All screens-- all the time!
 
As you know, I've been advocating for the reduction of screen time for about a decade, especially for children... and there was an inkling of hope just before this whole Covid business. Mainstream conversations around the problems of screen-based digital technology were growing. For instance:

• Studies found detrimental effects of screen time on children (duh); 
• Streaming and downloading music creates more pollution than vinyl or CDs (at their peaks); 
• The carbon emissions from powering the internet are unsustainable;
• #DegitalDetox2019 was actually a thing!

 
I wrote about the issues of technology in education in this comic. And this 2019 film from Iceland kept me inspired.
 
In fact, just before lockdown, I discovered this small chain of UK bars called Samuel Smith pubs. There are only a couple hundred or so throughout the UK and my neighbourhood in Middlesbrough has (had) two (in these beautiful old Victorian buildings). Anyways, according to their website:
 
George Orwell described his perfect pub in a 1945 essay entitled “The Moon under Water” – Samuel Smith pub's accord with his ideal in several ways: 

• The architecture and fittings must be uncompromisingly Victorian
• Games, such as darts, are only played in the public bar so that in other bars you can walk about without the worry of flying darts 
• The pub is quiet enough to talk, with the house possessing neither a radio nor a piano 
• The barmaids know the customers by name and take an interest in everyone 
• A creamy sort of draught stout is served 
• In winter there is generally a good fire burning in at least two of the bars

 
These places were so cool! They had "Digital Detox Zone" posters and staff wore the imprint on their T-Shirts.
 
I found another Samuel Smith pub down the road in another town called Stockton (where the friction match was invented in 1826). Kim, our friend Will, and I were there last year (just before lockdown) drinking pints (organic draught lager!). Will turns on his phone to text his gal, and wouldn't you know it: a barmaid asks him to put the phone away. It isn't permitted! I loved and laughed at that moment.
 
I'm bored of YouTube and Netflix now, so I caved and got the free Amazon Prime for a month. What's worth watching? So far, these:

• Under the Silver Lake
• Billie
• The Banana Splits Movie
• The Man in the High Castle
• The Last Testament of George Harrison

I took a break over Xmas and did some doodles. Here's one idea for a potential comic: The League of American Digital Supervillains (LADS).