36 — If it's important, they'll call or text
The other day I saw an unboxing video of the Nokia 3210 relaunch and their tagline ‘Get back to reality’ caught my eye. They say “Amidst a ‘dumbphone’ boom, the icon is back for its 25th Anniversary year” and pushed it even further with its packaging claiming “If it’s important, they’ll call or text”. In 1999 I had a Nokia 3210 and a few years later, swapped it with my mom and got a 3310 because, at the time, smaller and lighter was always better. It seemed fitting that my interest peaked at this relaunch and for a second I even considered buying one. Think about it, a battery that lasts for days, no WhatsApp, no unnecessary apps, not even the internet at your fingertips let alone emails or social media (although I saw in a review the presence of a rudimental version of Facebook available for the hard-core ones who can’t live without it).
I live in Sweden where technology is at the forefront of even the smallest of daily interactions. You can leave your wallet, ID, and keys at home and go on about your day unbothered, but you can’t leave your phone behind because you do EVERYTHING with it. You legally identify yourself with an app called Bank ID, you pay with another app called Swish, you unlock your car, and your apartment, you pick up packages by scanning QR codes, same with public transport, grocery shopping, and the list goes on.
I depend on my iPhone for a friction-free everyday life, although I fantasize about going back to a ‘dumbphone’ just as much as I fantasize about living in the countryside. I guess I have one of those ‘want what you can’t have syndromes’ because a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think of how lovely it would be to go back to a simpler way of living both technologically and physically speaking. I have this image of being a Rick Rubin meets Lacy Phillips kind of person, living by the ‘sunlight before screen light’ motto (although again, I live in Sweden and there’s very little SUN in sunlight), walking barefoot to my meetings and doing what I love from the comfort of my minimally furnished home with huge windows overlooking the nature that surrounds me.
I would have never had these kinds of fantasies ten years ago. Back then I imagined bustling cities like the ones I lived in, London, New York, and Berlin with at least one 24/7 grocery store at walking distance (I could have settled with an ‘open until midnight’ option but nothing else) so I’m impressed at how my perspective has changed over the years and my fantasies along with it because, at the moment, there’s nothing more appealing to me than being able to do ‘my thing’ unbothered by sounds, people, and technology even if I don’t have long wavy hair and don’t live on a minimally furnished ranch/farm/villa type of accommodation. Still, I could picture myself living my Nokia 3210 life fantasy - if it’s important, they’ll call or text, otherwise, you can find me working on my films.
There’s something so beautifully calm about imagining a slower life away from tech distractions and city-living-related peccadillos, like neighbors and noise pollution for instance, but I always end on the same question: is that just the alluring appeal of something I don’t have? Or is there potential for exploration?
I could start by cutting down my phone time even more, for instance. As of this week, my daily average is of 1 hour and 27 minutes, which was 11% higher than the previous week. 28 of those minutes were spent on TikTok, 19 on Instagram and the rest on utility apps like parking, email, and messages. The biggest slice of this pie chart goes to content consumption and that’s not because I enjoy it, but mostly because of built-in habits and/or boredom. See, in my 3210 fantasy life I don’t need to consume content because that habit is replaced by creating which brings me to my next point: creation instead of consumption.
I already hate the way my iPhone processes photos and videos therefore I have to carry a camera with me everywhere, could I extend the habit and just continue enjoying living offline even though there’s an element of connection that still needs fulfilling? Maybe the topic here is not fantasizing about creative living with a ‘dumbphone’, but the meaning of convenience in today’s culture.
A 3210 life is not convenient, it’s a creative life, for sure, but not a convenient one. I see it with Substack. Whenever I share my published essays on Instagram, that’s where I interact with people who read them and want to express something about their experience in connection to what I write. I don’t get comments on Substack. I don’t even engage on Substack myself as a reader of other publications. It’s not convenient, it requires effort. I do the same as a consumer on other platforms as well, I keep it to the convenience of the ‘emoji reactions’ without having to go as far as to write a comment because if I have to engage, I’ll do it via text with friends or DMs although only 10% of people I follow or follow me are, in reality, actual friends.
Convenience is not the point of a 3210 life tho. In that vision, apps don’t matter, and getting influenced by arbitrary numbers like likes, and open rates, means even less. Perhaps a 3210 life is a courageous one, where creativity and real-life connections come first. Were you make what you want to make, speak to people over cups of coffee, and connect digitally to the ones who are not at arm’s reach.
It’s a focused life without all the extra noise.
In 2024 can we really live a focused life tho? Can we aim to be someone like Rick Rubin and Lacy Phillips if we ‘haven’t made it’ by societal standards of success? Or that’s a new kind of luxury, the one of being offline living life with our 3210s because someone else is connected on our behalf 24/7? Is it our responsibility to be available, and hyper-connected to work and be top of mind to potential opportunities, or can we afford to switch off and ‘Get back to reality’ because ‘if it’s important, they’ll call or text’?