Can I detach?

This is not a post about Scientology. I’m talking about tech. And when I say tech, first and foremost, I mean “Can I detach from my iPhone”? I need to because it’s just gone too fucking far. I read a comment in the Washington Post in response to an editorial about how to deal with the latest changes to Apple’s operating system which is one of the things that led to digging for my flip phone this morning that made me want to throat punch someone or just bury my head in my pillow. (I chose the pillow and a little more snuggle time with my cat).

I’ve been in or adjacent to UX since the late 1990’s. I almost don’t want to type that but it’s true and I will own what that means to me somewhere else. Not defending UX right now. What I do need to do is vent which is why this stupid blog is here! So, the comment, in relation to Apple’s iOS (NOT a fucking upgrade) move to iOS 18.1.1 on my poor, little iPhone SE (yes it has a fucking home button, so what?!) was about how it’s the fault of all those UX whatever…ok, lemme find said comment somehow…I’ve impressed myself and here it is:

Now that I’ve re-read it, I want to cry a little. What JL from Seattle is referring to is a problem I contributed to creating – without realizing it at the time. It didn’t take me that long to settle on the fact that I had to ditch the profit-driven entities (ahem, talking to you CareerFoundry and Designlab and General Assembly and others) that were and still are more involved in ruining an entire discipline than me. The thing I do have to laugh about for a sec is how I’m on the outside of all of it now which reminds me of a movie scene from In Good Company which I’ll find if anyone ever gives a shit. (Yes, I’m totally ADHD and referring to two facts:

1. the fact that I mentored a lot of students at bootcamps where ‘user experience’ (UX), as the commenter mentions above devolved into being only understood as the shit that surfaces on the screen which is the ‘user interface’, a part of the UX but only a part.) cry, a little

2. the fact that I was a UX person in the corporate world and ended up on a layoff list in 2023. laugh, jokes on me

Back to the bigger picture of being addicted to the iPhone (thanks Steve!) because I can’t give my profession more energy right now. What I can do is look at how the tech industry (UX is not an industry god dammit!!!) is impacting me which is to say, how on earth can I get away from this fucking device?

The detaching starts by charging the flip phone and getting the # out of it because I’m not sure I know where I put it. Oh, wait. It’s in my fucking iPhone! The ability to answer the question Can I detach affirmatively means having a process. Starting with getting all the necessary pieces of information out of the fucking iPhone. Maybe I’ll go to Chaucers and buy myself another present, a new Moleskin notebook 😈