A gleam of hope: meet the Luddite Club
I don’t need to tell you why this moment is so challenging. But permit me just one example: The tech billionaire who, it was recently revealed, is in frequent touch with Vladimir Putin was put on the phone with president Zelensky, soon after joining the family photo of the returning occupant of the White House. This was just before the announcement of a new government department, DOGE, named after said billionaire’s favorite meme-inspired cryptocurrency. As Matt Levine put it:
the president of the United States announced a new government department (or, fine, whatever, vague blue-ribbon commission with a name that makes it sound like a government department) whose name acronyms to the name of a meme token that the president’s big financial backer — who will run the department — promotes online and presumably owns a lot of. And so the token goes up.
The joke is on all of us. Whatever the reasons for people's votes, no matter whom they voted for, soon enough something is going to become painfully clear: we're all at the mercy of the tech billionaires now. There’s some sort of realignment happening, right now, that looks less like a partisan battle and more like an emerging tech oligarchy. The fight ahead isn't about traditional left vs. right differences, it's about Big Tech versus the rest of us.
As I wrote in A happy day for Big Tech just after the election, we're headed into some disturbing times. Amidst the daily indications of tech's overreach, we need to find some reasons to hope. And last week I came across one.
Meet the Luddite Club
Last week on Techtonic I welcomed three teenage guests – Sasha, Jameson, and Lucy – for a live in-studio interview at WFMU. All three are members of the Luddite Club, a Brooklyn-based group of high schoolers who have sworn off smartphones and social media.
Stream the show (or download it as a podcast)
You might have seen coverage of the club in a New York Times story, ‘Luddite’ Teens Don’t Want Your Likes (Dec 15, 2022). Since then the club has continued to meet - sometimes in the Brooklyn Public Library, “which is like a religious place for us,” as one of the members told me.
I was struck by the maturity of all three of the young Luddites. One of them explained how they don’t judge the choices of their schoolmates, almost all of whom use devices and social media constantly:
We're against the abuse of technology. We also recognize that sometimes it's technology abusing people, about how these algorithms have been methodically tested to especially target young developing minds . . . I would never judge somebody for, I guess, falling prey to such a big evil system.
With less time devoted to screens, the teens have more time for healthier activities. One talked about reading Technopoly by Neil Postman, a classic of tech criticism. At another point, a member talked about a whole slew of new hobbies:
I'm just taking a more active role in my life. What that looks like for me is, I have a bunch of different hobbies and I'm trying out new things every week, but mostly just creating. I have so much time to write things, draw things, paint things, sew things, sculpt things, and also take classes in New York City. There's so many great free resources for high school students.
I left the interview more optimistic for the future. These thoughtful, social, well-read, intellectually curious teenagers are showing that Big Tech can be resisted. Despite all the other worrying headlines, there are young people among us who are charting a healthier way forward. There is hope.
Again, you can stream the show or see the episode page.
For more reading
Here are some more resources on tech, parents, and kids:
• How Teens and Parents Approach Screen Time (Pew Research, March 11, 2024):
“Most teens at least sometimes feel happy and peaceful when they don’t have their phone, but 44% say this makes them anxious. Half of parents say they have looked through their teen’s phone.”
• How Tech Created a ‘Recipe for Loneliness’ (NYT, Nov 10, 2024): “Technology and loneliness are interlinked, researchers have found, stoked by the ways we interact with social media, text messaging and binge-watching.”
• Good Reports → Resources for parents and teens on tech: I have posted a Good Reports entry with more resources on our members-only Forum. Join Creative Good to get full access.
I do hope you’ll join me at Creative Good, a community finding ways to navigate these strange times.
Until next time,
-mark
Mark Hurst, founder, Creative Good
Email: mark@creativegood.com
Podcast/radio show: techtonic.fm
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