It was late, I was on my phone again, and I did the usual little tour of modern dignity collapse: X, Instagram, a few Reels, back to X, one more refresh because maybe the timeline got smarter in the last 90 seconds. Very nice, another hedgehog vid, exactly what I needed now.
Then I opened Snapchat and, seeing my sleepy face suddenly on the screen, got reminded of something small that actually matters.
The camera opens first?
The camera opens first.
You open it, and it asks you to make something.
That tiny choice says a lot.
On the usual suspects
We always say the same things now: social media is bad, netflix is bad, doomscrolling is bad, attention spans are cooked, everyone is addicted, etc. True. I agree. I feel it too. I write this because I am captured by it as well. I was honest in my first paragraph!
But I think we keep blaming the downstream thing.
We blame the app, the feed, the content, the algorithm, the recommendation loop. All fair. But the more I think about it, the more I feel the deeper problem is the hardware itself. The main object. The rectangle. The thing always in your hand, always in your pocket, always one small hit away from making sure you never have to fully arrive in your own life.
Social media is downstream of hardware.
Culture is downstream of hardware.
A lot of our current sadness is downstream of hardware, too.
On why I think current hardware makes people sad
I do not mean “sad” in a dramatic Tumblr way (i love emo girls). I mean the more ambient version. Numb, lonely, slightly fried. Weirdly full of stimulation, but low on actual life. Kinda drained? Like you consumed 400 tiny things today, and somehow none of them touched the part of you that is actually there.
I know that feeling because I get it too.
You wake up and grab the phone before you even know what mood you are in. You do not check in with yourself first. You check in with the machine. Maybe there is a message, maybe a post, maybe some movement somewhere. Maybe something happened. Maybe (s)he liked your post. Maybe something will save this boring little moment from just being a boring little moment!!!
And then it keeps going.
You do not need to go outside because everything is inside.
You do not need to sit with your own thoughts because there is always another thing to click. click. click. It is all there. Smoothly. Instantly. Cheaply. Creepy?
Perfect for our dopamine-overdosed brain.
This is why I think current hardware makes people sad. not just because it contains bad software. Because its whole form trains passivity. It turns you into someone waiting to be filled.
On the main object
The smartphone is a crazy object when you actually stop and look at it.
It is a work machine, lust machine, loneliness machine, status machine, shopping machine, entertainment machine, friend machine, memory machine, all in one. Very convenient. Also, maybe spiritually disgusting? A lil bit?
Because once one object does everything, you start living inside its logic.
Boundarylessness sounds great at first. Wow, I can do everything here. Amazing. I can order food, flirt, work, trade, doomscroll, watch a movie, stalk old classmates, send voice notes, read fake profound things, and ignore the weird feeling in my chest all from the same glowing thing. Incredible product. Incredible tech.
Also: you never leave.
And if you never really leave, you also never really return to yourself.
That is why I like the hardware distinction so much. It is sharper than the usual “TikTok bad” thing. TikTok is bad, sure. But if the dominant hardware of an era is already built around reachability, interruption, self-reference, and frictionless consumption, then of course the software culture growing on top will look like this. Of course, it will be social media. Of course, it will be addictive. Of course, it will be lonely. The object has already voted.
That is the part I think people feel, even if they do not say it like this.
It is not just that we use bad apps. We live with bad hardware.
On spiritual darkness, yes really
I keep coming back to that phrase because nothing else feels strong enough.
Mental health is part of it, yes. Addiction is part of it, yes. But something deeper is going on. Current hardware creates a kind of spiritual darkness. Not because the phone is a demon, but because it shapes attention, desire, and meaning before you even get to “decide” anything.
It makes it easier to consume than to create.
Easier to spectate than to participate.
Easier to react than to feel.
Easier to stay inside than to step into the world.
And after enough years of that, people lose something. Some sense that they are here for more than just managing inputs. Some sense that life is not just a seamless stream of content, work, coping, little treats, and occasional screenshots of someone else’s better vacation.
This is where the sadness becomes more than sadness.
It becomes purposeless.
On new hardware
This is why I care about new hardware now. Something in me keeps saying a shift is coming. I need to believe that, I want to be optimistic, because I want things to change (for the better). I also know it feels crazy to say that today (referring to AI and its impact).
Not because I want more gadgets. Fuck, maybe I do, I l00000ve little gadgets. I love hardware. new hardware…. ….Anyway, we already have too many little objects promising to fix our lives. I do not need another founder video in a lab with cinematic lighting and a soft voice explaining how his pebble will reinvent human connection (remember humane?).
But I do think new hardware could create new defaults.
That is the opportunity.
A different object could ask something else from us. It could ask us to create first. Or go somewhere. Or use both hands. Or look outward. Or show up with other people around some small ritual, some shared practice, some scene. Something specific. Something niche, even. I actually think niche is good here. General purpose gave us convenience and flattened souls. Specificity might give us culture again. I’ve been walking around with a YubiKey on my keychain for years now. People keep asking why I still carry a memory stick. First of all, it’s not a memory stick. Second: perfect. Hardware is allowed to be weird. Weird objects make people curious. They start a convo.
That is the hopium. Not that a device saves us.
That a device could stop making us (feel) worse.
A good new object would not just catch attention. It would catch people without making them more hollow. It would give them something to do, something to return to, maybe even something to look forward to. And yes, that matters. A lot of people have lost that feeling. They are not only addicted. They are adrift. The current future feels like more feed.
I want hardware that interrupts that mood.
That, to me, is the real opportunity. Everyone keeps saying social media is bad. yaaa, fine. true. But the sharper point is that our hardware is bad, and culture has been living downstream of that bad decision for years.
xx