put down the phones
and find out what you're missing
While so many spent the last week dissecting what went wrong for Harris and Walz (the hot takes are exhausting), I reflected, read, listened, and took notes. I'm angry, sad, confused, nervous, dismayed, and appalled. I'm surprised... sort of... but not really?
I've seen myriad explanations blaming everyone, no one, immigration, gender, the patriarchy, racism, sexism, and, of course, "it's the economy, stupid." Those factors probably all played a part in the tragedy of Donald “The Garbage Man 🦺” 2.0.
I don't have much to say to dissect what happened beyond what everyone else said. But I think it's pretty clear that our media system is very broken—broken by lies, profitable outrage, clickbait habits, addiction tendencies, and algorithms designed to radicalize instead of contextualize.1
I suspect myriad factors influenced the election outcome. Mostly, though, I'm concerned that many people don't really know what they voted for. They'll be unpleasantly surprised when Trump's combative and destructive administration rolls into their lives in unexpected ways.
I know I risk sounding like an elitist saying that, but it's a reflection of conversations I've had with Trump-voting friends in my own lives, most of whom are highly educated and none of whom are dumb.
It's also coming to bear in most of the cabinet and leadership nominations he's announced. 😵💫 If they care (and many don’t), do a majority of Americans really think some of these clowns are qualified to run significant government agencies and groups?!
I don’t think all Trump voters are morons. Instead, I think people voted for Trump as disengaged, low-information voters. They chose to engage with infinite scrolling social media outrage content (primarily lies), endless streaming series, and right-wing media filth, leaving little time for nuanced or factual conversation. And they did this mainly on the fricking phones!
smartphones are on the sh*t list
Phones have flattened our social interactions, made life more transactional and soulless, and stolen more time than we can fathom from thoughtful reflection or engaged connection with others. It feels like we do very little critical thinking anymore.
“There are no dangerous thoughts. Thinking itself is dangerous.” It is what makes people “free to change the world”.2
We shop online via gigantic, drab retailers instead of in the community with other people. Think about how much more fulfilling it is to chat with the small shop owner about whatever you're buying than hitting the Buy Now button on the Amazon site while in a screen haze and having said thing tossed on your front step 48 hours later.
We communicate asynchronously, often without seeing the other person's face. We lose physical touch, nonverbal cues, and the deep emotions we communicate with our eyes. When was the last time you saw that sparkle in someone's eyes? It's pretty incredible.
Social media sucks us in, shutting out awareness of the humanity around us. It's a slippery slope whose gradual allure incrementally grooms its victims (us!). It rewards the most egregious, empty, and hateful content by sharing it with more people and making it the norm of what we expect to see when we open the apps.
Unless we actively close it down, the media machine (especially social media apps) feeds us endless garbage without giving us time to digest or reflect on the content. It's the intellectual version of consuming junk food nonstop and wondering why we have a stomach ache or our bodies don't feel great; our brains never get a chance to process what matters or expel what doesn't serve us.
We live in starkly contained silos of junk information. The silos feign feelings of safety and community when we digitally coexist among avatars of people who seem just like us. But it's a promise as empty as the loneliness and despair left in its wake.
Not only do the phones suck the life out of life, but they never let go. We carry around this garbage firestorm in our pockets. They're f*ing everywhere!3 The addicting phones, their pernicious apps, and the malicious algorithms that act as editorial agents are ready to absorb and nullify any potential moments of reflection, curiosity, critical thinking, or connection with people outside are faux-cozy media maelstroms.
more than phones, too
A never-ending library of streaming content offers binge opportunities to isolate and disengage from a soulful life for extended periods that might otherwise be filled with books, meaningful conversations with friends, or attending community events.
Media across the board, and especially right-wing media, offers a deluge of conspiracy theories to numb discomfort with today's uncomfortable and uncertain world or "make sense" of things that are hard to understand. Conspiracy theories are much easier to swallow than sitting with discomfort and getting curious about the complex.
Have no fear, sweet brain. The dopamine hits are available 24/7/365 in the palm of your hand. And someone is making a lot of money off of your dull and fruitless yearning to comfort your soul.
the lies won the election
Don't both sides this. Trump is practically allergic to the truth, and he somehow convinced the entire Republican party to repeat his egregious lies. That Republicans lie more often and to a greater degree is fact. Most politicians spin the truth, tell fibs, and mislead by omission. Trump has taken lying and conspiracy theory promotion to new heights.
