We host an open invite community dinner most weeks, so many of our moves towards analog life were not a "No" to technology but a "Yes" to hosting more people.
We used to have an old TV and DVD player and host movie nights sometimes, but we hosted dinner much more often and the TV and stand took up so much room. We said yes to fitting more people in our house and gave away the TV. We don't have a TV or tablet, occasionally I'll let my first grader watch an old Magic School Bus episode or Superbook episode on my phone (usually when she's sick and snuggling with me).
We listen to audiobooks from my phone and you've just given me the idea to get a Bluetooth speaker for this purpose. We read a lot of physical books individually and out loud as a family (we're halfway through Fellowship of the Ring at bedtime), but I find audiobooks help me a lot when I don't have a hand free to hold a book while nursing or cooking.
I'd like to make a binder of my favorite recipes that I look up on my phone. The phone is just not an ideal way to have a recipe handy while cooking, between all the ads and the screen timing out and going dark or back to the lock screen.
My laptop broke earlier in the summer and I've made do without it (we were between jobs and couldn't justify the expense until a new steady paycheck started, my husband just started a new job, praise God!) When the laptop gets replaced it'll be more for his side business and I'll continue to manage 99% of my digital life from my phone.
I still use my phone to scroll substack when I'm tired or stressed, I'd like to retrain myself to pick up a book or the Bible or a notebook instead. I had a streak of over a year of plugging in my phone downstairs, not in the bedroom, but with having a nursing baby again I fell off from that good habit.
My kids play with friends in the neighborhood most days in the summer and our whole family goes to bed by 7:30pm most nights, year round. It means I get nothing done, but I get great sleep. 😅
We've been hosting most Fridays for eight years now. We invite families we meet at the library, people walking dogs, people at church...
It's open invite, RSVP optional, bringing a dish admired, but not required. In the early years, I'd throw in oven pizzas after work and maybe three people would stop by our skinny duplex. Now, a few weeks ago, dinner was 30 adults and 10 kids in our small house (they spilled into the small yard, because we can only seat about 23 people inside the house using all the picnic tables and folding chairs we own).
I cook a bunch (rice and beans and quiche most weeks) and pray, and sometimes people bring a dish, and we've always had leftovers, even though I never know how many people are coming.
Over the years, three couples have met at our house and later got married (and are having babies now!). Ten young people who came to dinner one year all converted to the Catholic faith, which had very little to do with us, we just provided the environment where they could have casual community fellowship time with Catholics. Our priest comes to dinner most weeks, where he can relax and see friends and also answer any questions about the faith and occasionally hear a confession by request.
Our lives are pretty incredible. It's a lot of work, but a beautiful and blessed community life!
This year my kindergartner said she would rather miss the Father Daughter dance at school, which we had talked up, because "I can't miss Friday dinner!" I'm glad she'll grow up with vibrant community life as her norm!
We are the same analog person. 😂 Screens at our house need to be either a shared activity (everyone watching something together) or a creative outlet (Minecraft, coding games, etc.)
We already knew we were almost the same person, lol ;)
I'd love to hear more about the "creative outlet" things your kids do with technology! We really haven't traversed those waters, but as I enter the homeschool life I'm curious about what others do!
Minecraft on create mode is the biggest one in our house. They each have their own profile with their own worlds, but because we have it on the playstation, they have to take turns building their masterpieces. Half the time the end up helping each other with ideas. Their latest discovery is that you can build "roller coasters" using mine carts and rails.
Analog appreciation society member here 🙋♀️ Wall calendar, notepad to do list, whiteboard grocery list, different notebooks for tracking homeschooling, my cycle, books read and ideas, cookbooks galore, library books aplenty, music record collection, no computer in the house... this may seem like an obvious one but we purchase what we need (food, clothing) in person - no online shopping. We don't eat take out delivery or travel via uber. I don't read/watch/listen to news of any sort and haven't for years. We have one TV that the kids watch communally at set times of the day. We sometimes listen to classical music in the background from an analog radio. We don't use tablets, digital devices, or educational apps for homeschooling, our kids are learning to read and write with physical books, pen & paper. I've taken a big step away from social media, but I do still tend regularly to my inbox and messaging communication with friends and family. I'm also grateful that my phone is also my wallet, so there's one less thing to carry around in the world, and for the memories captured & stored in digital photo form.
