When We Become the Device

 My phone sends a nightly report of that day's screen time. Usually I'm around two hours and change. But that's screen time on my phone. Like most other writers, the majority of my screen time is at my laptop. While it's easy to complain about all the time we spend staring at screens, much has changed in how we consume information. Unless you're involved in physical labor--the trades, cooking, gardening--how else would you work?

 

According to Demand Sage, worldwide, the average person spends 6 hours and 54 minutes on screen time. While the time for Americans is 7 hours, 2 minutes, we are digital sloths compared to much of the world. South Africa leads at 9 hours, 24 minutes; Brazil is second at 9 hours, 13 minutes; Philippines at 8 hours, 52 minutes. Measured behind countries such as Colombia, Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Bulgaria, and Saudi Arabia, we in the USA clock in at number 19.

Discounting work, even if we wanted to limit screen time, it becomes a challenge. We get most of our news from the web, though what gets delivered is often throttled by search engines and we have to dig deeper to get past click-bait. The phone is a portable TV, so it's a convenient way to watch programs, movies, and videos. Then there's social media. Add gaming. On-line banking. Hooking up. Checking the weather. Scrolling through photos. Seems every business and venue wants you to download their app.

Even before AI, the phone became a crutch. City maps have practically disappeared and we rely on Siri to tell us how to get to our destination. Rather than hunt for radio stations on the car dashboard, Spotify delivers tunes based on our algorithms. 

What we consume through screen time affects our mood, deliberately since the harder our emotional buttons are pushed, the more likely we are to engage with what's online and be rewarded with dopamine hits. 

AI studies our engagement on an unprecedented scale and not just by documenting what sites we've visited, but by eavesdropping, sifting through our email and social media, mapping our locations, cataloging our photos, cross-indexing biometrics gleaned from smart watches and fitness trackers, reading our eyeballs whenever we're close to a camera. The level of surveillance we've embraced would astonish and certainly dismay George Orwell. 

We've become so reliant on AI to tell us where we are, to remind us what to do, to nudge us about healthy options, to validate who we are, so that in a not-too-distant future, AI via the phone will tell us how to feel. Which brings me to my writer friend Nick Arvin, who embarked on an ambitious project on Substack to write and publish 52 short stories, one for each week of 2026. The stories have an off-center Twilight Zone mood, a bit creepy, not quite horror but definitely unsettling and worth reading. In this week's offering, Arvin presents "A Device For Feeling Feelings", describing how reliant people will become on their devices, to the point they're uncomfortable trusting their emotions without getting affirmation from AI, even in matters of romance.

Using Substack for an Author Newsletter

The cover image from my recent author newsletter on JOY.

Happy Friday, Type Ms! It's Shelley, and I'm going to share a little bit about writing and managing a Substack newsletter. 

I really think of my newsletter as a complete publication, not a blog post. That is why I have several sections in each one. These include an editorial letter, a bit about the art, the month’s long-form essay, publishing industry news, my own writing news, and sometimes a bit about Guam or, as in this month’s issue, a recipe for a perfect summer breakfast.

This month's newsletter's theme was "Joy." In the long-form essay, I share a moment of pure joy I experienced while working on the ghostwriting project that became my first published full-length book.

It took me a few hours to write and format the newsletter. Like the better part of a day "few hours." It's not a quick and easy task. 

How Do I Like Substack?

So far I've been happy with Substack. I'm able to follow other writers and people in the industry who know what's what. Publicists. Agents. Editors. These people scan the news and curate the industry happenings, and I feel more informed. (Okay, yes, maybe ignorance was a little more blissful, actually.)

I actually find the platform pretty intuitive and easy to use. I like the data analytics. I like that interacting with others on there, even casually, can lead to some connections. This is similar to other social media platforms.

It's not perfect, of course. I’ve been gaining new subscribers, but at the same time, my open percentage has been going down resulting in about the same number of opens/reads. 

However, the other day I actually had a comment on a "Note" go somewhat viral. According to the post's data, my comment reached 18K people, nearly 700 of which pressed the like button. Guess how many of the 18K checked out my profile? 25. Twelve of them became new subscribers. 

Every little bit helps, I guess. 

Go HERE to read my newsletter and consider signing up if you are interested in creativity, purpose, art, and writing.

I really do try to bring helpful and inspiring ideas to my readers, and I only send one per month. 

Meanwhile all 6000 of the Substack newsletters I follow seem to end up in my inbox every week. Obviously that’s a huge exaggeration--it's more like 60--but I may have to pare down.  

AI News

Did you hear the scuttlebutt about AI and how if you use em dashes and Oxford commas, people might accuse you of using AI. Ugh! I love both! This is, frankly, ridiculous. I'm going to keep writing in the style in which I've become accustomed, and if anyone accuses me of using AI, well, they can think what they want.

Book Cover Update

I worked on the cover again to make it pop even more, and I think it’s done.

I like it better than having the stripe across the bottom, and the font for the title is much more casual, less tight and stiff. 

Never mind the turtleneck. It’s night. On the ocean. Girl needs a sweater.

I finished another scene this afternoon, so I'm getting closer to finishing and releasing this baby. Lately I fashion each scene in my mind, contemplating turning points and conflict and overcoming obstacles and how each scene will lead to the next and move the story forward, plus character development and quirks and dialogue (to tag or not to tag, that is the question!) 

...all the usual craft stuff. 

Have a happy weekend, peeps!