It's a quote that's often misattributed to Gandhi. There doesn't seem to be a consensus on who said it, but that doesn't make it any less of a good quote. And it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately and trying to make some changes with it in mind.

“I wish more people would __________.”

“If more people would __________, I would, too.”

There a lot of things that I'm not doing that I wish I was doing, because they just make sense to me and I feel that they're good and right. But I don't do them, or I give up when I try to do them, because they're hard. Or nobody else is doing them. Or any number of other excuses I come up with.

But my conscience nags me. It's relentless. And maybe some of the discontent I feel is because I'm not doing as much as I could be doing to better align my actions and behaviors with my values. Maybe it's time for me to start trying to live the kind of life I wish I could live.

Lent has already been a time of spiritual change for me. I intend to keep working on that area of my life, but I've started making some temporal changes, too, and I will be sharing my experiences in all areas over the coming blog posts.

In this post I'll share some changes I'm making with regards to the technology I personally own and use, starting with my personal computers.

Aside from the company-issued laptop I use for work, I currently own three desktop computers and two laptops:

• HP Z240 Tower Workstation
• Acer TC-1760 Mini Tower
• 2019 iMac
• 2017 MacBook Air
• HP Laptop

I feel I need to reduce this list down to one machine instead of five, and I have chosen to keep the HP Laptop for a number of reasons. It's lightweight and versatile. I can use it in my home office or on the go. It takes up much less desk space than a desktop. It's much newer than the MacBook Air (which is long past its official support from Apple) and has much better specs.

I've also installed Pop!_OS on the HP laptop and have committed to using Linux as my primary personal computing OS going forward to reduce my dependence on proprietary non-free software (more on this in an upcoming post).

The HP Z240 workstation was my streaming PC for over a year and did the job admirably. But I recently acquired the Acer mini tower as its upgrade/replacement. I feel I can let both of these go because I've decided to stop streaming on Twitch and stream exclusively on PeerTube (more on this in an upcoming post) with a greatly simplified and less resource-intensive approach compared to what I was doing on Twitch.

I also am fine getting rid of the desktops because they tempt me too much to play video games, which I enjoy playing, but they tend to suck me in, make me lose track of time, and neglect more important things in my life.

The 2019 iMac is a fairly recent acquisition (it was given to me for free) and while it is still a very nice machine – especially with its beautiful 5k Retina display – I find that I prefer the more versatile wall-mounted dual monitor setup I have in my home office, which frees up more desk space. And I can use them for work and personal use, connecting them to either my work laptop or personal laptop as needed.

Another reason I want to let go of the Macs is because I would like to reduce my use of and dependence upon Apple products as much as possible. As with other Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, etc., I don't trust Apple to do what's in the best interest of their customers – or humanity, in general.

This week I shifted to using the HP Laptop exclusively and will be looking for ways to sell or re-home the other computers, preferably to people who truly need them. Doing so will help me to simplify and streamline how I use computers and reduce the amount of proprietary “Big Tech” products I use. The reduced clutter and cables in my office are going to be most welcome, too.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 160) #tech #DigitalMinimalism #HomeOffice #laptop #intentionism

I had a 720p flat screen TV in there with a Roku, blu-ray player, VCR, VHS tape rewinder, and some VHS tapes. I moved all of that into my office. I put the devices on a small TV stand, and the tapes into one of the cubes in my Kallax shelves.

I moved one of the three desks (IKEA tables which I had positioned to form a large L-shaped desk) from my office into my bedroom where the TV used to be.

When I want to read, study, write, or just think without being distracted by or tempted to use a device with a screen, the bedroom desk will be my go-to place of refuge.

I may take devices to the bedroom desk with me when I need them for something intentional – like using the internet for research or study, or listening to a podcast – but I will not keep any chargers in there. When I'm done using them, all devices will be returned to my office, which is where they will “live” from now on.

