Digital Minimalism is about optimizing your daily phone/tech use for things that you deeply value, and skipping out on everything else.

Digital Minimalism is a sub-genre of the larger Minimalism movement, which focuses on mindfulness of possessions, and focusing our attention on things that we deeply value. In theory, this should make you happier, more organized and focused. The term Digital Minimalism was coined by the computer science professor Cal Newport, in his book of the same name.

Contents

My experience with digital minimalism

Should you try digital minimalism?

Criticism of digital minimalism

Digital sobriety vs digital minimalism

My experience with digital minimalism

As a Gen Z, I had used every popular social media (barring Clubhouse) Silicon Valley had to offer, out of which, Twitter was by far the one I was glued to the most. The simple and short posts that took little to no effort to create, yet still pulled instant rewards, were my Achilles heel. I went through many digital detoxes over the 6 years I’d been using it actively, but somehow I’d always fall right back into the old pattern.

At my peak usage, I hit the 1000 direct message limit 2-3 times in a row (which never stopped me from texting further, I’d just switch to another account), and sending 10-20 tweets an hour (not counting retweets or replies). My phone screen time would often be between 6-10 hours, mostly of it spent on Twitter or YouTube. I would provide the exact numbers, but I’ve since deleted my accounts so there is no way for me to trace them back.

Clearly, something needed to change in my life, but I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong. I read a lot of advice about digital detoxes, making your phone grayscale, turning off notifications, etc. I implemented all of them, but never seemed to make a long-lasting change. It felt like I was slowly suffocating. Reading Digital Minimalism was an ‘Aha!’ moment for me, and the years of accumulating doubts and thoughts were finally put into words.

I had already deleted most of the apps off my phone prior to reading the book, and I had left most of my social media by that point, so the part about figuring out what things I deeply value and ditching everything else was what resonated the most with me. More specifically, switching the mindset from using a platform for because it provides some benefit versus using it because it is the best way of supporting your values.

Should you try digital minimalism?

Yes. The core principle of digital minimalism – finding out what you value and figuring out the best way of supporting that value (with or without technology), is something that we all can, and should, think about.

If you’re still on the fence, maybe answering some of the following questions will help you make a decision.

• What are the things you care about the most? (Family, career…)
• Check your screen time report. What are the apps you use the most?
• Why do you use these apps? What value do they bring you?
• Are you supporting the things you care about by using them?
• Could you support your values better with another method?

Alternatively, you can download the Phone dependency document I shared here (don’t worry, no email sign-up needed). The document has a lot more questions that might help you in self-reflection, in other words, if there are some aspects of your digital life that you can improve in.

If you’ve decided to give digital minimalism a try after this evaluation, you can read more about the specific steps you can take here. David Peletz created an excellent summary of Newport’s book, which details every step of the way, so I definitely recommend you check out that too.

Criticism of digital minimalism

Intersectional analysis and long-term observation are the two things that are severely lacking as discussion points in digital minimalism circles.

Minimalism, including digital minimalism, inherently relies on privilege. Not just economic or social privilege, but also physical privilege. Deleting social media apps on your phone only to use them on your computer doesn’t work for those who are worse-off economically, as the persistence of Digital Divide has proven. People who are disabled might not be able to go on mindful walks or be crafty. Digital Minimalism and Deep Work are both very focused on male examples of doing high-quality, undistracted work or leisure time, while largely sidelining caregiving duties that have historically been women’s duties.

I would also like to see more observations and studies on the effectiveness of digital minimalism that follow the participants long-term. Is it more of a temporary solution that will be dropped when a person runs out of minimalism products to consume, or will it have a long-lasting effect on their lifestyle? Such studies are very unlikely to occur, but one can dream.

Digital sobriety vs digital minimalism

I do not wish to present digital minimalism, or more specifically, reduction of tech and apps, as a blanket solution for all problems. First, a lot of people have mental health issues that cannot be addressed by simply using technology less, because those mental health issues are what is driving people to excessively use their phones and social media in the first place. Second, whether or not your social media use is detrimental or beneficial depends on the purpose and outcomes of the online interactions.

There is value in optimizing our digital lives. However, I cannot make the promise that once you practice digital minimalism you will be truly happy, or more organized, or more focused. Whether these results come for you or not will depend on your own unique situation. I’ve gone into more detail about this on my post about screen time.

So instead, I’ve decided to use the term digital sobriety. It’s a phrase used when referring to the state of raised awareness of the impact of digital technology and internet usage on the environment. I would like to expand this definition to the ‘awareness of the impact of digital technology and internet usage on our health and daily lives‘.

Therefore, the main purpose of this blog is to bring awareness to the impact of excessive use of modern technology on our psychological and/or physical health, as well as to provide guidance on how to improve some aspects of our digital life. I still do encourage giving Cal Newport’s ‘digital declutter’ system a try, since I’ve had success with it personally.

However, life isn’t so simple to be able to say that it’s suddenly going to transform the person you are, or the situation you’re in. The only ‘certainty’ I can provide is that you will be able to recognize the manipulative tactics employed by tech companies if you keep educating yourself, and if you use the internet mindfully.