2020 began Jonas Gren a kind of digital detox. He acquired a dumb phone and an office without internet connection. The experiment held out. Today, he gets his news mainly from the paper newspaper and "Studio One" on Swedish Radio.
I notice that people who follow a lot in social media have a little different frames of reference than me. But there may be a point to it. I would still argue that I live in the present and not in a cave, says Jonas Gren.
Impossible for some
He is more satisfied today, when he only allows himself an average of half an hour of internet per day.
What happened was that I, for the first time as an adult, did not need to struggle with that "turn off or on". The days just had to have their course.
Is it not a privilege to be able to live disconnected?
Yes, for some it is impossible. A gig worker who constantly has to check for a new job offer can never really leave the phone. There are huge inequalities in how great opportunities one has, says Jonas Gren.
He started writing a diary and was encouraged by his publisher to do something more on the theme. Gren complemented his experiences with brain research, psychology, philosophy, and fiction. Most he got out of deep-interviewing people about their connected or disconnected lives. Many shared frustration over social media or pressure to check email and news.
"Clumsy" not to have swish
There are so many who long for a time when you do not constantly have this flow of information. A large group of people want to live without a smart phone. Then society should offer the opportunity to pay in more analog ways.
At the same time, social development is going in the other direction. Jonas Gren says it's easy to feel "clumsy" in certain situations, such as in places that only accept swish payment. He reminds us that authorities and companies make money from us being constantly connected.
If you remove the guilt and shame of being connected and disconnected from the individual and think that it is society that exposes us to this, then we do not need to be so worried about how we appear.
Disconnected
TT
"Brain rot" was crowned the word of the year by Oxford English Dictionary 2024. Even in Swedish, the expression is used to describe the state of someone who has over-consumed material on social media. This summer, we are writing about people who live disconnected for various reasons. The previous article was about the artist Per Persson.
Born: 1981
Lives: Uppsala
Occupation: Poet, author, journalist.
Career: Debuted with the poetry collection "Lantmäteriet" (2014). Also written the poetry collections "Antropocen", "Dälden, där de blommar", "Överallt ska jag vara i centrum" and "Tävlingsdräkten". Made his novel debut with "Kromosomparken" (2022).
Current with: "Ingen surf: handbok i nedkoppling" which will be released on October 10, 2025, on Weyler förlag.
