To Tech or Not To Tech

Back in October 2023, Thomas J Bevan wrote about The End of the Extremely Online Era. That's nearly two years ago when I hadn't yet started to contemplate quitting the internet - or parts of it at least. 

I think that this whole smartphone scrolling, content consuming, ubiquitous posting, Extremely Online thing is going to go the way of the Fedora, or the Marlboro smoked at cruising altitude in economy class. In the end it is all going to fade. This may not happen for a good number of years, but I truly believe it will happen. I think we’ll look back on this time decades hence and shake our heads at how ignorant and naive we all were to collectively torpedo our attention spans, our social lives, our decision making, our childcare, our dopaminergic reward systems and our environment with these pocket-sized touch screen pacifiers and all that they contain and imply.

Sublime surfaced this quote for me at a moment when I'd been questioning so much of what crosses our screens and hankering after those early days of internet access when there was true community, inspiring and creative content, and we all did what we did simply for the love of it. The web hadn't become (over)commercialised yet. That was still a way off. Blogs were a joy to read and write. It was a new frontier and I wanted to be a part of it.

Fast forward round about 30 years and so much has changed. Twitter has rebranded - the people I used to chat with years ago have all dispersed and those friendly conversations are no more. Instagram has evolved from being a photography dream world to a series of adverts and sponsored posts. 

Nearly every day someone or other talks about leaving a platform, all the platforms. Just quitting.

I yearn for a simpler online life. It's been coming for a while. I've tired of Substack. Another platform that started out as a lovely community to one that's adopting the hustle culture I'm trying to escape. I don't know whether this desire stems from some kind of digital fatigue or simply an inevitability.

I still love tech. Testing new apps and using my favourite tools still thrills me. I'm a fan of AI - as a sounding board, a writing partner, a research tool. But I'm overwhelmed with content, the daily onslaught of new information, the to do list of newsletters to read. 

The only things that prevent me from wiping the slate clean are those tools that I use every day - how do I stay informed when social media networks are the main form of communication? 

I use a Chrome extension to hide the For You timeline. I deleted the app from my phone. Perhaps I need to revisit my lists and get very specific again. 

The regular nudge to purge and minimise is snapping at my heels again. 

How do we maintain a meaningful presence online without being swamped by it all?