Southwest flight to Honolulu. Gonna be here for a month for Cindy’s work; traveling light with just my Xiaomi 9 SE phone, iPhone 6S Plus and 13 inch MacBook Pro.

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Change, bust out the range
Ride out the bills– do it for real.

You cannot change yourself without pain
No gain without insane faith in your potential
Gravity isn’t holding you down; so why stay on the ground?

Loud out your sound–sonic boom it
Take opportunities in life with no Guile
If you live to be 120 in great health, you’ll be here for a while

So stay strong, stay woke.
Keep your mind swole, and you’ll never go broke.

ERIC

To maximize our personal thriving, perhaps we shouldn’t look back– we should only look ahead!

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What is a “limiter”? It is something in your mental wiring which holds back your potential.

For example:

1. Physical-mental limiter: The mental limiter which holds you back from attempting new “PR”’s at the gym, because you’re afraid you might injure yourself by attempting a heavier weight than you’re used to.
2. Entrepreneurship limiter: The limiter that prevents us from starting our own business, because the fear that we may fail and become bankrupt and seen as a “failure” (fear of social stigma).
3. Remove your creative limiter: The false idea that we shouldn’t upload more than 1 photo, blog post, or video in a single day. I say fuck that — why not 10x that? Why not upload 10 photos a day? Publish 10 blog posts a day? Make 10 beats a day? Upload 10 videos to YouTube in a single day?
4. Creative genre limiter: Don’t trap yourself just in a single art genre. Do anything and everything which interests you! Be like Kanye West — he refused to just be a producer, and strive to rap as well. Then after rapping, he strove to get into fashion, and succeeded (when everyone told him to just focus on music). Indulge in all forms of artistic creation and expression!

We are always told: “Quality over quantity”.

But what if this was a mistaken notion? What if we should in-fact, focus on quantity over quality?

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Let us assume you will live to be 120 years old in excellent physical and cognitive health. What do you desire to accomplish, do, achieve, or create while you’re still alive?

To me, this is the beginning of philosophy.

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My buddy Daniel (head of the Brussels Street Photography Festival) is currently putting on their 4th edition!

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Advice based on what works for me — hope these can help you too:

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I believe that tips are actually more beneficial, and generally more profound in knowledge and wisdom than “high brow”intellectuality.

Why? Let me share.

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Personal and philosophical thoughts on social media:

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To live a more fun, interesting, playful, and rewarding life– perhaps we should optimize our own personal lives for our own personal creative productivity.

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There are no ultimate morals or ethics in life. You have the power to determine your own morals and ethics in your life. Of course you must accept the consequences. But this life is the only certain life — why live for another life or even an after life? 

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To me, powerlifting, deadlifts, etc is more mental than physical. I believe that powerlifting is 90% mental, and overcoming your mental blocks.

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Why aspire?

Think about the opposite:

What would a life of non-aspiration look like? And would a life devoid of aspiration be a life worth living?

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Something I wanted to essay about:

What makes a great photograph?

Also — does it even matter if a photograph is ‘great’? Is ‘good’ good enough?

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A simple thought and idea:

What should I photograph if I want to make more “interesting” photos, more meaningful photos– or to find more ‘inspirational’ things to photograph?

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Thinking about video games —

1. People want an “open world” concept
2. Gamers want to have fun, explore, discover, and adventure/quest
3. Gamers want to exercise their “hand eye coordination”skills (consider first person shooter games)

How can we integrate these video game traits to real life? Simple — by playing and shooting street photography!

Street photography as playing, while also making art work.

A thought while at the gym today:

You didn’t ask to be born, thus you technically “owe” anything to anybody.

So perhaps we should think BEYOND “duty” and “original sin”. We didn’t have a choice in being born, but now we have a choice how to live our lives (we have the faculty of free will, and we have the power to live our lives however we desire).

It seems the best thing I’ve come up with so far is this:

Not to treat life as a miserable self-flagellation or “self-sacrifice” type of duty. Instead, to treat life like a fun game!