Yeeees to all the notebooks lol. I have so many notebooks. If only I was a little more organized with them lol.
I love that you purchase things you need in person! Tell me more about that! I don't do a lot of online shopping either, mostly because I like to see the things I'm buying, but I'm curious to hear more!
I haven't watched "the news" in over a decade.
Wow, no tech for homeschooling! I'm also interested to hear more about that!
Finally, do you have a good system for storing/dealing with/making use of your digital photos? This task is the bane of my existence.
Living an analog leaning life is integrated with our other values (simple, slow, seasonal, sustainable, frugal, localised living) hence when it comes to food what we don't grow ourselves we buy from our local farm gate, bulk food store and supermarket as the lowest priority. But yes we physically go to these places, look, feel, smell, touch the food we want to bring into our home, no click n collect or delivery service which I feel adds another layer of separation/disconnection to the source of our nourishment. In terms of clothing and misc items, the op shop is the first port of call. We aren't big shoppers though, I'd prefer to go without unless something is urgently needed, for example when our toaster recently carked it we just switched to using the grill function of our oven and haven't looked back! Books & toys are borrowed from our library. Seeds for the garden we'll visit our local diggers club. Wool from the local wool shop... you get the idea. In a world where we can have anything we want in the blink of an eye and touch of a screen, it feels rebellious and deeply satisfying to live with less.
In terms of kids and tech it just doesn't sit right with me. I know where we live kids as young as 7 are given iPads at school and told to go home each night and do additional homework on a screen. In schools the educational tech only escalates the older they get. While I wouldn't say it's a major factor in choosing this lifestyle (we just love living our lives together, not apart) homeschooling avoids being swept up in this digital wave. I know I can't and won't keep them away from tech forever, but I'll do my absolute best to give them as much of a tech free childhood as I can, allowing them as much time as possible to play, connect, imagine and create. Again, in a world where we can learn anything at the touch of a screen, pondering questions deeply and lingering in the unknown feels wonderfully fulfilling.
How do you navigate tech & kids & homeschooling?
Photos!
At the end of most days I categorise my favourite pics into folders on the phone and then when my storage gets too full I back them up onto my iPad in sane folders (literally only used for photo storage). I also back up the lot onto google photos but this is only sorted by date. We have a few printed photo books of the kids baby years and I would love so many more but I have far too many to print 🫣
I am a definite phone addict (and a shopping addict 😒) so this is helpful!! I know I need to pare back my phone use and have been making excuses. I also do want to switch to the flip phone at some point. The only thing that stops me is worrying I will at some point urgently need to call an Uber and not be able to, which seems really stupid. I feel like it’s an irrational fear, and yet…
Oh, I so badly wanted to order a flip phone at the time my husband did. But instead I upgraded to the second-most-recent iPhone lol. I just do too much on my smartphone; I don't feel it's practical. I wonder how many men vs. women do the dumb phone thing... I would predict it's more men but I could be wrong!
We do no tablets for my two year old which seems like a given to me. Apparently it is not bc we’ve been offered a free one for her from a family member and everywhere we go we see even younger kids staring at them!
I am also making the jump to a dumb phone and most excited/nervous about getting a physical map! 🗺️
Loved your ideas on printing out recipes as I use the same ones and hate clicking on my phone over and over plus the scrolling I do just because it’s there!
Lastly I’d love to take our tv out of the living room but for some reason it seems like such a huge step. 🤷🏼♀️
Hey Kirstin, thanks for sharing! Yeah, it's a bummer to see littles on tablets. They're so fun and are interested in everything! It's such a lost opportunity to connect and for them to learn how to be in public. I think I've given my kids a screen while out and about one time, and it was when my husband was supposed to meet me for dinner and couldn't, so I was out to eat with three small children by myself. We watched some Bluey together while waiting for our food :)
It's wild to me that you're going to a dumb phone but feel the TV out of the living room is big! For me it's the opposite!
