Reflections on Scarcity and Media Usage

Since I've been reading Nietzsche, I've been further reflecting on my phone usage. I don't want my life to be revolved around others' impulses, have consistent interruprtions and be pulled from my thoughts and the immersion of life. I agree with much of what he says. It's incredibly practical for current times.

So far, I really like the intentionality with the record player. It's very nice actually. I haven't been listening to much music, but when I do, it's much more intentional and immersive. This is mainly because I'm not doing it as a side thing to something else. I guess I would say I'm a scarcitist (if that's even a word).

I generally believe that abundance with deeply personal things reduces the value of them. Well, the value we could derive when sharing these things with others. It's like the idea of staking a claim. If you are limited and have constraints, what's most impotant when you must choose.

On Spotify, we can choose it all. We don't have to commit to any one thing. The novelty is limitless. It's the same for much of content, such as social media platforms.

This isn't to say these things are not without good. They of course democratize certain things and give people capaibilites they would otherwise not have. But, this doesn't go without concern.

Too many disruptions & phone usage takes away from one's life in various ways. It can become not a tool, but our master. If used without intentional thought. Generally, I'm not sure unlimited novelty is good for us. It at least hasn't been good for me. This being the reason of my pessimism.

I've gone down countless media spirals, doom scrolled, had my reality consistently broken by the thoughts of others and when an app decides it wants to try and re-engage me. It has worked very well. Too well. It's been a constant battle for what role technology will have in my life. But without firm principles, it has always crept back in. Allowing myself to easily undermine me.

Not that it in itself is the problem. But, devices have been engineered for re-engagement and make it much more difficult to resist their hedonic grasp. We can of course have problems with other devices, but my record player isn't sending me notifications telling me to use it. That would just be weird. And now that I think of it, just down right creepy.

Throughout the years, I've met many engineers that are all too aware of the dangers that lie within various products & devices. Many of which I've found to: not use social media, turn off all notifications, turn their screen to grayscale, not have their phone on their body and so on. Some of these may seem like extremes, but these behaviors are not without their reasons.

I've even worked with someone who's worked on the Facebook newsfeed. He said after seeing how intelligent it is and how hard they work to keep you on the platform, he's never used it since. He also doesn't allow his kids to and advise those around him not to. This is someone who helped build it and doesn't trust his ability to fight against it.

I'll always come back to the fact that the distracted will remain distracted. No matter how. But, it's not a good idea to have devices that make it that much harder, demand from us our attention and pull us away from our thoughts and lives right in front of us.

If you can keep a healthy relationship with these things, I applaud you. But, I would also argue that what many see as healthy is truly not.

Staring at your phone with others you're supposed to be interracting with is not healthy. Getting inconsequential notifications when you're focused is not healthy. Becoming addicted to novelty, wasting time on unimportant information and always having others' thoughts pressed upon you is not healthy.

Really, it's best to take a step back and think about what you want your life to look like. Is it one stuck behind your phone, distracted, anxious and unimersed? Or is it one of calm, intentionality and immersion? I pick the latter and I hope you do too.