Our life is increasingly dominated by screens. Giant screens in public spaces; TVs everywhere in bars and restaurants; everyone standing around and walking around with their faces in their phones; watches, glasses and goggles with screens built-in, etc. "Screen time" is a thing.
Screens are amazing: full of information and entertainment. But they are also exhausting and over-stimulating.
It feels to me that, one way or another, we're poised to experience some amount of cultural backlash against so many screens. I can already start to sense it, as I spend time with my teenage kids -- while they are certainly on screens quite a bit, I can tell that they realize that it's a lot, and they seem to actively seek out escapes from the screen (as much as they understand that the screen can be an attractive escape from the real world).
In particular, I'm curious about digital interfaces that manage to capture the value & utility of being connected, but strike a different tone in terms of experience.
For example, I've been experimenting with the Meta Ray-Ban glasses for a while now, and while they aren't perfect, the experience of taking a photo or video without sticking my face in my phone is refreshing. That said, smart glasses are also clearly a step towards a more immersive, rather than less immersive tech experience, which has other potential drawbacks.
In terms of more visually interactive devices, the Kindle is probably the most successful example of this kind of "low-fi" computing. While it's also not perfect, and I still personally prefer to read a paper book, it doesn't scream "I AM A COMPUTER" quite the way other tablets do, and there's just something about the posture of reading on a Kindle (compared to a phone, for sure) that just feels more healthy and nature.
I am curious to see whether such an approach could work for other kinds of products that come closer to the experience of phones and tablets. I was surprised to learn recently that the ReMarkable tablet has sold over 1mm units (that's a 2021 number, so it must be materially larger now). I tried an early version and didn't have a great experience, but I've always liked the idea. I've been following the development of the Techless phone which is a Kindle-like "dumb phone" targeted at teens, but haven't tried it yet, as well as the Daylight tablet, where I'm currently waiting on a pre-order. I'm somewhat more skeptical of the Techless approach which would seem to position the low-fi item as a "starter" phone, and am somewhat more drawn to the Daylight approach which positions low-fi as "premium".
I'm excited to see more experiments in low-fi computing, and am very curious to see which form factors and user experiences prove to be appealing to mass audiences.
Photo: Stanley Kubrick. Life and Love on the New York City Subway. Passengers reading in a subway car. 1946. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.4.10292.30D (link)
