Log off. Tune in. Opt out.
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| I'm Laurie Allee (I can't come to the phone right now) |
I'm Laurie Allee. I have spent most of my adult life writing and shooting pictures for the internet. I've been married since 2001 to a software engineer. We have designed iPhone apps together. Our daughter goes to a hybrid school that is mostly online.
It's safe to say that I've pretty much always loved technology. I was an early-adopter before I knew what the term meant. In the 80s, I made dot matrix calendars with my dad on his IBM PC. My high school boyfriend taught me how to use a DOS-based word processor when everyone still used IBM Selectrics. I spent more on my first computer (an IBM 286/66) than I spent on my first car. My first email address had @compuserve.com at the end of it, and consisted of all numbers. I called it my computer bar code address. I told my mom about it at the time, and she asked how I put stamps on electronic letters.
I was one of the first people I knew with a cell phone. (It was big, beige and looked vaguely government-issue.) I started writing for the internet when people were trying to figure out whether to call it "the Net, "the electronic superhighway" or (my favorite) "cyberspace." Former employers in print told me I was ruining my career as a copywriter by transitioning to the fly-by-night novelty of "homepages."
I had to argue with clients who used terms like "white space" when I tried to explain hyperlinks.
I was a regular on usegroups.
My Yahoo messenger nickname was scribechick.
I had a modem that sounded like someone put a Moog synthesizer in a popcorn popper.
I had a daily blog for 10 years, and numerous other blogs and websites. I joined Twitter within months of its launch and, I'm happy to admit, mostly used it back then for haiku and hanging out with stand-up comics. (There were no hashtags yet, and not many people arguing about politics.) For over two decades I've written online marketing, advertising, journalism, opinion, and thousands of pages of website copy. I've ghostwritten other people's blogs. I am known in the industry as a "content provider." For two years I had a weekly multimedia column on Patch.
I somewhat fondly recall the term "Crackberry." I had a Netbook in my purse when we didn't yet have iPads, and when I first got my iPhone, I thought it was the single greatest invention of my lifetime.
I didn't reluctantly adapt to technology ... I lived, breathed and adored it. So when I now say enough is enough, I'm not exactly ranting it from a shack with no electricity.
But something has happened in our mad, digital leap forward. We've lost some important aspects of our culture, our humanity and ourselves.
I'm not breaking up this long-term relationship with technology as much as redefining it and setting boundaries.
I crash-landed back on earth after decades in the cloud. Join me as I forge a new, more intentional relationship with digital tech, and rediscover the joys of a world less virtual. It has been harder to forge a digitally minimal life in a new age of Covid (hello Zoom!) but I still try.
Let's celebrate the analog world.
I don't want to contribute to more compulsive scrolling. Check in occasionally, but there's no like button or need to subscribe. I am updating and adding many more digital minimalism resources in 2024.
This is my (formerly mostly digital) Life (more) Analog (than before.)
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| Write me here |
Affiliate Disclosure:
This site includes affiliate links to products from Amazon, eBay and Target. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I am not an affiliate for any other companies.
Click here for more info!
