The new rejection of technology
Discover more from Mat Venn
The new rejection of technology
Reducing digital engagement for a happier life
“Most of the quotes attributed to me on social media are fake AF”
- Mark Twain
Intro
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been in the tech press for the last few months, more so than usual, as the current batch of products such as ChatGPT-5 and MidJourney et al, have shown that its only a matter of time before the machines take over and we all regress back to agricultural serfdom and rotary phones.
I’ve worked as a digital product designer for over 25 years. I used to live and breathe technology, a total geek. I learned to code, always turned on the ‘advanced’ settings on any piece of tech and was a rabid first adopter.
The problem
Something happened in the last decade that changed. It’s not a midlife crisis, or my advancing middle age. Its just that EVERYTHING is a bloody ‘digital experience’
I’m not against technology, I just posit this partial aversion to the overuse. Let me explain:
I recently took my kids to the Hallyu! The Korean Wave exhibition at the V&A museum where Google Labs had done this incredible collaborative installation, where you could learn a K-Pop dance routine, film yourself and then get pasted real time into a virtual collage of dancers. It was one of the most impressive, feel good experiences I’ve ever had, totally seamless, zero friction and SO much fun.
This is a perfect use of technology. Its inventive, educative, fun and a totally brilliant experience.
I just don’t need the same technology to buy Sushi. Or rather I want to reduce my technology usage and have more analog relationships, I need this balance, the ‘yin’ to technologies ‘yang’.
Just lately it has become my mission to eschew technology for anything other than my work. I quit online dating. I now avoid Digital engagement like the plague. I actually call people on the phone (they never pick up) and don’t engage in lengthy texts.
I firmly believe a ‘discount of digital’ is essential to a happier life. Here is my usual hogwash hyperbole along with some options:
Touchscreens
Touchscreens are the worst thing to happen to customer service since… well the QR code menu system.
Instead of simply asking a human for some ‘stuff’ and paying for it, you have to haptically handle a huge, 45 degree rotated television which is absolutely covered in human faeces
Also I’m very tall so when I touch the screen I select the wrong items because of ergonomics and the Parallax effect. This is the displacement between the perceived and detected touch locations on a touch-enabled surface. The thicker the glass (its McDonalds, of course its thick) the worse the effect is. Also they are almost impossible if you are drunk. God forbid you have had a few drinks and need a maccies.
Fuck sake. ‘Poo & Parallax’, sounds like a Shoreditch toilet nightclub.
Delivery apps
Nobody really needs stuff delivered within minutes. This privilege is almost sickening. Imagine paying 3x the usual to have coffee and avocado on toast delivered to your home, by a zero hour, minimum wage biped on a moped. Thats just lazy. You are not a prince. Unless you are bed ridden (you still have to open the front door) then get off your patoot and go shopping.
Everyone lives near a shop. Or a coffee chain. Get up and put some clean pants on, venture out into the *actual* universe. You are not an avatar in the metaverse, you are a hungry Homo sapien.
Smartphones
Smartphones were the start of a revolution in digital publishing and product design. The convergence of a proper capacitive touchscreen, decent camera, solid state memory and faster 2G wireless internet for all, was a godsend. Apple nailed it with the first iPhone. Then came the App Store, then Android phones (eurgh) and social media found its de-facto platform.
Nowadays the smartphone is just a very expensive attention span thief. The battery life is still shit, and it’s robbed us of the ability to sit and be mindful.
Apparently the average human attention span is 8.25 seconds. This is a 25% decrease since the year 2000. Even if you follow the hokey science, it still shows a steady decline, this is almost certainly due to the rise of the mobile/smartphone.
So what to do? How do we get that attention span back?
Get a dumb phone.
Usually the ‘burner’ phone was the preserve of drug dealers, those on probation, or your nan. It’s got zero Facebook, no WhatsApp. Just does calls and you can play snake (OG). The battery life is so long you it’ll outstay the pregnancy of a chipmunk.
