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South by So Tempting
Every year in the middle of March, something interesting happens that is going on right now. Amidst my life and work and attempts to balance tech and real life, the South by Southwest (SXSW) 10+ day...
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Lost Offline
This post goes out to Caroline Giegerich over at Daily Marauder, who like many of us is trying to live her life while sticking to her sense of propriety about values, autonomy, tech, and human decency....
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Trolling for a pissing match
I’ve come to the conclusion that constant access to devices, the internet, and social media is not making us stupider… it’s making our stupidity more readily evident. Certainly, many are losing the...
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Passing behind the moon
One of the more challenging, thusly rewarding, parts of The Off Switch is when a contentious communication happens right before I leave work. Since I turn off work email everywhere when I leave the...
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Less of what you want, less of the time
Yesterday, I went over to Google News for my daily perusal to find that the top story was “‘Handsome’ mug shot of California felon goes viral”. The top story. This punctuated a sense that I need to...
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A time to text, a time to email, a time to call
There’s something that’s really been bothering me and I need to get it off my chest. And let me preface this by saying that I don’t think this is particular to me and my idiosyncratic, self-imposed...
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Selfie-Serving
Going along to get along. This is something I have a problem with. I’ve got a lot of personal rules and standards that I stubbornly refuse to yield on. To me, it’s sticking to my own sense of propriety...
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Four More Years! (and a contemplation on the Apple Watch)
September marks 4 years of The Off Switch and 4 years of my quest to curb the role of technology in my daily life. A lot has happened in that time—personally, with technology, and in public...
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Subjective Ethics
Do what is right. Seems simple enough when I’m contemplating this question to myself. But as I’ve moved through life, it seems the definition of ‘right’ has become increasingly subjective. It’s both...
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A black and white world…
Two months ago today, Apple killed the iPod. You probably didn’t read much about it unless you follow tech blogs. They are still selling a few other models of the revered music player, but the “iPod...
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Tweeting from Glass Houses
There’s something that seems to be happening more and more—and it’s pissing me off. Broadly speaking, they call it “cyber bullying” but more specifically, this is somewhat of a local phenomenon....
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Technology is driving us crazy
I’ve got a nagging suspicion that how we behave behind the wheel is a pretty good indication of how we act otherwise. Sealed away from other people—excluding stink-eye—we are quasi anonymous and tend...
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Which came first: the decline of decency… or the internet to show us?
Last week, nearly the same big-big-picture question was posed at two different times by two really different people: my mother and my good friend Scott. Going through it twice got me thinking about it...
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Addicted
Just about four months ago, I got some news that knocked me over. We learned that a brother—who had been increasingly distant and irresponsible and with whom I hadn’t been close since we were kids—was...
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Time for an Update
Seven years ago this fall, I made the decision to pare down my electronics, notifications, and the role of technology in my life—to reclaim the free moments that had been consumed by buzzing and idle...
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More or less free (and distracted)?
A month ago, the company I co-founded was acquired by a much larger, stalwart PR firm I greatly admire. The transition has meant fewer stresses, more support, and more robust projects as part of a team...
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Why do we find it so hard to do the easy thing?
It is the oldest, simplest, and I guess the most challenging thing in the human experience. Me want thing. Not enough for all. Me take. You suffer. Through the eons and across each of our lives, we are...
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Our default settings
I often find myself asking “how did we get here as a society?” and “why can’t people understand basic, shared facts about reality?!” Human behavior has always been a head-scratcher, I suppose, but in...
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Slacktivism (and White Fragility) Don’t Matter
If you are alive and conscious in 2020 on earth, you are being forced to look at the countless ways in which systemic racism and police brutality suppress Black lives in many and mortal ways. As with...
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Remix what you’ve got
Like most of you sitting at home for work, personal life, etc., I find myself re-examining a lot about how my house functions (or doesn’t). While I admit I have been tempted to start ordering things...
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