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Any people here who are also interested in a "low-tech lifestyle?"
As an ex-Redditor, I only subscribed to 3 subreddits:
/r/dumbphones
/r/nosurf
/r/simpleliving
As someone who is incorporating more of an "offline" vs. "online" life, and downgrading some elements to live a lifestyle that's more focus on the present and get out of the house more (family, kids, pets, walking, etc.) instead of just reading and absorbing tons of information on my laptop.
Are there any people here who are interested in this or is there a section on Tildes for this already? (I know Reddit is a much bigger site, just dipping my toes in the water to see if there is something like that on here already.)
I think a lot of us on here prefer at least the quieter internet, not weighed down by ads, pics., videos, etc. I live technology as it's my job, but I'm trying to unplug a lot more in my out of work life. It's great to be present for the kids and family. At the same time, I do miss gaming online and some fun communities I was a member of on Reddit.
Reddit is just a time-suction void, the main subs draw you in to the death scroll and you learn very little but leave feeling agitated. Dodging online sites like that really helps with the unplug.
So yes, I believe there's a lot of people on the same wave length as you on Tildes.
Exactly, I find Tildes' approach to text-only very refreshing. Like Twitter in the old days, before long tweets, images or videos. Just text and a hashtag to label it for searching. Though I wasn't on Twitter back then for long, as there was just too much noise. Tildes is the equivalent of a library compared to a high school or college experience.
Exactly. I think it’s about being more selective of the tech. I don’t have cable, I have one or two streaming sevices active for a nightly tv show and weekly movie. I have a landroid that mows my 1/3 acre lawn so I can spend my free time doing things I want to do.
Ugh, as someone who recently entered the tech workforce out of school this is something I’m struggling with.
A lot of my hobbies revolved around tech/games but now by the time I finish work I want nothing to do with it. I’m trying to find new hobbies and options to enjoy while “unplugged” but man it’s hard.
My hobbies have become DIY, martial arts, walking with the dogs, making the wife tea (apparently) and learning Stable Diffusion.
When your hobbies and work life merge and it's based around tech you cannot get away from it completely, but it's nice to spend less time on the screen.
I suggest the books Flow the Psychology of Optimal Experience and Bowling Alone. Either one or the combination of both should stimulate some creative thought around your options for hobbies.
There are a handful of us who are very interested in the ideas from Low-Tech Magazine, and you'll see these articles posted from time to time.
To read articles from Low-Tech Magazine posted to Tildes, you can use the following tag: source.lowtechmagazine.
That's a handy trick! I didn't know that one. Is there a list of these search modifiers somewhere?
Unfortunately not. These are regular tags, created manually with the aim to help users search and find magazine and longform content that isn't newspaper coverage. They help fill some of the gap of being unable to search by domain here on Tildes.
Thanks for this! Will definitely have a look!
I love this! There is no expectation to post something new every day. Instead from time to time, when the time permits, when there is an interesting story to tell!
Oooh nice one, thanks for the share!
I'm taking a more purposeful approach to technology. If it does not have a purpose, it's getting canned. This involves hardware AND software.
But it also means splitting up my technology into groups. I've got a gaming rig, laptop and Steam deck. I only need one for remote play so the Deck wins, the laptop has become my project laptop (and video editor/thing). Software I've scramed as much as I can to ensure that everything runs lean / blocks ads and is dedicated to the things I am profoundly interested in, and not just because 'it is cool.'
I've got a phone with dedicated apps on it that I use day-to-day. There's no Slack, No Teams, No Outlook... it's my phone with e-mails, Signal, Whatsapp and all the notifications promptly on silent. That phone lives with me between the hours of 8 and 8. At 8 in the evening, it gets thrown in a drawer and I don't look at it until the next morning. I have a secondary phone with social media on it that is dedicated to the project I mentioned around my other laptop. That gets one hour of usage, nothing more.
ADHD can be a nightmare to have in the age of distracting technology, I govern it by being ruthless towards the things I want to do and not the things that are just 'cool to have.' You can apply that to wider aspects of your life as well...
I'd love a bigger car, but the reality is I live in the city and I should look at something better... A cargo bike or something of the ilk. It's not cool-as, but it is effective in what it is there for.
I think simpleliving is about being disciplined in the way that we act towards technology. Know our limits and behave with that knowledge to ensure that we don't end up mindlessly scrolling social media for people who just do not care about us (and vice versa)
Ah nicely done, I also tried to minimise as much as possible. I've been on the dumb phone / dumbed down smart phone route for a few years now. I find the journey as much fun as finding the solution(s). Right now I gave my wife my newer iPhone for her old one, and then I use it for banking, GPS, Whatsapp and taking photos of our toddler. (Whatsapp kicks you out after 2 weeks on the web or linked devices, and I can't bank online without the phone app for verification.)
But yes, ADHD is very hard on the net, so many self-imposed rules for being safe and fence-guarding yourself to not get lost again and get back to doing what needs to be done.
