for not having more self-control than they ever needed to have before.
port11 9mo ago
Cute, but the industry has vastly outpaced humans at gaming and abusing the brain’s chemistry. You’ve Been Played is a good book, as is anything by Jaron Lanier. For the majority, there is no healthy relationship with ‘technology’ — in the smartphone and modern web sense — until technology stops trying to make them into addicts.

0_____0 9mo ago

You turn the knobs you've got. If you have a problem, and "just try harder to do the hard thing" doesn't work, you have to try something else. I had to quit alcohol for a year+ before being able to reintroduce it in small and manageable ways. Some people have to quit forever. Not an unreasonable metaphor for device addiction.

palmotea 9mo ago

> Nothing stops you from having a healthy, limited relationship with the technology you have, however you define that to be. Plenty does. There's a trend in consumer technology to remove friction, like that's always a good thing, but it isn't. Sometimes an inherent limit it what's needed to keep some natural impulse in check. Remove the limit, and the impulse becomes problematic. And that's not to mention some technology is literally designed to be addictive, to hit the same psychological buttons as gambling. Basically, a lot of technology turns things into problems of self-control, but people only have so much. It's not reasonable to blame them for not having more self-control than they ever needed to have before.

port11 9mo ago

Cute, but the industry has vastly outpaced humans at gaming and abusing the brain’s chemistry. You’ve Been Played is a good book, as is anything by Jaron Lanier. For the majority, there is no healthy relationship with ‘technology’ — in the smartphone and modern web sense — until technology stops trying to make them into addicts.