I've finally had enough. With a career in technology that spans almost 25 years, I'm ready to retreat back to a simple lifestyle rooted in nature, magic, creativity, and exploration. I am beyond grateful for where I have landed and what I've become; please don't get me wrong here. Since starting my career automating mundane, manual tasks with Perl scripts alongside my good friend Rick around 2002-ish, I've been very successful and fortunate. This age of AI, however, has left a bad taste in my mouth. Yes, it is an amazing advancement in the world of technology, but like with anything else, it should be used in moderation. Too much of anything will always lead to undesirable consequences.


In the case of AI, I feel like we are slowly losing the very things that make us human. We are losing things that make us us. While I do appreciate the ability to use an agentic, AI-powered coding assistant to write a variation of code or a script I've already written hundreds of times in my life before, I'm sick of watching AI replace more creative areas such as music, art, and regular everyday conversations. I would not be surprised if a significant percentage of people out there spend more time conversing with a large language model than they do living human beings on a regular basis. Even though I am quite introverted and somewhat of a recluse, I recognize that we are a social species and I find this potential reality quite alarming.

So how does one retreat back to nature and embrace a more "simple" life? It is easy: disconnect! Globally, the average person spends roughly 4 to 5 hours a day specifically on their smartphone.[1] If you add in total screen time (including computers, TVs, and tablets), this number increases to almost 7 hours a day. Even more alarming, Gen Z (ages 13–28) averages closer to 7 to 9 hours per day on phones and digital devices. So the answer to break this cycle is to simply stop doing this and disconnect. While it may sound simple, it is actually a really hard thing to do.

While humanity as a species isn't strictly "addicted" in a clinical or medical sense, modern software design directly undermines human self-regulation, making healthy boundaries difficult for people to maintain. This claim is grounded in substantial empirical research across behavioral psychology, neuroscience, and human-computer interaction (HCI). The Fogg Behavior Model states that behavior occurs when Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt all happen at the same time. Modern platforms streamline "Ability" (removing all effort via infinite scroll, single-click reactions, auto-play, etc.) and generate algorithmic "Prompts" at the precise moment a user's attention starts to drift away.[2]

B.F. Skinner’s research around "Operant Conditioning" illustrates that when rewards are delivered after an unpredictable number of responses, they produce the highest rates of habit formation and the strongest resistance to stop the behavior.[3] Kent C. Berridge's work established that dopamine drives wanting (anticipation/seeking) rather than liking (pleasure).[4] Social media notifications, feeds, and refresh mechanisms mimic the exact architecture of slot machines. The uncertainty of what you will see next releases a spike of dopamine before you even commit to checking, thus overriding conscious choice and causing you to continue. Furthermore, a study published in 2022 evaluated cognitive and behavioral self-control deficits in users with "highly problematic" smartphone use. The research found that frequent device interactions led to very poor self-regulation. This was linked to the unpredictable reward loops (via messages, feeds, and alerts) generating a high frequency of cognitive interruptions that disrupt our sustained attention networks in the prefrontal cortex.[5]

So what am I personally doing about it? I am disconnecting. I am trading in my fancy Pixel 8 Pro smartphone for an old-school TCL FLIP 4 only capable of phone calls and text messages. For GPS and travel navigation I'll be using my Garmin Montana 710. I'll be using my Kindle Colorsoft for reading books and listening to audio books. I am completely losing access to a high resolution camera as my phone only comes with a 5 megapixel one. If I need to send an email, look something up on the internet, or look at social media, it will simply have to wait until I am on a computer. I am hoping to limit my computer time to Monday through Friday with a hard 5 PM cap at the end of the week.

With all of my extra distraction-free time, I plan on being a more present father and husband; spending more time with my wife, family and kids. I also plan on doing more of the crafts I enjoy such as knitting, wood carving, skinning, tanning hides/furs, and leatherworking. I will also be exploring the magical, spiritual, and enchanted world of nature in our backyard and other areas both in Virginia and all around the world. I know it is not going to be an easy transition and will come with a lot of sacrifice. I also know that in the long run, I will be much better for it. If you are a friend reading this and want to get in touch with me, please either call (best), send a simple text message (good), send an email (fine), or send a hand-written letter (slow, but preferred).

Also, by the way - f*ck AI.

The wonders of nature while on a hike
The wonders of nature while on a hike

References

  1. Kemp, S. (2026, October 21). Digital 2027 global overview report. DataReportal. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2027-global-overview-report ↩
  2. BJ Fogg. 2009. A behavior model for persuasive design. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology (Persuasive '09). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 40, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/1541948.1541999 ↩
  3. Staddon JE, Cerutti DT. Operant conditioning. Annu Rev Psychol. 2003;54:115-44. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145124. Epub 2002 Jun 10. PMID: 12415075; PMCID: PMC1473025. ↩
  4. Berridge KC, Robinson TE. Liking, wanting, and the incentive-sensitization theory of addiction. Am Psychol. 2016 Nov;71(8):670-679. doi: 10.1037/amp0000059. PMID: 27977239; PMCID: PMC5171207. ↩
  5. Fabio RA, Stracuzzi A, Lo Faro R. Problematic Smartphone Use Leads to Behavioral and Cognitive Self-Control Deficits. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 17;19(12):7445. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19127445. PMID: 35742695; PMCID: PMC9223448. ↩