Physical maps are awesome. I remember when I lived in LA before I had a smartphone and I used a map! (And Mapquest ;))
I still have a huge library of CDs and DVDs, though I confess I usually resort to streaming... am starting to rebuild paper book copies. One day we might not be able to access Kindle - or they could start charging. Best to stay as independent as possible...
Love this! I submitted an article too! My big one is I keep quitting social media. I've had the apps off my phone for months, I just need to commit and go deactivate them, I don't plan on going back. I'd love to be as analog as you, but my husband is a Google fanatic so we've got a device in every room and it runs our whole house! But we don't do tablets and very minimal screentime too. I too have a very large bookshelf and we go to the library every week, but I do love my Kindle for reading in bed while nursing babes 🙌
Yes I’d love to go back to physical books one day, but in this short time of being nap trapped for hours everyday, I need something I can hold in one hand!
I imagine I'll get into e-readers at some point. I'm just stubbornly resisting because. I'm sure they're handy!
Yeah, we just both happen to be not into technology. Like I said, when I visit a home that uses tech well I'm kind of amazed and jealous, ha! But good for you for being off social media. I use Instagram and Facebook a bit (for local stuff). I definitely dream about a life with no social media but I feel this is what's best for me right now all things considered.
It's cool how we all find our own balance, systems, and what works for us! I do keep Facebook but only on my laptop. I'm in so many great groups, there's not a great replacement for that yet!
Amber! We are so similar in this way. We actually don’t own a tv at all (husband grew up without one so it’s just not a priority for him) and only use my dinky laptop for the boys to watch the few shows they’re allowed—so far, they aren’t really interested in movies although I think that will change as they get older, and we will probably get a cheap old tv from someone who is upgrading. We don’t have tablets, baby monitors, smart home devices, etc. I print my recipes and use physical cookbooks! And we have a LOT of books too. It’s my favorite way to decorate. 🙃 I actually just permanently deleted IG so I’m glad we connected before I did, although I have a feeling I would have found your writing here eventually.
I am trying to progressively make my iPhone less appealing by doing things like: removing my email, having no social media or apps that I need to “check” on a regular basis, no web browser, etc. It’s a work in progress, but I will say that it has been eye opening to see how much more work it is for me to look something up on the computer vs my phone. Most of the time, I just forget about whatever it was (which clearly wasn’t that important anyway) before I get a chance to hop on my laptop. The phone is just too easy to use, and I don’t want my boys’ core memory of me to be staring at my phone or always having it with me.
Ah, I was wondering why I haven't seen you on IG! :)
That's really cool you don't own a TV. We use ours only for movies and shows, literally never TV except I guess we do throw the bunny ears up to access the Superbowl. And yes, our kids didn't watch movies until a few years ago. Movies are a lot, esp for sensitive kids.
Oof, your last sentence. So agree. Thanks for sharing the things you're doing! I need to do some of those as well. I do delete social media apps during certain times but I know I can be doing more to reduce the likelihood of picking it up.
No tablets in our homes (my son has never even watched a video on my phone in his nearly five years of life), no Alexa or the likes, paper calendars only, lots and lots of physical books... and yet I feel I rely on the digital way too much, especially for work, and scroll mindlessly more than is healthy. I set timers on social media apps to cut back but I'm still in front of screens several hours a day and to me this is a real problem. One thing I'm going to try is stop reading news online and subscribe to a printed daily newspaper, if only to get out of the information doom loop. But my God is it hard to resist.
Oh for SURE. I’m right there with you. Yes, we subscribe to a print newspaper!
It is SO hard. It’s exploitative of our human vulnerabilities honestly. I actually went to confession this weekend and one of the big themes was my addiction to my phone. I don’t know if you’re a person of faith but it felt so good to bring that before God, and it led to a great conversation about the deeper things beneath the compulsion. I was already mindful but I’ll be making some changes!
Oh wow, I'm Catholic and I never even thought of taking that to confession. For some reason I didn't even see it as a sin, more like a "non-virtue" if that makes sense? But this has struck such a chord in me. Of course if it's born from an inability or unwillingness to curb a compulsion that is hurting me, it's definitely something to bring before God. Thank you for sharing this with me!
