
Save Your Sanity, Downgrade Your Life - devy
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/technology-downgrade-sanity.html?mtrref=undefined&gwh=F18F8318D2C6504BDF6897B6951B0F72&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion
======
tjr
A curious first example. I too have found that my teeth get and stay cleaner
using an electric toothbrush. While many technological wonders infiltrating
our lives today are at best conveniences -- and often just distractions -- why
not embrace one that genuinely improves our physical well-being, encumbered
with (as far as I know) nothing in the way of undesirable side-effects?

~~~
ashark
The electric toothbrush is one of those "holy crap how did I live without
this?!" things for me. First time I used it my teeth felt as if I'd had a
professional cleaning. No amount of manual brushing gets them as clean as even
a lazy, quick pass with the electric. How manual toothbrushes are still A
Thing outside of camping supply stores baffles me, now that I know how good
electric toothbrushes are.

~~~
AznHisoka
My only complaint (well, more like my wife's) is that it spews little pieces
of toothpaste all over my mirror sometimes.

~~~
figers
I just bought one from amazon that hooks up to my shower head, I use it while
I shower and it never runs out of water

~~~
loco5niner
I'm guessing you are referring to a waterpik rather than a toothbrush. Cool
idea. Looking on amazon now...

------
rhapsodic
My maternal grandparents lived well into the age of microwave ovens and cable
TV, yet they never owned or subscribed to either. Nothing could convince them
they were missing anything worthwhile. It made no sense at all to me.

Now, I sort of understand. I'm not rabidly anti-technology, but I avoid a lot
of the fashionable latest stuff like Facebook, smart watches, fitbits,
Twitter, Spotify, etc.

It's hard to explain to friends who ask why. It's basically a matter of mental
bandwidth. It's not infinite. Every thing that demands a piece of my attention
must take that attention away from something else. And I guess these things
are not worth that cost to me. I don't judge people who think otherwise;
that's just what works best for me personally.

~~~
Ao7bei3s
If you want to save mental bandwidth, I really recommend you reconsider not
using Spotify.

Spotify actually frees me from the "what music do I hear in the background"
question, manually rearranging playlists, acquiring music and, worst of all,
manually keeping my collection tagged. Before I had Spotify, I wasted evenings
tagging everything with Picard...

With Spotify, you just give it a starting point, start "song radio" and it'll
keep playing and choosing next tracks. You can easily and very comfortably get
through the day with only a play/pause hotkey and a next track hotkey. As a
bonus, it just carries over between work, phone and home.

------
Shank
> The kids themselves don’t get phones at all. When my 12-year-old daughter
> walks home from school without one, I intentionally have no idea where she
> is, just like nobody knew where kids were when I was growing up. How rare it
> is these days not to be able to know something.

Brilliant, but she's 12. There's an astounding difference between "knowing
where my daughter is" and "enabling my daughter to call for help (e.g., 911)
if she's in an emergency." You don't have to be a helicopter parent and track
her location to give her the ability to have a tangible, modern benefit of a
phone: the ability to immediately have police or paramedics if she needs them.

~~~
coldtea
> _There 's an astounding difference between "knowing where my daughter is"
> and "enabling my daughter to call for help (e.g., 911) if she's in an
> emergency."_

And why is that important, since we've managed to survive without that
capability for several tens of thousands of years in much worse circumstances
than a modern city?

~~~
quickthrower2
Because we are programmed to do everything to make sure we survive and our
children survive. Even when the threat level is super low it's hard to lose
the instinct. Hence why terrorism scares people who then go and buy a lottery
ticket. We're bad at probability!

~~~
coldtea
> _Because we are programmed to do everything to make sure we survive and our
> children survive._

Makes sense at first, but I don't think we are. I see other cultures
(including western ones), and even the US at 70s and earlier, that don't do
the same "everything" at all.

I think what we are, in some countries, is conditioned by hysterical media and
hysterical society, to over-protect our children to the point of social
pathology.

------
chadash
As a Sabbath observant Jew, I can relate to this article. I'm thankful for
having one day a week without technology. It means that for 52 days a year, I
get to not worry about checking my email; Spend time with friends and family
_in person_ , and have sit down meals where no one dares check their phone[1].
And it's great. But it really only works because of the communal aspects of
it: Other members of my community are doing the same thing. Still, I recommend
that everyone cut out some time during the year (maybe during a week of
vacation) where they "cut the cord". You don't have to go all in. For example,
maybe keep your cellphone with you, but disconnect your email account and
don't send texts.

