I’m Entering My Curmudgeon Era

Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash

My current project: I’ve been dusting off the old hard drives with my ripped CD collection and loading them into an iPod. A 20-year-old piece of tech with its click wheel intact, no WiFi, and no algorithm feeding me recommendations I didn’t ask for. The result: I’ve started listening to music — actually listening to it — in a way I haven’t in years. Giving it my attention. Not taking it for granted, not treating it like day old shrimp at a discount buffet.

And it’s not just the iPod. I’ve been turning my phone off for extended periods, feeling that strange mix of liberation and disobedience that comes with rejecting the default. I’ve been opting out in small ways. Taking back space where I can. Getting offline. Writing notes by hand. Watching DVDs, instead of paying Disney+ and Netflix their growing, grasping monthly fees.

And I’ve been thinking: maybe this is my Curmudgeon Era.

Not in the nostalgic, “things were better in my day” way.

More in the “I refuse to be gaslit by modernity” way. I refuse to pretend that constant connectivity has made us happier. I refuse to buy into the idea that infinite scrolling is anything but digital debt — time spent, nothing gained.

I love technology. I love the Internet. But I hate what’s been done to it.