"What telling people to touch grass ignores, in part, is that grass is not all that good to touch. It's itchy and sticky - there could be bugs in there. There's a far more profoundjoyin touching machines, as is shown again and again in Albert Birney's Obex, which functions as both a shrine to and warning about our reliance on technology."
"It is a lonely, isolated life. Conor lives with a scrappy little mutt named Sandy, but he does not share the robust familial or social life of the people who send him their pictures to animate. His neighbor Mary (Callie Hernandez) does his grocery shopping, and any time he spends outside proverbially touching grass occurs in his little backyard, which happens to be infested with cicadas."
The phrase touch grass originated in 2019 and urges people to step away from screens and gain perspective outdoors. Grass can be itchy, sticky, and host insects, while machines can deliver profound tactile pleasure. Obex centers on Conor, a solitary ASCII artist in 1987 Baltimore who recreates mailed photos on an old Mac using 128 printable characters. Conor shares a modest life with a mutt, relies on a neighbor for errands, and spends outside time in a backyard full of cicadas. The story celebrates analog delights and dated tools while serving as a caution about technological dependence and longing for connection.
Read at Vulture
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