Category: TechnologyCategory: Technology

Caroline in the Garden, a musician in Atlanta, recently wrote, “I’m disgusted with myself over my phone use,” saying “my phone usage during this ‘publicity cycle’ was getting to be upwards of 6-7 hours a day.”

They’ve since deleted the social media apps and wrote a new song.

That can happen when we don’t spend all our time on social media.

How grand could we be if we spent 6-7 hours a day on your craft? Or just three? One?

That’s not possible, right?

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Social media platforms make it easy, right?

Easy to sign up! Easy to find your friends! Easy to post a video! One click purchase!

People LOVE “easy” on the internet.

How are we making it easy for our readers with our newsletters? Our websites? Our booking pages?

How many clicks are required to book you?

How many clicks to pre-order your new album or book?

Two people were bewildered by my recent Break Up With Gmail video call.

“What’s wrong with email?”

“I thought you wanted people to get back to email?!”

I’ve got nothing against email, it’s Gmail I’ve got a problem with.

Google harvests too much data, has too much control over what you see (or don’t see), and if you ever get locked out your account, good luck talking to a human to get that sorted out!

Sign up for Fastmail here to save 10% off your first year (affiliate link).

About a week after hosting Break Up 💔 With Social Media Day, and deleting the YouTube and Substack apps from my phone, I reinstalled YouTube.

It was a moment of weakness, and there I was, flipping through YouTube shorts, consuming the digital cotton candy. Twenty minutes later I deleted it again. “Progress, not perfection,” as the AA saying goes.

Lately my phone is sits plugged in while I take walks or make coffee. I read a book while eating lunch instead of watching videos. I use the phone app to talk to people, but use my computer to reply to messages, or watch a movie, or write a post like this one you’re reading.

I haven’t written many (any?!) posts about my personal screen time or phone habits, but I figured this might be a good time since I don’t want to come off like I’m perfect, or beyond temptation. I’m also inspired by Manuel Moreale’s posts about reducing screen time.

We’re all just trying to figure this out, and I fully believe it’s better when we do that together.

From Lincoln Michel’s “Surf’s Up in Slop City,”

If the old institutions are crumbling, that is also the perfect time to build new ones. I’m not saying this is easy. But, what choice do we have?

This is response to the Washington Post gutting their book coverage.

Building our own networks and platforms to promote books, or music, or art is hard, as mentioned above, but who else is gonna do it? And if we don’t, the vacuum will be filled by the next venture back techbro operation, then we’re right back to where we started.

Start a website around something you love. A blog. Buy a domain name (affiliate link). Reach out to my buddy Tom to set up a WordPress site.

Write about the things you love in the way only you can. Don’t worry about getting traffic yet. Update the site every day. Every week. Month after month.

When people discover you, it’ll feel like finding a magical bookstore down a moss-covered alley with string lights, the opposite of a flashy ‘content hub.’