Not lowtech here at all, I like gadgety things and I play a lot of games still.
However, now when I buy tech, I make sure that if there is no other alternative, I get one that I can repair and/or upgrade. Bonus points for any open source stuff that resides in the device.
Basically, I buy less stuff now, because I buy things that I can repair if need to be.
On top of that, I host my own nextcloud, matrix and fediverse instance and so on, since I want to separate myself more from the corporate "consume everything" internet and technology "experience."
But I can't give up on PC games :)
Ooh I like the open source and self repair path, nicely done. And the instances that you self-host, also very cool! I've tried Mastodon 3 times and Lemmy once, and as I don't know people on there, I don't get into it. Tildes is the only one where it actually worked as a complete stranger, because of the posts that you can see and comment on, vs. random toots etc. on Mastodon. Lemmy I should probably try again, as it's quite close to Reddit, though Tildes has much higher quality content. :-)
I find myself wanting to be. But in reality, I'm still glued to my phone and computers. My family are heavy text messagers. I have cut out most of the traditional social media though (facebook, twitter, etc).
I tried the Light Phone II for a little but but it wasn't practical for my lifestyle and work. I think it would be more of a switch-to thing. For instance if I'm on vacation or weekend and literally want to be off the grid for a set amount of time - only available for emergency phone calls, I'd pop my SIM into the Light Phone.
The Light Phone II or Punkt is the dream, but they're just too expensive for what they can do, but also don't work in our country, sadly enough.
Also deleted all the major social media companies, though I'm mostly using Tildes, and trying out Mastodon again (4th time, hoping to connect with the Fediverse.)
Though it's only on my laptop, my daily driver is a dumb Nokia and an old iPhone locked to only Whatsapp, banking, GPS and for taking photos. (Oh and Outlook and Teams for work, but that screen only shows during work hours.)
Hi @PlasticMonkey, i just sent you a private message here on Tildes...so if you're interested in connecting with folks on the Fediverse/mastodon, have a look, and i made a siuggestion on how to do so. Cheers!
Since I work in IT, I may well become Amish upon retiring.
I feel like the more time I spend in the tech industry, the more pessimistic I feel about technology as a whole. I remember when I was still a freshman and super excited about AI; now I'm a machine learning engineer and have an inherent distrust for a lot of the new AI tech sprouting about.
I've been trying to be more mindful about my media consumption and technology use; and although I have reduced it somewhat, I still find myself using it a lot. I think what has been helpful to me is to at least remove my doom scrolling habits, whether that be TikTok, Instagram, or Reddit.
I don't think I can ever go fully low-tech, but at the very least I can make sure the time I do spend with technology isn't wasted on mindless scrolling.
I wouldn’t quite say I’m into a Low-Tech lifestyle, but I certainly try and be more minimalist when it comes to tech in terms of usage and attention-theft.
When it comes to my own code, I try and follow certain principles I’ve set for myself to end up with simple, clean and efficient code.
I think I like the idea of going low tech but the impracticality prevents me from actually doing it. I'm always on the go so for example if I had a dumb phone I would definitely miss having a decent maps app, or the NFC/payment features. Not to mention two factor apps and such for my job. The convenience factor is huge here, so the real answer for me, as others have said, is just mindful tech (phone) usage.
I'm not someone who'll have a lowtech lifestyle, but I've occasionally been interested in "dumb" phones. I've never quite found one that fits my need though, and oddly it feels almost more "techy" to be fighting with my dumb phone because it doesn't support x or y thing, which seems to be a problem with some models.
I enjoyed those same subreddits and lusted after the Lightphone for a while. I suspect there are a lot of people who are quietly downgrading or de-emphasizing certain tech for better contentment and peace of mind. Rather than buying a Lightphone I ended up creating a "dumbphone" shortcut on my iPhone which turns off all radios except for phone and SMS. It's a bit easier to live in "dumbphone mode" when I know I can temporarily flick the smartphone on when I need to do something like look up an address or download tickets to a show.
I've experimented a bit with lower tech solutions in other areas. I wear a Casio watch. I have offline Wikipedia (through Kiwix) and hardback reference manuals. I use a physical dictionary. I often check my email first thing, then flip the internet off until days end and it feels great to be unbothered. At home we have a Jellyfin server with our own purchased media (DVDs and Blu Ray) and are weaning ourselves off streaming, although we indulge occasionally.
I still use a lot of tech but I try not to let it use me. I don't think being endlessly plugged into the internet hive mind is a healthy thing.
While perhaps in a slightly different way, I'm with you on this. Studied and worked in IT since my teens and I just can't keep it a part of my personal life like others do, with personal IT projects etc. I do the bare minimum, get something working and that's enough, and wherever possible I prioritise physical instead of virtual solutions.
My personal hobbies have changed over the years but consistently maintained combination of being out, nature, and mindfulness. The last being the most influential to positive traits such as stating away from mindless gadgets, apps, etc
My phone is on do not disurb, only phone calls make a sound. Anything else requires my intention to be seen.