The Appeal of Neo-Luddism
I, like you, have a smartphone. Sometimes, though, I wish I didn't. Up until my sophomore year of college, I used a Verizon Octane, a neat little flip-phone with a horizontal keyboard. Verizon Octane Being a student in 2016, however, required me to use certain apps which I was unable to access on my clunky dumb-phone. So, out of necessity, I caved and purchased an iPhone SE. I was soon addicted. I downloaded every app from Instagram and Facebook, to games like Plants v. Zombies and The Sims. I have, like so many other people my age, become tethered to my phone. But not everyone has capitulated. In an article for The Lamp , a thoughtful Catholic publication, Peter Tonguette describes himself as a "proud, almost-exclusive user of landline phone-service." It is mystifying to think that, in 2024, people can function without a smartphone. Peter doesn't disdain our contemporary smartphone culture; he just finds no need to abandon what is tried and true: the ole landli