For example, he flat-out lied about his knowledge of Project 2025 during the election. He lied about it viscerally because he knew how much people hated it.
Now, he's using the people who wrote the plan to implement it in his administration. They may not call their plans “Project 2025” out loud, but they involve the same people and ideas. It is Project 2025, and he knew it all along.
Yet, throughout the campaign, many who voted for him believed Project 2025 wasn't his agenda because he regularly denied his connection to it. People believed his denial despite his ties to 140 people associated with writing it. In less than a week since being elected, he's proven himself a liar about Project 2025 by beginning the work of implementing it.
This all comes back to my disbelief that many voters know what they chose. Some did, for sure. But we all know too many Trump voters with scores of redeeming qualities that would never knowingly and actively choose what I expect is about to poison Washington, DC (more than it's already a swamp of toxicity). In the words of Ezra Klein, "my God, the corruption we are about to see."4
So many people are buried in deep algorithms and infinite scrolling expertly designed to consume their attention that they haven't lifted their eyes or hearts to look around and contemplate the bigger picture, to wonder what they might be missing.
this is a choice
People choose not to question the echoes in their chamber or diversify their sources of information. They decide to mindlessly scroll through outrageous content or binge Netflix series to infinity and beyond instead of contemplating the contrary, challenging the validity of sources, or even having an honest conversation with someone "on the other side."
I understand the ease of falling down the rabbit hole. But so far, I've only seen these information silos and echo chambers used to explain how so many people get caught up in conspiracy theories or lose the plot entirely as if there's no alternative. Where's the accountability for being more proactive and conscious consumers of information and media?
Smartphones and social media technology use sophisticated design strategies to hijack human psychology and exploit our vulnerabilities. But that doesn't absolve us, especially as adults, from being thoughtful and responsible media consumers. We have to expect more from each other.
put down the phones
Read a book. Talk with someone you love but who sees the world differently than you. Listen to a podcast that's out of your comfort zone. Enjoy a few moments of silence in your car, in line at Target, in the waiting room at the doctor's office, or wherever else you so quickly default to doom scrolling. Put. Down. The. Phone.
Get a little bit curious. Most of us will be surprised by what we find and learn.
How would you change our information space and media outlets to help people connect with the truth and each other in ways that don't tear us apart? Outrage content is very profitable. Common-sense content is not.
How do we fix this? I think this answer lies at the heart of how we rebuild our communities and heal the rifts that divide us so deeply.
This episode of Armchair Expert with Yuval Noah Harari, about his new book Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, has some fascinating thoughts about how AI acts as an editor to our information network. Social media algorithms are an early experiment showing how dangerous this can be.
Enjoy this essay by Sarah Wilson for a deeper and more philosophical exploration of our relationship with the truth and how AI impacts this.
Some might argue it's the apps, not the phones. I understand the distinction. But I think the smartphone's omnipresent nature exacerbates the destruction. If we only accessed the apps when we sat at computers, for example, and didn't take them with us to bed, to the bathroom, and into every moment of silence, the impact of the apps wouldn't be as intense.
From the episode “Where Does This Leave Democrats” of The Ezra Klein Show podcast.
I really appreciated this piece, and I find myself thinking an awful lot about how the illusive algorithm feeds us more of what we want to see, more of what we want to believe. It's on us voters to do our due diligence and intentionally step out of our digital comfort zones in search of varying views, AND YET it's the phones that are destroying both our attention spans and our abilities to digest complex texts/arguments. Let's go ahead and add that the billionaire ruling class is also increasingly owning both our social media (Musk) and our news sources (Bezos) and I see a recipe for disaster. Heck, the disaster is already here.
I totally agree with you that we would be better off if we would turn off the phones, and I will add tablets, tv’s, etcetera. But that is a tough ask for some.
Recently, my wife and I were leaving a local coffee shop walking to our car in the parking lot when we saw a twenty something woman, who had parked beside us at the edge of the lot, staring intently at something. She looked almost dazed but she wasn’t, she was in awe of what she was seeing. She finally spoke. She said “I left my phone at home and I have looked at my hand like five times to check it. If I had my phone I would have missed that.” She was looking at a small animal, maybe a groundhog, about forty feet away on the lawn that surrounds the parking lot. We were standing in a small commercial area that borders a suburban/rural area. Animal sightings of all kinds in this area are not unusual… if you are looking. I can only hope that she learned something from that experience.