Was typing up a long didactic (bordering on pedantic?) reply to Karnage's note this morning, as to what can be done about smart phone addiction...

I ended up discarding it, even as I was several paragraphs deep, because I just lost the "juice" and didn't feel like finishing, but it was kind of a shame because my points were good and it was helping me get my thoughts in order. I felt like there was no point in putting in any more effort to a post that no one would read, but now I really regret it.

So, in the spirit of the original post and to make up for my hasty act of self-denigration, a quick summary of my thoughts:

Phones are status symbols, and our attachment to them stems primarily from this. Sure there's a neuro-chemcial, instant gratification element to them, but I think that gets over emphasized compared to the very primordial need of humans to use their social networks to flex on each other and thus establish themselves in the hierarchy.

Without a massive shift in class consciousness whereby the elites opt for alternative signs of power in order to deprive the commoners from their little power simulacra, it seems unlikely that the phone gets ditched by anyone. In fact, because the phone does allow elites to actually perpetuate networks of power, of both individuals and enterprises, they have no incentive to ditch it, and the plebs being the target of the enterprises and eager to imitate their masters are doubly incentivised to keep using it!

I think the Bitcoiner's reflex of just "opting out" is a good middle ground that could help the average person stay safe and sane in the dangerous social media landscape, while not regressing out of the powerful electronic networks that are such an important means of generating hope, in a world that increasingly struggles to do so.

Anyways, a tiny sketch on a massive topic that needs to stay in the front of our minds, because the phone is very much an ambivalent object.