The key to thriving in our high-tech world, they’ve learned, is to spend much less time using technology.

Playing games also provides permission for what we can call supercharged socializing—interactions with higher intensity levels than are common in polite society.

Simply put, humans are not wired to be constantly wired.

Compulsive use, in this context, is not the result of a character flaw, but instead the realization of a massively profitable business plan.

“I have read abundance of fine things on the subject of solitude. . . . I acknowledge solitude an agreeable refreshment to a busy mind.”*

whereas the iPod provided for the first time the ability to be continuously distracted from your own mind.

The studies that found positive results focused on specific behaviors of social media users, while the studies that found negative results focused on overall use of these services.

I would estimate around 30 percent of the rules described by participants were caveated with operating procedures, while the remaining 70 percent were blanket bans on using a particular technology.

The most successful digital minimalists, therefore, tend to start their conversion by renovating what they do with their free time—cultivating high-quality leisure before culling the worst of their digital habits.