More Humanity

by Peter Saint-Andre

2023-06-17

The other day I observed that, in the balance between mindlessly using technology and deliberately honoring people's humanity (including my own), I tilt toward more humanity. But how does that cash out in everyday life?

In case it might prove helpful to readers, I figured I'd describe some of my personal policies and practices in relation to digital technologies:

• I don't use Facebook. To keep in touch with friends and family, I see them in person or talk with them via phone (preferred) or video.
• In between visits and calls, I communicate via email or text - indeed, I'd still write physical letters, but I haven't found anyone who wants to do that anymore!
• I don't use Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc.
• Although I do still have a Twitter account, I log into it only a few times a year.
• I visit YouTube only on occasion (e.g., to watch those helpful how-to videos or give an initial listen to hard-to-find music), and only in a private browsing window without logging into Google. I never click any of the videos that YouTube's algorithms recommend.
• Speaking of Google, although I have a Google account, I log into it only when absolutely necessary and only in Google Chrome (which is not my everyday browser). Otherwise I use DuckDuckGo for search, Fastmail for email, Jitsi for video chat, and Brave or Firefox for browsing.
• I have a smartphone, but I've installed only a bare minimum of apps on it.
• On both my phone and my computer, I have popup notifications and "badges" (e.g., unread message counts) disabled.
• I use a VPN to hide my real IP address from websites I visit.
• I don't play any phone or computer games.
• I have my phone interface set to greyscale so that the garish colors of the icons don't draw me in. For reading purposes, I use a mobile browser (Firefox in private browsing mode) in which I have images disabled.
• I have autocorrect and autocomplete disabled on all my devices.
• I try to use my phone as little as possible, and then mostly for reading, a bit of texting with the few people who know my phone number, and necessary workflows (e.g., two-factor authentication).
• I haven't watched TV in 10-15 years.
• Once in a while I listen to jazz or classical music on the radio if I happen to be in the car, but I turn it off at the top of the hour when they recite the news.
• Although I read news headlines once a day (usually at wsj.com or text.npr.org), I don't read the actual news stories. Other than that, I avoid news websites (see above on algorithmic recommendations).
• In preference to new websites, once or twice a week I make a scan of analytical articles at blogs and online magazines that I've found insightful, and I selectively read perhaps 20% of the articles.
• In preference to blogs and magazines, I read books. I sometimes read old public-domain books online after I have posted them at my monadnock.net website, but for other books I don't use an e-reader; instead, I check physical books out of the library, often sourced via interlibrary loan because most of the books I read are less popular works of philosophy, history, science, and poetry. If a book I've taken out of the library seems especially useful for one of my research projects, I buy it used through bookfinder.com and mark it up while reading.

To generalize, here are ten principles that I try to put into practice:

1. Focus on my most important projects and relationships.
2. Follow my own priorities and interests, not what's trending or recommended.
3. Avoid technologies that can manipulate me through individualized profiling and algorithmic "personalization".
4. Eliminate distractions.
5. Prefer reading text over viewing images and videos.
6. Prefer in-person interactions over technologically-mediated interactions.
7. Prefer old technologies over new technologies.
8. Prefer slow technologies over fast technologies.
9. Prefer knowledge over information.
10. Prefer wisdom over knowledge.

As I endeavor to live in accordance with these principles, I'll continue to reflect on them and hone them further.

(Cross-posted at philosopher.coach.)

FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION

• Software is Eating Our Humanity (2023-06-15)
• Low Information Diet (2015-02-25)
• Read the Eternities (2022-02-27)

Peter Saint-Andre > Journal