How I finally Escaped Digital Prison: The Chase of a Lifetime

The Relationship Between Technology Use and Our Inner World

In 2016, I purchased my first full-fledged touchscreen smartphone and entered techno-prison. 

For four years, my life was impacted heavily by the unrelenting fumes of techno smog. My phone use jumped from 15-30 minutes on my old Blackberry (Pre 2016) to anywhere between 1-3 hours per day on the smartphone. That's 365-730 hours/year = 1460-2,920 hours in four years holding a 5-inch device 30cm away from my face.

How much of that time spent was meaningful and intentional?

Perhaps a 1/4 at best. God would be ashamed. 

I suppose the norm influenced me. I suppose that I thought I needed one. But looking back on the period between 2016-2020 (4 years), I can tell you that the cost has been high. 

The First Step in Breaking Free

In late 2020, I bought a Hisense A5 - an eink phone. Although it was still a smartphone, it was of a different kind. The lack of a glowing screen, with the monochrome display, made it easier to put down. With the additional help of Aero launcher, my smartphone usage went down to an average maximum of 60 minutes per day. 

But it was still a smartphone. So there were still some rare days where my time spent counter would be over 2 hours. 

Kryptonite.

In June 2023, something flipped. I was done with the middle way. Using apps to simplify my smartphone experience. Using an eink smartphone. I was tired of the compromising. I needed to be binary. Yes/no.

Smartphones are a no. 

I bought a Doro flip phone. Fortunately/unfortunately, depending on the way you look at things, it has WhatsApp.

Despite shifting to the flip phone, I was still using my smartphone for Spotify, podcasts and audiobooks. Sometimes, internet browsing. 

I was close to escaping. But not quite there yet. For 4 months, my average screen time on the smartphone fell to 27-35 mins/day. Which was a big improvement. My flip phone use was about 5 mins/day.

I was feeling a lot better about my technology use. But I still had some chains on me. I wasn't fully out of prison.

How They Keep Us Stuck Inside Prison

The psychological operation taking place is based on dependency. Once you become dependent on Audible, Spotify, the Podcast app, Instagram etc, then you are beholden. Once you curate these apps with your likes, pins, favourites, and bookmarks, leaving them becomes even more difficult. 

A fragment of your soul becomes tied up in the digital ether. That fragment is tracked, observed, and monetized. With all your data, combined with the collective data of other users, insights are generated. 

Those insights are used as the basis for finding ways to bury you deeper into the digital techno-grinder. Each year, the human-techno enmeshment becomes stronger due to the compounding effect of this techno-social-engineering.

"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they're too strong to be broken" - Charlie Munger.

Finally Breaking Free

In late October, as I was nearing my exit towards the prison gate, I noticed two guards.

Audible.
Spotify.

I'd already eliminated the Podcast guard. I did this by downloading the podcasts I like on my computer and transferring them to my newly minted MP3 player.

But Audible and Spotify aren't so easy to eliminate. 

I needed help.

Enter: Noteburner and Libation.

With both these tools, I was able to extract my entire Spotify and Audible libraries into MP3 files onto my computer. 

I then ended my subscription to both. A key step to breaking free from prison is to stop paying them to keep you there.

Instead of primarily using Spotify on my computer, I now use iTunes - the OG offline music software. It allows me to organize my music and audio files, including audiobooks, without the internet.

I no longer needed Spotify and Audible on my phone. The audiobooks I had could now be transferred to my MP3 player.

So both those apps were uninstalled from the Hisense A5 Eink smartphone. And now, the only app that's on there is Google Maps.  

I Broke Free

My smartphone usage is now 0 mins/day. I only need to use maps once every couple of months at the most for about 30 minutes. So, my smartphone usage is on average about thirty seconds per day across the span of a year.

• If I need a QR code for travel/returns I print it.

• If I need to listen to music, I'll use my MP3 player.

• If I need to take a picture, I'll use my camera (Canon Ixus 70).

• If I need a torch, I'll use my torch.

• If I need an alarm, I'll use the alarm on my watch. 

I'm now 99% percent free from a smartphone. Which is good enough for me.

The smartphone remains OFF, without a SIM card inside, in an EMF protective sleeve. It only gets pulled out on a day I need Google Maps.

The Effect of this Change and Why I Will Never Go Back

All those hours were reclaimed. All those phones unlock. GONE.

I used to unlock my phone 20-50 times per day. That's 20-50 task switches. At worst, that's 350 unlocks per week. 1400 unlocks per month. 16,080 unlocks per year.

It's now been 2 months without a smartphone. With no unlocks. No minutes were spent. 

My inner world feels cleaner. Lighter. Sweeter. The present moment is less at the periphery and more in focus. My mind is less busy. My attention span has increased massively.

I will never go back to prison.

I have reclaimed something that very few people will ever have the chance to.

It's worth no amount of money. It's priceless. 

I see patterns and connections I never saw before. I feel like I have way more time. I'm less stressed.

I am going back in time.

Marty McFly. The bliss of childhood is slowly returning.

Taking things Further

I was now free from techno-prison. But helicopters and the military-industrial-police complex were after me.

In other words, I was still checking my dumbphone/flip phone far too many times per day. 5-10 or so times to be exact. I was still tied to a phone. 

