reading is compelling, instructional, and practical, I couldnt put Digital Minimalism down, and ended up "consuming” it in onlysits, Because of that, I feel compelled to share a review before you make any commitment, Let me divide this review intoparts, First I'll share reasons why I chose to read the book and some personal takeaways, Next, a summary of the book including short excerpts I highlighted while taking notes, Last, I'll suggest a few complementary readings, PERSONAL THOUGHTSI probably pre ordered this book because Ive been intrigued by how the overused of modern technologiesspecially social networks and social mediahave influenced our societies during the lastyears.
This latest wave is actually recent, and being in my earlys I still remember clearly how life was during high school and early days in college before this explosion.
We all acknowledge the wonders of technology, how the development of new tools has helped the prosperity of our societies in many dimensions, However, the opposite is equally importantconsequences that deserve to be understood and evaluated, Besides the social, emotional and psychological aspects, which are the main focus of Digital Minimalism, I also care about the impacts on our physical health caused by technology overexposure.
Not only how the devices shape our physical posture for worst over the years but also the detrimental effects of electromagnetic fields to our overall health, That said, Ive been trying to be mindful about technology use during the lastyears, I still have social network accounts, but I feel quite odd among my peers because Ive been checking these accounts less often than everabout once a monthbut I rarely post pictures or comments.
It brings a deep sense of freedom and calmness, In terms of smartphone use, I keep it on airplane mode for aroundof the awake time, and I often try to go on adventures up in the mountains to be away from signal access for days or weeks at a time.
This desire to be unreachable has grown over time and, although it makes me feel grounded and present, I admit that can be quite selfish of me towards loved ones.
Reading this book helped me better understand the forces behind addictive technologies, exposed me to pragmatic ideas to implement the minimalism philosophy, and supported my previous thoughts on how we can better handle digital overexposure.
SUMMARYIntro Digital minimalism, according to Cal Newport, is a philosophy where we focus our online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that support the things we value.
We learn how the author got interested in the topic after receiving feedbacks from his previous book, ChapterCal starts with a refresherbringing back to the early and “potentially innocent" days of Facebook and the iPhonethen, he soon shows how these new technologies took the lead by dictating how we behave and how we feel by pushing us to overuse their products for as long as possible.
Interesting story about how NYU professor Adam Alter shifted his research topic after getting “trapped” foruninterrupted hours playing a game on his phone during a cross country flight.
Cal then explainsof the main forces used by technology companies to encourage behavior addiction:Intermittent positive reinforcement,The drive for social approval, ChapterHere is a primer on digital minimalism, We learn that "to reestablish control, we need to move beyond tweaks and instead rebuild our relationship with technology from scratch, using our deeply held values as a foundation.
” Cal explains why digital minimalism works throughprinciples:The first principle argues that, when we clutter our time and attention with many apps, social networks, and services, we create an overall negative cost compared to the benefits of each individual item in isolation.
I was absolutely delighted to read his arguments by sharing Henry Thoreaus decision to live for two years in a cabin near the Walden Pond, Thoreau's book, Walden, has actually impacted my life tremendously when I first read as a freshmen in college,The second principle says that besides choosing a technology that supports our values, we should also think how we should use them to extract full benefitsoptimizing, therefore, the returns.
Here Cal shows how “the law of diminishing returns” can be directly correlated with potential negative effects when technology usage surpass the benefits they can generate,The last principle shows that being intentional about how we engage with new technologies is one way to become sincerely satisfied, For that, the author illustrates the Amish's approach toward technology: “they start with the things they value most, then work backward to ask whether a given new technology performs harm than good with respect to their values.
”ChapterIn this chapter Cal shares a system for digital decluttering by transforming our relationship with technology, He encourages us to apply a rapid transformation: “something that occurs in a short period of time and is executed with enough conviction that the results are likely to stick.
” He divides the process insteps:The first one is to establish which ones of the new “optional” technologies we can step away from without creating major problems in either our professional or personal life.
The second step is to take the leap and give ourselves aday break while we rediscover the activities that generate real satisfaction without being attached to our devices.
The final step is the reintroduction, building it from the scratch, following the principles previously explained in chapterby choosing carefully the apps/tools and using them with a deeper sense of purpose.
ChapterThis is most probably my favorite chapter, where we learn the value of solitude, Cal starts by sharing an interesting story of President Lincolns decision to reside in a cottage during months at time, communicating back and forth to the White House on horseback.
The author then shares the benefits of solitude such as being a prerequisite for original and creative thoughts, as well as a deeper appreciation for interpersonal connections when they occur.
