Phones Bad

I had a really strange experience when I got on the train a while back. Everyone was on their phone. I don't mean most people were on their phones, I mean everyone was on their phone.

I feel like writing about this at all is beating a dead horse because intuitively everyone seems to know that we're not using phones in a healthy way. But damn, this seems like it's getting really bad, right?

I think how we got here is well-understood from an economic perspective . But what can we do about it?

Use Clunky Devices?

At some point a few years ago in the development of ClamNet I ended up using a GrapheneOS phone for daily use. It was great because it sucked. It made me not want to be on my phone. It was a hassle and a pain to do things on it.

After a while the itch of reaching for my phone subsided, and I didn't feel addicted anymore. Ultimately, I found it difficult for everyday use, so I begrudgingly got an iPhone.

One thing I've found helpful is to buy my phone at the bottom of my bag. If it's a hassle for me to get it out, I'm less likely to scratch that itch. One might ask, do I need to take my phone when I go out at all?

Probably? It's probably a good idea to be able to call 911 in an emergency and to be able to navigate. Tap to pay is also really convenient. At the risk of being naive, could another device solve this problem?

My favorite thing about the Apple Watch is that it kinda sucks. There's not a lot of apps for it, it's not super usable, and it does basic things like calling, messaging, navigation, etc. But I'm not going to spend more than 10s scrolling on it. And for the most part, it basically doesn't have social media. The only thing it doesn't have that I would really like is Uber. But maybe I should use Uber less.

I don't think this is a problem of self-control. I don't think it's fair to us given that these apps are engineered to hijack our self-control. And it's certainly not fair to younger generations that are growing up with these things.

What Prevents Us from Solving This Problem Today?

Technology is Centrally Controlled (technical problem)

The platforms that we use tend to be centrally controlled and organized. I think this is the aspect that most people intuitively understand. Meta/Twitter/TikTok are all centrally controlled, and they have little incentive to change.

Technology is Centrally Manufactured (political problem)

The physical devices that we use are extremely complex, expensive, and difficult to manufacture. The production of these devices is centrally controlled and organized. Similarly, a lot of these devices have software that (by default) we do not control. Even worse, it's becoming increasingly hard to modify the software on our devices.

Technological Literacy is Centralized (social problem)

Most people don't know how to use technology in a technical way. The technology we get is extremely polished, refined, and usable so that we don't have to understand the details. As a result, few people have the ability to modify them to suit their needs.

Where Do We Go from Here?

The technical problem: Of these problems, I think is the easiest to solve of these (I said easiest, not easy). There are a lot of efforts to decentralize social media, e.g. Bluesky , Mastodon , Matrix , etc. For people aware of these things, we should make the switch ourselves, and encourage our less tech-savvy friends to do the same.

The political problem: I think the manufacturing aspect of this is much more difficult to solve, and is probably related to the geopolitics of chips. On this, I really don't know. If I had to guess, this is a century-scale problem.

The social problem: I believe several things on this front:

So what Can You and I Do?

If you happen to have massive amounts of geopolitical power, perhaps reconsider. For the rest of us:

Encourage people to use better platforms.

Encourage people to learn to code .

If nothing else, try turning all your technology off for a day, then come back and read this again.

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