Oh, you're so welcome! I hadn't thought of it either really, but they had these little booklets at the retreat center where I did confession this time around and it was structured around the seven deadly sins. I came through it through something under sloth (I'm lazy with my homemaking duties, and the reason is because I'm pulled to my phone in moments where I'm not doing active care work).
It's so fun having a printed newspaper to read! I used to rely on checking a facebook group for things going on in our small town but I would miss things and people weren't great at posting actual important things on it. So I subscribed to my town's local paper. I love it.
Love that. I'm actually working on a resource for the small town where I live so that people don't have to scroll Facebook to try to keep up with local happenings/events! It won't be print but it will be a regular thing all in one place!
I love that you also do CDs and DVDs! I am passionate about building a safe CD/DVD/book library for my kids; I never ever want to hand a child access to any streaming service. But I do want my kids to have access to fun, diverse, quality stories and music that will build in them a love of the true and beautiful.
1) I grew up without a TV. Our household has one. It is in the garage, and it is hooked up to a DVD player. It doesn't get any channels. We use it to watch a movie once every month or two, usually checked out from the library or pick them up at thrift stores. We avoid giving money to hollywood.
2) I have a Nokia candybar phone, and my husband has an alcatel go flip. Technically they *can* access the internet, but the process is so tedious and clunky that we never do. There are no smartphones in our house.
3) Print books whenever possible, but we do have e-ink ereaders, because there's just so much stuff that is hard to find in print, but free to download and in the public domain. One thing we do use them for, to "step down" our insta-grat eyestrain kneejerk-reply digital online existence, is take long pieces of writing that we want to read, from blogs and forums and things, and simply copy them into text files and transfer them to the ereader to actually read. Improves reading comprehension immensely.
4) No streaming services. If we can live without TV channels, we can certainly live without netflix.
5) We keep household accounts in old-school notebooks and ledgers. I tried several times to do it with a spreadsheet, and it was just too tedious. It's faster with a pencil. And I still have a paper address book, after getting tired of losing all my contacts every time a phone died.
6) We write letters. On paper. And send them through the mail.
We were/are very much the same (broken dryer and all). I say were because our unschooling journey has recently led to allowing our boys (8&12) more freedom over themselves and their lives. This finds us with a gifted PC and Minecraft. For the record, I hate it, every instinct tells me it’s not a positive road to take.... but my boys, and husband who was raised playing video games but hadn’t since pre kids are over the moon happy with it. We do have a projector and retractable screen in our living room. We’ve had it for about 4/5 years. Prior to that we only had a clunky old laptop for movies. Since introducing the projector it’s like we have a huge tv, so I’m not a fan of that either. I love the idea of a living room without a screen, set up for interacting. If only I had another room to put the projector in 🤔. Anyway, I really appreciated being made to feel normal for resisting these things by this post. We resist other “modern” things too, that aren’t digitally oriented, such as commercial soap/shampoo, fast fashion (unless 2nd hand...). I’d love to see more examples of that sort of thing from others too :)
I use a physical calendar/planner as well. It’s very helpful for me to write things down by hand. I have also been enjoying analog hobbies this past year, writing handwritten notes, reading paper books, crocheting, making sourdough bread.
I love what you said about the deeper reasons for social media/technology dependence and bringing that before God. I was recently inspired to take a 40 day break from social media and YouTube and it has quieted the noise so much and helped me in creating more balance with the pervasive scrolling.
We host an open invite community dinner most weeks, so many of our moves towards analog life were not a "No" to technology but a "Yes" to hosting more people.
We used to have an old TV and DVD player and host movie nights sometimes, but we hosted dinner much more often and the TV and stand took up so much room. We said yes to fitting more people in our house and gave away the TV. We don't have a TV or tablet, occasionally I'll let my first grader watch an old Magic School Bus episode or Superbook episode on my phone (usually when she's sick and snuggling with me).
