A Manifesto on Tech

In the World but not of it

20 September 2025

I am perennially reexamining my relationship with technology and I have come up with two axia that are the center of what I aim to do in interacting with phones, computers, and various other advancements of the XXI century.

• I want to be in the world but not of the world.
• Technology should serve me, rather than I serve it.

These are the two hinges on what I want my relationship with technology to rest. They have crept away and back into the light as my life goes on in varying places.

I wrote a variety of thoughts about these things, and I want to share with you the summary.

On Phones

Phones are the easiest target of reevaluation. It is because we are expected to carry them everywhere, as a kind of extension of our bodies. I don't wish to sound like a boomer and say all phone bad. But I do believe that the way in which we (generally speaking) interact with them is not healthy and can be changed.

While writing this, I seriously screwed up by interrupting an update on my Fedora box. This computer is effectively terminal-only right now. *sigh* at least I can post from here. Perhaps it was time for a switch or reinstall anyways.

Smartphones have created the expectation of being always reachable, always pingable. This has culminated in the events of last Tuesday, in which I was sick and took a day off from work. To summarize:

• I email the front desk and copy my supervisor so they know I won't be coming in at 7:00.
• The email gets buried because we were shortstaffed and she didn't really have time to check it.
• Work starts freaking out that I was abandoning them. They assume that I was not okay.
• They try to call me. I left my phone on silent, in the kitchen, away from my room. I was sleeping.
• I do not answer.
• They worry more and call my emergency contact, my dad.
• My dad doesn't know where I am or if I'm okay. He calls me; I'm still sleeping.
• My dad starts freaking out and asks my aunt (who lives two blocks away) to check on me.
• I wake up to my aunt ringing my doorbell and opening my garage (she knows the code) at 9:15.

All of this happened while I was using a dumbphone. It was on silent and in the kitchen; I believe the same sorts of events would have happened if I were on a smartphone. However, the unfortunate timing of my dumbphone's battery deciding to give up on life and the cajoling of my family convicned me to switch back to a smartphone. This is the end of my two week dumbphone vacation.

I have been back on a smartphone for about a week. I have to say that I'm enjoying it less and using it more than my dumbphone.

I cannot (or have yet to have been able to) control my screentime or to not spend an excessive time on a smartphone with its full featureset enabled. Thus, now, I am imposing a variety of limitations so I can be less tempted to let the phone control me.

• Keep the phone on grayscale mode (unless I'm showing a photo to someone or I have some other need, not want, for color).
• Impose a 10-minute Firefox use limit.
• Likewise, a 10-minute limit on Reddit (accursed be that site!) and Youtube within Firefox.
• Denying permissions for notifications unless an app needs them.
• Keeping notifications that are less time sensitive but still generally useful (emails, really) batched at three hour intervals during the day.
• Allowing normal notifications for phone calls, texts, and calendars.

All of these, I hope, will help me enjoy the convenience of having a smartphone without as much of the temptation to scroll that comes along with it. It will help me to be in the world but not of the world.

I plan on practicing these disciplines for two weeks and reevaluating if they are helpful in comparison to using a dumbphone.

On Commodification

Under the eyes of megatech corporations, I (in the general sense) have been reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold. This is contrary to my innate human dignity. I do not want to be sold to the highest bidder. I am tired of me and my attention being bought and sold to the highest bidder. I want technology to serve me rather than I serve it.

Broad Resolutions

Below I have come up with a few broad resolutions to lessen my commodification. I am sure there are more, and I will add to them as time goes on; however, I am bound by spatio-temporal constraints.

• Move away from free services if paid alternatives exist. There is less of a chance (though not entirely unlikely cough cough Amazon) that I end up as the product rather than the customer. There's no such thing as a free lunch.
• Get off social media (not that I really was on them anyways). See the YT/Reddit blocks above.
• With regards to LLMs, merely using them (even the paid versions) is contributing to them. Perhaps I switch to local-only? I need time to investigate.
• Spend more time auditing what I use.

Actual Things I have Done

• Purchase a paid email service
• Start transitioning my calendar away from gcal** (**my family still uses it, so there's something I'll have to live with)
• Start my own website

I hope my life is changed by the two hermeneutics mentioned above.