I realised I haven't sat down to listen to a music album since years. I am fairly certain it is because I have managed to take leisure out of my day, completely. And whatever leisure I have, is taken up by YouTube shorts and others like those. It is also similar with reading, watching movies or TV series for me. I understand that (social) media companies have managed to break into our minds, by making their content curation categorically addictive to spend time in it; even when I am not looking at short-form content on my phone, I am still looking at my phone. Few weeks ago, I opened my phone, and realised I was just scrolling through my phone's homescreen without a reason. The withdrawal from for short-form content addiction is fidgeting with my phone.
When I was young, my Father absolutely hated the idea of a cellphone until a friend presented him a cellphone. As a kid, I did not understand why he abhorred the idea of having a cellphone; it came with so much convenience. And you could also occasionally play games on it. And I still do not understand the crusade against screen time. As if, not having screen time would magically save our minds. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that convenience is bad. Given my background, some days I still wonder how I can just open the tap and take a warm shower, 24 hours a day. Or never have to worry about electricity outage. Running water, and reliable energy infrastructure was not a given where I grew up. An inordinate amount of time was spent trying to live around those inconveniences.
I (could) pay a gym to keep our muscles healthy, because I don't have to carry water up and down the house (anymore), hence, a more inconvenient lifestyle would be healthier. I am starting to have problems with this analogy. I cannot agree that having a smartphone for all sort of convenience is a bad idea. I also cannot entirely see how having intellectual work being easier with LLMs is a bad idea. Neither is endless stream of things to look at is a bad for our attention spans. I do see my mind and body is atrophying in this world of convenience, but not having convenience is not an answer. I think the answer is agency and being able to tangibly feeling its effects after one exert one's agency onto their environment.
This is also why being on the road is so very liberating for me1, not because I lack convenience; and it is surely not freedom2. But my actions have almost immediate consequences, tangible and real. Any sort of agency I exert on my environment, give me tangible feedback. Skipping breakfast, very real effect. Taking rest, even realer. I think the problem with our overly convenient lives, is that we are not participating in enough activities where we have enough agency.