Do you remember what it was like to wake up before you had a smartphone?

June 21, 2024 12:55 AM

Modernity refers, for Barba-Kay, chiefly if not exclusively to the unfolding of technological progress culminating in the digital. Whereas in the ancient world technē was seen to imitate and aid nature in the realization of its ends, as the physician uses his art to nurse the body to health, early modern thinkers wondered whether art could overcome natural limitations altogether. Medicine might vastly extend human life; the modern state, properly designed, might never die; the bomb, through the threat of mutually assured destruction, might obviate war. Digital technology is not just one more attempt to resist, artificially, the indifference of nature to human happiness. Instead, “the digital is a ‘natural’ technology, that is, a technology so useful as to serve as a paradigm for usefulness itself, a technology that achieves the goal implicit in technology as such.” from This Irresistible Revolution [The Point; ungated]

A review of Antón Barba-Kay's A Web of Our Own Making by Daniel Schillinger
Antón Barba-Kay gives the keynote speech during the 2024 Student Conference on Core Texts and Classes at American University's School of Public Affairs.

posted by chavenet (25 comments total)

The digital is a master tool
dismantle the master's house [pdf: collectiveliberation]
posted by HearHere at 1:40 AM on June 21 [1 favorite]

Fascinated by the twenty-six student college the author mentions where they twice banned student internet use. The college apparently did not admit women until halfway through the Trump administration. I wonder how that fits in with this philosophy?
posted by eirias at 3:48 AM on June 21 [1 favorite]

Is it that common to keep your phone in the bedroom? I never keep it there.
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:51 AM on June 21 [4 favorites]

With so much of our experience of ourselves mediated through our devices, are we not a kind of cyborg already?

I was first asked that question in the early aughts, before cell phones turned into "smart" phones. I had no good defense against it then, and the encroachment of these devices into our lives seems to have progressed by a magnitude of scale since then.

I do not like these things. I think the effect they have had on the ways we communicate is profound, and deleterious in a multitude of ways. It strikes me often how different conversations were, one on one yes, but especially in groups. So different. And we don't see it. It's an invisible pressure. I think also about getting a flip phone. It would be very strange, how much I would be giving up. And as I would be alone in that world, while the rest of society went about its digital Accelerando dance, the benefits that I remember from the before time would not be accessible. It would be a kind of freedom to live without this device, but a very lonely one. But am I not more alone now with the device as well? De Tocqeville's "religious horror" is an incredibly apt description for it all.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 4:34 AM on June 21 [10 favorites]

There's some potential for overlap with the 'is it common to have more than one room?' demography there. But even without that, I imagine it must be extremely common, just going from how much the apothecary newsletters will caution you against it.
posted by Ashenmote at 4:42 AM on June 21 [1 favorite]

I don't check my phone first thing in the morning either, but "the digital" is very much part of my life, of course. Part. It's not fundamental. That would be my consciousness, that manifestation of my existence as an animal on a planet.

Being sentient, one's mind reaches out, inquiringly, into the perceived world, curious. But now we reach out...with? through?...the digital. We wonder, and with a device in our pocket, we can fairly quickly satisfy that itch, whatever question our path through life seems to prompt.

(I wonder what life is like in Burundi, I wonder why I can't remember how the solstice works, I wonder where the word wonder comes from.)

In the past (I am old), I would go to my bookshelves or to the public library to find answers, if contemplation or conversation didn't produce the results I wanted. Satisfaction might or might not follow, depending on the nature of the question and the perceived authoritativeness of the source I found. Now, finding answers is easier. It would be nice to relax our need for immediate answers, I suppose, even if we are not ready to give up this newfound ability to research stuff on the fly.

This turn of mind is just one aspect of our immersion into the digital. The social, cultural, and political (and etc.) aspects of our new lives deserve all the attention we can give to them. (Before it is too late, the inner doomsayer might add.)
posted by kozad at 4:46 AM on June 21 [5 favorites]

(i use it as an alarm clock, and by doing so i am reminded to plug it in to charge)
posted by SoberHighland at 5:17 AM on June 21 [2 favorites]

When I was working in my last industry job I had to start each day by checking my work email to see if any EU customer issues had arisen while I was asleep. It had a deleterious effect on my mental and physical health.

Now I just check the weather to see if it's okay to ride my bike outdoors.
posted by tommasz at 5:27 AM on June 21 [5 favorites]

No phone in the bedroom, ever! No screens in the bedroom. And if you have cats, you possibly will never need an alarm clock again.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:51 AM on June 21 [5 favorites]

Is it that common to keep your phone in the bedroom? I never keep it there.

I keep it there at night in case I need to call for help.
posted by JanetLand at 6:42 AM on June 21 [7 favorites]

Is it that common to keep your phone in the bedroom? I never keep it there.

