9 ideas for living a low-tech life

Touching grass is the new (old) thing

Art using Leonardo.ai and processed by Oilbrush

I’m an early adopter.

I had a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer. I had a laserdisc player. I had a 2400-baud dial-up modem.

My mother, by contrast, was not.

She got a DVD player 15 years after everyone else had one. After she watched her first DVD movie at home, she called me and asked if she needed to rewind it.

She lived out in the country amidst fields and farms for most of her adult life. She had a cell phone but barely used it. She eventually had an iPad, after years of owning an iMac that she turned on about once every other month. And even with the iPad, if I had a dollar for every time I told her on the phone, “Press the Home button!”, I would be a millionaire.

Lately, I’m wondering if she had the right idea all along.

---

Two things sparked this feeling. One was an episode of the 99 Percent Invisible podcast about the Luddite movement. While mostly today we use “luddite” as a slur against people who illogically hate technology, it was actually a movement by workers understandably threatened that their livelihoods were being threatened by the (then) new factory culture.

The second was my friend Ronnie Noize’s publication of a paper planner she designed, now for sale on Amazon. It reminded me of my love of paper and pen, and it’s easy to forget those things exist in our plugged-in age. I even used to get the Levenger catalog, filled with beautiful pens and notebooks.

---

I’ve written before about how technology knowledge can be a differentiator for older job seekers, and I still believe that. But I also feel strongly that unplugging can make us calmer, more focused, and better able to deal with the stresses of our lives. And job hunting is one of the most stressful activities there is.

So here are some ideas for bringing a low-tech focus to your life:

• Leave your phone at home.
  We like to think that we are indispensable and we should be able to be reached at any time of the day or night. Unless you’re the President, that’s probably not true. So maybe try not having your phone on you 24/7.

• Rediscover pen and paper.
  Stationery and office supply stores can be a retail way to touch grass. And using paper and pen can connect you to ideas and plans in a way that typing into an app just can’t do.

• Consider using a “dumb” phone.
  All those apps and digital distractions can be a time sink that doesn’t improve your life. If you are tethered to your smartphone, why not try a phone that’s just a phone? There are lots of guides online to help you choose the right one.

• Delete your social media apps.
  That sounds radical, I know. But I jumped off Twitter a couple of months ago, and my mental health has been much better for it. At the least, limit your social media usage to one domain - like, on the home computer, but not the phone.

• Spend time in nature.
  And by “nature” I don’t mean the grass on the edge of your parking lot. Sub-tip: take a real camera, not just your smartphone. Even a disposable camera from the drugstore works here to reconnect you to something real. It’s fun!

• Actually talk to people.
  Schedule lunches. Attend and throw parties. And use the phone to call people, not just text them. My “Five calls a day” article goes into more detail about the magic of a human voice. So many ways to make this work for you, even if you’re an introvert like me.

• Write letters.
  This is a subset of my “pen and paper” idea. I have started writing and sending postcards to all kinds of people in my circles, and both the creation of these pieces and the reactions I get are so worth it.

• Go to a movie. In the theater.
  We lost this incredibly important social construct during the pandemic. But there’s nothing quite like attending a movie with other people and experiencing it along with them. Recently I went to “Barbie” in the theater with friends and we had a blast.

• Do the dishes.
  This one is a personal thing with me. I have a dishwasher that works well. But few things calm me and my racing brain down like methodically working through a sink of dirty dishes. It’s a small victory against entropy.

None of these things are rocket science, or all that original. But I just wanted to get the seed started so you can think of ways to unplug that will bring you some calm and focus.

How do you unplug? How has it helped you? Let me know in the comments, or just reply to this email.

Thanks as always for being here! See you next week.

---

Anyone interested in planners, calendars, bullet journals etc. should check out Ronnie Noize’s 12-Week planner. I highly recommend it. I love the large size, great for people with old eyes like me. If you try it, let me know what you think.