The people who advocate totally getting rid of our smartphones.
The anti-smartphone-ists.
The neo-Luddites.
The thought leaders who will admit that we don’t actually need our smartphones.
The technoskeptics who warn that we should have limits to what kinds of technology we automatically adopt and who go so far as to say we shouldn’t use smartphones.
The 15% of Americans who don’t own a smartphone.
Where are they all?
I have searched for years and have come up almost totally empty. A few videos on YouTube. One Ted Talk about getting rid of your phone. A few articles here and there from journalists who often are simply trying to be sensationalist about the latest trend. But I cannot find a single book telling people to ditch their smartphone. I can’t find a reputable website about it.
Why?
Where is everyone? Are they in hiding? Are they just so on the fringes that they are amost impossible to find?
The authors who do touch this subject say that we can and should still live with our smartphones, but that we should simply be “digital minimalists” or that we just need to set better boundaries. Poppycock.
To me that’s like telling an alcoholic he just needs to put a lock on his alcohol cupboard. Problem solved? No, not at all.
I’m tired of people admitting smartphones are a problem, admitting we’re all addicted, endlessly talking about how we just need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and set better boundaries. Just be more moderate addicts.
Addiction doesn’t work like that.
Besides myself, and that’s not saying much, in the last three years, I have never met anyone else who doesn’t own a smartphone.
Am I just crazy? I don’t think so.
I think the pendulum is going to swing (hopefully soon) back toward more tech freedom, away from the mindless adoption of every piece of new technology they invent for us.
After most of us went bonkers after Steve Jobs released the first iPhone in 2007, I believe growing numbers will eventually come to their senses and realize we were sold a raw deal. I could be wrong, but I hope not.
And if you know of anyone who doesn’t own one, or you know of real solid resources on how to get rid of your smartphone, please send them my way.
Next time I plan to dig into a new Los Angeles Times report about how a major earthquake in California would knock out cell service for days or weeks. (Reason #937 that we should not build our entire lives around our smartphones.) Stay tuned.
I ditched my smartphone a couple of months ago so I'm a little behind you. But it's been a revelation: some days there's no activity on my phone at all - proof positive that almost all the communication I was receiving on it was unnecessary, and all the things I was using it for were, likewise, unnecessary.
Like you, I've been a little bewildered at the lack of attention this issue seems to garner. Their effect on children and teens is, I'm starting to think, catastrophic; which means it's catastrophic for society.
I'm glad I found your writing.