I hope this will help me to be more intentional about how I use technology at home, and I look forward to breaking the habits of checking my phone first thing in the morning, using my phone in bed, and watching TV in bed.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 122) #tech #intentionism #HomeOffice #LessConvenient #writing

The second season moves fast. It has to – they had to condense 4 more seasons of material into one. It's brilliant, but the first season is still my favorite. A lot of people didn't like the pacing of Season 1, but I absolutely love it. The intentionality, the deliberateness of it. So much is conveyed in the drawn-out scenes and moments without speech. The music and thoughtful cinematography in those moments tell important parts of the story that action sequences and dialogue could never tell. They give space for the viewers to contemplate what they've seen and heard. They allow room for imagination.

It's so compelling and meaningful because it's so relatable. And it's also terrifying for the same reason. Just replace some fictional names with some real-world ones, change a few minor details, and many of the sub plots and story arcs of the series could be real-life stories that have played out and are playing out right now.

The stories also apply in different contexts. As I once again reevaluate my relationship with technology, one part of Nemik's Manifesto stood out to me this time.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

It got me thinking, what are acts of technological insurrection?

Any time we choose to use a piece of technology that is not controlled, tracked, or surveilled by Big Tech, it's an act of technological insurrection. Any time we choose to resist the urge to look at a screen for no reason, it's an act of technological insurrection. And no matter how small the act, it pushes our lines forward.

How awful is the current state of things that writing this blog post using my own brain and my own fingers, without the assistance of an AI LLM chat bot, is now an act of technological insurrection?

2025 started strong for me, and then, for reasons I'm still trying to understand and sort out, I took an emotional, mental, and spiritual nosedive to finish out this year.

I have never felt so uncertain, confused, and directionless in my life.

Whether a symptom or a cause, I've been using technology most of this year without restraint and without intent.

I want 2026 to be different. I need it to be different.

My technological insurrection resumes now.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 121) #tech #TV #intentionism #DigitalMinimalistm #AI

I don't even know who said it first, but it's a good axiom: the best things in life aren't things.

In other words, there are more important things than money and possessions.

I'm realizing that I've been stuck yet again in a cycle of obsessing over things like finances and gadgets and technology and collecting music.

And I've been neglecting things of most importance. Like connecting and spending time with family and friends in real life. Taking care of my mental, physical, and spiritual health. Taking time to be still – to recognize and appreciate the beauty and goodness in life.

We can't take any physical stuff with us when we're done here. But we take who we are. Our experiences. What we've learned.

We can't avoid the need for things in this life. Food, clothing, shelter. It's part of mortality.

But physical things are temporary. Fleeting. Finite. They can't bring true happiness or lasting joy.

Focus on what's really important. Things that matter. Things that bring real meaning and purpose.

Focus on things that aren't things.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 112) #life #family #health #intentionism #mentalHealth

My desire to write flows from taking time each day to contemplate, read, and study. Before Lent, I had filled every free moment with mindless distractions and entertainments, so I had almost no desire to write.

But now I feel almost compelled to write. Not only to record and share what I'm thinking and learning, but as an exercise that helps crystallize and organize those thoughts. It's similar to “thinking out loud” when you're talking through something with another person, except this is thinking on paper? Thinking in text?

This blog is an excellent outlet for my writing, but I have also taken up keeping a personal journal again, too. This past Sunday I re-subscribed to Day One and wrote an actual journal entry for the first time in almost two years.

And I reactivated my IFTTT applet that automatically adds posts from this blog as journal entries in my Day One journal, so everything I write here is captured for posterity.

I'm hoping I can keep the distractions in check permanently this time. Although they require time and intention, I have found writing, reading, contemplation, and other such activities to be illuminating and more fulfilling than playing a video game or mindlessly scrolling social media.

Discuss...