We listen to audiobooks from my phone and you've just given me the idea to get a Bluetooth speaker for this purpose. We read a lot of physical books individually and out loud as a family (we're halfway through Fellowship of the Ring at bedtime), but I find audiobooks help me a lot when I don't have a hand free to hold a book while nursing or cooking.
I'd like to make a binder of my favorite recipes that I look up on my phone. The phone is just not an ideal way to have a recipe handy while cooking, between all the ads and the screen timing out and going dark or back to the lock screen.
My laptop broke earlier in the summer and I've made do without it (we were between jobs and couldn't justify the expense until a new steady paycheck started, my husband just started a new job, praise God!) When the laptop gets replaced it'll be more for his side business and I'll continue to manage 99% of my digital life from my phone.
I still use my phone to scroll substack when I'm tired or stressed, I'd like to retrain myself to pick up a book or the Bible or a notebook instead. I had a streak of over a year of plugging in my phone downstairs, not in the bedroom, but with having a nursing baby again I fell off from that good habit.
My kids play with friends in the neighborhood most days in the summer and our whole family goes to bed by 7:30pm most nights, year round. It means I get nothing done, but I get great sleep. 😅
Our kids play outside w neighbor kids, too! I wrote about that here: https://open.substack.com/pub/onetiredmother/p/how-to-create-a-free-range-neighbhorhood?r=22tzy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Tell us more about the open-invite community dinner you host! That sounds amazing!
We wrote about Friday dinners here: https://faithandwitness.org/2024/07/16/how-about-dinner/
We've been hosting most Fridays for eight years now. We invite families we meet at the library, people walking dogs, people at church...
It's open invite, RSVP optional, bringing a dish admired, but not required. In the early years, I'd throw in oven pizzas after work and maybe three people would stop by our skinny duplex. Now, a few weeks ago, dinner was 30 adults and 10 kids in our small house (they spilled into the small yard, because we can only seat about 23 people inside the house using all the picnic tables and folding chairs we own).
I cook a bunch (rice and beans and quiche most weeks) and pray, and sometimes people bring a dish, and we've always had leftovers, even though I never know how many people are coming.
Over the years, three couples have met at our house and later got married (and are having babies now!). Ten young people who came to dinner one year all converted to the Catholic faith, which had very little to do with us, we just provided the environment where they could have casual community fellowship time with Catholics. Our priest comes to dinner most weeks, where he can relax and see friends and also answer any questions about the faith and occasionally hear a confession by request.
Our lives are pretty incredible. It's a lot of work, but a beautiful and blessed community life!
This year my kindergartner said she would rather miss the Father Daughter dance at school, which we had talked up, because "I can't miss Friday dinner!" I'm glad she'll grow up with vibrant community life as her norm!
Yes, I finally made a cookbook binder last year, and have loved adding to it!
Another reason I love our printer! I can't believe how many people survive without a printer. I use it weekly for so many things. haha
Same! I love our printer so much!
We are the same analog person. 😂 Screens at our house need to be either a shared activity (everyone watching something together) or a creative outlet (Minecraft, coding games, etc.)
We already knew we were almost the same person, lol ;)
I'd love to hear more about the "creative outlet" things your kids do with technology! We really haven't traversed those waters, but as I enter the homeschool life I'm curious about what others do!
Minecraft on create mode is the biggest one in our house. They each have their own profile with their own worlds, but because we have it on the playstation, they have to take turns building their masterpieces. Half the time the end up helping each other with ideas. Their latest discovery is that you can build "roller coasters" using mine carts and rails.
Analog appreciation society member here 🙋♀️ Wall calendar, notepad to do list, whiteboard grocery list, different notebooks for tracking homeschooling, my cycle, books read and ideas, cookbooks galore, library books aplenty, music record collection, no computer in the house... this may seem like an obvious one but we purchase what we need (food, clothing) in person - no online shopping. We don't eat take out delivery or travel via uber. I don't read/watch/listen to news of any sort and haven't for years. We have one TV that the kids watch communally at set times of the day. We sometimes listen to classical music in the background from an analog radio. We don't use tablets, digital devices, or educational apps for homeschooling, our kids are learning to read and write with physical books, pen & paper. I've taken a big step away from social media, but I do still tend regularly to my inbox and messaging communication with friends and family. I'm also grateful that my phone is also my wallet, so there's one less thing to carry around in the world, and for the memories captured & stored in digital photo form.