Simple thoughts:

1. Use a “standalone digital camera” like a RICOH GR II in order to NOT get distracted while shooting. While I think smartphones are legitimate cameras, the biggest downside of smartphone cameras is the fact that it is very difficult to focus on the simple task of only shooting photos! This is a good case of shooting film; you can only do one thing at a time.
2. Shoot while walking, and don’t think too much while shooting photos. The best photography is instinctual and from the gut. Don’t worry about getting a “good” photo while shooting. Just enjoy the walk, shoot, and don’t think too much. Fall into the zen-like trance of wandering the streets, and just responding to scenes you find interesting and just shooting! Also, when you see an interesting scene, allow yourself to shoot as many photos of the scene as you want.
3. Shoot JPEG: You can shoot quicker (no buffer or lag), and later it is easier and quicker to look through and review your photos. And yes, you can post process jpeg photos.
4. Shoot P (program) mode: “Set it and forget it!” Distinguish yourself and your photos via your composition, not what your technical settings are.
5. Find a good place to shoot: I prefer being in an urban setting, with a decent amount of people walking, and (of course) sidewalks where I can dance around a bit. I prefer environments with larger plazas– which allow multi-directional movement. Essentially the idea is have a good walking place, that allows enough regularity from navigating a certain city or downtown area, and also enough randomness to keep things interesting! I cannot get into a ‘flow’ when shooting in a very boring suburban neighborhood or environment– some “danger” helps me focus!
6. Keep your camera around your neck or on your wrist: I really like the ERIC KIM Neck Strap MARK II with the RICOH GR II, as it is always on you — and because the Ricoh GR II weighs practically nothing– you forget you have it on! Another option– experiment using a wrist strap (Henri Wrist Strap OG, or Henri Wrist Strap PRO), and just go on walks with your camera attached to your wrist. The way I like to think about it: Rappers wear heavy chains, watches, and bracelets. Perhaps we should think about our cameras on our necks and wrists like rappers wear chains!

I am passionate about composition — to me, it is the root and foundation of all artwork and aesthetics.

But how do we improve our own composition? Easy — research compositions from other artists whose work inspires you, deconstruct it, sketch it, break it apart, figure out how it works, then determine how you can integrate it into your own artwork!

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Luxury isn’t buying stuff, nor is it living a certain “lifestyle”— it is about having the luxury of time, your own attention, and your own focus and willpower to create your own artwork!

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A thought:

Perhaps what we should be optimizing for in our personal lives is FOCUS, not ‘privacy’.

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In today’s epic and hyper-connected world with smartphones and the internet– what is the role of a ‘standalone’ digital camera?

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A thought while bored in mass today:

What gets better with time, and what gets worse with time?

When it comes to purchasing things, should we optimize to only buy things which get better or more beautiful over time? For example, beautiful patina, wear and tear, rips and holes (raw denim, wabi sabi aesthetics, leather).

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Don’t think about race, ethnicity, genetics; think epigenetics, hacking your own DNA, and modify and build yourself with your willpower, effort, and fearlessness.

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What we are doing as photographers and creators: creating a beautiful visual stream of images— not caring too much for a single image, but delighting in the totality and collection of images as a whole and a stream. Including photos we’ve created, images we remixed, hybrid images, sketches we’ve made, traces we’ve made, and screenshots of other artwork which inspires you!

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How would you live your life differently if you didn’t believe in an afterlife? 

As a photographer do you prefer to create the image, or be surprised?

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GATTACA: one of the great films.

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In life, perhaps we shouldn’t worry too much about external ‘success’, money, material things, etc– perhaps we are the happiest when we maximize our day to be artistically productive.

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One of my favorite Nietzsche quotes:

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

But what does this mean– both philosophically and practically?

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Why are aesthetics important in terms of art, design, our clothing, cars, devices, cameras, and more?

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Perhaps we should think beyond photography — to create a hybrid between photography, painting, and any form of visual art-remixing.

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Some current thoughts I’m having on color theory:

1. Why color? If you have the option between monochrome and color — why would you choose color?
2. What if color is connected with physiological responses? For example the color red as being the color of lust, sex, danger — a woman (or man) with red lipstick or clothing as seen as more powerful, formidable, or sexual.
3. Color combinations: Is there an “ideal”for color combinations? Are all color combinations socialized? Or is there some biological “truth” to more ‘desirable’ color combinations?
4. Is if the role of the artist to imitate “natural” colors, or to totally disregard all nature, and create “unnatural” colors?

