Accompanied by a grid of cellphones, smartphones, and ROMs, mapped on two axes: “Respect for Virtue (minimizing screen time AND tinkering)” and “Respect for the Creature (minimizing e-waste AND data collection).”

• My end goal: avoid occasion for distraction by this device, while minimizing complicity with the degradation of creatures caused by e-waste and the electricity burned in pursuit of our attention and surveillance.
• All these come with the caveat - cellphones are meant to be used as black boxes. They are not meant to be tinkered with and are hard to know, hard to care for.
• Corollary to the black box effect - long-term support of both hardware and software is miserable. I hate to say it, but Apple actually seems to set the gold standard here. My iPhone 6 is over seven years old, and still works, and still gets security updates.
• Virtue is a mean, of course.
• GrapheneOS is an open-source security-hardened version of Android without the bloatware and spying. You have to be willing to tinker, to download their custom ROM (read-only memory) and flash your very expensive phone with it. Moreover, their security updates only last five years max, because their security model is wedded to Pixel hardware, and Google churns out a new Pixel every year.
• We’ve already discussed the Light Phone’s limitations. The buyer of the Light Phone would, as we discussed in an earlier email, be working to support joelightphone’s vision, and, as I assert above, that vision is of a black box.
• There’s an argument to be made to support small-time phone alternatives (Sunbeam Wireless is another I might mention). Ultimately, like with cars, we have, likely for ill in many cases, come to rely on phones for emergencies and practical assistance with daily life. If I can’t rely on a boutique “dumbphone,” I might as well save my money and just not own a phone at all. I save myself trouble and the additional e-waste!
• To choose the Light Phone is to say “no” to a good bit of our communicative life - memes, links to articles, links to podcasts, silly videos, photos of friends. . . .
• I used my beloved LG Xpressions till 2017, when I began using the iPhone I have now. I fully admit that “adapting” to such a way of life may have been a mistake. But for now, I judge that to give up the kinds of sharing we’ve done on the group chat would be a deformative asceticism that would lead to more joylessness and more isolation.
• I value long-distance friendships, and you pinging me in the middle of my day brought joy, good discourse, and the opportunity to help. I’m grateful for that.

June 25, 2023.

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