Compartmentalization is the division of something into different sections or categories. As a psychological defense mechanism, we compartmentalize thoughts or ideas to manage stress, help us focus, or create mental separation between opposing ideas that create dissonance.
Re-compartmentalization is the act of separating and dividing use cases into separate bodies.
Why re-compartmentalize technology?
Because we need Containers.
As digital platforms continue to collapse communication, work, entertainment, commerce, and memory into a single interface, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between our own intentions and those shaped by recommendation systems, notifications, and engagement-driven design. The iPhone created a unified field of slipperiness, where everything exists everywhere at all times
Containers produce productive friction that spatially re-orients our relationship to objects. When my hand moves through the air towards my bedside table to turn my radio knob, the physical experience reaffirms my decision to listen to WBGO. I cannot get sidetracked by opening Instagram. I am at one with my decision. The decision happens from one point in time, and stops happening at another point in time.
In an oversaturated world overrun by content, slop, and attention capturing algorithms, there is less distinction between our natural desires, and our programmed desires. Re-compartmentalization creates opportunities to notice those distinctions. By assigning different technologies to different contexts, we practice identifying, naming, and remaining curious about our own motivations before acting on them.