Having a smartphone used to be a status symbol for the wealthy. Now, it’s the opposite.
It’s 10:18pm on a Saturday night, and I’m sitting alone in my apartment on Logan, as defeated as all that implies and more. I’m staring at my iPhone 14. There’s a server somewhere crunching my look of disgust. I’ve heard they have algorithms that can predict your approximate life expectancy just from analyzing your face…
I guess on some level I’d always thought I could part with my smartphone if I really wanted to—that I had that level of control in my life at least. It would be absurd to believe otherwise, right? To think that you were tethered to a product (what used to be a luxury) and then to suddenly apprehend this high-tech toy as a symbol of your servility.
I just spent five weekend hours and $70.00 on a lesson in absurdity. I tried and failed to start using a dumb phone. Here was my thinking, Reader.
