By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Logan Lane was 15 when she had the urge to toss her smart phone into the river.
“There seemed no difference between the garbage on my phone. and the garbage that as polluting the water,” she said.
Lane restrained herself from dumping her phone. But “a few months later powered down my cell phone and put it in a drawer,” Lane reported. “So began my life as a Luddite.”
The teenager from Brooklyn, now a student at Oberlin College, visited the Bowling Green last month to deliver her Luddite Manifesto at the Wood County District Public Library.
She’s made liberation from the demands of social media her mission. She formed a club of like-minded teens back in New York, attracting media attention, including from the New York Times. She named her cause after the Luddites in early 19th century England, who took to smashing machinery set up to produce inferior goods.
“People have been rebelling against technology since the dawn of time,” Lane said. Socrates railed against writing because it would induce forgetfulness. And the Unabomber was in this tradition, even if Lane said, they don’t count him as one their own.
The term “Luddite” has become an insult, she said. But it is a label she embraces.
She has experienced the lure of social media. At 10 she aspired to be an influencer, though she vacillated between aspiring to look beautiful and affecting an attitude of not caring about fashion.
She was a habitant of Snap Chat, Tik Tok, and Instagram.
Her smart phone was her constant companion, on the bus, at the dinner table, at school, and into bed with her. She was “groggy and irritable,” always clutching her phone. She would blog in class.
Lane developed “mean behaviors.” Snapping photos of people without their knowledge, then mocking them online. That kind of behavior was normal on social media. “If you’re not judging others, you’re judging yourself.”
After she powered down her phone, “I was bored and aimless and had all this free time,” she said. “I miss the quick hits, the likes and comments.”
Lane found ways to fill that gap. She started noticing the intricacy of graffiti as she rode the subway. When she had her eyes glued to her smart phone, she hadn’t noticed this.
Lane started to read more – Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and John Steinbeck.
She resumed knitting and sewing. That led to doing costumes for school plays.
She took on projects such as building little libraries for neighborhoods and schools.
Lane said she still felt alone. Then she went to a concert and met another girl using a flip phone. They started a club, and that got attention. Clubs started spouting up in high schools around the city.
These clubs, Lane said, “are about not losing connection with other people.”
At Oberlin, she has sought out others who have powered down their smart phones. She conducted four intensive interviews with fellow “Luddites.”
One student said that the social media addiction is a reality. He found himself picking up the phone whenever he was bored and bringing it to bed with him.
One of the best things about a flip phone, another student reported, was just the satisfaction of snapping it shut. It becomes almost invisible.
One dance and math major recalled losing their phone in Paris. They learned that they could do without it. They navigated the foreign city without digital assistance.
From a dance teacher, this student learned about “digital disembodiment,” where people lose touch with their actual bodies when they inhabit the virtual world.
“They learned the geography of where they are better,” Lane said. “It felt very embodied and human. They felt more present.”
Another student reported he’d had a flip phone, then returned to “the dark side.” He had recently switched off the smart phone, and again was using the flip phone. “You become more authentic when you’re not judging yourself and other people on social media.”
The students, though, also reported the negatives.
One missed having the phone to take high quality photos. Another missed not having ready access to their music library.
A couple students noted that most flip phones do not accommodate group chats. That makes it difficult to make plans.
Often services will have only one compatible flip phone, and it can be difficult and cost more to keep the same telephone number.
There are 2024 flip phones that incorporate personal WIFI, hot spots, and Bluetooth, Lane noted.
These offer benefits of technology without the dangers.
“We should value real life connections,” she said, “over warped social media connections”.
