Understanding my Choices:
The Analog Trend and Curbing Compulsive Consumption
03-04-2026
Vessel on the Ocean
I am a vessel on the ocean
-engine off-
Being pushed, pulled, and tossed - by the waves around me
I have been taking on water
- so long -
It's curious... Why haven't I gone under yet?
I don't want to capsize. I don't want to be pushed or tossed anymore.
It's time to find a bucket -
It's time to start the engine -
It's time to drive the boat -
- and actually GO somewhere.
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Greetings fellow travelers of the digital plane! I hope you find comfort at this stop along your journey.
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For the past few years I have been taking steps to make my life less screen-driven and more me-driven. I started this journey sometime around 2021 and ramped it up in 2025.
There are many loosely connected choices I have made that have improved my life collectively by leaps and bounds. But ... I have been feeling lost recently. The de-digitizing trend going on right now has sparked valid criticism and analysis of de-digitizing behaviors and choices. For example, the analog trend has sparked a wave of consumerism for new products that claim to fix your life - expensive dumb phones, trendy MP3 players, fancy journals, bricking devices, and anything else people can put a price tag on. I also see a concerning risk of virtue signaling in the analog trend content.
In this blog post I want to solidify my thoughts about what I'm actually trying to do. I need to do this to understand my purpose and drive my current actions. I don't want to get caught in a trend; I want to improve my life and choose to live it to the fullest.
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What I've Done so far relating to my "Digital Cleansing"
Changes in Habits:
-
- Reading books for fun
- Marking up my Bible
- "Thinking" through penning
- Periodic YouTube fasts
- Using art to relax - See this video by Kathleen Illustrated that inspired me: Crafting Video
- Website development and pixel art
- Library visits for education and entertainment
- Walking in parks during my lunch break
-
- App limits and time blocks that I can't control
- Removing the news feed from my task bar (Windows)
- Removing the news feed from Explorer on my work computer and personal computer
**While writing this post, a content creator I like posted this video that finally gave me a word to represent what I was trying to do: Decenteralize Phone Video
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- Alarm Clock
- Watch
- Wall Calendars
- Paper Planner
- Paper Grocery List
- Graph Paper Notebooks
- Sharpie Gel Pens
- Sticky Notes
- Living Room Whiteboard
- Digital Audio Player (MP3 player)
- Digital audio collection (from Bandcamp)
- DVD and Blue-ray Player
- DVD, Blue-ray, and CD collections
- Digital Camera
- 3DS and game collection
- Handheld Radio
**I started using a bag inspired by this Shameless Nerd video: The Bag Video. This is the most recent version of my everyday carry bag I want to make. I have had trouble in the past putting too many things in it where it was too heavy for me to want to bring it everywhere. I have paired it down to these essentials:
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- Water Bottle
- Notebook and Pen
- Book
- Earbuds
- MP3 Player
- Reusable Grocery Bags
- Digital Camera
My Thoughts and Conclusions
Simply taking the time to write these out opened my eyes. I came up with the following thoughts about why I'm doing this and what I want to accomplish:
-
1.) To Take back my Time - The addictive nature of my phone has stolen precious life minutes from me, and I hate that. I will work towards taking my time back and making it mine. I will choose how I live my life.
2.) To Take back my Mind - The nature of algorithmically curated content has pushed me into thought patterns that were not entirely made or chosen by me. I will use my mind as I see fit and fill it with what I choose.
3.) To Take back my Agency - With the time I take back from my phone addiction, I want to choose to create, to think, and to build a better future. I will not take for granted the act of choosing.
4.) To Take back my Collections - Ownership over the media I consume cultivates mindfulness and stewardship over the collection. I will choose ownership over access.
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1.)Creation over Consumption (sewing, crochet, gardening, painting, blogging, poetry, cooking, baking, website work, digital art) - I will use my time to actually interact with and change the world around me for the better
2.) Utilize more physical and owned media (books, DVDs, Blue-rays CDs, digital audio files, owned games) - I will take ownership of the things I like and recognizing the value they bring to my life. Meaningfully consuming entertainment and media rather than consuming passively or compulsively.
3.) Further decentralize my phone - My phone has become the "junk drawer" of my life: a place where everything gets thrown but nothing gets sorted out. I will break apart the different duties of my phone and laptop, and only keep tasks on them that are beneficial.
I Love Reading Again!
Hello folks! I want to make a book page on this website sometime, but I decided that I want to list all the content I would like to add before I make the page all ~pretty~ and nice :) I also want to take inspiration from how readingproject.au sets up thier pages (so pretty and neat!), but I don't want to plagirize either so i'll take a bit to come up with something of my own :) so here is a list of the books and review-ish type information I would like to add :)
For the "Books I've Read" page I would like to make in the future, I would like to add the following to each book entry:
- Title
- Author
- Image of Cover
- Rating - Emoji and Word
- Review
- Genre?? My idea of a genre? Maybe I should make a blog post exploring what I feel about genres...
I want my rating system to be as follows:
- !!IN LOVE!! - very happy face with star eyes
- Happy - happy face
- Satisfied - only slightly happy face
- Dissatisfied - only slightly sad face
- Dissapointed - Sighing face, or eyebrows down and frowing face
- !!FULL OF RAGE!! - hot red angry face with fire for eyes
Sabriel by Garth Nix plus Lirael and Abhorsen
Age of Myth and Series by Michael J. Sullivan
Hellboy - main four collections by Mike Mignola
The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter
Gone Feral by Novella Carpenter
The Widsdom of Radishes by Lynda Hopkins
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
The Wisdom of the Shire by Noble Smith
The Dragonlance Series by Weis and Hickman
Ser Hereward and Mister Fitz by Garth Nix
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Bridge to Terebithya by Katherine Patterson
Spiritual Disciples for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney
Lioness Rampant Series by Tamora Pierce
The Duengeonmeister Cookbook by Jef Aldrich & Jon Taylor
Hero's Feast: The Official D&D Cookbook by Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Michael Witwer
Cooking for Wizards, Warriors and Dragons by Thea James with Recipes by Isabel Minunni
Hello Internet!
Howdy all :) I am very excited to start this website - I want to try to use social media less and live more thoughtfully, especially with how I spend my time. I'm having fun so far:) I based the colors of this website off of Adventure time, and I hope to continue that theme in the future. I kinda want to try to make each page of the website have a differnt background corrosponding with the character button colors. Right now, I am studying quite a bit though, so it might take me a while to get there XD