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A thought while contemplating consumer culture in America:

We are often suckered into buying new things to “improve” our lives, but more often than not — these new things actually complicate and worsen our lives.

Thus my simple thought: perhaps with material things, tools and equipment — we should strive to simplify our lives, instead of complicating our life.

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When I’m studying the artwork of others, I’m always hungry for the sublime — art that is so sublimely beautiful, that the artwork feels effortless, and you can feel the grace, beauty, and power of the artist.

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Of course we need a body to live and for practical and functional purposes. But in today’s world and society, what is the role of the body from a philosophical perspective?

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Just watched GATTACA for the first time — and it has a lot of interesting philosophical ideas about genetics, biological potential, and SURPASSING your “potential”(ingenuity, hustle, effort, luck).

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Something I’ve been thinking about for a long time:

What if this “romantic” notion was a bad one — which leads to decay, decadence, and a decline in our human spirit and human ingenuity?

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What if we changed our mindset — that instead of striving to make “timeless” art works, we sought to just create for the sake of it — and not concern ourselves with making things that “stand the test of time”?

As artists, we should embrace change, flux, and the transitoriness of life. Making art is our attempt of immortality — but it ain’t!

A recent discovery:

The kettlebell is a wonderful life, art, productivity hack.

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What do we really desire and “need”to thrive on our time on planet earth?

My idea so far:

We desire art, food, and our fellow human beings.

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Is it bad to be an “asshole”? 

A thought while walking around today:

Why is it considered bad or “evil” to be an ‘asshole’?

Furthermore, what if it is necessary for us to be an “asshole” in order to do great things?

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A simple way to think about life:

Almost anything in life is possible for you to do or achieve (from a physics ‘first principles’ perspective).

Now the question is — “How bad do I want it?”

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Dear friend,

If you’re hungry to conquer your fears in street photography, I cordially invite you to my intensive 1-day PORTLAND Conquer Your Fears Workshop (Saturday, October 19th, 2019).

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Love the music video of Apeshit by Beyoncé and Jay Z:

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A thought —

Why create?

Furthermore:

1. What prevents us from creating?
2. Is it “good” for us to create?
3. What is the meaning or significance of us to create?

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A simple thought in life:

Never take the word from others — test it out for yourself, and dare to inquire for yourself, and come up with your own independent opinion!

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Our modern vices: self-doubt, self-fear, hesitation. To me, these are all rooted from lack of faith in ourselves.

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1. Everyday uninstall one app from your phone/laptop/tablet
2. Be very very skeptical of ‘free’ social media platforms. Whenever possible, pay money for your digital tools (or pay monthly subscriptions).
3. Ask yourself– what do you value more — your attention and focus/time? Or social validation?
4. Be very aware of how social media algorithms are tweaking your behavior and thought patterns. Determine which platforms you decide are ‘worth it’, and which aren’t. Stop using the ones you find disempowering.
5. If you want honest feedback on your photos and artwork, upload it to arsbeta.com and also contribute your feedback to everyone in the community!

Deconstruct anything in order to learn!

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A simple yet profound question:

Why think?

Of course there is the practical and functional purpose: we must think in order to eat, procure water, and not die of the cold.

But beyond our biological needs — what should we do with our brain-power and intellect?

My simple answer:

To create new artworks, to deepen human wisdom and knowledge, and to use this information to empower our lives.

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As I see my evolution unfold before me as a photographer– I am starting to think BEYOND single-images that get lots of likes on social media. Instead, I am very interested in this notion of creating image-collages — a visual tapestry of images.

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Is it the sign of the strong to desire simplicity and strength?

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A thought the other day:

As a biological being, we are very small. We don’t need much in terms of biological sustenance (food, water, coffee, warmth).

In other words — our basic needs (especially in modern society) is very very easy to obtain.

Which makes me wonder —

What is the best way for us to direct our human energy, intelligence, and power-metabolism while we’re still alive?

Apex: Make art!

It seems the best use of our human metabolism is to make artwork.

