The only way you can exert control is limiting it and controlling how much you interact with it

Bari Weiss (“Walkins Welcome” Podcast episode #132 [13:08 – 13:18] )

The context of Ms. Weiss’ statement is a discussion (actually an interview with Bridget Phetasy) involving 2 alternatives:

1. Living in a civilized world with a smartphone connection to the Internet

vs.

2. Living on a deserted island with virtually no technology whatsoever

In this context, Ms. Weiss follows a common fallacy — that the only ability an individual has is to “unplug”, to be either “on” or “off”.

You might think I am stalking Ms. Weiss, because I have already mentioned another one of her statements several yeas ago (see this “Fun Love status update“) … but actually I almost feel as though Ms. Weiss is stalking me, since she repeatedly appears as a guest on some of the media channels I pay attention to. Maybe I should reconsider which media channels I choose?

This is, indeed, my response to Ms Weiss (this time): We are not limited to choosing between online and offline. We are free to choose many things — including:

1. The software we use;
2. The websites we visit;
3. Our own views;
4. Our own expressions;
5. Our own actions, interactions, activities, wants, desires and much, much more…

Of course the basis of such freedoms in the context of a civilized society is some level of socialization, and in the particular context which Ms Weiss and Ms. Phetasy discuss quite vociferously, I would strongly advise them to brush up some on their own literacy skills in order to better understand the term “appropriate technology” in the context of the 21st Century.