THE OBJECT
A pocket-sized carrier for an Apple Watch and AirPods Pro. Laminated wood, laser cut, hand painted. Three layers of balsa and plywood shaped to hold exactly two things, the only two you need when you walk out the door without your phone.
Combo carrier: Apple Watch + AirPods Pro
Standalone carrier
AirPods Pro case open, sliding out from the carrier
WHAT HAPPENED
I posted this carrier to seven subreddits. Same photos, same words. About a quarter of a million people saw it.
It hit top post on r/AppleWatch, r/nosurf, r/digitalminimalism and r/AppleWatchStandalone at the same time. Strangers crossposted it into design forums and cassette futurism groups without me asking. Some called it mid-century modern, others called it bricolage. One guy said it belonged in r/tomsachs, the subreddit for the artist who builds everything by hand inside systems made to stop you doing exactly that. I took that as a big compliment.
The people who had already ditched their phones asked where to buy one. They said it looked human.
The people still glued to their phones wrote long replies about why they didn't need one. Some went through my posting history across six subreddits. Others wrote detailed technical arguments about why a piece of wood is a worse phone than their phone. One comment saying the carrier was pointless got 360 upvotes, from people who stopped scrolling long enough to click.
Nobody asked anyone to pick a side but they did. And the forum for people trying to use the internet less had the longest threads of all. I found that funny.
“The carrier just holds a watch and AirPods in your pocket. The people did the rest.”
The Spectrum
The more a group had already sorted out their own phone use, the more they liked it. That held in every one I've got numbers for
The Mirror
One commenter got it right:
“Ever heard of displaced hatred? Or projection in general? They getting defensive without anybody asking is them talking to their inner gatekeeper who already knows they're wrong. It's self-justification to preserve their state of identity. Your post was a mirror.”
The ones arguing with me were really arguing with themselves, the part of them that already agreed.
No. 002. The back, with the QR code to the full story.
The Back
Every one is engraved with a name, a number, my mark and a QR code to the full story of what happened when it hit the internet.
It says "This box reveals people." So far it has.