Why?

Well — when we are in the process and the flow of making artwork, we are personally happy and empowered. We get into a state of “flow”, which Mihalay C considers the “optimal state” of human experience.

Secondly, when we create art and share it with others, it empowers other human beings! If we can make artwork which inspires and motivates others, gives them more appreciation of life and beauty — we certainly help humanity move forth, evolve, and become something greater.

Thirdly, it seems the ultimate state to become isn’t rich, influential, etc — but simply for us as individuals to stay motivated, inspired, and EXCITED to create new art works! To fall into the Dionysian rapture of eternal creation — to keep making new art works until we die. I think this is 100x more important than wealth, accolades, or other forms of external success.

To me true success is:

Do you wakeup everyday excited about what you will make today?

Perhaps we can use this as a simple compass to live our lives.

ERIC

A thought:

Much of the beauty of artwork is from randomness

For example:

1. Paint drips as a random/fractal-like-dispersion pattern. Paint drips are beautiful
2. The beauty of the randomness of film grain dispersion in photographs.
3. The joy of shooting with ‘film camera simulation’ phone apps like ‘CALLA CAM‘ for iPhone. The fun, joy, and excitement of NOT knowing what a photo will look like before you shoot it.
4. The joy of shooting expired film– the random aesthetic effects of expired film are often beautiful.
5. The joy of random beautiful light leaks with film cameras.

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Much of composition is about proportions — the proportions of visual elements in an image.

For example below is two different compositions of the same scene and image:

Now the simple question:

Which composition is “better”?

Let’s break it down.

1. First photo

You can see this scene you have the two red rectangles equi-distant on the top of the frame.

Also the yellow is a nice diagonal divider in the middle of the frame.

The green shadow is effective, because it extends throughout the frame. I consider this a strong and dynamic composition.

2. Composition number two

Now the second composition, note the “eyes” in magenta are more in the top-left corner.

Furthermore, the overall composition is less “balanced” than the prior composition, because the second composition leans more towards the left:

So when looking at these two compositions (abstracted) — let me ask you:

Which composition do you think is “better”?

For myself I don’t think in composition there is an objectively superior composition. But these are my thoughts:

1. The left composition is more balanced
2. The right composition is more dynamic and off-kilter
3. I prefer the left composition, as I prefer the blend of the balance and the dynamic elements. Also, I like how the composition feels more “head-on”.

More thoughts on composition to come!

ERIC

A concept I borrowed recently from Cindy:

Life is better with “plug and play”

Easier and simpler is better

For example, anything to reduce friction to allow you to most easily play or do anything is supreme.

In photography, the ultimate “plug and play”camera is a phone. You can easily shoot, process/filter your photos, select your favorite photos, and easily share your best photos with yourself or others.

With Windows drivers and printers — plug and play is 1000x better than having to find the drivers online and manually download them.

And I think this is why the App Store is so revolutionary — having to download .exe files on the Windows operating system was a major pain in the ass, and confusing for most people.

Plug and play living

So this is where things start to get interesting for myself —

How can I simplify my life to the maximum, in order for me to have the least distractions/frictions in order to be maximally creatively productive?

Simple solutions

Simple ideas:

1. Don’t use the “best” tool for the job, use the simplest tool and solution
2. Be skeptical of people who try to sell you a more complicated solution — often more complicated solutions will actually WORSEN your lifestyle. For example, owning more cars, and more possessions often adds MORE STRESS and makes our lives shittier.
3. With housing, better to move into a pre-furnished apartment/studio with all amenities and things included. This is also the upside of living in a hotel.
4. With design and UI/UX, perhaps we should optimize for ease of use for the user — to make it as “plug and play” as possible. Reduce friction from the setup to the actual playing!

And it seems the goal is this:

Reduce the friction to the max, in order to let us play as easily as possible— to maximize our play!

ERIC

What is the future of technology? My theory — “art tech” (the ultimate bridge between art and technology)— the two Archimedes levers of society.

Why “art tech”?

We got all this technology to optimize for our productivity, planning, and doing logistical things/answering emails.

Why don’t we have more technologies which optimize our artistic creativity and production?

