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authorBradley Taunt <bt@btxx.org>2024-06-08 13:43:37 -0400
committerBradley Taunt <bt@btxx.org>2024-06-08 13:43:37 -0400
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<h1 id="embracing-slow-tech">Embracing Slow Tech</h1>
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<p>2022-11-22</p>
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<p>I&#8217;m writing this post on my &#8220;new&#8221; X260 ThinkPad running <a href="https://garudalinux.org/">Garuda Linux</a> through Wayland&#47;Sway and it is going well so far. Setting things up was much easier than I initially expected. There were only a few minor tweaks I had to make, such as setting <code>vim</code> as the default EDITOR and installing a small collection of applications (Bitwarden, qutebrowser etc).</p>
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<p>I ran into some headaches with generating proper SSH keys but that was solved by calling in <code>ssh-agent</code> whenever launching a new instance of Alacritty. This could certainly be cleaned up further, but for now everything works fine. (A more detailed post about this X260 is in the works!)</p>
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<p>&#8220;Okay&#8221;, I hear you say, &#8220;But what does this have to do with <em>slow tech</em>?&#8221;</p>
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<p>Good question! Let me explain.</p>
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<h2 id="purposely-unplugged">Purposely Unplugged</h2>
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<p>For the longest time I have had some form of &#8220;smart&#8221; device on my persons while performing tasks away from my main computer. Whether that was grocery shopping, playing with the kids in the backyard, going on road trips - you name it. This was never a <em>bad thing</em> or something I actively looked to change. In fact, I hardly used these devices to connect much to the internet anyway[^1]. But I did notice that I would check things like Mastodon or my email every so often. </p>
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<p>What I started to realize was that I was checking these &#8220;online&#8221; items out of pure habit. I hardly ever responded to any email on my iPhone (it doesn&#8217;t help that Apple Mail on iOS is horrendous for plain text emails) and engaging in Mastodon, while fun, was certainly not a priority while out of the office. My attitude towards being &#8220;always online&#8221; started to shift towards being what I call <em>purposely unplugged</em>. I decided to make a personal change towards my online access:</p>
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<blockquote>
<p>If something is important, then I will take the time to complete that task at <strong>my office computer</strong>. I do not need to be &#8220;always online&#8221;.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>It really makes you wonder how people back in the late 90s or early 2000s ever managed their lives without being connected online 24&#47;7. I certainly remember a time where you booted up a family computer to browse the internet, respond to emails, and complete work items. When you were done - you were done. You shutdown the machine and went about your life. &#8220;I&#8217;ll check back later tonight before bed&#8221; or &#8220;Hopefully there will be an email response by tomorrow morning&#8221; was the normal thought process after logging off. Now there is no &#8220;logging off&#8221;. It&#8217;s just switching devices. I don&#8217;t think it is healthy and really who benefits? Certainly not the individual.</p>
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<p>Hardware (computers specifically in this case) serve a purpose. They are meant to serve the individual using them. When did we cross-over into a world where we seem to be serving our devices? <strong>You are not important enough to be &#8220;available online&#8221; all the time</strong>. Sorry, but it&#8217;s true.</p>
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<h2 id="mobile-sucks-anyway">Mobile Sucks Anyway</h2>
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<p>Browsing the web is an absolute shitshow on mobile devices. Every service and their grandma begs you to install their native app. Adblockers are pretty much non-existent, which makes the modern web almost intolerable to visit. Then you have the issue of walled gardens, security breaches, planned EOL for perfectly functional hardware, increased e-waste - the list goes on.</p>
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<p>Functional computing and online interactions have already been perfected. It&#8217;s called a <strong>computer</strong>[^3]. Computers (desktops and laptops) give us the ability to control our devices at the OS-level, granting us incredible freedom to tweak things to our individual preferences. Unless you are technical enough to fiddle around with &#8220;beta&#8221; mobile Linux devices, the majority of users are stuck with what they are given. And it isn&#8217;t much.</p>
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<p>The corporate push to move everyone over to &#8220;mobile computing&#8221; is no accident. The ability to ban certain apps, push ads to users, collect customer details, and harvest user data is more than enough motivation for companies to usher in a future of &#8220;mobile&#8221; computing.</p>
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<p>Not to mention <em>cost</em>. New, top-of-the-line mobile devices sell for the same, if not more, than a standard laptop or desktop. You give up flexibility, customization and freedom for what exactly? A really good camera? Built-in GPS navigation?</p>
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<p>Get a <em>real</em> camera and grab a standard GPS. I&#8217;m serious. If that sounds ridiculous than you probably never really needed those things in the first place. Use the proper tool for the job. Smushing everything into one, locked-down device is a recipe for disaster.</p>
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<p>Overall - just use a <em>real</em> computer.</p>
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<h2 id="dont-flip-out">Don&#8217;t Flip-Out</h2>
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<p>So, with all of that in mind, I swapped out my iPhone SE (2020) smart phone for the ZTE Cymbal 2 &#8220;dumb&#8221; flip phone. </p>
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<p>The screen is extremely small with low resolution. The camera is absolute garbage. Writing text messages requires use (and knowledge) of the T9 composer[^2]. Most modern applications besides email or the photo gallery are non-existent.</p>
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<p><strong>But I absolutely love it</strong>.</p>
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<p>It&#8217;s a phone. It makes phone calls and allows me to send texts. Texts themselves are a little more time consuming, which forces me to be more concise in my writing. Anything that requires great detail should probably be an email - which is what my computer is for. What else do I need? If I ever drop it and smash into a million pieces I can replace it for &#60;$50. I have the ability to replace the battery - not to mention battery life is measured in <em>days</em> not hours. It&#8217;s rugged, so I don&#8217;t need to be so delicate with it or slap some huge protective case on it.</p>
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<p>It does its job. No more, no less.</p>
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<h2 id="good-for-you">&#8220;Good for You&#8221;</h2>
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<p>I know that some of you reading this might think that this workflow is fine for <em>me</em> but would never be suitable for your needs. Maybe that&#8217;s true, but I&#8217;d probably disagree. I think people have just been conditioned to <em>believe</em> that most day-to-day activites would be impossible without a smart device or a connection to the internet. If not, many would at least feel that without such access things would become far too inconvenient. My stance remains: the majority of people do not need constant access to a computer in their pocket.</p>
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<p>It&#8217;s completely fine to enjoy your own setup and device preferences - I&#8217;m not trying to convert anyone but instead just describing my own experiences. So please, keep your torches and pitchforks at home.</p>
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<p>Thanks for reading.</p>
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<h2 id="refs">Refs</h2>
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<ol>
<li>It helps that I have pretty much zero active accounts across most &#8220;popular&#8221; social media platforms.</li>
<li>Some of you readers might not have ever experienced the wonders of T9&#8230;</li>