Yeeees to all the notebooks lol. I have so many notebooks. If only I was a little more organized with them lol.
I love that you purchase things you need in person! Tell me more about that! I don't do a lot of online shopping either, mostly because I like to see the things I'm buying, but I'm curious to hear more!
I haven't watched "the news" in over a decade.
Wow, no tech for homeschooling! I'm also interested to hear more about that!
Finally, do you have a good system for storing/dealing with/making use of your digital photos? This task is the bane of my existence.
Living an analog leaning life is integrated with our other values (simple, slow, seasonal, sustainable, frugal, localised living) hence when it comes to food what we don't grow ourselves we buy from our local farm gate, bulk food store and supermarket as the lowest priority. But yes we physically go to these places, look, feel, smell, touch the food we want to bring into our home, no click n collect or delivery service which I feel adds another layer of separation/disconnection to the source of our nourishment. In terms of clothing and misc items, the op shop is the first port of call. We aren't big shoppers though, I'd prefer to go without unless something is urgently needed, for example when our toaster recently carked it we just switched to using the grill function of our oven and haven't looked back! Books & toys are borrowed from our library. Seeds for the garden we'll visit our local diggers club. Wool from the local wool shop... you get the idea. In a world where we can have anything we want in the blink of an eye and touch of a screen, it feels rebellious and deeply satisfying to live with less.
In terms of kids and tech it just doesn't sit right with me. I know where we live kids as young as 7 are given iPads at school and told to go home each night and do additional homework on a screen. In schools the educational tech only escalates the older they get. While I wouldn't say it's a major factor in choosing this lifestyle (we just love living our lives together, not apart) homeschooling avoids being swept up in this digital wave. I know I can't and won't keep them away from tech forever, but I'll do my absolute best to give them as much of a tech free childhood as I can, allowing them as much time as possible to play, connect, imagine and create. Again, in a world where we can learn anything at the touch of a screen, pondering questions deeply and lingering in the unknown feels wonderfully fulfilling.
How do you navigate tech & kids & homeschooling?
Photos!
At the end of most days I categorise my favourite pics into folders on the phone and then when my storage gets too full I back them up onto my iPad in sane folders (literally only used for photo storage). I also back up the lot onto google photos but this is only sorted by date. We have a few printed photo books of the kids baby years and I would love so many more but I have far too many to print 🫣
What's your system?
I’m a huge fan of MPIX. My wedding photographer used them and the quality is great. And their lab is in KS so shipping to the Midwest is wicked fast
I am a definite phone addict (and a shopping addict 😒) so this is helpful!! I know I need to pare back my phone use and have been making excuses. I also do want to switch to the flip phone at some point. The only thing that stops me is worrying I will at some point urgently need to call an Uber and not be able to, which seems really stupid. I feel like it’s an irrational fear, and yet…
Oh, I so badly wanted to order a flip phone at the time my husband did. But instead I upgraded to the second-most-recent iPhone lol. I just do too much on my smartphone; I don't feel it's practical. I wonder how many men vs. women do the dumb phone thing... I would predict it's more men but I could be wrong!
We do no tablets for my two year old which seems like a given to me. Apparently it is not bc we’ve been offered a free one for her from a family member and everywhere we go we see even younger kids staring at them!
I am also making the jump to a dumb phone and most excited/nervous about getting a physical map! 🗺️
Loved your ideas on printing out recipes as I use the same ones and hate clicking on my phone over and over plus the scrolling I do just because it’s there!
Lastly I’d love to take our tv out of the living room but for some reason it seems like such a huge step. 🤷🏼♀️
Hey Kirstin, thanks for sharing! Yeah, it's a bummer to see littles on tablets. They're so fun and are interested in everything! It's such a lost opportunity to connect and for them to learn how to be in public. I think I've given my kids a screen while out and about one time, and it was when my husband was supposed to meet me for dinner and couldn't, so I was out to eat with three small children by myself. We watched some Bluey together while waiting for our food :)
It's wild to me that you're going to a dumb phone but feel the TV out of the living room is big! For me it's the opposite!
