Digital Minimalism

It’s not that any one app or website was particularly bad when considered in isolation. As many people clarified, the issue was the overall impact of having so many different shiny baubles pulling so insistently at their attention and manipulating their mood.

The urge to check Twitter or refresh Reddit becomes a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life.

Twilight of the Idols, and it took him only two weeks to write. Early in the book is a chapter that contains aphorisms on topics that interested Nietzsche. It’s in this chapter, more specifically in maxim 34, that we find the following strong claim: “Only thoughts reached by walking have value.” To underscore his esteem for walking, Nietzsche also

describes the experience of taking a temporary break from modern technologies. These intrepid souls almost always report that the disconnection generates a feeling of emotional distress.

uncomfortable about not having access in general.

Solitude Deprivation A state in which you spend close to zero time alone with your own thoughts and free from input from other minds.

In my experience covering these topics, it’s hard to permanently reform your digital life through the use of tips and tricks alone.

Is this technology the best way to support this value? We

How much of your time and attention, he would ask, must be sacrificed to earn the small profit of occasional connections and new ideas that is earned by cultivating a significant presence on Twitter?

When seen from this perspective, it becomes clear that this is a battle we must fight. But to do so, we need a more serious strategy, something custom built to swat aside the forces manipulating us toward behavioral addictions and that offers a concrete plan about how to put new technologies to use for our best aspirations and not against them.