“Friction-maxxing is not simply a matter of reducing your screen time, or whatever. It’s the process of building up tolerance for “inconvenience” (which is usually not inconvenience at all but just the vagaries of being a person living with other people in spaces that are impossible to completely control) — and then reaching even toward enjoyment.”
Kathryn Jezer-Morton, The Cut
This recent article in The Cut resonated with me a great deal. Aimed at families, Jezer-Morton nevertheless makes some astute points about one of my biggest 21st century bugbears: the myth of ‘convenience’. By protecting us from life’s so-called inconveniences (according to them), digital tech companies have relieved us of the ‘friction’ of talking, waiting, thinking, doing. In removing the perceived awkwardness of talking to humans, the boredom of waiting and the difficulty of solving problems (aka thinking), they risk infantilising adults and stunting young people.
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGE: Ed Ruscha
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