Life offline

One of my running theories has been that as life increasingly becomes digital, a growing number of people will start to rebel against and reject it. Not in a luddite-type way, of course. But in the same way that people appreciate food over eating a menu.

Personally I’ve been a loyal offline reader. I subscribe to two newspapers and a weekly magazine for two reasons: first, despite the speed and abundance of ‘newsy’ information on the web, there really is no substitute for the work that actual career journalists put in. I say this not to kiss ass but because over the last decade I’ve been working with a string of writers, editors, reviewers, freelancers, and other media people.

Given how precariously expensive it is to run a print publication, the level of quality in writing is leagues above the average online publication. Most of the sites out there are either desperate for content and, often, unprofitable. (To offload the work they hire a lot of freelancers, who, not surprisingly, regularly hit me up for a job as well.) Traditional news organizations have suffered a great deal which has, for better or worse, allowed them to rethink their business models and clear their throats. And it’s working.

Second, offline news media offers a ritual that centers on a pause in the frantic hurry-up-and-go pace of the everyday. I realize how old I sound. But putting the phone away for 20 minutes and going through my reading routine is meditative. Much like micro-brewing and artisanal coffee, I expect technology at large to undergo a much-needed transformation and stop occupying the center of our daily lives.

On a more abstract level there is a palpable and growing anger against Big Tech. Just weeks after Amazon’s HQ2 idea was booted by New York, it was open season on Facebook at this year’s SxSW.

I believe this to be part of a growing technological disillusionment. In addition to the broader data issues, the general experience has fallen. Against better judgement, I ordered a $100 jacket recently, which took more than a month to arrive and when it did it was not at all what I expected. It was the wrong size, looked different in daylight than it had under meticulous photoshop on Instagram, and clearly only cost about $0.50 to produce.

Certainly, one shitty jacket from China is not enough evidence. But there clearly is a widening gap between the promise of the internet and online technologies, and what they actually deliver. Other examples include:

Verizon’s Unlimited data plans.

Facebook privacy rules.

Fyre Festival.

Uber’s semantics.

Food delivery apps.

Whatever HBO will look like after AT&T’s bean counters are done with it.

Like they have with big tobacco, people will eventually wake up and encourage each other to quit. Or better, never start.

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