Wyrd Wide Web: Breaking the Cycle, Getting a Dumb Phone
(Read to the end for some updates on what this newsletter will be looking like moving forward.)
Last fall I started this essay/blog series as a way of looking at the ways that the digital impacts my magical life. The series itself got disrupted because of ... well. Pick any of the following: surgery, ICE terrorizing Minnesota, underemployment, general fatigue, the state of the world writ large.
It turns out it's incredibly difficult to create when everything is falling apart.
The Habit of Endless Scrolling
Being unemployed for so long really shifted my relationship with my phone in particular. Recovering from surgery twice over meant that I had no real work responsibilities, and so I let myself fall into doomscrolling and getting sucked into short form video for hours. I was already out of it because of the pain killers running through my system and the endless stretch of days, and then the short form video took me out of regular space and time and into the endless screaming void of TikTok and Instagram.
Normally, I limit myself. I can't spend hours scrolling - I have other things to do. But recovering from surgery? I absolutely didn't have other things to do, and that was the problem. Couple that with the genuine surreality of knowing that my city is under siege but being completely beyond capacity to help in ways I normally would, and it was a recipe for constant doomscrolling.
Then the weird things started to happen.
I noticed that my iPhone was messing up more often than usual. When I was well enough to participate in resistance outside the house, I noticed that my phone was messing up more often than usual and specifically when I was in close proximity to other activists. I started not receiving text messages from outside the Twin Cities metro for days. It seemed like certain contacts could get through, and others couldn't, and I was constantly getting messages hours - or even days - after their send stamp.
The next thing that led me away from feeling comfortable with my phone was an announcement from TikTok. I had heard rumblings about the Trump deal, that TikTok might not remain a good place to be a creator if you oppose the fascist administration, but I was waiting to see what would happen. Then, I hit a scrolling checkpoint and got a popup asking me to accept the new TikTok Terms and Conditions - which included language about immigration status and gender identity.
I'm not going to lie, in my healing fugue stage I definitely didn't read all of the fine print or understand it, but the visceral reaction that I had showed me it was time to delete the app in its entirety.
I'm pretty trigger happy with deleting apps.
All of this combined made me realize that I'm finally ready to make the leap from a smart phone back to a dumb phone.
I've been wanting to get a dumb phone for years, but have held back because I ran a business on social media. And whenever I would neglect Lore's Instagram, I noticed a definite dip in sales. Social media - and Instagram in particular - was the primary marketing space for me. But the algorithm and the culture over there has shifted, to the point where it felt more and more like screaming into the void. (And that's another essay.)
But I closed Lore. I don't need to advertise in quite the same way. Instagram is no longer terribly useful for me, I'd quit TikTok unceremoniously, Threads is a hellscape of the worst takes I've seen outside of X, which is the platform of rampant AI and child pornography, and I use Facebook for maintaining in-person and Twin Cities community exclusively. Everyone I know who has relied on social media in the past to market their businesses is finding it harder and harder to do. So why is that the final stumbling block for me, when it's not even something I need to do in the same way?
Basically everything I use my phone for right now I can use my computer or iPad for. So why do I keep it?
Enter: The Bluebird
I didn't do much research into the different phone models because I found one that I liked very quickly. I decided to get a Sunbeam Wireless F1 Horizon Bluebird. This isn't a true flip phone like the first models, though it does look almost exactly like my first flip phone.
These are the features of this model:
- Touchscreen
- Text and Picture Messaging
- Camera
- Offline Music Player
- Sound Recorder
- Weather
- Navigation
- Talk to Text
- Google’s Waze app
- Visual Voicemail
- Bluetooth
- Wi-Fi (data transfer)
- Hotspot
- Calendar/Contacts Sync
The phone basically does what I need it to do, and it was fairly inexpensive. My phone bill is going down from $80/month to $96/year.
I will say that I still don't have it fully set up - I'm waiting on my US Mobile SIM card to get here to do my number transfer. Once I do that, I'll be able to turn off my iPhone and put it in a drawer.
I'm not actually planning on getting rid of my iPhone, I just won't be using it daily. There are simply some things that are easier to do on a phone than on my iPad or computer. For instance, trying to navigate Instagram on the iPad is kind of clunky and a bit of an exercise in futility. I know that I will still want to/need to use Instagram for the foreseeable future for promoting books, readings, and events, but I don't need to always be able to access it. The same goes for some other apps.
And frankly, my phone is paid off and it was a very expensive piece of equipment. Keeping it as a backup in case this dumb phone thing doesn't work out for me is only smart at this point.
Once I've spent more time with the dumb phone I'll come back and blog a bit more about the experience. Part of me also wants to film a video talking about "going analog" and what that means to me and for me. (I have been sitting on ideas for a YouTube channel for yearsssss but it's been hard to focus on because writing is my first love.)
I know it's ironic to be sharing more about going analog online, but I don't actually see this as fully leaving online spaces. That's not feasible for me, nor is it feasible for most people.
This is about being intentional with how I use the internet, social media, how I market my writing. I want to use the internet as a tool of connection, but also as a tool that I can walk away from to continue to live my real life. You know, the one in 3D.
And now, for some kind of meta stuff for the Ghost. I'm going to transform this into essentially an "Announcements Only" newsletter, rather than a newsletter where I'm sharing thinkpieces like the one you just read.
I'm shifting some things for paid subscribers, including doing more video and audio bonuses. That is just flat out easier to do via Patreon than via Ghost. Patreon is also bringing some new discoverability features that I think will make it more sustainable in the long run - more like Substack, but I like the people running it better and have had a Patreon for almost 10 years now in some shape and form.
So I'm unpublishing the option to upgrade to a paid subscription service here.
I'm also going to be opening for readings (paid Patrons will get a week to book with me before other people do), and I want to sell my books on my website, but that is really difficult to do via Ghost. So I might be going back to Squarespace after all :/
Thank you all for sticking with me while I work out the kinks! Tech is a weird thing these days, and I (obviously) am interested in experimenting with it.
If you want to continue to receive longer think pieces from me like this one, I publish them for free on my Patreon. If you want to support the writing as well as gain access to things like a seasonal creative co-working session, guided meditations, and behind-the-scenes videos and stuff, check out the paid tiers on Patreon.