This just feels like the usual throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater style backlash toward over-saturation of anything and everything. Yes, there are people who live in their phones. Yes, there are people who take so many photos and videos of what's around them that they fail to actually experience those things in the moment.
The solution isn't to throw away our technology. It's to develop better habits and better relationships with what we use to enhance our lives. Because that's the point: to enhance our lives, not to diminish them. If you feel that your tech is diminishing your life, that's probably a sign that you need to re-examine how you use it. Throwing it away entirely is a wasteful response that might "fix" the diminishing effects, but will also deprive you of the enhancements.
Before smartphones (and/or decent camera phones), I used to carry a small point-and-shoot digital camera with me nearly everywhere. I loved having it with me, and friends always enjoyed when I'd share photos of moments where most people would never think to bring a camera to capture. Being able to ditch that camera and instead use an often-better smartphone camera has been so freeing and wonderful. But I don't live behind the screen of my phone; I snap photos quickly, and rarely take video (though lately I've been disappointed in the lack of video over the past decade, so I'm re-evaluating my stance there).
We can have a healthy relationship with our phones. Commercial interests of course want us to be glued to them 24/7, but that's not how it has to be.
(And I feel like the author of this piece maybe doesn't even disagree with me; he says he still takes snapshots on his phone in his hometown. He's more talking about the mindset he gets into when he has a "real" camera: one of detachment from his surroundings.)
This is how I feel too. For me it feels great to have a powerful camera in my pocket wherever I go. I enjoy being 'present' within my surroundings and open and observant for potential images. This practice feels almost like a meditation, and capturing photographs in my local neighborhood as well as anywhere else is part of the experience of living my best life.
The solution isn't to throw away our technology. It's to develop better habits and better relationships with what we use to enhance our lives. Because that's the point: to enhance our lives, not to diminish them. If you feel that your tech is diminishing your life, that's probably a sign that you need to re-examine how you use it. Throwing it away entirely is a wasteful response that might "fix" the diminishing effects, but will also deprive you of the enhancements.
Before smartphones (and/or decent camera phones), I used to carry a small point-and-shoot digital camera with me nearly everywhere. I loved having it with me, and friends always enjoyed when I'd share photos of moments where most people would never think to bring a camera to capture. Being able to ditch that camera and instead use an often-better smartphone camera has been so freeing and wonderful. But I don't live behind the screen of my phone; I snap photos quickly, and rarely take video (though lately I've been disappointed in the lack of video over the past decade, so I'm re-evaluating my stance there).
We can have a healthy relationship with our phones. Commercial interests of course want us to be glued to them 24/7, but that's not how it has to be.
(And I feel like the author of this piece maybe doesn't even disagree with me; he says he still takes snapshots on his phone in his hometown. He's more talking about the mindset he gets into when he has a "real" camera: one of detachment from his surroundings.)