1[] We often have people over for Friday night dinners who aren't Sabbath
observant. If someone pulls out their phone, I'll try to politely ask them to
go to a different room if they want to use it or otherwise put it away.

~~~
pdimitar
So using technology means not seeing your friends and family?

Is being a member of a religious society the only way? I don't think so. I am
quite successful in taming my tech in a very rigorous manner and I am indeed
less stressed person for it.

~~~
chadash

      So using technology means not seeing your friends and family?
    

Of course not. But a common problem I see is that people are glued to their
phones/email, even when they are with family or friends. Before cellphones,
there was the problem of people being glued to the TV instead of sitting down
to meals with family. So yes, I think there are cases where technology impairs
social relationships.

    
    
      Is being a member of a religious society the only way?
    

No, it's not. It's just one way. Cutting access to my phone/texts/emails one a
week is (in my mind) a positive side effect of my religious practices. But I
think that anyone, religious or not, can benefit from being "off the grid"
once in a while. For me, it certainly helps having a community of people
living nearby who are also off-the-grid at the same time as me, since it means
that everyone is available at the same time for in-person social interactions.
Going off the grid isn't hard. Getting others to go off the grid at the same
time as you often is.

~~~
pdimitar
> _But a common problem I see is that people are glued to their phones /email,
> even when they are with family or friends._

When me and my wife are outside seeing other people, we treat people being
glued to their smartphone despite our presence as them being not interested in
our company, and we never invite them to dinner again. Truthfully, if people
can't practice some self-discipline, that's ultimately their problem, not
ours.

IMO mandating your family to not use technology at dinner won't educate them;
it will make a part of them better at hiding it, or if that fails, they'll
excuse themselves from the dinner early. As mentioned in another comment of
mine, sometimes it helps with having topics to talk about: "Ive read today
that.." and before you know it, one hour is gone. It can be pretty beneficial
if used in moderation. I do see your point though -- using things in
moderation is not the strength of the most Homo Sapiens.

However, forcing _never_ educates anyone.

> _But I think that anyone, religious or not, can benefit from being "off the
> grid" once in a while._

I fully agree and to me that's an undeniable fact, and something that helps
mental health a lot as well.

But, as a very busy man in his most active and productive years (I am 37 now
and I estimate I'll be very active at least until 50), I found that taming my
tech to not spam me and to only use it for things I really need (even though I
am a programmer and we are known to get addicted easily) has been the second
best thing.

Unlocking your phone and just poking at it is something I don't do for a long
time and it helped me a lot. However, I do read Wikipedia and other focused
articles regularly and I only extract educational value out of it.

------
0xCMP
There is a lot of overwhelm these days. It's not just our devices: peak tv,
never ending YouTube videos, endless tweets, and a web we can never fully
explore.

We live in overwhelming times. The key is not to simply downgrade ourselves,
but to focus our selves. Practically applying minimalism to our lives to focus
on what matters in our lives and sensibly removing things when they aren't
adding value.

~~~
ashark
> There is a lot of overwhelm these days. It's not just our devices: peak tv,
> never ending YouTube videos, endless tweets, and a web we can never fully
> explore.

Endless _everything_. You can even apply qualifiers like "excellent" and still
have a set of things that may as well be endless. There's an as-credible-as-
one-could-hope-for top-1000 (one thousand!) movies meta-list out there, and
there are more really, really good films than can fit on even such a long
list. That's about a _year_ of work, as in 40-hour work weeks, watching films,
and that's just for one pass, when most of these are the sorts of things that
reward repeat viewing. Realistically that's a lifetime of cinema for most
people, without watching _any_ low quality content—or anything newer than the
first version of that list that was released.

And it's all accessible. The overwhelming majority of the list can be watch
with, at worst, a 2-day wait for Prime shipping. You can go ahead and watch
ten or so others on streaming services while you wait for that to arrive.

Legitimately-good TV is coming out faster than most people can watch it,
unless high-quality TV shows are practically your only entertainment. A giant
percentage of all recorded music _ever_ can be accessed in seconds to minutes,
and more with the aforementioned 2-day shipping wait.

An idea Vonnegut explored at least a couple times is that recorded media
killed the value of (relatively) mundane creative expression by putting
everyone in competition with the greats in a given field, and that the lives
of those who might have given some joy and been valued by their community for
their small talents are deeply, negatively affected by this. Now the greats
are constantly in competition with all the other greats, from _all time_ , and
our major problem and a source of anxiety is figuring out what's the _very
best_ thing out of _all these excellent things_ we can enjoy in each moment.
Opinions on those topics are subject to the exact same forces and
accessibility, ouroboros-like.

