I'm burned out and so are you.
I've been following the tech space for nearly 20 years. It's through hacking PSPs for my friends in my early teens that I got into tech, and over the years, this fascination only grew. It grew to a point that I now type these words for a tech website I co-founded.
I love tech. I am deeply fascinated by it, and spend a lot of time thinking about how it can make our lives better. I am looking forward to how it will evolve and how it will change society.
But I am also very burned out by it. Something broke lately. Wherever I look, it seems to be the year I'm observing a general dissatisfaction and mistrust in the tech space.
I believe this is fueled by two things: the AI craze and how tech hijacks our minds.
AI is taking over the wrong parts of our lives
While I am convinced that AI can have benefits if used correctly, the way it's currently encroaching on our creative lives is something I struggle to come to terms with.
I always believed being creative is what makes humans human. It's how we can express ourselves, and feel seen, one of the four traits I believe all humans share.
But now AI-bros are trying to replace this creative expression through the click of a few buttons — separating it from the creative struggle, a necessary part of everyone's journey to mastery.
All this would be fine, if this was just a bunch of weirdos working in their own corner, but the hype cycle that AI is living through, keeps shoving this into our faces over and over again.
Tech makes sure you can't escape
On the other hand, we have the iron-tight grip of social algorithms on the world.
It's hard to escape the brain-rot if we're glued to over-optimized screens, which are hooking into our lizard brains and transforming us into addicted zombies. There is a reason these apps are often compared to slot machines, which are famously addictive.
Unlike AI, I don't see any benefits to social algorithms, except if purely used as a marketing vehicle (but if we all just use it to post and not consume, why use it in the first place?).
I don't seem to be the only one experiencing this. Just look around on, ironically, social media feeds, and you find people sharing their dissatisfaction and disillusionment with tech, wondering how they can opt out in a way that still aligns with living in an always-connected 21st century.
I don't believe that turning to "monk mode" is the solution to any of this. If you still want to be a functioning member of society, you can't just easily disappear from the internet, replace your phone with a brick, and go live in a monastery on a mountain. Also, monk mode is for the manosphere.
Instead, I think that the solution to all this is to rethink our relationship with tech. And while I don't believe to have all the solutions, I am slowly discovering a way that might be helpful for others.
So let me share it here.
We should be using tech, not the other way around
First, we should figure out why we want to use tech in the first place.
My latest fascination with single-use tech, like an e-reader, an e-ink tablet, or a photo camera, is because these devices only exist to help you do one thing. You use them because you want to get a job done. When finished, you put them away, as their use has been fulfilled. (Funnily enough, something like the Steam Deck fits in this category, too. You pick it up to play a game, and put it away when done.)
Compare this to a smartphone, which also does all these things, but simultaneously offers you one hundred additional ways to waste spend your time.
But don't throw out your iPhone and replace it with a dumb phone or one of these over-expensive alternatives which cost as much as flagship smartphone to do... nothing.
Instead, ask yourself what you want to achieve. And then figure out what stands in the way of achieving that thing.
For example, I want to use my iPhone for three things: staying in direct(!) contact with people (through chat interfaces, not timelines), facilitating my life (by setting timers, jotting down things to remember, or looking things up), and for listening to things (I use Overcast for podcasts, Spotify for music and BrainFM when I need to concentrate).
Because this is how I want to use my phone, a large chunk of things had to go. I deleted all social media apps and games, and because I am weak, I use ScreenZen to limit access through the browser. I also changed my homescreen to only rotate between the few apps I actually want to use. It looks like this:
(I used an app called Dumbify to achieve this on my iPhone. On Android, this would be much easier by using a different launcher like Niagara. It's one reason I might pick up an Android device in the future.)
I also deleted apps that I still found useful, but that I believe could be better replaced by a different device or tool. For example, there is no need to have access to my emails on my phone if I never reply to any when away from my desk. Or to have the YouTube app installed if I only ever watch YouTube on my TV. And I prefer the pictures that my camera shoots instead of what my phone produces with all that AI-overoptimization.
But if you follow me on any of the several social media services I am active on, you still see me posting.
This is because I have dedicated time slots throughout my day to still participate in the couple of things I criticize in this post. Because again, the goal is not to live in monk mode. And I also limited my usage to social media and mobile games (I'm still playing Pokémon TCG Pocket) to locations: I can only use either when I am at my desk and after having checked off at least three things from my to-do list.
The other big change is to simply rely on tech less.
I have written about my notes setup last week (and I'm happy to announce that I have a whole bunch of stationery from Cultpens coming my way; my wallet is less happy though!) so you know already that I write a lot of things down by hand. I also don't always go running to ChatGPT whenever I have a question, but simply write it down first and come to it later. It's surprising how much less you care after 30 minutes.
I also go for walks and runs without carrying any tech with me (not all of them, let's be honest here).
I thankfully live in a safe area where this is easily doable, but going for a run or a walk without headphones is... so damn boring. Like, it's mind-numbingly boring at times. But it's during these times that I happen to have my best thoughts. The idea for this very blog post came to me this Monday during a run.
All these changes follow two clear goals:
- Tech should vanish once the job is done.
- I'm the one using tech, not the other way round.
This is all still very much a work-in-progress. I am also very aware of the irony of being a tech blogger complaining about tech while having a new handheld device to review on its way to me.
This is something I am still coming to terms with: tech can be used for good and can be incredibly fun, while simultaneously being a reason a lot of us feel burned out right now.
So get ready for more thought pieces like this while I try to find a solution.