More apps that re-awaken your inner artist

Any technologies, apps, or things which empower you to create more artwork is good.

This is my vision with arsbeta.com — actually making a platform which encourages us to become MORE artistic in our photography, by allowing us to get honest feedback and critique to improve our artistic vision.

Conclusion: Technology as a means to create more artwork

The point isn’t technology for the sake of technology, nor is the point technology for the sake of making us more mechanically-productive in answering emails or checking things off our todo list.

The supreme purpose of technology to augment our artistic abilities, vision, and artistic output and productivity!

ERIC

Prolific: creating much, sharing much.

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Embrace the extremes with your photography and cameras:

1. Phone (super convenient) x Film (very inconvenient) camera
2. Phone (super small) x Digital Medium Format (super big, but best image quality).

Let us avoid the “middle” (one size fits all) strategy.

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A thought while shooting more with a phone camera, and thinking about “vlogging”/ blogging in general —

Perhaps photography is best used as a tool of personal visual documentary of our own (“normal”) lives?

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A thought:

What if we just prioritized aesthetics over everything else?

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An idea:

It isn’t about iPhone vs Android; it is about owning both, and maximizing the most out of each (hybrid approach)

Having access to the best of both worlds. The notion “you can have your cake and eat it too.”

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After spending about a week commuting around (in a car) in the Bay Area (East Bay to South Bay traffic), I realized:

Wow — modern society sucks. Why do we need to waste all this time commuting and in a car?

But then this led me down another road of inquiry:

Are cars good or bad for us, society, and notions of freedom/slavery?

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A simple thought process:

The knowledge we consume in order to create art works of our own!

For example, watch movies, cinema, and film in order to create your own videos, vlogs, or cinema!

Consume and study photographs, painting, composition in order to create more of your own visual art works!

Let’s get rid of this romantic notion of art as being about pain, suffering/ “injustice” in the world.

Art as an expression of your soul of thanksgiving, joy, exuberant energy, and gratitude towards life, and being alive!

What I think we are searching for: sublime beauty.

Sublime beauty as aesthetics, shapes, and forms which make your jaw drop. A beautiful medley of colors, a dance of composition—

I’m hungry to discover the “secrets” of sublime beauty in art, composition, colors, tones in order to create my OWN artworks which I consider sublime beauty.

Once again —

Searching for sublime beauty in artwork, humans, design —> in order for us to make our own sublime art, and to turn our own bodies into sublime art.

Never stop searching!

ERIC

A thought while doing deadlifts at the gym today:

Nobody is “depressed” when attempting a max-attempt deadlift.

Then which made me start thinking —

We always talk about mental depression — but why don’t we ever talk about physical depression?

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A thought:

It seems evident that ‘intermittent fasting’ from food is beneficial to our physiological and mental health. What if ‘digital intermittent fasting’ was also beneficial to our “digital” health as well?

This means:

1. For certain periods of the day, totally disconnect yourself from the internet (live in #airplane mode)
2. Limit your internet access to only a certain chunk/block of the day.
3. The goal isn’t to NEVER use the internet– the goal is to use it in short/intense bursts when it truly benefits you.

Something I’ve been experimenting with the last month or so is this:

Own a phone, but don’t get a data/phone plan.

This means you can get offline Google Maps access (works very well), and you can also use it when you have wifi connectivity. This way, you’re not always using/checking your phone as a ‘nervous tic’ when at restaurants or other places, when you don’t really need to be using it.

Digital fasting retreat

Another idea– go to the woods, go on a cruise, a plane, or any situation where you don’t have access to internet or wifi. Try to go a day, a few days, or even a week without internet access. “Reset” your brain, and when you re-access the internet, re-assess yourself by thinking:

What are the effects of the ‘constant on’ internet access on my brain — and what don’t I like about certain thought patterns I have?

This means:

Create your own bespoke solution to your life, in terms of how you allow technology/internet access/change/modify/nudge/influence your behavior.

There ain’t a ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ approach. My suggestion is be AWARE of the effects of digital technology on your mind/body/soul — and ask yourself:

Am I controlling the technology, or is the technology controlling me?

Stay (digitally) woke!

ERIC