The level of choice is crippling, and I don't think it's actually improving
most people's lives over a world with at least a _little_ more friction to
flitting between excellent entertainment—the distraction of it all, and its
addictive power, both inherent and deliberately added through UI that drives
engagement, is probably making things worse in some ways.

Maybe the video store wasn't so bad. Maybe the books at the local library were
pretty good. Maybe spending a good long time with one record you picked up and
are really enjoying is better than knowing that popular opinion holds it's a
middling album by that band, so instead you listen to a plausible top-ten
albums in that genre from this year (none of which are by that band you
liked... in fact why did you like them if they're so bad? That's embarrassing)
once or twice each. Do you feel any better? Is your life actually richer? Can
this kind of relationship with media and entertainment even _be_ enriching?

You can still behave like that of course, but damned if the _possibility_ that
there's something better, and the near-certaintly of being able to quickly act
on new information, isn't a nearly irresistible temptation. Maybe you should
google this before you pick it up. What does metacritic say? And so on.

And don't even get me started on data hoarding. Fear of death made manifest in
mountains of data we can't hope to process or appreciate. Better go check my
backups. May need a bigger drive. Some day I'm totally going to relive my
childhood with a marathon of all these pirated tvrips of shows that'll never
be released again for licensing reasons. If bitrot or a drive crash eats them
or, god forbid, I delete them, I may never find them again and they'll be gone
forever— _forever_! Just like so many things used to be just a couple decades
ago, and like _everything_ was that couldn't be written down a century and a
half ago, all the way back to the dawn of recorded (!) history. I really
should find a couple hundred hours to sort these directories of family photos
and pare them down to a smaller, comprehensible set. Maybe move—not delete,
then I'd _never_ see them again if I wanted to!—mediocre ones out of the way.
Not now though. Just thinking about all of them makes me anxious. Thank god we
have them, though, rather than a cherished shoebox full of polaroids. They're
so very important.

~~~
Domenic_S
> _An idea Vonnegut explored at least a couple times is that recorded media
> killed the value of (relatively) mundane creative expression by putting
> everyone in competition with the greats in a given field, and that the lives
> of those who might have given some joy and been valued by their community
> for their small talents are deeply, negatively affected by this._

Could you point me to where I can read more about this? I've explored this
thought myself and it's really frustrating. It used to be if you were the best
skateboarder (or Smash Bros player, or yo-yoer, or cup stacker, or...) at your
junior high, you were hot stuff. Now you've got to compete with all skaters,
everywhere thanks to Youtube.

~~~
ashark
In Vonnegut's case I remember seeing it at or near the beginning of a chapter
of _Bluebeard_ , a book notable for being a kind of whirlwind tour of all of
Vonnegut's major ideas and themes (and one of my favorites of his—but I'm
weird and tend to prefer his non- or less-sci-fi books). I think the idea
comes up in at least one other Vonnegut book or story, like most of the other
things in _Bluebeard_ , but can't recall which. Not at home with my books or
I'd type out that part for you, as it's not too long.

As for a broader or more rigorous examination of the idea, my _guess_ is you'd
be looking for something in the field of Media Studies, though I'm not sure
what—I've read practically nothing of that sort aside from some breezy, pop-
ish stuff from Chomsky and DFW, though I intend to dig into it more deeply at
some point.

I'd be surprised if some of the more thoughtful sports writers hadn't also
covered it, especially with ever-increasing minimum skill levels (and so time
commitments) required to participate in most sports at a pro or semi-pro
level, though I know exactly nothing about that genre and so can't help you
there. For that matter, there may be some variety of thinking-about-the-arts-
and-artists-in-general discipline for which this is a big deal, distinct from
Media Studies.

------
softwaredoug
I put my twitter password behind a hash function that takes a good 10 minutes
to run. So current me can make future me a lot more productive by hitting "log
out". Future me usually turns out lazy enough to actually just do work!

~~~
tbirrell
How does this work? Do you change it every time you log in? Or do you just
force yourself to not look at or save the password each time you retrieve it?

~~~
xxXXxx-
Password I know -> hash function (probably with millions or billions of
iterations) -> Twitter password that I don't know.

Not peeking at the Twitter password is a non-issue, people don't generally
memorize the output of hash functions, even if they wanted to, they are a long
string of random characters.