Physical maps are awesome. I remember when I lived in LA before I had a smartphone and I used a map! (And Mapquest ;))
I still have a huge library of CDs and DVDs, though I confess I usually resort to streaming... am starting to rebuild paper book copies. One day we might not be able to access Kindle - or they could start charging. Best to stay as independent as possible...
Oh, we stream a lot too, but we also use the analog versions! We have Amazon Prime so we use that for both video and music.
Love this! I submitted an article too! My big one is I keep quitting social media. I've had the apps off my phone for months, I just need to commit and go deactivate them, I don't plan on going back. I'd love to be as analog as you, but my husband is a Google fanatic so we've got a device in every room and it runs our whole house! But we don't do tablets and very minimal screentime too. I too have a very large bookshelf and we go to the library every week, but I do love my Kindle for reading in bed while nursing babes 🙌
Yes I’d love to go back to physical books one day, but in this short time of being nap trapped for hours everyday, I need something I can hold in one hand!
Right!!
I imagine I'll get into e-readers at some point. I'm just stubbornly resisting because. I'm sure they're handy!
Yeah, we just both happen to be not into technology. Like I said, when I visit a home that uses tech well I'm kind of amazed and jealous, ha! But good for you for being off social media. I use Instagram and Facebook a bit (for local stuff). I definitely dream about a life with no social media but I feel this is what's best for me right now all things considered.
It's cool how we all find our own balance, systems, and what works for us! I do keep Facebook but only on my laptop. I'm in so many great groups, there's not a great replacement for that yet!
Amber! We are so similar in this way. We actually don’t own a tv at all (husband grew up without one so it’s just not a priority for him) and only use my dinky laptop for the boys to watch the few shows they’re allowed—so far, they aren’t really interested in movies although I think that will change as they get older, and we will probably get a cheap old tv from someone who is upgrading. We don’t have tablets, baby monitors, smart home devices, etc. I print my recipes and use physical cookbooks! And we have a LOT of books too. It’s my favorite way to decorate. 🙃 I actually just permanently deleted IG so I’m glad we connected before I did, although I have a feeling I would have found your writing here eventually.
I am trying to progressively make my iPhone less appealing by doing things like: removing my email, having no social media or apps that I need to “check” on a regular basis, no web browser, etc. It’s a work in progress, but I will say that it has been eye opening to see how much more work it is for me to look something up on the computer vs my phone. Most of the time, I just forget about whatever it was (which clearly wasn’t that important anyway) before I get a chance to hop on my laptop. The phone is just too easy to use, and I don’t want my boys’ core memory of me to be staring at my phone or always having it with me.
Ah, I was wondering why I haven't seen you on IG! :)
That's really cool you don't own a TV. We use ours only for movies and shows, literally never TV except I guess we do throw the bunny ears up to access the Superbowl. And yes, our kids didn't watch movies until a few years ago. Movies are a lot, esp for sensitive kids.
Oof, your last sentence. So agree. Thanks for sharing the things you're doing! I need to do some of those as well. I do delete social media apps during certain times but I know I can be doing more to reduce the likelihood of picking it up.
No tablets in our homes (my son has never even watched a video on my phone in his nearly five years of life), no Alexa or the likes, paper calendars only, lots and lots of physical books... and yet I feel I rely on the digital way too much, especially for work, and scroll mindlessly more than is healthy. I set timers on social media apps to cut back but I'm still in front of screens several hours a day and to me this is a real problem. One thing I'm going to try is stop reading news online and subscribe to a printed daily newspaper, if only to get out of the information doom loop. But my God is it hard to resist.
Oh for SURE. I’m right there with you. Yes, we subscribe to a print newspaper!
It is SO hard. It’s exploitative of our human vulnerabilities honestly. I actually went to confession this weekend and one of the big themes was my addiction to my phone. I don’t know if you’re a person of faith but it felt so good to bring that before God, and it led to a great conversation about the deeper things beneath the compulsion. I was already mindful but I’ll be making some changes!