‘Smart’ devices
The Internet of things promised so much, yet delivered so little
The idea that everything was connected, was in theory, great, but the reality is that your fridge freezer now needs a firmware update, and it cannot connect to your router. It’s stuck making ice and playing country music.
That Ring Doorbell? Unless you enable two-factor authentication, the whole thing is hackable. Also the data that travels between the doorbell and your phone is not encrypted and is accessible by anyone. Also it’s a DOORBELL.
And lastly, the iKettle. It’s a kettle, it boils water. But it’s got WI-FI so you can boil water from anywhere on earth, using an app. Whats the use case here? It takes between 2 and 4 minutes to boil a kettle. Are we saving that time by remotely controlling the ‘on’ button? Also how do you get the app to fill up the kettle?
Streaming services
Streaming services are a shitty business model. All of them are haemorrhaging money, even Disney, I mean they own practically every decent IP and they cant make it work.
What’s the issue here?
Well you can’t cater for everyone, most of the content is quantity over quality. And its REALLY expensive for what it is.
Also there is the AMAZING invention called’ broadcast television, it’s basically like Netflix, but the shows are weekly episodes, and the whole thing is FREE!. Also they do a free catchup service. In return for this marvellous gift you just have to sit through these things called ‘adverts’ for stuff. Yeah, like YouTube.
In the old days the classic entertainment model was great. Most TV was free, then you paid à la carte for any extra premium content that you wanted. But you got to own it so it was worth the money.
What happened?
Well once you give everybody everything they want, for 10 bucks a month, you really cant expect anyone to want to pay ‘extra’ for anything. Also its really expensive to create and buy the content.
Also people don’t ‘use’ the content as their primary activity. Netflix and chill is 95% chill and 5% Netflix, you could have reruns of Heil Honey I'm Home! on GBTV gold in the background and you are still going to be doing almost anything other than ACTUALLY watching the telly. And if you have nobody to ‘chill’ with, your smartphone is always going to get the lions share of your attention.
So what’s the answer?
Go out and buy a DVD. Make sure you spend at least a fiver. I guarantee when you get home you:
1) Wont have a DVD player
Er OK…
2) You will actually watch it. Its ‘physical’ and it cost money, and therefore has a greater value and therefore a more personal relationship with you.
Same with Vinyl. It’s so popular now because it’s still the most visceral way to appreciate music. It demands your attention as its physicality is real. And its linear, a journey, its appreciated as a whole.
The Metaverse
The Metaverse is what happens when social media companies run out of ideas. Social media has been on the downward slope to hell for a while now. We are at the absolute zenith of awesomeness. What shall we do? Lets bring back Virtual Reality.
Look I don’t need to tell you this, but social anxiety is absolutely exacerbated by doing everything ‘virtually’. A Zoom instead of a real meeting. Texting instead of phone calls, TikTok instead of actually being mental IRL.
Humans need actual contact, and video conferencing is proven to cause fatigue, fresh air and sunlight is essential.
There is zero benefit to donning a headset and romping around a Playstation Home homage.
It’s embarrassing.
What’s wrong with ACTUALLY going bowling. Ok its hugely expensive and full of annoying families, but its real and you get to wear *those* shoes
Wake up and smell reality
There are 5 senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and then touch
Olfactory technology has tried and failed miserably. Smell, which is apparently the third most important sense, is the most chemical of the senses. Every *actual* experience you ever had was accompanied by a particular emanation that graced your nostrils, for better or for worse.
Bowling? nacho cheese, stale beer and the mineral oil that coats the lanes.
The cinema? popcorn and nacho cheese
The pub? beer and nacho cheese
Losing your virginity? nacho cheese and tears x
Ok lets wrap this up
I just wanted to order my Itsu sashimi box without interacting with a 42 inch Petri dish. Life is full of beautiful moments, none of which are defined by ones and zeroes. Happiness is not defined by binary code or silicon chips.
Get out there and live your *actual* life
Good luck!