#writing #intentionism

I have to remind myself that this is a habit that formed long before I owned my first smartphone over a decade ago. Even before my parents bought our first family computer (a Pentium 266 MHz running Windows 95). Television has been a fixture my entire life. I watched it daily growing up. I have been spending so much time staring at TVs, monitors, and displays of one kind or another for about forty years.

But for two years of my life, screen time was the exception, not the rule. From December of 2000 to December of 2002, I served as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Brazil Santa Maria Mission. During that time I was expected to refrain from watching TV and movies or listening to the radio. There were exceptions, of course, like church media or occasional holiday treats like watching The Prince of Egypt or a Disney animated film – with special permission from the mission president. But we did not own TVs or radios and definitely not computers. Our apartments were not furnished with them. We did listen to music, but only approved kinds – church music or classical, mostly. Smartphones didn't exist, and cell phones were rare and expensive – we used pay phones.

For the first year of my mission, I corresponded with my family via snail mail. It took two weeks for letters to be delivered. The second year, we used email. Once a week we would go to an internet cafe and pay probably too much money for thirty minutes of computer time to read and write emails. There was also a stretch of seven months when I served in the mission office as the financial secretary, and I used a computer often in that role for administrative purposes – we didn't have an Internet connection. But as a percentage of my total waking hours during those two years, screen time was drastically lower than the years before or since.

I don't think I was worse off for having missed TV shows, movies, and popular music that came out during my missionary years. Granted, I was committed to a work and ministry that accounted for most of my time. But I believe that screen time outside of the rare instances I described would have been too much of a distraction for me to be an effective missionary. It would have been too tempting a diversion. And I think it would have also negatively impacted me spiritually and made me less receptive to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.

After my two years of full-time missionary service, I returned home. It was time to focus on school, my career, and starting a family. I didn't have to follow missionary standards and rules anymore. Some of them wouldn't apply to or make sense in post-missionary life.

But I have sometimes wondered: why shouldn't I continue to follow the media standards I followed as a missionary?

If I wouldn't have watched a certain movie or TV show as a missionary – even as a rare exception – do I need to watch it now? If a particular movie or TV show or song would have been too distracting or spirit-numbing to watch or listen to as a missionary, why would it be okay for me to watch or listen to it now? Should I not strive for the same level of spirituality? The same focus on Jesus Christ and His work?

I'm not planning to get rid of my TV, radio, or smartphone. They can do a tremendous amount of good when used properly and intentionally. But I am going to be much more careful about the media I choose to consume.

The Thirteenth Article of Faith states:

If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

When considering media to consume, I want to develop a habit of asking myself: “would it have been right for me to watch or listen to this as a missionary? Why or why not? If not, does it hold to the standard of being “virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy?” If I'm still in doubt, I will err on the side of avoiding it.

Another good litmus test is found in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, which provides the following guidance:

Seek that which uplifts, inspires, and invites the Spirit. As you make choices about what to watch, read, listen to, or participate in, think about how it makes you feel. Does it invite good thoughts? Stay away from anything that mocks sacred things or that is immoral. Don’t participate in anything that dulls your judgment or sensitivity to the Spirit, such as violence, alcohol, and harmful drugs. Have the courage to turn off a video or game, walk out of a movie or a dance, change your music, or turn away from anything that is not consistent with the Spirit.

I have already been trying to cut back drastically on the quantity of screen time in my life, but I need to also focus on the quality. This will not be an easy life change for me to make in a media-saturated society. I may have to give up some entertaining media I have cherished for decades. I will likely soon be out of touch with a lot of the popular shows and movies and won't be able to contribute to conversations about them. But I feel it's the right thing for me and I'm going to try it. In time, perhaps, I won't have the urge to stare at a screen for any reason or no reason at all.

Discuss...

#media #intentionism #LessConvenient #faith #ChurchOfJesusChrist

It's not that I don't like the Day One app, and I'm sure for many people it's been just what they've needed to make it convenient and stay motivated to keep a journal. But it has devolved into more of a chore and “journal keeping by proxy” than an intentional effort on my part to record what's happening in my life.

