Jacob Robertson

I’m nearing the end of my twenties, and life looks completely different than it did a decade ago. Looking back, both personally and as a society, it’s striking how much has changed. The rapid acceleration of technology has reshaped the world around us—and not always gently. Every day we’re inundated with more information than any human was ever designed to process. It’s no surprise that many of us feel overwhelmed, always trying to catch up with a pace of change that never slows. The phone many of us have in our pocket is more developed than the systems and tools it took to take man to the moon. Of course, that’s if we went to the moon. I’m joking. I’m joking. Maybe.

The Smartphone

I was 10 years old when the iPhone was introduced to the world. This singular event, a keynote address given by Steve Jobs in the heart of Silicon Valley, arguably changed the world as much as the invention of the automobile and indoor plumbing. You and I now have steady access to the world at our fingertips. On the surface, this has the impression of a positive innovation.

Humanity has eagerly embraced innovations that promised community, connection, and freedom, yet in reality, many of these advances have led to deeper isolation and confusion. Now that enough time has passed since the introduction of the smartphone, we are beginning to feel the true weight of its unintended consequences—social, emotional, and even spiritual. What once seemed like a tool for greater togetherness is increasingly revealing the fractures it has left in its wake.

I’m sure I sound like a technology naysayer, and that we should all become Amish. No, the creations and innovations that have occurred in the last decade have brought many benefits with them. Google Maps? Yes, please. Practically a Nikon camera in my pocket? Also, yes. But I believe we are waking up to the harm that certain elements of technology is having on young people.

The problem isn’t simply that we consume content. Humans have always consumed content (ex. Egyptian hieroglyphs, oral tradition, theatre during the Middle Ages). When the printing press arrived and books became widely accessible, no one panicked because people were reading too much. Even today, we don’t look at someone who’s absorbed in a novel and think, “They’re addicted.” But we do have that reaction when someone can’t stop scrolling through Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, or Reddit.

Something Has Changed

At some point, the language around our phones shifted. We stopped calling them “smartphones” and started calling them “devices.” That shift wasn’t accidental. It reflects how little we use them as actual phones anymore. They’ve become portals or gateways to endless streams of personalized content. Many of us go entire days without making a single phone call, yet we’re constantly communicating through texts, DMs, and social platforms.

The device isn’t just a tool we pick up; it’s a place we live. And that’s the difference. A book ends. A chapter closes. A story concludes. But the feed never does. The design itself keeps us from ever reaching the bottom.

People who know me know that I love to read. And sure—there are books out there that can be just as unhelpful to your mind as spending hours on TikTok. But the experience of spending an afternoon with a good book does something different in the brain. I’m not a neuroscientist, and I haven’t done a deep dive into the research, but even on a common‑sense level, the difference is obvious. A sixty‑second video about Medieval history simply doesn’t shape your mind the same way a well‑written article or a full chapter on the same topic does.

Short‑form content gives you a hit of information. Reading invites you into a process. One is quick, stimulating, and disposable. The other requires attention, imagination, and patience. And those habits—attention, imagination, patience—are formed only when we slow down long enough to let something sink in.

Why Embrace an Analog Life?

Why embrace an analog life? I believe we’ll see this question asked more and more as the use of technology, including artificial intelligence, becomes perceived as essential as breathing. I think that’s where I choose to focus as I begin to answer this question: perception. We’ve perceived and chosen to believe that smartphones, devices, ChatGPT, FaceBook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. have fostered connection, efficiency, accuracy, and increased knowledge. But have we perceived the benefits incorrectly? Maybe. As society allows itself to become enabled by tools that substitute human creativity, critical thinking, and logic for a machine, I think two things will happen.

First, those who are living a more analog life and not leaning so heavily into a digital lifestyle will really stick out, for better or for worse. “Oh, you’re not on FaceBook? You don’t have an Instagram? I use ChatGPT for everything!” I was listening to a podcast yesterday where the host mentioned that you can know he’s credible and not using AI in his blog posts because a reader found a typo. This struck me. The errors in grammar in a writer’s blog post has now become one element of his credibility.

Second, those who are leaning heavily into the digital lifestyle or has wholesale adopted every new platform that promises some type of improvement to humanity are going to eventually feel the weight of such technology and feel as though they are suffocating. Is what I’m sharing here resonating?

I’m not suggesting to turn your back on using digital tools that improve life. What I am suggesting is to make sure you are perceiving the long-term benefit accurately. Perform an assessment. I recently re-assessed if the digital platforms I had been using were 1) essential, and 2) actually improving my life long-term. Were they actually making me more creative, knowledgable, or connected? Most often, we can do without some of the digital platforms we’ve been “sold” and in-turn step back and in doing so actually step forward into a life that is more pleasant and peaceful because there’s less noise.

Consider returning to an analog life. Depending on your age…you’ve likely been there before and remember the peace that comes with not spending your free time scrolling your YouTube feed, thinking of the next prompt for ChatGPT, or feeling the headache brought on by staring at a screen.