This is how you log off

How to Accept Death

For whatever reason, my ears have been treated to “A Thousand Miles” practically a thousand times this past week. And I do mean treated: It’s a pop masterpiece. Everybody loves that song.

Everybody, that is, but its singer, Vanessa Carlton. She hated that song. Or claimed to, for many years. It hung over her life, defined her. She once said it was like being a professional writer who was only remembered for a stupid English paper they wrote back in high school.

Well, I, allegedly a “professional” “writer” (in scare quotes because: please), can relate. A story I wrote eons and eons ago, in the Before Times of 2018, “Going Dumb: My Year With a Flip Phone,” is my “A Thousand Miles.”

I flatter myself, no doubt. Nobody is singing my lyrics at karaoke bars. But still. Of all the words I’ve put to page in the intervening years—some, ahem, more misunderstood than others—these are still people’s favorite. Case in point: Earlier this week, Lauren Goode and Michael Calore, who host WIRED’s Uncanny Valley podcast, and who both absolutely should have known better, insisted I come on the show to talk about … that goddamned piece!

I joke, I joke. I love Lauren and Mike, and we had a ball. (Even if the producers apparently cut my very best [read: snottiest] moments.) I might tire of having to have conversations, again and again, about how to “unplug,” “log off,” “disconnect,” whatever, but the fact is, that piece changed my life. It totally reoriented my relationship to phones, and to technology in general, and even, probably, to existence. What I mean to say is: It’s possible, people. It’s not even that hard. We choose what to be defined by, not anybody else. Eventually, Vanessa Carlton learned to love, or at least appreciate, her famous song. And then she moved on.

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First-Generation Cyborgs

For as long as we’ve had technology, there have been people shouting its ills and yearning for a return to “simpler times.” Before the “dumb phone” advocates of late, Luddites destroyed cotton looms. Before that, probably, some embittered Sumerians sitting around a fire complained about the ruinous effects of the wheel.

And yet, we continually find stories of people eschewing modern conveniences compelling. What do you mean you had to actually call a cab? Jason’s account of his dalliance with a flip phone, a true WIRED Classic if there ever was one, is appropriately skeptical of the trendiness and relative futility of the challenge, while also acknowledging its virtues. His article is an excellent read, and given that rejecting smartphones is as popular now as it ever was, it provides perspective on what we are actually doing, what we actually want, when we say we would like to “disconnect.” What do you think? Can shutting down the computer in our pockets solve the social and emotional problems that it’s created? Send your thoughts to samantha_spengler@wired.com or comment below the article. 

Over the weekend, WIRED published an explainer of Digital Rights Management software—the system that controls what you can do with a purchased digital work. It’s what prevents you from transferring a Kindle book to your new Kobo, for example. Though it’s illegal, you can probably get away with circumventing DRM software. But is it ethical? In the comments, WIRED readers shared their views of today’s stringent copyright laws. Said JohnInBaltimore, “It's not ethical for copyright to be as long as it is … Participating in culture is a human right.” KSC654 said IP laws “give an abstract claim over an idea precedence over a tangible claim on a physical good.” Another reader wondered—what happens to the content you’ve purchased if a DRM provider shuts down?

Tell us about your favorite WIRED stories and magazine-related memories. Write to samantha_spengler@wired.com, and include “CLASSICS” in the subject line.