I also found the 2FA (2-factor authentication) that some online services require extremely frustrating. It meant that I would have to get up and out of my chair to open my phone when I was on the computer. 

The cops are dangerous and know what they're doing. It's part of their plan to make the phone device, even if it is a dumbphone, indispensable for day-to-day life. 

They want to capture me even more now that I'm out of prison. 

I became one of the most wanted men on the planet. With a bounty of 
$1,000,000 on my head, I was on the run.

I needed a way to break free from the chase. The harrowing nights filled with fear. Would they catch me? Put me back in techno-jail?

I needed help. 

I needed to reclaim my sovereignty with the way I use my dumbphone.

Breaking Free From the Police Chase

Enter: LDPlayer9 and Devyce.

LDPlayer9 is an Android launcher-simulator, which runs on Windows. It can install any Android App on a computer.  

With Devyce (android app) launched on LDplayer9, I can have a virtual phone on my computer that receives texts. 
 
Armed with my new weapon, I opened up the settings in all my accounts that require 2FA authentication via SMS.

Natwest. Nationwide. Gmail. AmericanExpress. I changed my mobile number in the 2FA settings, to the newly minted virtual phone number, provided by Devyce. 

BOOM! 

Every time I now login into any of these services on my computer and receive an SMS, I can see it right from the computer, without a phone.

I can't tell you how enlightened this makes me feel. Giddy. 

But how was I going to stop checking WhatsApp on my dumb phone so many times per day? 

Solution: Install WhatsApp on the computer. 

Enter: Coldturkey.

I set up a free block of WhatsApp from 7-9 pm on weekdays (I can't access WhatsApp outside those hours). 

I took the SIM out of my dumbphone, took out the battery and put it in the EMF sleeve with my smartphone so they could rest in peace together. 

I now, rarely ever even need to take out either. I can text/call on the computer from 7 pm daily. 

But what about if I receive a regular non-Whatsapp call/text I hear you say?

Enter: Hullomail.

A voicemail app that captures all missed calls and voicemails. I installed it on the Android simulator on my computer (LDPlayer9) and set up an email notification. Whenever someone gives me a missed call, I have the receipt and can call them back at a later point. 

In any case, most people who do call me, call me on WhatsApp, so that's not that big of an issue. 

But that facility is there anyway - let's say if I receive a call from the doctors, dentist, or the milkman. 

Do I take out and use my dumbphone? 

Yes, I will sometimes put the sim and battery back in case I'm going out somewhere to meet someone and I need to reach them. Perfectly fine. 

What's important is that I am free from the chase. The cops are no longer after me. I am out of techno-prison and the nation of Mediocrus.

I am now in Freeland. 

However, there's a problem. In 2019, Freeland signed an international treaty with the nation of Mediocrus that stipulated: the right for extradition for illegal aliens. 

I wasn't recognised by Freeland as a citizen of the nation. So even though I was now free, there was still a risk of being caught if I say, travelled.  

In other words, although I'd mastered my phone usage and got it down to zero, I was still effectively a semi-slave on the computer.

The algorithms on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube etc were effectively a dangerous treaty that could send me back to techo-prison any time. Although it'd be a prison on the computer instead of the phone, it'd still be a prison.

Chapter 2

I blocked web browsing on my computer until 7 pm with Coldturkey. Drastic. But there's a caveat: I set up a few exceptions for sites I would need during the day.

This has freed me to only work on meaningful tasks until 7 pm every single day. I can't tell you how liberating this is. Without a phone or dumbphone (for the most part), and without the internet until 7 pm, I feel like I'm a different person altogether. 

I have separated myself from the masses. I have reclaimed even more of my life. 

Before, when I used to work on the computer, I'd get distracted easily.

It's easy to get lost in so many rabbit holes. Check email. Check this. Check that. Check. Check. Checkmate, you lose. The techno-elites win. So much so that your work becomes diluted. Even if I'd start the day with the most important tasks and check email/social media afterwards, there was still this nagging sense that it wasn't quite enough.  

Although I thought I was okay, the truth is, I was comparing myself to people in the state of Mediocrus. 

Here in Freeland, I've met so many people like me who've been living this way for years. They are an order of magnitude above the citizens of Mediocrus in countless virtues. They are more honest, patient, kind sincere, focused, creative, and joyful.

It's almost as if I can see the relationship between heightened techno-use and the downfall of the average human being's baseline state of consciousness. 

In any case, with my newly found freedom from phones (99.99%) and the internet (till 7 pm), the bulk of the work to disentangle myself from techno-prison and the state of Medicorus is done. 

Summary

Considering I spend about 6 hours on the computer per day, and 3 hours on the internet, I am 50% free from internet browsing on the PC.

I have very few email subscriptions and keep inbox zero. 

I am 99% free from phones.

I am a free man.

This freedom influences my inner world. As the quiet in my inner world deepens, I return to childhood more and more. But this way of living isn't a means to an end. It's the opposite. You become more embodied and fulfilled right now.

It's taken me many years of experimentation, trial and error, and addiction, to reach this penultimate point of digital awakening. 

Life mirrors itself in all the different areas. A cluttered digital life. A cluttered home. These all clutter our inner world. When we clean ourselves internally the mess becomes more cumbersome to us. 

Clean mind. Clean home. Clean computer. Clean phone = clean life = clean friends = clean community = clean country = clean world.

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