I had a semi-profound experience last year. Waffling between different digital devices to use for sketching and writing, I bypassed the obvious choice of an iPad and chose the niche Ratta Supernote A5X. It's an e-ink tablet with near-zero app compatibility, no backlight, and limited capabilities. Booting it up for the first time, there was a minimalist tutorial about the minimalist UI, and that was literally it. I could write or draw as I pleased immediately. No signing in, no bloatware to remove, no social media, and no invasion of notifications. I started doodling and writing, and after about a quiet hour, I felt a strange sensation wash over me: deep concentration.
It was in that moment of concentration that my mind began to re-contextualize all of my past digital experiences. I thought about every time I had grabbed my phone with a purpose in mind only to be bombarded with a pile of notifications and messages before finally remembering that I had opened my phone to search for something but already forgotten what it was. I thought about every day of my professional work in which I'm SUPPOSED to be diligently drawing out storyboards, but instead having to juggle meetings, emails, slack, teams, notifications about more meetings, signing into various devices to do two-factor authentication, etc. It made me realize just how often the setup of our modern digital interfaces suck. Technology should help us toward our goals rather than hinder us. Yet, the overarching tale of attention and digital devices over the past two decades has been one of creating constant distraction machines intent on funneling our attention both collectively and individually toward targeted advertising platforms (i.e. social media) or time-devouring entertainment platforms (i.e. streaming, gaming), both intent on getting in your way as often as possible. The nature of working professionally today requires having multiple streams of communication and task-managing open creating a taxing drag of the pressure to be constantly within reach at all times. That basic understanding that you might be interrupted at any given second means you can never fully concentrate on the work that you're actually supposed to be doing. Using the Supernote felt philosophically different. This was the most welcoming and dignifying experience I'd had with a new piece of technology in a long time. Possibly ever. This is not a review of the Supernote. I like it a lot, but that's very much beside the point. The point is that this one experience made me realize how much I've been on the losing end of the battle for my own attention with the lords of Silicon Valley. It made me realize how I'd slowly let myself slip into a state of constant distraction, building within myself the assumption that this state of distraction is the status quo. It made me realize I need to be more intentional and diligent in my own use of these tools, and even in the way I live my life. -AY P.S. - It's 2024 and I'm writing a blog: yeehaw! The 1990s are coming back, right? Why not blogs? My posts will surely be infrequent, weird, and either very niche or very general. I don't gel well with the way modern social media is designed, and I really wanted an internet thought space I own and can contribute to in a laid back, comfortable way. That's it. See you around.