Not everyone these days has a landline.
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:57 AM on June 21 [4 favorites]

I remember waking up before smart phones!*

In college in the late 90s, I had my Power Mac connected to my stereo and powered on 24-7, so every morning at 6am I had it set to play the MP3s I hated most to wake my ass up. "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai and "Rainbow Chaser" by Nirvana UK both got a lot of hate-plays and had me scrambling down the loft ladder half-asleep to click the "stop playing" button as quickly as possible.

* (Do I remember waking up before computers? Nope.)
posted by infinitewindow at 7:19 AM on June 21 [4 favorites]

Is it that common to keep your phone in the bedroom? I never keep it there.

Many people use them for their alarm clocks so, yes?

I don't use my phone upon waking except to turn off the alarm. At night I use it to play my sleepin' podcasts, so it's always right there. I don't feel the need to scroll at bedtime/in bed, everybody stops texting me by like 11pm anyway.

My partner is a wake-and-scroller but largely, it seems, because he follows overseas sports for work and that stuff is well and truly rolling by 7 am here. He gets to start gathering info and thoughts but without having to get out of bed early, and that seems to work for him.

We have a TV in the bedroom but I am pretty sure we only ever used it when I had flu and couldn't get out of bed for days.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:40 AM on June 21 [1 favorite]

Do I remember waking up before computers? Nope.

Top of the hour theme song for Morning Edition through a clock radio.
posted by Huggiesbear at 7:44 AM on June 21 [6 favorites]

every morning at 6am I had it set to play the MP3s I hated most to wake my ass up

My technique was to tune the clock radio to halfway between static and a country music station, so that when it came on it would be "BZZZZZZZZEEEEP BZZZZZZZZZZEEEP MUH TRUCK N GUNZZZZ SCHPPPPPPPPPPPT" and I would be horrified awake. Over time I had to move the clock radio further and further away from my bed to prevent me from ninja-muting it. All that did was bring out my theretofore undiscovered acrobatic talents, wherein I would leap across the room, turn it off, and spring-flip back into bed.

Having my phone go off with the music of my choosing is much better. Also I'm not 19 anymore and waking up isn't an impossible task.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:03 AM on June 21 [5 favorites]

Worked from 20-55 and never used an alarm clock, now retired a decade and still rise with if not before the sun (not that I'm always happy about that). Thankfully, sleep/rise is at least one aspect of life the digital world has not become a daily challenge for control of my dependence and attention. We've had the same alarm clock for probably 35 years and I literally had to remind myself how to set it every time we had a horribly early flight - come to think of it, not sure why it even still sits there since we've long used our phones for that now.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 8:08 AM on June 21 [1 favorite]

I got a smartphone relatively late, about ten years ago, so I do remember the difference clearly.

Before: turn off alarm on alarm clock, get ready for work, leave the house.
After: turn off alarm on phone, get ready for work, leave the house. The biggest change is that now I have a second alarm for a leaving time, which is helpful to avoid being late.

On non-workdays there also isn't much difference: wake up with no alarm, make a coffee, and drink it while checking email/socials/maybe news on either phone or computer. Pre-phone, it was the exact same, just always at the computer. Having a smartphone has of course changed some things in my life (mostly for the better, occasionally for the worse), but waking up isn't really one of them.
posted by randomnity at 8:40 AM on June 21 [1 favorite]

I had some little alarm clock that was annoying to use but did wake me up, phones have been much better since I can change the noise, time, volume, and other settings tailored to specific mornings and things. Lol at the author having trouble waking up to sweet moments to their wife or whatever apparently because phone exists now. Can't help but notice several simple obvious ways to resolve their problem if they cared about doing so, including some using that same device.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:51 AM on June 21 [2 favorites]

I've never used any alarm clock that wasn't an actual alarm clock.

I was almost forty before I even had an email address let alone home internet. I now have a "smart" phone which I sometimes go days without checking, and usually do not take with me when I'm out and about ... unless I'm expecting a call. But I'm almost never expecting a call because I've trained those with whom I work (and play) to not expect me to be at their immediate electronic beck and call.

What I do every morning upon waking, is turn on one of my three laptops (they all have particular roles) and check my email, and then maybe some news sites, but what I really want to be doing once the caffeine properly kicks in, is writing or something else creative, as I'm doing right now.

And so on.

What did I do first thing in the morning in the land before internet where I spent the first thirty-eight plus years of my life? Good question. I guess I just got out the door to work, or if I had a day off, I got to the writing/creative part a little sooner ... but first I maybe flipped through a few magazines or newspapers that I had kicking around.

Marshall McLuhan was right. We are defined by our media environment. As it changes/evolves, so must we. But it's not simple cause and effect. Because every human is a complex system. Every human brings their own unique context to the situation at hand. The hope is that we are at least slightly conscious of this ... because nobody is ever fully conscious of their here/now, except fleetingly.