By a chore, I mean the “gamification” and Daily Prompt aspects of the app. Like many apps these days, they've implemented a daily streak counter to help motivate you to create at least one entry every day. The idea is that you will want to keep your streak going, so you'll find something to write about or record every day. The thing is, you can cheat. If you miss a day – or even several days – you can create entries for those days after the fact and it will count towards your streak. I did that several times just so I could keep my streak going. So I guess it worked as it was intended, but I didn't create entries because I had anything I particularly wanted to record, I did it for the streak.

Another way I found to keep my streak going without being very intentional about it was to connect this blog and my Mastodon social media account to Day One via their handy-dandy IFTTT integration. So anything I post here or on social media automatically gets recorded in my Day One journal as an entry. So I guess that's good, because it captures my thoughts and interests and such as posted on social media. But again, it's been a way to “game the streak” and delude myself into thinking I'm keeping a journal.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's good that I'm capturing and recording anything about my life. But here's the thing. My blog and social media are public-facing. So my journal is not getting the complete picture about me, my hopes, fears, thoughts, dreams, etc.

Why not just be more intentional and make time to create more Day One entries directly? I would, except I recently decided to cut back drastically on how much time I spend staring at a screen every day. I originally focused on media – particularly video games, news, and entertainment. But it's screen time, in general, that is my overall concern.

The less time I can spend staring at a screen, the better. Because any time I'm on a laptop or looking at my phone, I have habits to distract myself and randomly poke around that have become so ingrained as to be subconscious. I need to break those habits, and the only way to do so is to significantly limit screen time.

This past week I made an effort to keep off screens in my free time and I noticed an improvement in my mood and ability to concentrate. I even got better sleep. I want to keep that going. So I need to find fewer reasons to look at a screen.

I'm going to keep Day One going – it's an excellent way to automatically capture my blog and social media, and jot down a quick entry when I have the urge. But I'm going to try using a pen-and-paper journal again to fill in the things Day One isn't fully capturing and avoid having to stare at a glowing rectangle any longer than I have to.

Discuss...

#intentionism #LessConvenient #media

In this talk, President Nelson taught:

What does it mean to overcome the world? It means overcoming the temptation to care more about the things of this world than the things of God. It means trusting the doctrine of Christ more than the philosophies of men. It means delighting in truth, denouncing deception, and becoming “humble followers of Christ.” It means choosing to refrain from anything that drives the Spirit away. It means being willing to “give away” even our favorite sins.

Now, overcoming the world certainly does not mean becoming perfect in this life, nor does it mean that your problems will magically evaporate—because they won’t. And it does not mean that you won’t still make mistakes. But overcoming the world does mean that your resistance to sin will increase. Your heart will soften as your faith in Jesus Christ increases. Overcoming the world means growing to love God and His Beloved Son more than you love anyone or anything else.

This past weekend, in the April 2023 General Conference, Elder Evan A. Schmutz elaborated on what it means to trust the doctrine of Christ. This part in particular resonated with me in light of the changes I have been trying to make recently with respect to the quantity and quality of media I consume:

If we trust the doctrine of Christ, we will set aside the shiny things of the world so that we can focus on the Redeemer of the world. We will limit or eliminate time spent on social media, digital games, wasteful, excessive, or inappropriate entertainment, the allure of this world's treasures and vanities, and any other activities that give place to the false traditions and misguided philosophies of men. It is only in Christ we find truth and lasting fulfillment.

Countless times have I succumbed to “the allure of this world's treasures and vanities.” In the moment, they provide entertainment, distraction, even a sense of purpose or belonging. But not only are the world's treasures and vanities unfulfilling, they are fleeting.

