Retro digital pragmatism
Recently I've gone down a rabbit hole of what I'm currently dubbing retro digital pragmatism, a superposition of digital minimalism and digital maximalism which aims to cut out bland corporate consumerist products and fight digital addiction through the intentional use of single-use devices that bring joy. I'm intending on documenting this journey on this blog, but let's see if I can stick the habit.
I have a habit of getting really obsessed with things and at this point in my life I realise that I'm better off leaning into it, jumping in, and riding the wave than reading endless blogs and watching YT videos while deciding whether this is an obsession that's worth pursuing. The only downside is some obsessions dent my bank balance. Oh well, I really think I will learn a lot from this journey and developing a healthy relationship with tech is a long-standing goal for me, that I think will pay off.
I'm currently waiting for the following in the post:
- a dumbdroid.eu to replace my iPhone 11 as my pocket phone.
I will still keep my iPhone for iOS development and basically as a mini-iPad, but I want to decouple what I need (WhatsApp and Maps), from what is a boon that turns into distractions (browser, YT, etc.). Certain features of the iPhone are really useful like having ChatGPT with me in seminars in order to quickly refresh assumed concepts, and I plan to use the device for specific things like this, with intention.
- xteink (their site, reddit community)
I heard about this bad boy from jvsholz and was very surprised at how capable these tiny ereaders are for the price, but what made me order one was the extremely active community surrounding the device. Already, multiple people have developed custom firmware and feature rich file converters for the device, extending the already good enough feature set to be quite insane. My intention is to carry this on me so I have a productive way to kill time on the tube, or when collapsed on the sofa. I intend to put some silly fiction on it, as I typically read non-fiction but I want this to be a fun relaxing thing that I will do instead of reaching for something else.
- iPod Classic (7th gen, thicc), reddit community.
Ok I definitely did not need to order this, but hear me out. Not only are these single-use audio players still good at what they were designed for, custom mods extend the storage capacity and battery life to ridiculous levels, and a custom firmware makes the iPod fully customisable. I intend to use this thing to listen to music, and I've already cancelled my Spotify subscription. I get a lot from my Spotify subscription, and it's quite crazy to think about the lengths my parents' generation went to in order to get the music they wanted, compared with the ease with which I can access almost any song I want. My biggest problems with Spotify are the following:
- My music and my phone are coupled, I can't take a walk and listen to tunes without being a tap away from everything else.
- Music has become low value and I never know what I'm listening to. I don't pay attention to albums, or often even artist names because of the frictionless experience and my dependence on the recommender system to bring me new music.
- More often I find new music by recommendations external to Spotify e.g. from friends or elsewhere online.
And of course classic iPods are cool! They are really nice devices, from a time before planned obsolescence. I've seen some really cool mods that push these things to new heights, and give you a fun project to work on and learn from. Jakob Burrows has a great essay on why people are buying iPods again, and he points out that people tend to assign much more value to things they have put physical effort into. He gives the example of people valuing their flat pack iKea furniture more if they assembled it themselves, and apparently brownie kits ask you to add a fresh egg instead of containing powdered egg, even though they could, for the reason: if you on something you value it more.
I think this comes back to this idea of intention. It doesn't have to be about doing less or having less, and I don't think that buying more off the shelf corporate tech is the solution. I think developing intention, and taking ownership of your devices will be more fruitful. I think nostalgia is a powerful emotion and it can be harnessed to bring a simpler time to the present day.
But let's see how it goes! Thanks for dropping by.
Written 17 December 2025