We are where we are, and even that's not accurate, because as soon as I put a stamp on it, it's already in the rear view, already past. Sorry, what were we talking about?
posted by philip-random at 8:58 AM on June 21 [2 favorites]

When I was young, all that was available to me was a cheap electric alarm clock with an unbearably loud buzz. Even with it wrapped in a towel, I woke up literally alarmed every morning. I HATED THAT DAMNED THING. When I was 12 mom got me a clock radio similar to this one, that let me use the radio as an alarm with the volume turned down low. I was thrilled, and have happily* used the "wake up to quiet music" method since then, whether using an actual clock or a clock app on my phone. For whatever reason, unlike some people I don't feel compelled to scroll through my phone before going to sleep or right after waking up, so it's safe to keep it in the bedroom.

*well, as "happy" as one can be when being coerced to get up and go to work
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:28 AM on June 21 [1 favorite]

I realized a couple of decades ago that I always wake up between 5:15 and 5:45 AM, so I got rid of my alarm clock altogether. I have an old smartphone (my first!), which no longer serves as a phone, on my nightstand, so I can check the time in the middle of the night. But I've never seen the need to use it as an alarm.
posted by SPrintF at 9:32 AM on June 21 [1 favorite]

I suppose they had clock radios in 1974, but I didn't use one. I had my stereo plugged into a plug-in timer set for wake-up time, and I would put an album on in the dark, without looking at it. That way, in that strange liminal state between sleep and wakefulness, I would get some interesting perspectives on the music I was into at the time. Waking up to Pharoah Sanders at 6AM was a trip.
posted by kozad at 12:52 PM on June 21 [5 favorites]

the creator has a master plan
posted by philip-random at 4:20 PM on June 21 [1 favorite]

Clock radios, from my first hand-me-down one with flip-digits ca. 1976 through high school.

In the '70s I woke up to WLS in Chicago. I don't remember many of the songs, but remember "Musicbox Dancer" very clearly. I think it got played a lot about the time I was waking up. I loved that clock because it had a faux walnut case, analog numbers that flipped into place with a dim incandescent bulb to light them, and the radio dial was lit in blue.

In the '80s I woke up to U93 in Northern Indiana. It seemed like they had a pretty clock-like playlist, because I remember going a week or two with "Don't Stop Believin'" or a week or two with "Young Turks" or whatever. That was a much less charming clock radio: Red LED display on the tallish side, silver plastic, and faux wood trim. I kept that one through college.

In college I never scheduled any classes before well after I'd just wake up on my own.

In the army, I "just woke up" well before morning PT all on my own. If it was a range or jump day, which could mean starting at 3 or 4, I set the alarm on my Iron Man.

After the army, I had a succession of Phillips alarm clocks with orange backlighting and white plastic. My favorite for years was one that crowed like a rooster. Then more pricey clocks with a built-in light that also gradually lit the room with sunrise lighting.

Now I tend to "just wake up" around 5:30 or 6:00 most mornings, even with blackout drapes. I have a gradual wake alarm app that senses when I'm stirring, and it is tied to Hue lights, which begin to come up gradually when the alarm starts. I have a failsafe alarm set on my phone that goes off at 7 whether I'm stirring or not, but it only comes into play once or twice a month if I was up too late reading the night before.

I don't usually check my notifications immediately on waking, but I've thought it'd be good to either go back to an alarm clock so I could keep the phone out of my bedroom and not risk doing that. I never remember anything normal or anodyne when I see it first thing, and it's possible to start the day horribly wrong once every two or three months thanks to something waiting for me on the lock screen.

I guess I'm hooked to the sleep quality monitoring the gradual wake alarm app does. But now that I've got a non-Apple smart watch with three weeks of battery life I could easily start using that for sleep tracking and my failsafe alarm. Sleep tracking as a "quantified self" thing isn't super useful, but it is helpful information to have on days when my sleep wasn't great and it's affecting how I receive things. "Oh, right, your sleep quality was 45 percent ... no wonder you thought the CFO's EA was declaring a blood feud over her calendaring problem."
posted by mph at 8:05 AM on June 22 [1 favorite]

Clock radios ... In the '70s I woke up to WLS in Chicago

Especially in high school, when getting up at 6:30 or whatever was kinda difficult, I used to turn my clock radio AAAALLLL the way up and tune it to almost but not quite a station so when it was time to get up I'd be greeted with 4 trillion dB of

PSSSSHTONEOHTHREEYOWLHAAAARAGHOCkYOULIKEHURRRRRPSSSHTSNARL

*cue mad flailing to make it stop*
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:13 AM on June 22 [2 favorites]