Taking Back My Damn Music & Attention Cause I Hate the Algorithm and Everything It Stands and I Have Many Choice Words To Call It That I Cannot Say On UIC Radio

Xochiquetzal Tellez 4-20-25 

Hello. My name is Xochiquetzal. Xochi, For short. because an X, Q and a Z in a name seems to scare everyone no matter how diverse the background. This is a story about how I love weird little tech and want to be different so bad (for a good reason) enjoy :)

So, I've had an original thought. One that no one has ever thought: “wow. I Really Really Hate my phone.” This slab we carry around makes us worse if we let it. But that's besides the point. We all know this. We all say it. Why don't we do something about it? When you look into it! So many people have! Rising iPod costs come from people trying to curate and take back their music habits. I've had a SD card modded, rockboxed iPod and a FiiO JM21 for years now! I've gone down the audiophile snob mines, done my work and came out well, The same. I still use my WH1000XM4s like everyone else while my expensive grados stare at me from my desk. They're just too convenient. I still use spotify. It's Just. Too. Convenient. 

That's it. Convenience. I'm already carrying my phone with me! It has spotify right there! My car has android auto. What am I supposed to do? shuffle around in my car on I-90 When I want to stop putting people on obscure 2000s Japanese pop to grab the Brat CD thats fallen between the seats? Okay no well. Lets take the convenience. The fun. The usage and everything out of the phone and put it in some other things. Lets… also try to connect with our music. I listen to really out of the way things. The main website I find my music on (Jpopsuki) is an invite only community/Tracker (trackers are sites which hosts music available to torrent, Many are closely knit) I have many CDs which i've imported from Japan. Lets see what I can rip and document! (not much actually…) and lets try and foster some community!

-Lets get that iPod, Load it up with 1ish TB of music. I already do most of my listening on local files mixed in on spotify. So let's grab my top 100 albums off spotify and all my top 100 from 2018 wrapped to now. 

-Lets Pull out the ol Olympus camera! Lets making capturing moments a Biiiiit more analog!

-Paper planner! (This was kinda fun….)

-Delete and add timers to literally every non crucial app and stop ALL notifications from them!!!!

After checking my CDs, Ripping them and setting them up for upload and setting up a magnet torrent! We're off to the races. Then!

Not really much. At first. I got used to the wire. Clipping my iPod to my waist like some sort of hipster. But after a week I did notice my usage on my phone go from [REDACTED] hours to only 3-4 a day! Yay!

I noticed within 2 weeks wow. Stress! Its gone! I actually felt on top of things. I didn't really have much of an addiction to short form content like tiktok or instagram reels. I always saw them as something innately harmful and avoided them like the plague (My instagram app is actually a modded version which only has DMs. No feed, reels, Stories.) But I did have a horrible Yap obsession. I am a horrible Yapaholic. Always texting someone. Some group chat. Some discord servers. Lord do I YAP. Now that i'm actually living in the world around me. It felt nicer.

My girlfriend even noted how nice it was that I wasn't stuck in my phone sometimes. But I think anyone would come to this conclusion. Anyone I mentioned what I was doing instantly went “ohhh that must feel so good” Which was interesting. We all are very aware of our horrible addiction.

But mental health aside. Let's talk about music!

I felt so at ease with my choices. No more spotify being like HEY SO I KNOW YOU KEEP LISTENING TO JAPANESE ARTISTS FROM 1980-2000 AND SOME HIP HOP FROM THAT ERA BUT THERE'S THIS NEW POP ALBUM AND I THINK-

No. I pick my music. I press shuffle and I listen. I know what's there. I built it. I'm familiar with all 1000+ songs. Finally All my songs that  aren't on spotify. All that are. When i'm at my PC foobar200 lets me scrobble the music so I can still partake in my snob awards. An aux cable in my car lets me plug in. Easy. Simple. I've learned so much and so much history and even gotten so much deeper into my music from interacting and uploading to the tracker I frequent. People with interests the same as mine… that I talk about and enjoy things with… Is this what they call… a Hobby??

Wow. 

Now let's bring in: The pretentious wildcards

THE: panasonic SJMJ15

This is an MD player! MDs are a standard from the late mid 90s-2000s. They never really caught on in the US but they were the Standard to replace cassettes in Europe and asia. Especially japan. I love these little guys! They're so cute. I want to eat one. Plus the player is so cute! I have bought a few MD lots and have even found some super different and weird music. Plus look how cute some MDs can get!! 

I loved carrying this around and even used it on UIC radio!

I also got a walkman.

 Repaired the drive bands and was off. I have a smaller collection of cassettes but a lot of old Mexican music cassettes. Sometimes you just need a bit of los bukis…

But that's all for now. I'm still continuing. I average 2 hours of phone screen time a day and I'm reading touching grass so much more! Try it out :)