Our Phones Are Turning Us Into Robots. How to Fight Back.

“Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.” —George Carlin

Every day, moment by moment, swipe by swipe, we are being erased.

No, wait—don’t leave or click somewhere else or check social media—this is important. What happens when billions of people—real, tangible human beings—sign away all of their data to corporations, governments and what-have-you through tens of thousands of unread terms and conditions policies? Data like what you have been buying for the last 10 or 15 years. Every post you’ve ever made/liked/commented on, your DNA (thank you 23andme), medical records, and every profile you’ve ever created, every single mention of you on the internet?

All of that—that’s you, that’s your personality, your body, your health records, your history—so much of you is in that all-knowing cloud, and guess what? It has a price. Your data is being passed around the table like a turkey carcass on Thanksgiving, piece by piece being taken by who knows from whatever country(and this one). And a lot of the time, the same institutions that are taking that data are the same assholes that keep you swiping, clicking, checking notifications, clicking, liking, reacting. And you (we) keep swiping, swiping, and where are you? In line somewhere (swipe). At work (swipe). With friends (and all of you, swipe swipe). With every swipe, you check out of this moment, in the real world. We’ve gotten to the point where our data, our cloud-personalities are more interesting than we are. Pretty soon, we’ll be happy to let A.I. fill in the blanks. Siri, who am I? Alexa, what are my dreams? This isn’t a Black Mirror Episode, boys and girls, this is Real Life (RL). And you are slipping out of it, swipe by swipe. So how do we get out of this trap?

See the bars.

The first step to getting out of any jail cell is to see the bars. Step back from it for a day, unplug and see how you start panicking when you don’t have it. See how you’ve developed a fear of being without all of that stuff, distracting you, following you, making you feel like you’re connecting with people when you’re just repeating the same thing over and over, like an endless copy machine from hell, with all your bragging, your likes, your hashtags. Follow, follow, follow. See how you (we) don’t really exist anymore, like this. We are echoes, copies, caught up in what’s trending, following a map that we didn’t create. See it. Fight the urge to go back, check your feed, swipe, swipe, swipe, because that is what is going to wind up sucking you in and never letting you back out.

"We’ve gotten to the point where our data, our cloud-personalities are more interesting than we are."

Stop making it so easy.

Switch to something like the LightPhone, or if you’re really gung-ho, go to a landline. You will be surprised at how free you feel once that snake gets its fangs out of you. It’s like skydiving into a whole new existence. Not ready to get rid of your smartphone yet? Try Minimalist Phone, a great app that makes your apps easier to hide and less tempting to click on by using a minimalist, black and white custom interface. Download your data from the big offenders (Google, Amazon, Ancestry.com, 23and me, Facebook and Tik Tok) delete those accounts (the Permission Slip app makes this really easy), and switch to privacy-friendly alternatives like Signal, Proton.me, Skiff, and DuckDuckGo. Don’t use your eyes, face, or fingerprint to login to anything. Don’t binge-watch a show because Netflix or Hulu suggested it to you, or because it's "trending". And that brings us to:

Think before you click.

Things are so easy now, right? We rarely have to think, because we are constantly being told where to click, what our friends like, what’s trending, who liked our post, and we have an email, and here’s a meeting request, a reminder to pick up the kids, do ten push ups, buy this thing, watch this video, etcetera. But again, let’s stop and think—what road are we on and who is driving? In Nicholas G. Carr’s book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, he asserts that “[Use of the internet causes] a weakening of our capacities for the kind of ‘deep processing’ that underpins ‘mindful knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis, critical thinking, imagination, and reflection’.”

So basically, when we are on our smartphones all day and constantly on the internet, our ability to think critically and our creativity severely decline. When you log onto Youtube or Netflix, there are tons of videos displayed for you to click on. What these corporations want us to think is that this is happening for our convenience—but that’s not the case. If your ability to think critically is at it’s lowest from constant clicking/swiping, then you are much more likely to believe what someone in a video or a blog post is telling you, regardless of their credentials or biases. You are also more likely, then, to impulse buy, believe whatever you read, or follow what’s trending without questioning whether you actually like it or not.

To combat this, stop before you start just clicking on new articles or videos and think about what you really are searching for at the moment, without looking at the screen. If you draw a blank, that most likely means that you should get off the internet at the moment, because you're just wasting time. Otherwise, search for your intended information, and be sure to not get distracted along the way. Also, avoid clicking on trending videos or stories—that will ensure not only that you are watching/reading/finding what you actually want to, but also will help with that critical thinking bit. To get rid of the dozens of youtube videos that come up when you log in, clear out your homescreen and your watching history.

Live more of your life unplugged.

I’m not talking about one of those trendy “unplugging challenges” that lasts for a number of days or a month. Find ways to do more things in person, every day:

• If you find yourself chatting back and forth with a real-life local friend on social media, suggest that you go out for an unplugged drink or a meal. Turn your phones off and just enjoy the conversation!

• Do you like looking at beautiful nature photos online? Go out in nature and take some yourself—or just sit and enjoy the beauty.

• Read a physical book by one of your favorite authors instead of multitasking while listening to the audiobook.

• Go to a local record store instead of downloading an album.

• See what local stores sell products you buy online. Amazon is often overpriced, and you might find that you wind up saving money!

• Ditch that meditation app and join a local meditation group or meditate in nature.

• Think about hobbies or activities that you love doing but are always “too busy” to do. If you find yourself going down a youtube or google rabbit hole or binge-watching a show that you’ve already seen or don’t even like much, stop and go do something you love to do!

• To help yourself stop panicking when you don’t have your phone, try running errands or going to work without it. Remember, before about 2003, almost everyone only had access to phones and computers at home, work, or places like the library—they survived, so can you.

Reclaiming your mind and life from the clutches of the internet does not only free up more time, but it allows you to discover (or rediscover) who you are without all of that static in the way. To step back and resist the distractions, competition and data-stealing practices waiting for you online is truly a revolutionary act.