What Is Slow Tech?

Jardine Faner
May 21
2 min read

A note from Jardine Faner

Let me be clear:

I’m not anti-tech.

I’m just… tired.

Tired of apps that demand more than they give.

Tired of platforms that flatten us into data points, dopamine spikes, or productivity metrics.

Tired of fast things pretending to be good things.

So I started asking myself:

What would it feel like to build technology that nourishes instead of extracts?

That slows us down instead of speeds us up?

That listens, holds space, and leaves room for mystery?

That’s when I found the phrase: slow tech.

Slow tech isn’t about going offline.

It’s about rethinking our relationship with technology—

the same way slow food reimagined our relationship with meals.

It’s intentional.

Seasonal.

Rooted.

Slow tech doesn’t try to be addictive.

It tries to be attentive.

It doesn’t fight for your eyeballs—it offers your mind a moment of rest.

It doesn’t track every click—it notices what you care about and asks why.

Withering Gardens is slow tech.

Every app I’m building—Confessor, Storyteller, First Mate, Navigator—is designed around pause, presence, and personal rhythm.

In Confessor, you can’t edit what you write.

There’s no “backspace,” no pressure to sound smart.

Just a space to be honest, one paragraph at a time.

In Storyteller, your past reflections become compost.

You grow something new from what you once struggled to say.

And in First Mate, collaboration doesn’t look like a dashboard of tasks—

it looks like shared intentions, rotating leadership, and the gentle accountability of being seen.

Slow tech isn’t a product. It’s a promise.

A promise that your inner world matters more than your metrics.

That not knowing is part of the process.

That you deserve tech that mirrors your humanity—not replaces it.

I believe the future will still have screens.

But maybe they’ll feel more like windows than traps.