Here's an example: the SHA256 hash of your username is
328BFB7DEAB24355A7A0D2377AB8DEF70D8DECF968E90AA507D590ACDD25A7AC if you were
to then hash 328BFB7DEAB24355A7A0D2377AB8DEF70D8DECF968E90AA507D590ACDD25A7AC
you'd get 227D82D075605DE042164082145FC7D296DF20C4BAAA2834B5541182C0D13051.
Hash that and get
2062A298907588A3045EE89D9C366C64097924BC50F48981CF4A736B9BB093DF. Now repeat
that process a billion or so times and you'll calculate your Twitter password.

This is a really great idea, it's literally impossible to overcome the
restriction.

~~~
hammock
>it's literally impossible to overcome the restriction

"Would you like to save this password?" "Yes"

~~~
xxXXxx-
If we are going to play that game technically you can just keep the tab open.
I meant once you lock yourself out there is no way to bypass the unlocking
process.

------
rich_ard
I recently downgraded to a flip phone and it has been wonderful. I missed
Google Maps for transit during a trip to NYC, but otherwise it's been great -
not being leashed to the internet by my own lack of self-control is wonderful.

~~~
wlesieutre
I'm still on a smartphone, but I took away notification permissions from
anything that doesn't need it. It's helped a lot with not looking at my phone
more than I want to. If anybody wants an intermediate step before you switch
back to a flip phone, give this a shot.

Looking at you, Facebook, with your "Somebody you don't actually care about
posted for the first time in a while."

~~~
zwily
I did the same for Facebook - no more notifications. Unfortunately, that also
stops notifications from Messenger which I'd prefer to get, but oh well.

~~~
Symbiote
I uninstalled the Facebook app, and use the website. It's 90% as good in
functionality, and 1000% better in what it can and cannot do with data on my
phone.

(If you post and comment regularly, you may prefer the app. I mostly use the
site for casual browsing, and checking the address of events I'm on my way
to.)

------
Overtonwindow
Another way of looking at this is tangibility. I think people are starting to
become nostalgic for simpler devices, things they can wrap their heads around
and grasp how they work. Today's technology can be overwhelming to many, and
might find comfort in old school.

~~~
wiz21c
>>> things they can wrap their heads around and grasp how they work

For me this is a synonym of "things they can repair, modify", that is, things
they control. Maybe we feel a threshold here (threshold because this all
started long ago).

Society advanced so much (to me) that anything you look at is now super
advanced (be it technological, organizational, commercial). And therefore,
much less controllable by oneself.

~~~
pdimitar
That's my exact understanding as well, thank you.

I feel the tech slips into way too much complexity. I feel better if I can
repair something or at least understand why it's not working well.

------
zitterbewegung
Everything is good in moderation. I have begun banning myself from sites like
HN or putting my cell phone in do not disturb mode. I am not sure why these
vapid "productivity posts" only have either or options and why it must be 100%
one side or another.

~~~
notheguyouthink
I did something similar. I picked up another hobby, and avoid these sites for
all but a tiny window during the day.

A while back I found myself wasting 4+ hours every night at home, "looking for
something to do" online. This usually involved a lot of Steam, Reddit, etc.
Never doing anything real, always wasting time.

So I forced myself to pick up another hobby that will hopefully not share too
much with the tired regions of my brain (i.e., programming work days). My goal
is to fill my day with life improving things that I enjoy, but don't overlap
is skillsets. Hopefully reducing fatigue.

The last thing I want is to burn out on programming because I force myself to
do that non-stop at home too. I'm just sick of wasting time.

------
kristianc
I can see this becoming a form of status-signalling in years to come (if it is
not already?)

Just as a sign of status for the CEO used to be the ability to disappear off
to the golf course for a few hours, the new status might be the ability to be
effectively inaccessible.

The rest of us will have to put up with companies deliberately manipulating
"habit forming" type behaviours to push their products. [1]

