Instagram. Twitter. Tumblr. Facebook. Reddit. Pinterest. I cannot begin to imagine how many hours of my life I have spent scrolling mindlessly through these apps, wanting to, yet unable to stop myself. And this is likely the case for more than half of the internet dwellers. How many times have we opened one of these apps to do a specific task and ended up scrolling for an hour? These apps are designed to grab your attention and keep it so that user interaction is maximized. Each person’s experience on these apps is entirely different and so tailored to individual preferences that you can’t help but scroll to the next post. In this world where each of these multimillion-dollar companies is fighting for your attention, taking a step back and using your time productively and intentionally can be very difficult. Despite noticing how social media negatively impacts our mental health, we feel trapped in an endless cycle of FOMO and misery. This is where digital minimalism comes in.
Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. Coined by author and computer science professor Cal Newport in his book of the same name, digital minimalism is the philosophy based on the understanding that our technology use deserves more intention than we give it.
In his book, Cal Newport defends the importance of silence and deep thinking, arguing that even though large corporations profit from people’s compulsive smartphone and social media use, they are the only ones winning. Addictive technologies prevent people from spending their time on better pursuits, and without the time to daydream and reflect, people become less able to innovate, foster empathy, and develop moral courage. It is also a very powerful tool which makes us passive participants of capitalism. Newport encourages readers to take back their lives by fasting from digital media and only returning to the activities that are genuinely necessary or life-enhancing. Even though people defend websites and apps by pointing to their advantages, he argues that it is possible to meet many of these needs in better, more meaningful ways without tech.
It is important to realize that digital minimalism is not anti-technology, rather it’s about cultivating a life worth living in the midst of digital distraction. It’s about taking back the present life we have lost to our online lives. It is also an act of resistance against corporations scrambling for every last bit of our time. A foundational theme in digital minimalism is that new technology, when used with care and intention, creates a better life than mindless adoption.
We can all agree that real-world interactions are more valuable and fulfilling than online interactions. Studies have shown that the more you use social media, the less time you tend to devote to offline interaction, and therefore the worse this value deficit becomes—leaving the heaviest social media users much more likely to be lonely and miserable. Not only this, social media also deprives us of our solitude, leaving us with little to no time to be alone with our thoughts and process our feelings and emotions.
In summary, digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimised activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.
If this article has sufficiently sparked your interest in this philosophy, consider reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport for further information (not sponsored, the author just really likes this book 😀 ). In case you don’t have time, here are 5 quick digital minimalism practices to kickstart your journey. You could also look into dopamine detox, it’s very interesting, I promise! Let’s join the digital resistance movement!
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