The New York Times has a delightfully fascinating new piece about the Luddite Club — an organization of high school teenagers in Brooklyn who have disavowed modern smart phone technology and social media, in favor of flip phones and IRL communication. It's interesting, and impossibly charming, especially this part:
"Lots of us have read this book called 'Into the Wild,'" said Lola Shub, a senior at Essex Street Academy, referring to Jon Krakauer's 1996 nonfiction book about the nomad Chris McCandless, who died while trying to live off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. "We've all got this theory that we're not just meant to be confined to buildings and work. And that guy was experiencing life. Real life. Social media and phones are not real life."
"When I got my flip phone, things instantly changed," Lola continued. "I started using my brain. It made me observe myself as a person. I've been trying to write a book, too. It's like 12 pages now."
Twelve. Pages. I love it. The rest of the article is just as curiously charming.
'Luddite' Teens Don't Want Your Likes [Alex Vadukul / The New York Times]
Full disclosure: I also write for Wirecutter, which is published by the New York Times Company, which also owns The New York Times
