Four ways to practice digital minimalism
According to Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, we can greatly improve our lives by learning how to use technology more intentionally—that is, in ways that support our goals and values. Newport refers to this approach as digital minimalism. (See Part I of this article for a brief intro to this philosophy.)
In his book, Newport suggests four concrete practices for anyone interested in cultivating a digital minimalist lifestyle. With just a little bit of effort, Newport says, anybody can use these practices to lead a more fulfilling life. To understand how, let’s take a quick look at each practice, starting with the first.
Practice 1: Spend time alone
If you suffer from chronic solitude deprivation … the quality of your life degrades (p 104).
One of the challenges of modern life is trying to find a healthy balance between socializing and solitude. (Indeed, this challenge became very apparent after the COVID-19 pandemic!) How do we spend enough time alone without also feeling like we’re all alone? And how does digital technology affect us in this regard?
In today’s world, we’re often inundated by calls, texts, messages, memes, notifications, advertisements, etc. Unfortunately, when so much digital noise floods our minds continuously, we don’t spend time reflecting upon our own thoughts. And if we don’t take enough time to think through our thoughts, we can’t learn how to be independent thinkers. The result is what Newport calls “solitude deprivation.”
By “solitude deprivation,” he means spending “close to zero time alone with our own thoughts and free from input from other minds” (p 103). No doubt, a major cause of solitude deprivation today is constant interruptions from smartphones and social media. Therefore, one reason to spend more time alone is to have more freedom from interruptions—especially from digital noise.
For example, one fashionable form of digital noise is the influx of ‘likes’ on social media. In fact, many people turn to social networking sites as a way to socialize, particularly during times of social isolation. (For instance, social media use greatly increased when the COVID pandemic forced people to practice social distancing.) Unfortunately, scrolling through social media feeds and clicking the ‘like’ button don’t necessarily solve the problem of loneliness.
In truth, to overcome the feeling of social isolation, we need real conversation, not ‘likes’ on social media. To understand why, let’s consider the next way to practice digital minimalism.
Practice 2: Don’t click “like”
Real conversation takes time, and the total number of people for which you can uphold this standard will be significantly less than the total number of people you can follow, retweet, “like,” and occasionally leave a comment for on social media, or ping with the occasional text (p 149).
Social media can be an efficient, but not necessarily meaningful, way to communicate. That’s because much of our communication is nonverbal; and online messaging features—including the ‘like’ button—lack the unspoken social cues (facial expressions, tone of voice, etc.) that we need to understand one another. Therefore, Newport argues, we should be wary of using online ‘likes’ in place of real conversations.
As Holly Shakya, a professor of public health, has put it:
Where we want to be cautious… is when the sound of a voice or a cup of coffee with a friend is replaced with ‘likes’ on a post (p 142).
At the end of the day, spending your free time having real conversations will feel more fulfilling—both socially and emotionally—than clicking the ‘like’ button. Of course, if those conversations aren’t possible in a face-to-face setting (say, because there’s a pandemic), then a phone call or video chat is a nice alternative. Again, the important point is that we’re not replacing conversations with ‘likes,’ which are far less socially and emotionally fulfilling.
Closely related to this point about social and emotional fulfillment is the idea of “high-quality leisure.” Which brings us to the third way to practice digital minimalism.
Practice 3: Reclaim leisure
One way to understand the exploding popularity of social media platforms in recent years is that they offer a substitute source of aggrandizement. In the absence of a well-built wood bench or applause at a musical performance to point toward, you can instead post a photo of your latest visit to a hip restaurant, hoping for likes, or desperately check for retweets of a clever quip (p 180).
Here, Newport is suggesting that we’ll feel more socially and emotionally fulfilled if we maximize “high-quality leisure” (p 182). By high-quality leisure, he means a couple things.
- First, he’s referring to skillful activities that challenge us mentally or physically.
- Second, he’s referring to social activities that help us connect emotionally with other people.
For instance, playing challenging games with others is an example of high-quality leisure. Posting polarizing memes on social media in hopes of getting a ton of ‘likes’ is an example of low-quality leisure. Keep in mind, however, that high-quality leisure—skillful, social activities—can be done in person or in a virtual setting.
For example, people who like to participate in role playing games can do so while physically together; or they can play remotely using an online tool like Roll20. After all, to practice digital minimalism doesn’t mean renouncing digital technology. Rather, it’s making sure the technology supports what we truly value and enjoy in life. Using technology to support high-quality leisure is an excellent way to do exactly that.
True, high-quality leisure requires more investment of time and energy than low-quality leisure. But, in return, we’re more likely to experience a feeling of accomplishment and a sense of belonging to a larger community. With that thought in mind, let’s look at one more way to practice digital minimalism.
Practice 4: Join the attention resistance
…the rapid switching between different applications tends to make the human’s interaction with the computer less productive in terms of the quality and quantity of what is produced (p 228).
It’s no secret that digital technologies, from personal computers to smart devices, are multifunctional. In other words, they grant us the power to perform virtually any task, at nearly any time of the day. Nevertheless, as convenient as it may feel to hold this power in the palm of our hands, we often—and ironically—end up being less productive in our lives.
That’s because many devices are practically designed to make us multitask (or handle multiple inputs from multiple tasks simultaneously). And yet, as any psychologist will tell you, our brains didn’t evolve to multitask like computers. Consequently, when digital technologies make us multitask, we’re easily taken advantage of by the so-called ‘digital attention economy.’
The basic idea behind this economy is that attention is a scarce resource, so innumerable apps are almost always competing to hijack it 24/7. As a result, we don’t pay attention to any one thing for much time, making us less productive. For example, how frequently do we catch ourselves checking, say, a weather app, only to find that, fifteen minutes later, we’re mindlessly scrolling through a social media feed, without actually getting to the weather app?
Obviously, if we want to be more productive, we need to figure out how to resist the digital attention economy. In this light, Newport offers a counterintuitive piece of advice: Dumb down your smartphone!
How to dumb down your smartphone
To dumb down your smartphone (or any smart device, really), try any of the following strategies:
- Remove any unnecessary apps form the device, such as social media apps.
- For the remaining apps, turn off all unessential notifications. For instance, disable notifications about new likes, comments, shares, emails, etc.
- Instead of checking your apps and notifications compulsively, schedule specific blocks of time to look at them. For example, check them twice a day, for only 15 minutes—say, around at noon and 6 p.m.
These strategies will not only allow you to be more productive with your time. They’ll also ensure you’re the one controlling your smartphone, as opposed to it controlling you. To be sure, smart devices can be powerful tools, but we’ll derive the most benefit when we use them to focus on—and finish—one task at a time.
To practice digital minimalism, make it a habit
In sum, digital minimalism is knowing just how much technology is enough to live the kinds of lives we value. Ultimately, this philosophy helps us to adopt technologies that add value and enjoyment to our lives—in particular, by reducing excessive interruptions rampant in the digital attention economy.
A closing thought: To practice digital minimalism, keep in mind it’s not a one-time deal. Everyone knows how easy it is to slide back into old habits, sometimes unknowingly. Hence, to gain the most benefit from digital minimalism, make it a habit by reevaluating life according to those four practices on a regular basis (for instance, monthly, semi-annually, or yearly).
For more ideas on how to practice digital minimalism, we highly recommend reading Newport’s book. Also, if you’ve any thoughts on digital minimalism, feel free to leave a comment below, or check out other Recommended Reading on this site.
References
Newport, Cal. (2019). Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.