[1] [https://www.nirandfar.com/hooked](https://www.nirandfar.com/hooked)

~~~
EADGBE
Or folks will be so in-tune with their connected ways that a service which
"allows" you to disappear is more apparent than just throwing your phone off a
bridge.

------
sixdimensional
Sometimes I wonder philosophically, how it is that electronics and digital
systems - essentially, electrified/energized systems of some kind, have
addictive and confounding properties to advancing societies and humans,
similar to the way oil/petroleum/gas is to our way of life?

Oil/petroleum/gas have huge societal and human benefits, and yet, so many
negative side effects (climate change, pollution, war, etc.) and
complications. "Energy" has these challenges, like many natural resources.

 _sigh_

I can't quite find the right words.. The electrification / "energization" of
things seems to add this tangible quality of also being confounding,
complicating and somehow exhausting to us.

It's like when you are walking out in nature somewhere remote, say, in a
forest, where all you see are trees and rocks and rivers/streams, and breathe
fresh air. There is something about this natural/analog state of being that
can soothe us (although, nature can be quite alarming too). Books, analog
toothbrushes, un-powered hand tools... things like this seem (in my opinion)
to help humans feel... more human (and in control).

There was a moment of this kind of feeling of awe of nature that was so
amazing the other day when the eclipse happened in the US. A moment where it
was like, everyone put down their phones, their lives, their problems and...
just observed this phenomenon of beauty. It was simple and fleeting, but
wonderful.

I think the author is onto something here, but it's hard to say it in words.
Is it an awakening of humanity within the digital age? A recognition of nature
and humanity as something to balance with energy, digital, electronic? It
definitely seems we are on this kind of a path.

Lest we forget that, it would not be the first time that there have been
"awakenings" and "enlightenment" in humanity's history. For example, in
western cultures - [1] [2], and certainly others in other cultures. It seems
there is something to be learned from history here.

[1] The age of enlightment
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment)

[2] The great awakening (religious context):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Great_Awakening](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Great_Awakening)

~~~
observation
I think you would be interested in Biophilic Design.

[https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/14-patterns/](https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/14-patterns/)

~~~
sixdimensional
Indeed I am! Thank you so much for sharing with me, I have never heard the
term. Looks like a lot of interesting reading & learning here!

~~~
observation
I'm researching the construction of my house, framing to finishing, and the
handbook made me think of the higher level side affects of material choice,
shape, I had not fully considered before.

I also strongly recommend "Home Comforts" by Cheryl Mendelson. It is about the
home as a series of systems, I thought there was a lot of value in it, there
were a lot of subtle ideas you wouldn't normally think about but which
ultimately make your life easier. It is nice seeing all the little pieces fit
together. I know Sam Altman/sama recommends Stewart Brand's book on changing
architecture as a general pattern for systems but I think the Home Comforts
book curiously beats the pants off it.

------
notananthem
Book reviewer runs from technology. Surprise. Considering I have poor dental
hygiene I upgraded to a base model electric toothbrush and have never been
healthier. Terrible advice/article. I don't have a lot of fanciful gadgets but
those I do have purpose.

------
pdimitar
The article is too extreme. And gives bad examples (the electric toothbrush is
proven to improve dental health of _many_ people, me included).

In general however, it's correct.

But I don't go 100% this side or the other side. I find that to be
irrational... hm, let me just be fully honest: I find that to be _stupid_.

I crippled most of my smartphone apps' permissions and notification access and
I am a happier person for it. Most apps want to "drive up engagement" so they
spam you with whatever. I simply don't allow it.

I use my smartphone to read books and articles I am really interested in, to
collect digital art I enjoy, and do an occasional social network consumption
-- but never above a certain time threshold (which is different for everyone).
Also watch videos and lectures. It's a very positive experience _after_ I
fine-tuned it for myself, which everyone is supposed to do anyway, IMO.

We shouldn't be extremists. Smartphones and most modern tech have very valid
uses. But we have to resist the addictions. It's actually pretty easy.

------
quake
There are some things in this article that I can definitely identify with,
mainly the 'old laptop' that she was talking about, but an electric
toothbrush??? That's hardly the notification-blasting brain-melter that she so
despises.

I'd certainly go back to a flip-phone if they had cameras like current
smartphones.

------
EADGBE
There's a reason I still play 60-year-old guitars through tube amps and other
ratty old gear.

It's kinda my escape from 1's and 0's. Sometimes I'm convinced we dove too
fast into this whole digital everything, thing.

~~~
mikestew
Ooh, look at Mr. Les Paul over here with his new-fangled, high-tech,
amplifiers. :-) I have a rack full of effects and the like lying around, but
in my advancing years I find even plugging something in to be more friction
than I want. So whatever comes out of the sound hole is good enough. Makes
music at the campsite easier, too.

And by all means, rock on. I just found it amusing from my POV that
“simplifying” still involved plugging something in.

~~~
EADGBE
Just an example.

Nothing more simple than flesh and strings. That's what it's all about,
really.

------
didibus
Or learn some self control and restraint.

~~~
pdimitar
No idea why you're downvoted.

There will _always_ be a corporation out there that feeds on our primal
instincts and trying to addict us to their products. That ain't ever going
away.

That's why teaching yourself restraint is hugely important these days. Guess
many people haven't reached the mental state in which they recognize this
truth.

------
NDizzle
DVDs?! Movies on physical objects?! _shudder_

