Mat Duggan on smartphone fatigue: 'Now the smartphone is a tax'
A personal essay resonates on Hacker News as readers debate whether always-on devices are mandatory or self-inflicted traps.
What to know
- Duggan argues smartphones have shifted from prized technologies to mandatory compliance tools—you can choose the brand but not whether to participate in the always-online economy.
- The core tension is structural versus self-inflicted: mandatory government/transport/airport apps force smartphones, but much frustration comes from voluntary social media, streaming, and shopping apps.
- Commenters are split: some validate the compulsion as design-driven manipulation; others argue boundary-setting and deliberate deletion of optional apps can restore agency.
- The essay resonated enough to hit Hacker News frontpage, but disagreement centers on whether Duggan's burnout reflects systemic coercion or choices he could undo.
The dispute Whether the smartphone burden Duggan describes is a structural trap (mandatory apps, designed compulsion) that individuals cannot escape, or a self-inflicted accumulation of voluntary choices he could undo through deliberate boundary-setting. · positions read across 24 posts and comments
Smartphone overload is structural; design incentives and mandatory services have made opting out functionally impossible.
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“The problem is that unlocking your phone is like entering a casino, where everything conspires against your best intentions.”
FinnLobsien · Hacker News ↗
Smartphone fatigue is largely self-inflicted; deleting optional apps, disabling notifications, and setting boundaries can restore agency.
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“If you don't want to be trapped in it, then just remove it from you life.”
pgwalsh · Hacker News ↗
Mandatory services (government, airport, transit) and voluntary consumption should be separated; Duggan conflates them unfairly.
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“Absolutely audacious to complain about being 'forced' to install apps and in the next sentence complain about the Aliexpress app. Nobody forced you to install the aliexpress app.”
nancyminusone · Hacker News ↗
The essay itself is performative—complaining about addiction through an online post fuels rather than fights the problem.
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“If you feel you're addicted, then using the addiction to talk about the addiction is not fighting it, it's fuelling it. This blog post is part of what you are complaining about. This is theatre. Pure theatre.”
idicjwxjeifu · Hacker News ↗
Mat Duggan Author, essayist
How it unfolded 7 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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7
Readers praise essay's writing quality despite disagreement with argument
Several commenters acknowledge Duggan's essay as well-written and emotionally resonant while disagreeing with specific claims or the overall framing. One identifies the piece as embodying a distinctive millennial resentment, while others simply note engagement with the writing itself.
“Genuinely decent read, despite its length, with interesting takes, and while don't agree with all of them, it's well written, nevertheless.”
— baron3dl -
My phone is in my pocket all the time basically, along with my keys and my wallet. I use it to respond to text messages from friends and family, read books on the Kindle app, check the weather report, and occasionally check Teams to see why my watch has been vibrating constantly with notifications for the last twenty minutes. Oh, and to talk on…
2 more of the top 3 · 6 posts in this stretch
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Genuinely decent read, despite its length, with interesting takes, and while don't agree with all of them, it's well written, nevertheless.I didn't realize until the very end, but his writing embues the distinctive latent resentment common among millennials whose family had a Mac in the 90s.
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I enjoyed reading with recognizable moments. These days i do my best not to get distracted while reading but and regards to your story i'd put in the effort to finish it. Your writing style wasn't tedious, it just delivered your message! Very entertaining, thanks!
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Commenter describes successful escape through deliberate choices
One reader describes eliminating social media, streaming services, and TV—then challenges the author to make similar choices rather than blame structural forces, stating the article "started off good" but derailed into self-pity instead of actionable boundary-setting.
“If you don't want to be trapped in it, then just remove it from you life.”
— pgwalsh -
The article started off good and I followed it with concurrence. Then he took a turn and went off on a tangent and never returned. He got sucked in to his own tech bubble. I see what he's saying but make those hard choices and draw your own line. I don't have any social media accounts, streaming services and I don't watch TV except for the…
2 more of the top 3 · 3 posts in this stretch
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This is very well written (and, yes, it exxagerates - but that's to heighten the effect).My solution is to remember: when you're living in hell, you still have to go to work in the morning. And at some point you'll start knowing the demons' names and make small talk about how their kids are doing in college. How can you bring a little joy to a bad…
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It boggles my mind that this is how people experience phones and the internet.1. Don't install any proprietary apps - open source only. 99% of these problems and ads go away. 2. Use an ad blocker in a browser that lets you use one. 3. Do not allow any notification except literally urgent things like a phone call or message from your partner.If you…
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Critics challenge Duggan's framing as self-inflicted versus structural
Two opposing critiques emerge: one argues Duggan conflates design manipulation (intentionally under-designed screen-time controls) with personal agency; another claims his frustrations are self-inflicted and that he should simply disable notifications and delete optional apps rather than frame it as systemic coercion.
“Smartphones are marvelous and incredibly useful. Nobody wants to renounce instant messaging or digital documents. The problem is that unlocking your phone is like entering a casino, where everything conspires against your best intentions.”
