welcome to LUDDITELOGS

Do you remember when you got your first phone?

I remember when my sister got her first phone. She was around 11 and the whole family traveled to Costco, of all places, to get it. It was a Sidekick-style phone, with a purple, sparkly zebra case and a star charm dangling off the bottom. Or maybe that’s what I want to remember it looked like (I was probably 8).

My mom cried.

That’s how big of a deal it was. Getting her first phone wasn’t something a “thank you” could suffice for then. It was changing the way she connected to this world upon checkout.

Now, your 3-year-old nephew sits with his hands in his mouth watching Cocomelon on an iPad with that obnoxiously large case and teens are watching AI fruit versions of Love Island.

Tech used to be fun.

Tech used to mean a lot more than $1 billion funding rounds, the AI bubble and Patagonia vests. There was real innovation, rather than just the “next evolution.”

Today’s tech media landscape is crowded with venture capitalist jargon, what startup is the “next big thing” and the next version of ChatGPT. There is and always will be a place to cover the biggest players in tech, but it’s hard to overlook how it’s added to this country, specifically young folks, nihilism.

Artificial Intelligence is an ever-present and looming force in everyday lives; everything seems to be shrinking. Job markets, critical thinking and new innovative ideas.

But, there’s still people doing cool shit.

The world of creative tech is far from obsolete. People still sit hunched over soldering boards, connecting the red and black wires and praying that their code works.

While often misunderstood, Luddites are not “technophobes.” The word came about after a group of English textile workers destroyed knitting and looming machines in protest. The machines were not being used to “assist’“ workers, but rather automate their positions, making a lifelong craft obsolete in favor of a machine who could do the job faster, but not better.

Now, this is not to incite a revolution (not that I think I am even capable of that with a Substack). Rather to highlight the people doing actual innovation, fun tech phenoma (like why does your grandma always use that ellipses) and, maybe, tell the stories of people who have lost a part of themselves with these false impersonators.

Innovation cannot be defined as one thing, it should not be defined at all. It should be something so unfamiliar, so undefinable that it incites a sense of wonder.

So, welcome to LUDDITELOGS.