2025 Tech Resolutions
Any technology you use should add value to your life
brave enough is a newsletter about finding balance between technology, nature and modern life. Join the club ā¤ļøāš„
First things first ā Happy New Year šāØš„
Iām a resolutions girl, so I thought it would be fun to kick off the first newsletter of the year with some tech-related resolutions.
I absolutely love technology, but I subscribe to the belief that any technology you use should make your life better. Resolutions and habits are naturally at the forefront of our minds right now, so what better time to re-examine the role technology plays in your daily life?
What Iām most excited about is that you wonāt just be hearing from me: Iāve interviewed two other Substack writers about their resolutions! I will be sharing these throughout January on my Substack. I hope this post and the forthcoming interviews help spark some inspiration for your new yearās resolutionsā”
Letās dive into my personal tech resolutions for 2025!
Turning my phone off at concerts
Donāt get me wrong: I love getting a beautiful photo or video of my favourite artist as much as the next person. Look at this footage I got of Ethel Cain during her first European tour, I meannnn:
But you know what else is a good video?
This professional recording of her performing the very same songs.
Most artists ā even up and coming ones ā have recorded live concerts or sets on YouTube. Meanwhile, filming at concerts has gotten totally out of hand. Iāve been to concerts where Iāve seen fellow attendees film the entire thing on their phone.
Of course, Iām not naĆÆve enough to believe that we film concerts because we believe the videos do justice to the atmosphere, sound or visuals. I think we record concerts for personal branding ā we want to show other people on social media or elsewhere that this is the music I am listening to. This is what Iām about. Live music has even become somewhat of a status symbol (did somebody say Eras Tour?)
I usually try and restrict myself to a small handful of photos and short videos, but if I am very honest 1) I mainly take it to post the content to social media to show I was there, and 2) it is still distracting. Even if I only take one or two quick videos for the whole concert, I canāt escape thoughts such as ā
OMG I love this song, need to record this. Maybe I should record the second verse and chorus? Or maybe just the first chorus?
Is now a good time to film?
Urgh, the guy in front just HAD TO put up his phone to film and ruin MY shot!
Iāve already got a few concerts lined up in 2025, and during them I really want to live in the moment and enjoy the artist I paid money to hear perform ā instead of standing there like the Y from the YMCA dance.
Curbing my AirPod use
I use my AirPods almost daily to listen to music, podcasts and speak on the phone. Last year I began to notice that my usage of AirPods had become a little out of hand. I often enter shops and supermarkets wearing them. I rarely walk down the street without blasting music in my ears. I had never stopped to think about how this might create a barrier between me and other people, despite awkward interactions whenever a stranger approaches me, unaware of the AirPods hidden by my hair.
In the last few months of 2024, I purposely began using my AirPods more infrequently. I also experimented with turning my phone off on Sundays for a whole month. Iāve been really surprised by the rising number of interesting conversations Iāve had with strangers in the street, in airports and in shops since I started doing this. Itās a very noticeable increase.
Many have drawn parallels between bluetooth headphones like AirPods and the āseashellsā used by the character Mildred in Ray Bradburyās seminal work, Fahrenheit 451. Mildred moves through life like a mindless zombie, immersed in a bubble of isolated entertainment:
āAnd in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind.ā
The constant stream of content flowing into her ears suppresses critical thinking, severing her away from reality and meaningful interactions with other people.
Distracting ourselves from introspection is really tempting, because often whatās going on internally isnāt funny or entertaining in the slightest. Often, I find myself popping in my AirPods for a short walk, or playing a podcast when Iām doing any activity during which my mind can wander. This year, I really want to retrain my ability to sit comfortably with my own thoughts. It will be tough to find a balance, because letās face it ā Iām still going to listen to music and podcasts ā but itās something I want to explore further in 2025.
Improving my running with the Runna app
Iāve signed up for a half marathon this year, and apparently the one I picked is quite a tough course. I havenāt run that far since 2022, and havenāt run further than 10k in a while either. Iām going to start using the Runna app to help give my HM training a boost.
Tech resolutions donāt always need to be about quitting or taking things away. If you have a goal that is important to you ā be it fitness, health, creative or financial ā there are lots of apps and technologies which can be very helpful to get you there šÆ
Runna is a running app that creates personalised training plans that continually adapt based on your progress. It builds you a schedule of easy runs, long runs, interval runs and tempo runs that you simply have to execute each week. While running, it tracks your pace and tells you if youāre running too fast or too slow. If you have a target youād like to reach for a race, it will design a training plan to improve your fitness and help you reach that target on race day. My wife smashed her sub-fifty 10k goal thanks to itās help! What Iāve observed from others is that it really takes the mental load out of training, which is one of my favourite use cases of any technology.
Could I create a running training plan myself with the help of Google and ChatGPT? Yes. Could I find other ways to measure my pace myself and ensure I hit my target race time? Probably. However: I have a full time job, my writing, other hobbies, a partner, a social life, and eight hours of sleep a night to care about, too!!!
Iāll be back next week with the first interview in the 2025 Tech Resolutions mini-series. Iām super excited to share more amazing ideas of resolutions to improve your relationship with technology this year!
Let me know what habits your breaking or forming in the comments āØ
Since I moved to a small town, I've started taking out my airpods when grocery shopping because I noticed the older people here think it's rude (totally fair, it is pretty rude). I've noticed a significant change in the interactions I have with other people, and it's made doing groceries a much better experience!!
Great idea for airpods/headphone. i mainly use them for walking the dogs. but yes, it blocks the city or nature's noises.
in 2024, I stopped entering elevators with my phone in hand, so I can say hi to people and if possible, be free to engage a short chat. Being accessible to others is important. Aren't we living in a society, as George would scream in Seinfeld??
Furthermore, it seems no one can walk without looking at his/her phone. no one is that busy, come on...