Dear friends, dear fellow platform resistors—

I was just backstage at a daytime talk show, listening to my colleague Gabriela from Appstinence talk with Jon Haidt and Catherine Price about the phone-based childhood. I thought about myself growing up: I did know something was off, but the path to do something about it was not yet clear. In the last couple of years, though, there's been enough social consensus, and enough social support to start organizing a different life—one more sustainable than the internet-addled state we've all endured.

As our efforts weave together more tightly, that's proving to be the foundation of our nascent movement—erecting the infrastructure we need to beat Big Tech dependence. See below for new January events and a quick peek at February: an "ATTENTION INTERVENTION!" tomorrow followed by a lobbying session; a space to clean your computer and try dumbphones; and talks with heavy hitters like Tim Wu.

We're building a world where questions like "how do we delete?" become moot—where everyone can live autonomously away from commodification, pursuing the good on their terms. May our centers of gravity be far from the smartphone.

With endless excitement, yours beyond the screen—

—Nick

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January events (& a peek at Feb.)

Sat., Jan. 17 | Attention Intervention! (Flash Mob) @ 2 p.m., Wash. Sq. Park

This Saturday, a group of attention activists will be gathering near the Washington Square Park Arch to conduct a public intervention for ATTENTION ACTIVISM. The intervention will take place promptly at 3:03 p.m.

Much of SoRA's work hails from a proud line of artistic/political interventionists in public space, from the Situationists to the Order of the Third Bird. We'll draw on those traditions this Saturday, with a silent, en-masse PRACTICE meant to celebrate the democratic use of public space and the world-building powers of collective attention.

All are welcome—meet near the fountain at 2:45 for instructions. For more information, email nickplante@proton.me.

Sat., Jan. 17 | Letter Writing Soirée @ 5 p.m., East Village

Artist-organizer Amelia Gorman is hosting a letter writing session for tech policy lobbying, outreach to allies, and any other relevant correspondence you're due for.

Email ameliaagorman@gmail.com to join.

Sun., Jan. 18 | Appstinence ‘IRL Office Hours’ @ 2–5 p.m., telos.haus

Appstinence is doing our first IN-PERSON office hours this month!

Come by for FREE personal guidance on reclaiming your life from persuasive platforms. Get the low-down on de-platforming and using alternative devices; discover how to fill newly won free time (yay!), and learn ways to talk about all this with your friends and family.

All are welcome, so come even if you're delete-skeptical or just delete-curious.

Email henry_m@appstinence.org if you plan on joining—or feel free to drop in day of.

Sun., Jan. 18 | An Evening of Music Presented by Andy and August @ 7 p.m., TJ Byrnes

Original music into open jazz jam—join for a phone-free evening to start your week.

Hosted by tech resistance activist August Lamm and artist Andy Henley.

Tues., Jan. 20 | ATTENSITY! Launch Party @ 7 p.m., Judson Memorial Church

​Join D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt of the Friends of Attention for the launch of their new book, ATTENSITY! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement (Crown), “a stirring battle cry on behalf of our shared humanity against the forces that seek to diminish and degrade it" (Chris Hayes, author of The Sirens’ Call).

In a highly experiential evening, drawing on the work they do at their acclaimed Strother School of Radical Attention in Dumbo, Brooklyn (featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, on The Ezra Klein Show, and beyond), the Friends will lead the audience through exercises designed to help us reclaim our attention from the dehumanizing forces of brute instrumentalization—and re-enchant the world.

All the Friends' proceeds from the sales of Attensity! directly support the non-profit work of the Friends of Attention coalition and the School of Radical Attention.

Wed., Jan. 21 | Zing X Verci Phone-Free Café Night @ 6:30 p.m., Verci Flatiron

Short talk on the science, philosophy and practice behind intentional disconnection: "Zinging," cool disconnection experiences and an option to join the Zing Beta.

Free entry!

Wed., Jan. 21 | The Friends of Attention at SJNY @ 7 p.m.

From the Strother School of Radical Attention and the New York Philosophy Club comes a unique event designed to challenge and inspire! D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt of the Friends of Attention present their new book, Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement, a rallying cry to fight the commodification of human attention and re-enchant the world. Then join the Friends and the NYPC for a participatory and reflective inquiry into the practice and meaning of ATTENTION. The evening will be a chance to feel the power and beauty of shared time, sensory experience, and radical thought.

RSVP here!

Fri., Jan. 23 | Action Potluck @ 7 p.m., Crown Heights

We'll come together over shared food to discuss what is important to us and how we can address it collectively. We'll rebuild a muscle of exerting agency over the state of our shared worlds and combat the passivity our technology habituates us to.

Email Connor for a spot—griffin75006@proton.me.

Wed., Jan. 28 | Phone-Free Adelphi @ 6:30 p.m., Fort Greene

Screen-free night of creativity from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. We turn off our phones, work on something creative together, then talk about the experience.

