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#moreoutdoortime

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Public
DoomsdaysCW

Now in College, #LudditeTeens Still Don’t Want Your Likes

Three years after starting a club meant to fight #SocialMedia’s grip on young people, many original members are holding firm and gaining new converts.

By Alex Vadukul
Jan. 30, 2025

"Biruk Watling, a college sophomore wearing a baggy coat and purple fingerless gloves, walked the chilly campus of Temple University in #Philadelphia on a recent afternoon to recruit new members to her club.
She taped a flier to a pole: '#JoinTheLudditeClub For #MeaningfulConnections.' Down the block, she posted another one: 'Do You Desire a Healthier Relationship With Technology, Especially Social Media? The Luddite Club Welcomes You and Your Ideas.'

"When a student approached, Ms. Watling dove into her pitch.

"'Our club promotes #ConsciousConsumption of #technology,' she said. 'We’re for #HumanConnection. I’m one of the first members of the original Luddite Club in #Brooklyn. Now I’m trying to start it in #Philly.

"She pulled out a #FlipPhone, mystifying her recruit.

"'We use these,' she said. 'This has been the most freeing experience of my life.'
If Ms. Watling had a missionary’s zeal, it was because she wasn’t just promoting a student club, but an approach to modern life that profoundly changed her two years ago, when she helped form the Luddite Club as a high school student in New York.

"But that was then, back when things were simpler, before she had embarked on the more independent life of a college student and found herself having to navigate QR codes, two-factor-identification logins, dating apps and other digital staples of campus life.

"The #LudditeClub was the subject of an article I wrote in 2022 — a story that, ironically, went viral. It told of how a group of teenage tech skeptics from Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn and a few other schools in the city gathered on weekends in Prospect Park to enjoy some time together away from the machine.

"They #sketched and #painted side by side. They read quietly, favoring works by #Dostoyevsky, #Kerouac and #Vonnegut. They sat on logs and groused about how #TikTok was dumbing down their generation. Their flip phones were decorated with stickers and nail polish.

"Readers inspired by their message responded in hundreds of emails and comments. Reporters from Germany, Brazil, Japan and elsewhere flooded my inbox, asking me how to reach these students who were so hard to track down online. Snarky Reddit threads and think pieces sprouted. #RalphNader endorsed the club in an opinion essay, writing: 'This is a rebellion that needs support and diffusion.'"

Read more:
nytimes.com/2025/01/30/style/l

Archived version:
archive.ph/
#SolarPunkSunday #Nature #NeoLuddite #Luddites #LessScreenTime #MoreBoardGames #MoreGreenTime #MoreOutdoorTime #FlipPhones #MoreBooks #ResistTheMachine

The New York Times · Luddite Teens Still Don’t Want Your LikesBy Alex Vadukul
Public
DoomsdaysCW

#Nearsightedness is at epidemic levels – and the problem begins in childhood

Published: April 24, 2024 8:37am EDT

"Globally, a big part of this is due to the rapid development and industrialization of countries in East Asia over the last 50 years. Around that time, young people began spending more time in #classrooms reading and focusing on other objects very close to their eyes and less time #outdoors.

"This is also what researchers observed in the North American Arctic after World War II, when schooling was mandated for #IndigenousPeople. Myopia rates for #Inuit went from the single digits before the 1950s to upwards of 70% by the 1970s as all children began attending schools for the first time."

theconversation.com/nearsighte

The ConversationNearsightedness is at epidemic levels – and the problem begins in childhoodWhile reading, scrolling and focusing on other objects near our faces increase the risk of developing myopia, a little time outdoors in the sun can help mitigate it.
#LessScreenTime#MoreOutdoorTime#GoOutdoors
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