ORGANIC TECH
Time For Another Option
I was born in 1980. That means I am from the last generation born into a world without computer technology. Not just born. We lived, for a long time, in this world, the old world — no internet, no laptops, no social media, no GPS, no phones. Our lives were more similar to all those who came before us than all those who would come after. I was out of college by the time I sent an email and I didn’t have a Facebook page until I was in my thirties. In fifty years they’ll interview us, kids gathered ‘round, sitting cross-legged on the floor listening in horror and fascination. What was it like? And I will say, for the first twenty years of my life, I didn’t use any computer technology.
We slowly transitioned from the last people of the old world to the first victims of the new one...
Then it all changed. I remember the first time I heard of “the internet”. It was around 1995. My technologically inclined friend, Max, was in something called a “chat room”, an imaginary place on his parents computer in a real room upstairs in their real house. Immediately, I didn’t like it. I thought these new machines would steal our humanity. The instinctual skepticism only served to put me behind the trend. But also, I was kinda right. Eventually, like nearly everyone from my generation besides the fringiest detractors, I was co-opted. We slowly transitioned from the last people of the old world to the first victims of the new one, skeptics and enthusiasts alike. Now, my weekly screen time report tells me, each Sunday when I get one of many inevitable notifications, that I spend on average three hours a day or so looking at my phone, and I am sure some of your screen time reports are much, much worse. Ironically, I am now starting a tech company. I think people who distrust an industry should be the ones running it. People who distrust the criminal justice system should have a hand in shaping it. People who distrust drug companies should run drug companies, and so on.
While a lot of people are betting on the Metaverse and cryptoand going deeper into the wormhole, we are betting on the opposite — betting that people want another option, at least.
From unimaginable election results to cults of misinformation to the less obvious slow melt into our phones, we seem to be coming to an agreement that the last ten years have basically been a techno-disaster. And it’s time for another option. Think of it as organic tech, cruelty and manipulation free. When we realized TV dinners and canned beans were bad for us, there was an organic food movement. People still eat McDonalds (myself included), but a lot of people choose not to (also myself included, most of the time). While a lot of people are betting on the Metaverse and crypto and going deeper into the wormhole, we are betting on the opposite — betting that people want another option, at least. We no doubt have the technology to do these things, but that doesn’t make them an inevitability, or a “good” idea, even. Predicting the future is hard, even for the smartest people best suited to try. What we think will happen almost never does, and things we could not conceive of materialize from thin air and change everything.
But we aren’t trying to predict the future. We just want to give people the power to have a healthy relationship with technology, to use their phones without being manipulated by algorithms and ads. Footprint is awesome. It will make your life easier and better in a lot of ways. You’ll see. But we don’t want you using it compulsively. It sounds crazy to hear a company tell you to not use their product too much. What’s crazy is that it sounds crazy. Because it’s not crazy at all. It’s amazing and makes perfect sense.
Learn more and sign-up for Footprint here.
Power to the people! Power to the people! Power to the people!
