Friday, December 16, 2022

Logan Lane and the Luddite Club

Meet a young leader of the insurgency.


A recent New York Times story introduces the Luddite Club, founded by teenager Logan Lane of Brooklyn. She decided to turn off her iPhone during the pandemic, lived for months without any phone at all, and now carries only a flip phone (a concession to her parents). Her friends have joined her in "making the flip," and the movement is spreading.

What substitutes for TikTok? Boethius, Du Bois, and Dostoevsky.

Listen to an interview with Logan here. She lucidly explains how going "Luddite" has helped her with school, sleep, friendship, reading, concentration, and "hanging out with yourself." This interview is especially recommended to parents of teens.

And yes: Logan incorporates a typewriter into her healthy life.


It doesn't have to end, Logan! Not if someone founds Analog College ...

Of course, my impulse to share this online immediately is a symptom of my own disease. I look forward to my next opportunity for a digital detox, which may last for the second half of 2023, once I'm done with my current administrative position and get a semester off.

(PS, 2024: Logan now attends Oberlin.)

9 comments:

  1. Great to hear about teens that find life beyond digital devices.

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  2. I just watched a program yesterday about the feature phone revolution (otherwise known as dumbphones). I was truly surprised by the very large growth in sales these products are enjoying. The sales or smartphones on the other hand are actually in decline these days. The biggest market for feature phones consists of people in the age range of 25 - 35. At this point it seems that older adults actually struggle more when it comes to things like technology infiltration and social media addiction.

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  3. you know, mister P, the one to start analog college will have to be YOU (you have never seen my smirk but i assure you it's spectacular). also, a whole semester off? that's prime book-writin' time!

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    1. Oh, I'll be writin', all right!

      I would love to found Analog College. Would also love to have the half-billion or so it takes to get a college launched these days. I'd better start playing the lottery.

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    2. if you win, can i be the professor of zen? each semester the class goes to a prison as i teach something weird like "truth is temporary" to the prisoners. then we sit for 40 minutes. then i'd answer all questions with "i don't know." yeah. that would be sweet.

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  4. You know nothing good happens when a bunch of kids gather in the woods. Look at her shirt. The girl is admitting to being mentally ill. She and her movement are dangerous.

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    1. I'll allow that comment to be published assuming that it was meant in the spirit of irony and satire. (BPL = Boston Public Library.)

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