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title, date, published, tags
| title | date | published | tags | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vintage Technology | 2025-11-20 | false |
|
Since reading The Glass Cage, I have been trying to reduce my reliance on my phone in favor of older-school technology. I have found this practice to be profoundly good for the soul.
The most obvious benefit is that these old technologies are not designed to be addicting like a smartphone. Even if you are using your smartphone for legitimate purposes, temptation is literally in the palm of your hand. Imagine reading a map with a line of cocaine on it; that's what you're doing when you use your smartphone.
When I talked to my dad about having a record player, he told me that there was a ritual to dusting off a vinyl, cleaning the needle, putting it down gently, etc. It's been my experience that having those rituals — being invited to participate in the process — deepens your love and appreciation for the technology in a way that a black box cannot.
Here are some "obsolete" technologies that I have incorporated into my life:
Alarm Clock
My wife bought us a Nintendo Alarmo, so it is a modern, high-tech alarm, but it allows me to go to bed without my smartphone. It's also harder to accidentally disable, which is nice. When your phone is your alarm, the first thing you do when you wake up is grab your phone, and that's no good.
Wall Clocks
We got these when our son was a newborn to help us keep track of when we fed him. We realized that it was much more convenient to be able to see the time without having to free up a hand, reach in a pocket, and turn on a phone.
Record Player
I don't use this as often as I want to because it skips a lot (I think I just need to level it). Like my dad said, the ritual of wiping the needle, taking the record out of its sleeve, wiping off the dust, putting it on the turntable, and dropping the needle, and just watching the vinyl spin make listening to music more of an activity than just noise in the background.
When you use a vinyl player, you're forced to experience music as an album rather than a bunch of disjointed singles. For a long time, that's how music was intended to be experienced. J-Star always lamented that iTunes was the death of the album. I would say that TikTok is the death of the single.
Owning an album on vinyl makes the music feel like "yours" in a way that you just can't capture with a digital collection.
S1 MP3 player
I plug this into my earmuffs and listen to Dear Wormwood when doing yardwork. We used to have a CD in the minivan with some 70s songs, and I
It's cool to associate an album (or whatever collection of music I load onto it) with using my earmuffs. I
Recently, I've been using it to listen to FM radio while I play with the babies.
When you listen to the radio, you don't have to stress out about choosing the next song. And it's good to be forced to listen to something new instead of playing the same old songs over and over
Car Compass
As much as possible, I try to navigate using a car compass instead of GPS. If I'm going somewhere new but in an area that I know, I try to use Google Maps only to chart the course before I start driving.
Using a compass instead of GPS forces you to develop a mental map, which enables you to form a deeper relationship to the places you go. When you have a mental map, you know the best order for stops when running errands. You always know which lane to be in. If you see traffic or construction ahead, you can figure out an alternate route. You reclaim the serendipity of discovering somewhere new that only happens when you get lost.
I admittedly haven't done this very much, but I have been writing letters to friends and family. It's nice to be able to send Ventoy flash drives and candy along with my words. Going to the post office, interacting with a mailperson, dropping your parcel in the drop-box, etc. invites you to participate in the process.
- books: my Pocketbook Inkpad Color 3 is super convenient (especially because I can disable the touchscreen when babies are climbing on me), but it's also nice to just read a real book every now and then.
- mail:
- home phone handsets: paying for landline service in this day and age is wasteful, but I did by a set of link-to-cell home phones from Facebook Marketplace
- retro games: I've been into retro gaming since the games I grew up with became considered "retro". Recently, I've been playing Wii (Punch Out, Wii Fit, Wii Sports, etc.) and Gamecube (Pikmin). Playing old games helps you recapture the feeling of wonder you had when you played them as a kid. A feeling that the world is so big and there's so much to explore.
I have found this practice to be profoundly good for the soul.
When I talked to my dad about us having a record player, he told me that there was a ritual to dusting off a vinyl, cleaning the needle, putting it down gently, etc. It's been my experience that having those rituals deepens your love and appreciation for the technology in a way that a black box cannot.
Of course, there's also the Substitution Myth, which is discussed in The Glass Cage. The technology you use shapes how you view and interact with the world.