Luddite protest in New York

From the latest episode of Techtonic with Mark Hurst I learned that on September 27, a crowd of mostly young neo-Luddites marched in Manhattan, demonstrating outside the Tesla store and the Apple store. Hurst was there to record the event, where he interviewed Logan Lane (yes, as in The Luddite Dispatch). The event sounds like it was fun, creative, and social; imagine a cross between QWERTYFEST and a political march. Here's an interesting report on the event.

I highly recommend listening to the episode. The highlight for me was Lane's report that chapters of the Luddite Club have sprung up in some 25 communities and campuses. Go Luddites!

 

The Luddite Dispatch on typewriters

The latest issue of The Luddite Dispatch (yes, those Luddites) consists of a typewriter story by Logan Lane,  illustrated by Lily Conner.

You can read this lovely story for free—but you'll have to wait for it to be delivered on paper. Subscribe to The Luddite Dispatch here.

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.)