Why I want to simplify my existence

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

This is more of a lifetime challenge than a six month challenge, but I want to transition from my current standard of living into something simpler.

Too much technology and internet in every orifice of our lives

I was at work the other day and had just gotten out of a meeting about how to implement yet another technological system into an academic setting. Essentially, an entire curriculum was replaced to include several media platforms, Google Drive, and a series of learning applications unrelated to each other that were to be included into a single ninety minute instructional period.

After the meeting, my brain just crashed. I’m one of the more tech savvy academics at my job, and it was the most surreal feelings; a tsunami of mind fog mixed with indifference, frustration and a headache. I was overwhelmed, especially since these applications would require more clicking, more open tabs and pins on my laptop, and more paper to copy on the Xerox machine. Essentially, more work that was apparently designed with inefficiency in mind.

Doomerism is paralyzing action

Doomerism is an internet term used to describe extremely cynical and pessimistic individuals who are constantly fatalistic about global issues. These global issues include climate change, ecological overshoot, peak oil, pollution, nuclear fallout, artificial intelligence, and any global problem that could bring human extinction.

I was on the doomerist train. To add salt to the wound of my already burnt out world, my phone blows up every hour of every day with horrible news. There’s always a new story about how our tax money (if you’re in the United States) is being used to aid the Israeli government’s genocide against Palestinians, how we’ve reached the point of no return in regard to climate change, and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is effectively terminating the meaning of being human and our desire to be human. There’s also news about mass extinction, inflation, grocery prices, and growing sentiment for fascist ideologies. Human beings were not meant to deal with this exponential amount of existential information on a daily basis.

This existence  isn’t fun. This is existence for capitalism’s sake, is a race to the bottom. God IS capitalism. I’m sacrificing my worth for capitalism. And I’m done. A lot of the younger generation is done. We’re tired of being gas lit by the older generation in power into thinking that this is fine.

Since I’m now burnt out due to paralysis by analysis and the lack of power, I think the best course of action for little old me is to remove myself from the distractions and aim for a simpler existence.

I want to live a simpler existence to purge cynicism

What does a simpler existence mean?

I define it as a lifestyle that removes extensive and frivolous technology use (such as doomscrolling, constant swiping on social media, and being overstimulated by visual aesthetics and videos, seeking an obsessive amount of online validation through likes and engagement, and comparing our lives to the carefully curated perceived lives of internet personalities), removes hyper consumerism and consumption, and removes overworking and exploitation for profit.

In place of these toxic cycles, a simpler existence promotes engaging with our local community through charities, politics, and local institutions, creating things with our minds and hands, enjoying nature, reading books, and spending time with friends and family. A simple existence is not limited to these things, but if we hope to climb out of doomer thinking and cynicism, we should start with the immediate things we can change: the goings-on within our circumference: our local communities.

I don’t need time draining technology, I don’t need toxic social media posts, I don’t need an ongoing river of news notifications, and I don’t need to be terminally online when the real world is beyond my front door.

What I do need to do is get back in touch with my reality; I need to stop looking for the next big click bait, and find beauty in the mundane. I need to take political action locally in my town. I need to donate to or volunteer for organizations that provide aid to others. I want to live a simpler existence because it allows me to actually enjoy being human. Too much technology and we forget that the beauty of the earth is right in front of us, and not the AI generated noise. We’re all connected whether we want to be or not. Let’s refuel it by living a simpler existence.

What do you thinking about making your life simpler? What have you removed from your life to give you a more positive outlook? Let me know in the comments below!