I take this to confession all the time!
Oh wow, I'm Catholic and I never even thought of taking that to confession. For some reason I didn't even see it as a sin, more like a "non-virtue" if that makes sense? But this has struck such a chord in me. Of course if it's born from an inability or unwillingness to curb a compulsion that is hurting me, it's definitely something to bring before God. Thank you for sharing this with me!
Oh, you're so welcome! I hadn't thought of it either really, but they had these little booklets at the retreat center where I did confession this time around and it was structured around the seven deadly sins. I came through it through something under sloth (I'm lazy with my homemaking duties, and the reason is because I'm pulled to my phone in moments where I'm not doing active care work).
It's so fun having a printed newspaper to read! I used to rely on checking a facebook group for things going on in our small town but I would miss things and people weren't great at posting actual important things on it. So I subscribed to my town's local paper. I love it.
Love that. I'm actually working on a resource for the small town where I live so that people don't have to scroll Facebook to try to keep up with local happenings/events! It won't be print but it will be a regular thing all in one place!
I love that you also do CDs and DVDs! I am passionate about building a safe CD/DVD/book library for my kids; I never ever want to hand a child access to any streaming service. But I do want my kids to have access to fun, diverse, quality stories and music that will build in them a love of the true and beautiful.
1) I grew up without a TV. Our household has one. It is in the garage, and it is hooked up to a DVD player. It doesn't get any channels. We use it to watch a movie once every month or two, usually checked out from the library or pick them up at thrift stores. We avoid giving money to hollywood.
2) I have a Nokia candybar phone, and my husband has an alcatel go flip. Technically they *can* access the internet, but the process is so tedious and clunky that we never do. There are no smartphones in our house.
3) Print books whenever possible, but we do have e-ink ereaders, because there's just so much stuff that is hard to find in print, but free to download and in the public domain. One thing we do use them for, to "step down" our insta-grat eyestrain kneejerk-reply digital online existence, is take long pieces of writing that we want to read, from blogs and forums and things, and simply copy them into text files and transfer them to the ereader to actually read. Improves reading comprehension immensely.
4) No streaming services. If we can live without TV channels, we can certainly live without netflix.
5) We keep household accounts in old-school notebooks and ledgers. I tried several times to do it with a spreadsheet, and it was just too tedious. It's faster with a pencil. And I still have a paper address book, after getting tired of losing all my contacts every time a phone died.
6) We write letters. On paper. And send them through the mail.
Omg I thought I was the only one until I read this
We were/are very much the same (broken dryer and all). I say were because our unschooling journey has recently led to allowing our boys (8&12) more freedom over themselves and their lives. This finds us with a gifted PC and Minecraft. For the record, I hate it, every instinct tells me it’s not a positive road to take.... but my boys, and husband who was raised playing video games but hadn’t since pre kids are over the moon happy with it. We do have a projector and retractable screen in our living room. We’ve had it for about 4/5 years. Prior to that we only had a clunky old laptop for movies. Since introducing the projector it’s like we have a huge tv, so I’m not a fan of that either. I love the idea of a living room without a screen, set up for interacting. If only I had another room to put the projector in 🤔. Anyway, I really appreciated being made to feel normal for resisting these things by this post. We resist other “modern” things too, that aren’t digitally oriented, such as commercial soap/shampoo, fast fashion (unless 2nd hand...). I’d love to see more examples of that sort of thing from others too :)
That's pretty much where we are with our family, although I need to reduce my phone mooching and do some more things in a wilfully analogue manner
I use cookbooks and printed recipes as well! Looking at my phone for a recipe stresses me out 😂
Totally. There's something that just feels weird about the phone in the kitchen too. Cooking is so very analog - I want an analog guide :)
I use a physical calendar/planner as well. It’s very helpful for me to write things down by hand. I have also been enjoying analog hobbies this past year, writing handwritten notes, reading paper books, crocheting, making sourdough bread.
I love what you said about the deeper reasons for social media/technology dependence and bringing that before God. I was recently inspired to take a 40 day break from social media and YouTube and it has quieted the noise so much and helped me in creating more balance with the pervasive scrolling.