“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”
Love your thoughts here. We're beginning to realize how these devices and apps that were sold to us as helpful tools are engineered to addict and entrap. I got a flip phone about 6 months ago and I feel so much more free and alive now.
Also I made a little self-assessment recently to gauge phone addiction and the results I've seen are shocking but unfortunately not very surprising. PEOPLE ARE ADDICTED.
Your piece perfectly captures that tension between digital convenience and primal knowing. Really struck by your contrast between life at sea (raw element connection) and "People/Pretend World." This maps exactly onto what I explore about protecting human essence in algorithmic spaces - how mechanical thinking tends to replace rather than support our deeper patterns of consciousness.
Your insight about phones becoming "Reality Escape Hatches" feels especially relevant to my work on sacred technology and preserving authentic human presence. Thank you for articulating this perspective on digital rewilding.
Thank you so much Lane! I resonate with everything you share here. I hope the more awareness that builds around what is silently slipping away will help us all commit to reclaiming and restoring it -- even if it is slow or imperfectly done. I appreciate your thoughts.
“…or when congratulations and birthday wishes and condolences and holidays are shared over text and DMs instead of phone calls or visits or letters.”
Ooooh, yes! This (and your entire piece) hits so deeply! I balked when it was my birthday last month and I did my annual login to say thanks to the birthday messages I received and noted that I got 2-3 EXACT same birthday messages.
When it was someone else’s birthday the next day, I noted that now we don’t even have to type out the message, you just select a pre-written one and away you go. Never been so disappointed in humans before; seriously why bother?
It certainly makes hand-made things (like letters, or small craft type gifts) stand out, doesn't it? Or even a phone call! I am trying to do a lot more of both, right now
Taylor! This piece slaps. I just got done reading LOOK UP and I really appreciate everything you had to say on this topic, and your words deeply resonate with me. Even though I've been off of social media for going on 3 years now, I still want to throw my phone (and other people's phones too) out the window. Thank you for sharing and your brutal honesty. Oh, and thank you for being the one to inspire me to get off of social media in the first place 💜
Paige! How wonderful to hear from you and that's amazing that you've been off social for 3 years now, wow. I hope that we're on the edge of a shift where this becomes more and more normal to see. Thank you for reading and for leaving such a kind note, I hope life is feeling good for you these days!
“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”
― Edward Abbey
Love your thoughts here. We're beginning to realize how these devices and apps that were sold to us as helpful tools are engineered to addict and entrap. I got a flip phone about 6 months ago and I feel so much more free and alive now.
Also I made a little self-assessment recently to gauge phone addiction and the results I've seen are shocking but unfortunately not very surprising. PEOPLE ARE ADDICTED.
Here's a link to the assessment if anyone's interested- https://apolloanderson.substack.com/p/am-i-addicted-to-my-phone?r=m1j0d
I’ve definitely been considering a flip phone myself lately!
Your piece perfectly captures that tension between digital convenience and primal knowing. Really struck by your contrast between life at sea (raw element connection) and "People/Pretend World." This maps exactly onto what I explore about protecting human essence in algorithmic spaces - how mechanical thinking tends to replace rather than support our deeper patterns of consciousness.
Your insight about phones becoming "Reality Escape Hatches" feels especially relevant to my work on sacred technology and preserving authentic human presence. Thank you for articulating this perspective on digital rewilding.
Lane
Thank you so much Lane! I resonate with everything you share here. I hope the more awareness that builds around what is silently slipping away will help us all commit to reclaiming and restoring it -- even if it is slow or imperfectly done. I appreciate your thoughts.
“…or when congratulations and birthday wishes and condolences and holidays are shared over text and DMs instead of phone calls or visits or letters.”
Ooooh, yes! This (and your entire piece) hits so deeply! I balked when it was my birthday last month and I did my annual login to say thanks to the birthday messages I received and noted that I got 2-3 EXACT same birthday messages.
When it was someone else’s birthday the next day, I noted that now we don’t even have to type out the message, you just select a pre-written one and away you go. Never been so disappointed in humans before; seriously why bother?
It certainly makes hand-made things (like letters, or small craft type gifts) stand out, doesn't it? Or even a phone call! I am trying to do a lot more of both, right now
Taylor! This piece slaps. I just got done reading LOOK UP and I really appreciate everything you had to say on this topic, and your words deeply resonate with me. Even though I've been off of social media for going on 3 years now, I still want to throw my phone (and other people's phones too) out the window. Thank you for sharing and your brutal honesty. Oh, and thank you for being the one to inspire me to get off of social media in the first place 💜
Paige! How wonderful to hear from you and that's amazing that you've been off social for 3 years now, wow. I hope that we're on the edge of a shift where this becomes more and more normal to see. Thank you for reading and for leaving such a kind note, I hope life is feeling good for you these days!
Love this so much! And what a quote from Sylvia Plath 💗
Thank you Matilda!
So good! Thank you 🙏 I’ll be sharing it with my family.