Digital Minimalism

“Digital Minimalism” (2019) by Cal Newport lays out the whys and hows of living a life less consumed by digital technology –  the Internet, video games, video streaming and, most of all, smartphones. Although Newport is fascinated by the Amish, he is not for getting rid of digital technology – just for using it mindfully.

The attention economy began in 1830 with the penny press. From there it has spread to magazines, billboards, radio, television, the sides of buses, the Internet, and worst (best) of all, smartphones. It sells your attention to their customers: advertisers. You are the product! Your time is turned into their money. It reached a particularly ugly milestone in 2014 when Facebook began to make most of its money from smartphones. Money they used to make smartphones yet more addictive. Your urge to check your phone is no accident. It is by design. And, unlike billboards or television, a smartphone is always with you, eating up yet more of your time.

Digital detox: Newport recommends going on a digital detox for 30 days. During that month you limit your use of digital technology to the bare minimum, to only what is absolutely necessary. And only according to “operating procedures” – rules you write down that lay out the when, what and how. Only after a month can you possibly have the perspective needed to rebuild your digital use from the ground up.

Recommended practices: Some suggestions he details in the book:

1. Spend time alone – leave your phone at home, go for long walks, write letters to yourself, etc. Anything where others cannot interrupt you.
2. Don’t click “like”. Instead of clicking “like” on your cousin’s baby photos maybe you should visit her. Or at least call her up. “Like” is a big thing that makes social media addictive.
3. Consolidate texting. Do it at set times. Do not let yourself be endlessly interrupted. Likewise:
4. Hold conversation office hours when people know they can talk to you at length.
5. Fix or build someting every week. You know, like in the physical world.
6. Schedule your low-quality leisure. If you are going to mindlessly scroll through the Internet, at least limit it and do it on purpose.
7. Join something. The real world awaits!
8. Follow leisure plans.
   
9. Delete social media from your phone. The computer versions are way less addictive.
10. Turn your devices into single-purpose computers. Zadie Smith said she would not have had the time to write her novel “NW” if she was unable to turn off the Internet while writing on her computer.
11. Use social media like a professional. They are purposeful in how they use it.
12. Embrace slow media. Breaking news on Twitter is low-quality and often misleading. Better to read about it in the Times the next morning. Let paid professionals chase down the story.
13. Dumb down your smartphone. Some hedge fund managers use flip phones like it was 2005 so that they are not distracted and misled while at work.

The book most reminds me of “The Plug-In Drug” (1977), written by Marie Winn a generation ago. It was about an addictive technology that seemed to be warping the youth and replacing real life: television.

– Abagond, 2021.

See also:

• books – books I read in 2021
  • Nicholas Carr: The Shallows
• Internet
  • Living a year without the Internet
  • Living like it’s 1979
• From 2007:
  • iPhone
  • I saw the iPhone for the first time
• Zadie Smith on writing

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