Digital Minimalism

“This wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t protect how I spend my time.” THE PRINCIPLES OF DIGITAL MINIMALISM So far in this chapter, I’ve argued that the best way to fight the tyranny of the digital in your life is to embrace a philosophy of technology use based in your deeply held values.

Does this technology directly support something that I deeply value?

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

People don’t succumb to screens because they’re lazy, but instead because billions of dollars have been invested to make this outcome inevitable.

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?

We added new technologies to the periphery of our experience for minor reasons, then woke one morning to discover that they had colonized the core of our daily life.

Put simply, don’t click and don’t comment. This basic stricture will radically change for the better how you maintain your social life. PRACTICE: CONSOLIDATE TEXTING A major obstacle in attempting to shift your social life from connection back to conversation is the degree to which text communication—be it delivered through SMS, iMessage, Facebook

The problem is that small changes are not enough to solve our big issues with new technologies.

I’ve become convinced that what you need instead is a full-fledged philosophy of technology use, rooted in your deep values, that provides clear answers to the questions of what tools you should use and how you should use them and, equally important, enables you to confidently ignore everything else.