— FinnLobsien -
The emotions are relatable, but the examples are strange and don't back up his argument. It is true that there are many situations in modern life where a smartphone has become effectively mandatory.But Ali Express is not one of those. It's very feasible to delete the app, or at least turn off the notifications. The quality of TV writing may have…
2 more of the top 3 · 6 posts in this stretch
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I think part of the problem is the frictionless and feeling like I can’t control the nature of the device.I think my killer feature would be a phone that is only configurable at a laptop. You can install whatever you want, but it has to be at the laptop. Website allow lists on the laptop. You can uninstall and block things on the phone but you…
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Absolutely audacious to complain about being "forced" to install apps and in the next sentence complain about the Aliexpress app. Nobody forced you to install the aliexpress app. Nobody needs the aliexpress app.Also people need to hate ads more. A single unwarranted notification will get me to disable all notifications or uninstall your app. If…
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Readers report divergent personal relationships with connectivity
Commenters describe starkly different experiences: some say they've loved internet access since the 1990s and find constant discovery; others admit they hate being on phones but cannot stop; one notes a contradiction—saying those who love connection keep phones close, while actually hating phones yet unable to stop.
“I've read so many posts like these on hn, but I just don't relate to them. I have loved internet access since my first dial in to a BBS in the 90s. I've been cruising the information superhighway at top speed every day since.”
— cainxinth -
Like all addictions it's about habits and you compete with multiple trillion-dollar companies to shape your habits for you. Luckily, you are closer to where decisions are actually being made.So the measures, in no particular order, but vaguely resemblign an escalation ladder:1. Get a shittier phone. Something worth 100 eurobucks from aliexpress…
2 more of the top 3 · 4 posts in this stretch
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The author loved technology when it worked for him, now he toils in its service. Previously, it was additive, only giving and not taking; now it narrows options to only one: the app.Obviously, we shouldn't let this happen. Keep paper tickets, physical menus, cash, etc. These things are human, made by and for humans. They make sense across the…
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If my phone demanded my attention as much as it seems the author's does with notifications, I'd probably not keep it with me either. I also feel tired of it, but it's difficult to remove access to the number of beneficial things I get from it. I try to limit non-FOSS apps and modify most of those to suit my purposes better, though that often feels…
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Commenters propose boundary-setting and meditation as solutions
Several readers offer practical approaches: one suggests meditation and creating separation between work and leisure time; another advocates disabling all notifications and using open-source apps only; a third proposes a phone locked to laptop-based configuration to reduce temptation.
“I think it is as easy as setting boundaries: practice meditation. Learn to enjoy sitting and doing nothing, both in the living room and sitting outside.”
— mark_l_watson -
I have lived in a tech-rich life since I bought my first single board home system in around 1975.I think it is as easy as setting boundaries: practice meditation. Learn to enjoy sitting and doing nothing, both in the living room and sitting outside.Then when the time is right, work hard for several hours to get important stuff done.Food tastes…
2 more of the top 3 · 3 posts in this stretch
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It goes from complaining about endless pitches of tech to pitching a gaming console. The tech pitching is a problem, but the need to be constantly entertained and fed some content or game is the real problem. Those are pacifiers. You stuff them in an adults mouth to keep them from actually thinking about what would improve their own life. Take the…
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when reading personal blogs, it's best to assume any statement as a reflection of their experiences and world-bubble rather than as verified facts. This is a blog, not a technical doc. while your frustration may be well founded, it's also self inflicted to a degree, you're expecting the wrong thing from the wrong place.
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Hacker News commenters debate whether smartphone burden is mandatory or self-imposed
Discussion emerges across multiple comment threads with readers taking divergent stances: some validate Duggan's sense of compulsion, others argue he's conflating genuinely mandatory services (government apps, airport access) with voluntary consumption (AliExpress, social media, streaming). Several commenters propose practical workarounds like using FOSS apps, disabling notifications, or simply deleting optional apps.
“The emotions are relatable, but the examples are strange and don't back up his argument. It is true that there are many situations in modern life where a smartphone has become effectively mandatory. But Ali Express is not one of those.”
— cjpearson -
> The people who love being connected never let the thing leave them be it pocket, palm, face-down next to the forkI'm tired of convincingly presented falsehoods. I hate being on my phone. I also can't stop being on my phone.
1 more of the top 2 · 2 posts in this stretch
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This is the overwhelming feeling of our time and yet we continue on this abysmal path. What will it take?
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Mat Duggan publishes essay on smartphone fatigue
Duggan's essay "I'm Tired of Being on the Network" appears on Hacker News, describing his evolution from iPhone enthusiast to someone who resents smartphones as mandatory compliance tools rather than genuine choices. He illustrates how apps for school, transit, government ID, and other services have made smartphones effectively non-optional in places like Denmark.
“Now the smartphone is a tax. I get to choose my tax collector be it Apple, Samsung, Google, Nothing, Fairphone, but I don't get to choose whether to pay.”
— Mat Duggan -
1 outlet I'm Tired of Being on the Network
first by HN Frontpage, 1d ago
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What people are saying 5 voices from 1 site · best of 24 · verbatim
- Can mandatory government and transport apps realistically coexist with genuine alternatives (paper tickets, cash, offline options), or has digital become the only practical path?
- How much of smartphone fatigue comes from app design incentives versus user habits—and how actionable is changing the latter without changing the former?
- Yesterday
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If you feel you’re addicted, then using the addiction to talk about the addiction is not fighting it, it’s fuelling it.This blog post is part of what you are complaining about.This is theatre. Pure theatre.
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> Everyone online speaks in the same broken loop of the same ten phrases.This one bugs me a lot. The whole "YouTuber voice" or TikTok influencer schlock prose.
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My phone is pretty much always in my pocket, both in the sense that I always have it, and in the sense that I rarely use it.
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I've noticed a similar phenomenon: getting tired of networks and algorithms. I wrote a short essay with my thoughts on "Well Being in Times of Algorithms" [1].
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I don't think you can track a package now without the app on aliexpress. It might be another website but expect it to become more common