Capped at 10 people. Please only come if you can stay the whole evening!

RSVP ASAP by emailing danmaxfox@gmail.com. Don't worry if you can't make it; there will be others!

Sat., Jan. 31 | Computer Care Café @ 3 p.m., Crown Heights

Computer Care Café is a spa for you and your device. Engage in a ritual cleansing of your device (inside and out), while learning about methods for building a more lucid relationship with your technology. Care for yourself, too, with tea, pastries, and some light spa treatments. Please bring a device you want to care for—this is particularly useful if you are setting up a new technology ecosystem for yourself.

So far, some participants will be setting up new light phones and flip phones; others will be reorganizing their laptops; you're welcome to use this space as you desire.

Hosted by kyle Barnes and Nick Plante. Email kyletuhr@gmail.com for address.

Mon., Feb. 2 | Break Up with Google @ 7 p.m., Wonderville

Google … it's not me; it's you. And the AI overviews.

Do you want to leave Google in 2025 but don't know where to start? Do you wish the process of moving your digital life over was a little less overwhelming?

This February, join Cache Me Outside and Cypurr Collective to break up with Google. Bring your laptop or phone and we'll lock in on alternate search tools, email services, browsers, migrating account data, removing ourselves from search results, and more. Facilitators on hand to help when you get stuck.

DJs, VJs, and live coders on open decks all night at our fave bar/arcade!

More info and RSVP here.

Tues., Feb. 3 | THE EXTRACTION ECONOMY @ 5:30 p.m., The Forum at Columbia

How did a small set of technology platforms rise to command our attention, our data, and our economy? What has this concentration of power cost us in terms of innovation, prosperity, and democratic possibility?

In his latest book, The Age of Extraction, Columbia Law School professor and former White House official Tim Wu contends that today’s dominant firms have mastered an extractive business model that pulls value upward—from users, workers, and entire markets—while eroding political freedoms and narrowing the space for shared prosperity.

Join us for "The Extraction Economy: Platforms, Power, and the Fight for Prosperity" on Tuesday, February 3, from 5:30 to 7:00pm at The Forum at Columbia University. This dynamic in-person conversation between Professor Wu and Julia Angwin, award-winning investigative journalist and founder of Proof News, will dig into how platform power has transformed whole sectors of the economy, how emerging AI systems may accelerate inequality, and what bold legal, institutional, and civic interventions are needed to build a more democratic digital future.

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Weekly resources

Every Sun. | CIRCLE TIME (Parallel Play) @ 4 p.m., Bushwick

You always want to ask people what they’re working on at the cafe? NOW YOU CAN! This is Circle Time. Sundays, BYOPP (bring your own passion project) and prepare to share.

Format: Intros → Focus Time → Optional show & tell

Hosted by Rebecca Lipsitch, who curates connection through public-space events and play with groups like How Do We Play and Street Lab.

Email rebecca.lipsitch@gmail.com for address and more info!

First and Third Sun. | Date with Détournement @ 9 p.m., Various Locations

Join public art projects that push back against alienating tech.

First and third Sundays.

sighren.ludd@proton.me if you want in.

Every Mon. | Awareness-Building Meditation @ 7 p.m., Greenpoint

We live in an era where everyone is categorizing each other, and themselves. And it’s not just the algorithms. It’s something inherent in our nature that has been amplified, that has existed for a long time within any human interaction. We want to understand ourselves, the moment we’re in, and we have so many people with “solutions,” “answers.” So why are we still lost? Maybe we aren’t asking the right questions.

I (Phil) ask: What does it mean to be connected in these times?

Spending less time scrolling is just a small piece of the work we need to do. Our meditation group is cultivating a richer sense of awareness together—space and clarity between thoughts, which leads to deeper connections and higher agency. We meet every Monday at 7 p.m. Join for one session or for all of them—email Phil: nguy.philip@gmail.com.

Every Tues. | Technocritical Writers Room @ 7 p.m., Brooklyn

Logan Lane of the Luddite Club is Launching writers room for techno critical writers to talk about different approaches with the intention of writing in as many literary languages as we can.

Email loganlane1@proton.me to join.

Every Tues. | Event Facilitator Training @ 5 p.m., 222 Bowery

STARTING 1/27—Do you have a phone-free event in mind but don’t know where to host it? Do you have an event that’s just not attracting people like it should? Do you want to do more hands-on organizing in the tech resistance movement?

Email cowboyscience@proton.me for more.

Every Thurs. and Sun. | Appstinence Office Hours, online

Drop in for FREE personal guidance on reclaiming your life from persuasive platforms. Get the low-down on de-platforming and using alternative devices; discover how to fill newly won free time (yay!), and learn ways to talk about all this with your friends and family.

Thursdays at 7 p.m. & Sundays at 1 p.m. EST: http://www.appstinence.org/appstinenceacademy.

To get on the list, email henry_m@appstinence.org.