The Tyranny of the Ever-Present Smartphone: Reclaiming Our Autonomy
2025-02-26
The author recounts a visit to a friend's apartment building in Washington, D.C., where every aspect, from entry to elevators to apartment access, required a smartphone app. This experience highlights the pervasive nature of digital technology in modern life, creating inconveniences (for the author, an Orthodox Jew observing Shabbat) and raising concerns about digital addiction and its negative impact on mental and physical well-being. The author argues that over-reliance on smartphones blurs the lines between work and leisure and calls for a movement to provide analogue alternatives – physical membership cards, app-free services, etc. – to reclaim autonomy and resist technological dependence.
Misc
digital addiction