I've been pushing my way towards creating the tech world I was promised back in the aughts, if only for me and my family. I've begun using older tech with upgrades and simulating it where I can't. Hacked 3ds to play games instead of phone games, they were built to be fun where most phone games are built to be addictive. Built a new flat screen into an old console TV, then used the extra space in the back to make a small server to stream my own shows. No more scrolling through shows, the collection contains only things I chose to watch and went out to get. I'm working on a way to turn cheap drives into cartridges so my pc games can be physical. No more browsing steam, I can pick my games before I even turn on the screen.

Some things I can't escape yet. Lemmy I'd my only social media, I spend a lot more time than I want to doom scrolling here but I found I was far less happy in the social vacuum that deleting it left me. My social group is in our 30s, we don't have any time to communicate these days. This place gets me the social I need and self control lets me haunt the few places that I genuinely enjoy. c/gaming, C/funhole, Etc, though I do wish there were a bigger bonsai community here.

I do have one game on my phone that I play a lot now, It's a full stable port of original Diablo 2 with a few mods. All offline, all original assets, literally uses the pc install and I got to use my original CD keys to activate it. That's what phone games should have been, dungeon crawling a level or two while I wait for an appointment feels so much more than some 5min roguelike or ad riddled arcade game. No big splashy thing, no FOMO for seasonal content, just the steady progression of a well made game from my youth with the promise that all that loot will wait patiently for me like it has for the last 25 years. SOJs don't need double loot weekends or raid planning to feel special.

I think the biggest part has been doing things with intention. So much of the world is served up to us now that it's easy to just eat and never think about what it is. It's right there, it's easy, so what if it's not the best or our favorite? Why say no when it's right there? But a glut of easy eventually feels flavorless and leaves you craving more. The work to reach something I genuinely enjoy has been far more filling than anything I've ever been served. Say nothing about actually eating it. That's been my goal. I'm trying to live with intention, in what I do, what I choose, where I go, how I spend my time. I'm not a pet to be fed, I'm a life to be lived.