Why I am (still) not Going to Buy a Smartphone

A Record of my Technological Hypocrisy

Every mechanical art is intended either for our consolation or for our comfort; it’s purpose, therefore, is to banish either sorrow or need; it is either useful or enjoyable.

-St. Bonaventure, De Reductione Artium ad Theologiam

I am, admittedly, a hypocrite when it comes to technology.

I remember being annoyed learning about the industrial revolution when I was in grade school. Being told that a mere machine could weave both better and faster than a human struck me as immensely disrespectful.

This nascent anti-technology sentiment never left me. I’m still unsure of the legacy of the industrial revolution and its consequences, but the writings of Ellul, Berry, and Laudato si’ have influenced me towards a position of skepticism towards the technocratic systems the modern world is engaged in building.

Still, this doesn’t mean that I really live these convictions out in my life. I rely on my car, on my computer, on the electrical grid, and all the other accouterments of modern life. My one act of rebellion against the technocrats, besides embracing Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church, of course, is a relatively minor one - I refuse to buy a smart phone.

My rejection of smart phones started with my iPhone breaking one day in college. It was an unfortunate time for it to break; I had to drive two hours to a bachelor’s party that I was responsible for organizing and had no idea of how to get there. That turned out to be a great adventure which required me to learn to navigate with paper maps on the fly and to be humble enough to ask for directions. I enjoyed it so much that I pulled an old flip phone out of a drawer when I got home and it became my everyday cellphone. I’ve had a flip phone since then.

Still, I recognize that smart phones are remarkably useful and I benefit from others close to me having one. I’ve had plenty of experiences since getting rid of mine where I cursed myself for doing so. Just the other night, in fact, I was stranded in East St. Louis (the Mordor of the Metro East) at night due to a flat tire. The insurance company told me I needed an app for them to be able to send me a tow truck, so I had to wait in a sketchy gas station until my wife could come to pick me up (and they say that chivalry is dead?).

It was in that hour of waiting where I seriously pondered buying a new iPhone. As previously stated, I’m not exactly consistent in cutting technology out of my life. I rely more on my car than I ever did on my iPhone. Certainly it is more dangerous, too - I’m at a higher risk of death and dismemberment from hurtling around the St. Louis interstates than I am from having a phone capable of surfing the web. As much as we might like to complain about the destruction to local communities that the internet has wrought, the car has done far more to destroy communities that the internet has.

My lack of self-control still affects me, even if I don’t have a smart phone. I thought that when I ditched it I would find myself less distracted. This is true to an extent; it is much harder now to distract myself from the people around me now. It hasn’t been true when it comes to work or academics, though, as I still rely on my computer for both of them. The only thing that can truly stop me from falling down the YouTube, Facebook, or Substack rabbit holes are the virtues of fortitude and temperance. Merely getting rid of my smart phone didn’t magically grant those to me, although I sometimes wish it would have.

Even if my rejection of the technocratic system is insufficient by my own standards, I do think the rejection of the smartphone is a good start for five reasons which I will list below:

1) The moral life usually consists in small steps

I believe that any technological system which isn’t ordered towards human flourishing is bad. Smartphone technology, being designed specifically to addict its users, falls under this category. The rejection of this system in any small part, then, is a positive moral action¹.

While it might be better if we were capable of going cold turkey on the various technological snares of modern life, it is still good if we make small progress on this front. For me, cutting my smart phone out of my life is a small step I can take, so it seems good to do it.

Smartphone technology falls into the category of contrary to human flourishing mainly because of the effect that it has on attention spans, emotional maturity, and human communities. All of these facts have been discussed elsewhere so I won’t rehash these arguments here, although I would be willing to in the comments below.

For a basic sketch of what I think technology in the service of human flourishing looks like, consult Wendell Berry’s Why I am not Going to Buy a Computer and his follow up essay Feminism, the Body, and the Machine.

2) We are the light of the world

I work as a Catholic theology and history teacher. As such, I really struggle with finding the balance between “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” and being “the light of the world.” I feel that my example of rejecting some aspects of technological modernity falls into the latter category, although I acknowledge that this might be my pride talking.

