The Ohio Legislature has finally gone home. Hopefully for the year. There is a possibility that they return for more shenanigans mid-December, but we are crossing our fingers that they find literally anything better to do with their holiday season. While they’re on break, we’re going to focus our weekly updates on different policy issue areas to help readers better understand the chatter around some of the more controversial bills being considered in the General Assembly. But this week, since it’s a holiday, we’re focusing on a different topic: getting the f*ck off your phone. So here’s a short rant essay on why deciding to live in the real world is the best way to stick it to tech billionaires. The best way to undermine billionaires is to get off your f*cking phone. “After this episode, then I’ll start my laundry,” you say, watching the 13th autoplayed episode of the reality show you barely like. “I’m still listening, I’m just looking at something real quick” you say, watching the clip of your favorite actor’s girlfriend’s mom explaining how she thinks vaccines work. “Let me just check my socials one more time before bed.” You say, bracing yourself for horrifying videos of death and destruction right before you try to fall asleep. Every single day, for hours on end, most of us stare at our screens consuming headlines and opinions and entertainment curated for us by billionaires that control the algorithms. The internet rabbit holes are infinite and addictive – by design. We scroll and scroll and scroll our social media feeds, looking for the next witty quip to consume and reshare. You won’t find anyone arguing, “it was totally worth 3 hours of my day to be the 79th person to retweet that Joe Rogan clip.” And honestly, we are all pretty unanimous in believing that staring at our phones all day is bad. But few of us actually work to spend less time doing it. Thanks to tons of scraped data, our corporate overlords can target our personal insecurities, grudges, and trigger issues. They study your behavior every time you ask google how much water your plants need. They track your news consumption, buying habits, search terms. They’ve read about your weird mole, too. They know you spent 38 minutes studying that lady from work’s instagram. They know if you’ve been bad or good. Tech billionaires have real-life, Santa-level surveillance on all of us, with none of the accompanying presents. The owners of our ever-consolidating media conglomerates have a goal, and that goal is more money, more power, and more complacency. They show us what we need to see in order to get their desired behavior out of us. They want us scared, angry, hopeless, and exhausted. This is how they keep us hooked. This is how they keep us compliant. Algorithms weaponize your weaknesses – and keep you in your virtual information bubble. But you can stop playing along at any time. This may all seem quite doom-and-gloom but there’s a silver lining to all this: digital power is fragile. And so, so breakable. Billionaires bleed millions just from their websites being down for a few hours. We are a couple organized boycotts away from undermining the power of all the right people. They know it, too. But that will never happen if everyone stays addicted to their social media slop. Our feeds prop up fringe narratives, reward name-calling, and monetize hate. Some of the biggest IRL losers are “King of the Trolls” on social media. The real world hits back harder, and that can be a good thing. Online, the richest guy in the world has millions of people forced to hear his ideas. In real life, he asks a computer to feed him jokes so people might talk to him at parties. It’s not exactly a mystery why he’d rather be shitposting than attempting to make real friends in real life. Billionaires are a lot less scary when you think of them in terms of their heartbeat rather than their net wealth. The biggest antagonists in American politics are a handful of clowns with everything to lose, walking in mile-high stilts they have no business wearing. And they’re hoping we never figure out that all we have to do to get away from them is throw a banana peel: Look away from the screens and live in the real world. This week is a great time for you to practice. Make cookies. Go on a hike. Play a board game. Do… anything! Just please, please, get the f*ck off the phone. In this episode: Maria Bruno Thanks for listening. Please consider supporting our work. We don’t have any billionaire friends, and we don’t paywall our updates. We rely on the generous support of Ohioans like you to keep us going. Please consider becoming a monthly donor. Even $5/month can make a big difference. Support Our Work Get the weekly “This week @ the Statehouse” into your inbox every Monday! We send weekly dispatches from Hell the Statehouse. Each week, we provide a brief overview of what we’re paying attention to as we monitor the Ohio Legislature. We will flag bills that are moving, bills we’re fighting for or against, and provide timely reminders about other things advocates should be thinking about. Make sure to sign up for our email alerts to get this summary right to your inbox every week. More from Ohioans Against Extremism Join our Community Partner Network Join a network of 45+ community partners and take advantage of private planning sessions, exclusive safety and planning resources, a free spot at OAE’s training sessions, and more. 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