Recreation and relaxation are important for our health. But if I am honest with myself, much of my video watching and video gaming screen time has been excessive. I think of just one of the video games I was addicted to in the past. I have spent the equivalent of more than three months of my life – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – playing this game. And aside from a few fun memories playing this game with my brothers, I have nothing in the real world to show for it. That's time I can never get back. Time I could have spent learning a new skill, developing a new talent, volunteering in the community, strengthening my relationships with family and friends, reading, writing, praying, studying, etc. And how many other video games have I been addicted to over the years! How many TV shows and movies have I binged! Collectively, I have lost years of time to these hollow pursuits.

I must change. I must be more moderate and intentional in how I use my time for entertainment, recreation, relaxation, and otherwise.

Because at the end of my mortal life, I don't want to be known and remembered for the world's treasures I accumulated or the world's vanities I pursued. That's not the kind of legacy I want to leave behind.

Discuss...

#faith #ChurchOfJesusChrist #life #media #intentionism #DigitalMinimalism

But I have the same concerns about AI as I have with virtual reality and the “Metaverse”, social media, smartphones – media and computer technology in general. We talk a lot about what we gain by embracing these technologies, but we talk too little about what we might be losing or giving up.

I recently finished reading The Good Neighbor, the biography of Fred Rogers. The following excerpt (p. 341-342) echoes my concerns:

Over the years, Fred Rogers grew fearful that the dominance of television and the computer would overwhelm the simple human values he held most dear.

Excerpts from two university speeches he made in midcareer capture his concern: “It really has been very effectively communicated in many circles that computers and their relatives are more clever, are much quicker, make fewer mistakes and are more to be valued than human beings. But without human beings there never would have been a computer or anything else that we call advanced technology. That's something I like to help children remember: that, no matter what the machine may be, it was people who thought it up and made it, and it's people who make it work.

“And as we . . . find ourselves being concerned about the conditions that make life on Earth possible, we will recognize the need to make people more important than things, and we will join hands with young and old alike by putting our dominant energies into developing a sane design for living.”

He even suggested, only somewhat tongue-in-cheek, one answer to all this complexity: Turn off the machine. In an appearance at the opening of a Fred Rogers exhibit at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum in 1998, he said, simply: “I've always said the best time for our program is once it's over and the television is turned off.”

Technology has advanced significantly in the twenty years since Fred Rogers died, and his concerns have become only more relevant. It's not the technology itself that is the issue, it is how we use it and what we do with it that matters.

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic we relied heavily on video call technology to stay connected and interact with one another safely and over great distances. My siblings, father, and I live in four different states. In 2020 we started doing weekly video calls with one another, and we have enjoyed it so much that we have kept them going ever since.

However, video calls are still a poor substitute for meeting with others in-person. Since 2018, I have worked from home either part of the time or full time. And while I am thankful that video calls exist and allow me to have the flexibility to work from home and meet virtually with my colleagues, I still travel across the country to visit the office every three or four months. Why? Because there is no substitute for in-person interaction and connection. There is a social and cultural aspect to being in the office that is very hard to cultivate with full-remote employees. Some managers of remote workers try to build some social time into virtual meetings. Mine does not. Social interaction with work colleagues fosters a sense of belonging and camaraderie that you just can't get in a 15 minute daily video call.

Likewise, the weekly video calls with dad and siblings are great, but if time and distance weren't an issue, I'd visit them in-person often, too.

#tech #intentionism #LessConvenient #AI

I have listened to podcasts off and on in the past, but I don't listen to them with any regularity. As with any other kind of media, the quality and content can vary from educational and inspiring on one end to mind-numbing garbage on the other. Most of the podcasts I have listened to in the past have been produced by my church – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – although I have listened to and enjoyed others.

I will treat podcasts the same as I will treat television: two hours or less per week for podcasts intended to entertain or distract, no time limits on clearly educational or religious podcasts.

Also, I don't listen to or watch overtly political content at all. It has become too toxic and contentious.

#media #DigitalMinimalism #intentionism