For many of my students, I’m the first person in their life who thinks smartphones are bad for us and has actually done something about it. This is necessary for them to take this view seriously. Teenagers will not listen to their parents who say that their smartphone is bad for them and then proceed to spend their day browsing Facebook.

My rejection, I think, gives my students the space they need to question if their relationship to technology is disordered. Even if that doesn’t lead to them smashing their iPhones, it may lead to them using them in a more healthy way.

3) I want to rely on persons, not things

Human nature is limited by definition. As a result, we have to rely on something outside of ourselves. When I was stranded in East St. Louis, for example, I was forced to rely on my wife for help. Admittedly, besides coming to pick me up, she used her smartphone to have the insurance company send a tow truck, but I believe my point still stands.

We are prone to consider our technologies as an extension of ourselves rather than as tools we depend on. The act of having to ask others for help engenders humility which is itself the root of the spiritual life. By relying on my family and friends, I hope to remind myself of the ultimate spiritual reality, namely, that I rely on God in all things.

4) An adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered

We have a habit of making life boring when we try to control it too much, and smartphones are one way in which we do this. The many minor inconveniences in life can’t be scheduled or they lose their magic. I do believe that one of the necessary aspects to re-enchantment, if we’re serious about it, is letting go of some of the control of our lives in order to let a bit of wonder back in.

When you find yourself in an unfamiliar situation and are unable to consult Google or are unable to look up a map if you’re lost, it makes travelling a lot more fun. Or at least I think so. I don’t think my wife does. It certainly provides more opportunities to meet strangers and ask them for directions, which is a skill that has been lost.

The hero’s journey always requires leaving the comfort of home to go on adventure and this is impossible if we always have our safety blanket smartphones in our pockets.

5) Nor does foot feel, being shod

My last and probably least empirical reason for not wanting a smartphone is that I want to experience reality. We like to place barriers between us and the world. Often this is due to a fear of death or a lack of faith in the loving providence of God. This insulating effect is ultimately illusory, as pointed out in #3.

The tension between humanity following God and technology seems to enter the tradition relatively early - already in Genesis we see the claim that technology and cities originate with the descendants of Cain rather than Seth.

Obviously, there is a limit to this line of thinking - I wear my glasses daily, despite the fact that they are a very literal “barrier” between me and the rest of the world. They mediate literally everything that I see. This seems to me to be a good thing, likely because they are corrective rather than additive. Similarly, it is clear that in the biblical tradition technology is not inherently evil even though its origins are suspect. The image given at the end of Revelation is not a return to the state of the Garden but rather the Garden developed into the heavenly city.

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I really think you should join me in being a hypocrite about technology. Go and smash your iPhone or throw it in a nearby river. The technocrats have an immense amount of power over us, but we all have the power to say no to their system. The crazy thing that I’ve found is that most of the negative side effects I was afraid of never really materialized. I haven’t missed the things I thought I would miss, either. If you think there is something you really need on your phone, there are plenty of dumb phones with a few “smart” features. Plus, there’s always the option of lobotomizing your smartphone, stripping it down to a few barebones features.

I don’t know what my household’s next move is in becoming free from the technocratic system we find ourselves living in. I’d like to try cutting out my car more. My city has a robust bus system, so maybe I start taking that to work a few days a week. My wife and I have begun laying plans to start a garden in our backyard next spring, so hopefully we can make movements away from our dependence on factory farms and crazy supply chains. If any of you have any suggestions on how your household is trying to free itself from technological slavery, I’d love to hear them as well.

If we want to build a society with human flourishing at its core, the hard work is up to us. We need a revolution of the heart in this regard, one that entices other to a better way of life through example.

1. Undergirding this point is a view of morality as ordered towards human flourishing; any action which acts against human flourishing can be thought of as immoral and any action which works towards human flourishing can be thought of as being moral. Importantly, though, I don’t necessarily think that “less moral” = sinfulness when considering human actions this way. As an analog, being a man seems like a moral improvement over being a boy, but there’s nothing particularly wrong about boyhood. The same goes with rejecting anti-human forms of technology.

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