The Sunday Digest 150
"River gonna take me, sing me sweet and sleepy."
Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you.
Sunday Read › My first year without an iPhone
by on Substack
It pains me to say that I’ve officially had to turn on limits for certain apps on my phone after largely existing without them for the last couple years. While I think my weekly Sunday screentime reports from Apple are still below average, it pains me to think about the time wasted scrolling when there are so many amazing things happening right in front of our faces.
Just this past week while visiting my parents in Northern Michigan, my mom asked me, “Didn’t you go a month without your phone when it fell in the water or something?” before stating, “And didn’t it make you really happy by the end of it?”
And this week’s Sunday Read only amplifies how that month of being phoneless spit me out. Here’s an excerpt:
I started considering a flip phone as an experiment about which parts of the human experience are dulled or diminished by the way we use our phones. I wanted to know how I could squeeze more joy out of life. As Zadie Smith (flip phone user) put it, I care about other peoples opinions, so being constantly exposed to them makes me feel desensitized to real emotion and like I was reducing people to meaningless symbols. Earlier this year, I wrote about how getting rid of my phone contributed to well, better sex! I was inspired by Catherine Shannon, who wrote that feeling sexy is not frivolous, but something fundamentally important for happiness, yet, “[n]othing about our phones is sexy—from the things they allow us to do, to how they feel to use, to what they ultimately symbolize.”
Read in full here.
Still Available: Dinner Service x Sunday Scaries
Well, you spoke and we listened. Not only can you still buy the Dinner Service x Sunday Scaries bundle, but now we’re also offering each of these products separately as well. I’ve been loving each of these new products both separately and together so I won’t blame you for whichever route you take. Here are some links to the individual products:
The Sunday Haiku: Always too early, rarely too late.
Waking up hoping
that the clock says a number
that it never says.
Things I Saved This Week
My Sunday To-Do List
After getting back from a week in Michigan, I have a significant amount of unpacking to do. This may get moved to my “Monday night to-do list.”
Arsenal vs. Manchester City.
Recycle all the newspapers that have accumulated on my porch over the last week.
Get film developed for a potential Postcards column later this week.
Sort out the easiest way to return something through DHL in Austin, which somehow seems impossible at this point.
Sneak in a nap after getting home after midnight last night.
Confront my fern that was largely ignored while I was out of town.
I hope you have a Sunday that makes other Sundays pale in comparison,
Will
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Last minute equalizer by Martinelli was 🤌🏾
Thank you for sharing the article about being smart phone free. I love reading about other’s experiences in going against the grain on technology. I don’t think I could go full flip phone but I went 6months no (social) media. I deleted everything and it’s probably one of the most carefree periods of time I’ve had since early college (2006). I may return to the media free state. But I applaud anyone that can go full “analog, if you may allow me to phrase it as such. I push back where I can with carrying notebooks and a planner and such.