He then shifts gears toward the impacts of solitude depravation, showing, for example, that the rise in anxiety related problems among students coincide with the use of smartphones and social media.
At the end of the chapter we learnpractices to foster solitude moments in our daily lives:To leave our phones and devices at home,To go on long walks,To spend time journaling. ChapterNow we jump to a chapter rich in social psychology lessons, We first learn how our brains evolved to desire social interactions, but differently than the rich face to face encounters, during the last decade or so we have been bombarded by digital communication tools, encouraging interactions through short, text based messages and approval clicks.
At the end Cal offers practices to develop meaningful “conversation centric communication, ” They range from avoiding clicking the “like” button all the way to holding meaningful conversations during office hours, ChapterNow we jump to an empowering chapter, We learn to cultivate high quality leisure time at the same time we declutter the low quality digital distractions from our lives, They both, in fact, work together in order to create a purposeful habit, This chapter is filled with real life examples of successful stories where helpful lessons are drawn at the end of each example, Like in the previous chapters, Cal doesnt share only examples, but also practical ways to adopt his claims, My favorite suggestion is about scheduling in advance the time we'll be spending on low quality leisure, ChapterThe final chapter is about building a resistant mindset to avoid the power of the attention economywhich is “business sector that makes money gathering consumers' attention and then repacking and selling it to advertisers.
" Practices are provided when further discipline is required to avoid exploitation:Delete social media from our phone to remove the ability to access them at any time.
If we're going to use social medial, we should access them through a web browser,Turn our devices into purposeful tools, diminishing the number of things they enable us to do, In Cal's own words “Im not talking about occasionally blocking some sites when working on a particularly hard project, I want you instead to think about these services as being blocked by default, and made available to you on an intentional schedule, ”To use social media like a social media professional does,To embrace the slow media consumption by maximizing the quality of what we consume,Making the hard choice to switch from smartphone to a “dumb” phone, COMPLEMENTARY READINGSWell, it doesnt matter where in the spectrum we fall as long as we vow to move the needle towards a meaningful and intentional technology use, diminishing our “natural” tendency to become dependent on digital devices.
While reading Digital Minimalism I thought about book
titles that could complement the content,Essentialism, by Greg McKeown, is definitely the one that comes to mind first, It helped me focus on less but important tasks, giving clarity to what matters most,Originals, by Adam Grant, helped me see the world of creativity through a different angle by being true to who I'm,Atomic Habits, by James Clear, has already influenced me to build better and meaningful habits during the lastmonths, It can be an extremely helpful source to apply the lessons suggested in Chapter,Last, if you'd like to learn a bit about electromagnetic fields and how we can minimize the dangers, look no further than The Non Tinfoil Guide to EMFs, by Nicolas Pineault.
Take good care,Haical Learn how to switch off and find calm from the New York Times bestselling author of A World Without Email 'Digital Minimalism is the Marie Kondo of technology' Evening Standard 'An eloquent, powerful and enjoyably practical guide to cutting back on screen time' The Times 'An urgent call to action for anyone serious about being in command of their own life' Ryan Holiday 'What a timely and useful book' Naomi Alderman, author of The Power Do you find yourself endlessly scrolling through social media or the news while your anxiety rises Are you feeling frazzled after a long day of endless video calls In this timely book, professor Cal Newport shows us how to pair back digital distractions and live a meaningful life with less technology.
By following a 'digital declutter' process, you'll learn to: Rethink your relationship with social media Prioritize 'high bandwidth' conversations over low quality text chains Rediscover the pleasures of the offline world Take back control from your devices and find calm amongst the chaos with Digital Minimalism.
Human nature, being what it is, tends to lead us to behaviours that can become addictive and unhealthy over time, Walk down the street, sit in a restaurant or watch people on the train and it doesn't take long to realise that use of technology is out of control for lots of us.
Cal Newport's book offers some common sense approaches to living comfortably with technology, The minimalist approach makes good sense, and the strategies here are worth considering, even though when you look through them they sound pretty obvious, The book takes a wider perspective on minimalism and life in general than an overview of the content suggests, Drawing on examples from history, from people who learned the value of managing time well, the power of solitude and other approaches to living well, the book sometimes feels a bit padded with self help mantras before drawing these connections back to our over reliance on smart technologies.
Overall, a thought provoking read, but probably the people that need this the most won't go anywhere near it, Once you consider the idea of the smartphone as being a slot machine you carry around in your pocket, it is quite difficult to view the device in quite the same life improving way.
Big tech companies know what they are about wanting our attention to exploit it for economic gains Newport offers ideas to fight back that are seriously worth some consideration.
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