Digital Minimalism: Tuning Your Focus Amidst The Noise
In a world of content overload, Digital Minimalism might be the key to decluttering your mind.
At the onset, it might seem ironic that I’m writing this digitally and offering you this medium to read it. But wait, before you disregard this altogether on the basis of hypocrisy, let me clarify something — this piece does not constitute a “digital detox”, ergo, completely swearing off your screens in the short term (which seems to be the ongoing trend); rather, it gives you insights on transforming your digital lives for the better- living in harmony with your screens in the long term. More on this later.
“Digital Minimalism”, a book authored by Cal Newport highlights relevant insights on our digital lives, some of which we are subconsciously aware of, but not quite enough to deem it alarming. Thanks to our compulsive scrolling habits, we are now puppets to tech giants who thrive on our very addiction. Companies like Facebook are based on the “attention economy model” — collecting people on one platform, grabbing and holding on to their attention using strategically designed algorithms, and selling their information to advertisers — thus creating a multi-billion dollar industry.
Newport has very rightly termed a Facebook/ Instagram feed as a “slot machine” — every time we open the app or refresh our feed, it’s a gamble — we don’t know what to expect and it usually gives us something new; this constant curiosity keeps us going back.
And the expertly designed tactics used by tech giants feed on this particular gambling addiction, all in all, leading us to a feeling of losing control.
Digital Minimalism is NOT a Digital Detox
The main difference? Digital detox is completely going offline for a pre-decided period of time — a short term goal. Digital Minimalism is being present online, but mindfully — a long term goal.
After a digital detox, you’re likely to relapse into the same habits, with little or negligible difference having resulted from the detox. After applying the principles of digital minimalism, however, you’re more likely to sustain your habits of a mindful digital presence in the long term. While a digital detox might constitute getting rid of your phone or your social media apps, digital minimalism requires you to follow certain operating procedures to get the maximum value out of your apps to avoid mindless scrolling.
Practising the Digital Minimalism philosophy
It’s simple, really. And might I add, completely based on your individual will power.
1. Establish certain standard operating procedures while using social media platforms, for instance,
- Carefully select the platforms which add value to your life and rid your phone (and mind) of the rest
- Pre-reserve short periods of time for using said platforms
- Optimise the content on the selected platforms to support your interests
- Turn off unnecessary notifications
- Switch to desktop apps (slightly extreme and relatively more difficult to execute, but serves the purpose well because social media is no longer available on-the-go)
2. Fill your digital void with an offline activity
This is a crucial one. If you have successfully executed the aforementioned operating procedures, you will find yourself with some free time (which was previously used for constant scrolling). Engage in an offline activity (could be something as simple as reading, cooking, walking, driving, creating something or if you’re feeling particularly productive, learning a new skill) to distract yourself from the urge of reaching out for your phone. You’d be surprised at how well this works. Note there that I mentioned “learn a new skill” — you might say this is something we do online these days. Yes, you can learn something new with the help of the internet, as long as you’re being productive and not giving in to the digital distractions (since the goal of digital minimalism is to fine-tune your digital life to maximise value and increase your productivity).
“You can’t build a billion-dollar empire like Facebook if you’re wasting hours every day using a service like Facebook.” — Cal Newport
The Digital Minimalism experiment — tried and tested!
You’re probably thinking “it’s easy to preach, not so much to practice” (I know I thought so). I read about 30% of the book in one sitting and immediately decided I wanted to attempt this experiment. Besides the fascination from the insights in the book, the decision also stemmed from an urge to reduce my screen time, which averaged to close to 4.5 hours a day with Instagram taking up approximately 2.5–3 hours a day.
3 weeks later, I’m down to a daily average screen time of 1.5 hours with Instagram being 50 minutes. There were some initial concerns of course:
But social media is a great source of entertainment!
It was tough to battle this one initially, but I found a way around it. The main culprit in my case was Instagram, so I turned off the app notifications. With my phone not lighting up every few minutes, I ended up indulging in other activities — reading books and stories on Medium (on the desktop), learning the guitar (again), taking long walks with a friend, resuming a creative writing course and watching a host of great films and documentaries, in addition to spending 7–9 hours a day on work. Basically realised everything I’d claim I didn’t have enough time for was now suddenly possible because I kept my phone away, and it was pleasantly surprising how content I was being blissfully unaware of certain digital happenings. Of course, this is all amidst a pandemic-induced lockdown, I’m yet to discover the results of the experiment during normal life.
But my work involves social media!
Again, tough one. As a marketer, my day involves scrolling through social media platforms to identify trends, and managing a brand’s website and social media pages. For the most part, I switched to the Instagram, Facebook and Twitter desktop versions which were only logged in through the brand’s account, thus avoiding the distractions awaiting me on my personal account.
But I need to stay updated on the news!
I primarily use Twitter and The Times of India (TOI) app to stay updated on the news. But lately I found myself scrolling through countless tweets and getting distracted by random TOI notifications. I optimised the content on both platforms for a more filtered feed and notifications — turns out, on my TOI app, all the checkboxes like “important news, politics, sports, lifestyle, entertainment” etc. were ticked by default which led to notifications like “See pictures of x and y at their new home address!” — so I ticked only two of those, which now, thankfully only lead to a couple of relevant TOI notifications a day. (Pro tip: If you want all your news and articles in one place, Flipboard is a great app — it curates personalised content from all over the web based on your interests.)
But I need my memes!
Toughest one, I’d say! I only experienced withdrawal symptoms when it came to this. But I didn’t eliminate this altogether of course; I reserved about 10–12 minutes of Instagram scrolling in the morning, afternoon, evening and night each purely for my meme dose (leading to approximately 50 minutes to an hour of Instagram usage a day). A few times, I’d open Instagram and straight head on over to my two favourite meme accounts to catch up, and this helped avoid scrolling through my entire feed (I’m certain I’ve missed ‘liking’ a lot of my Insta-fam’s posts in these past weeks). Moreover, I realised I didn’t need constant E! News updates or need to know what my favourite celebrities were doing; this content was occupying my time and mind. As far as Instagram conversations were concerned, my friends knew they could find me on WhatsApp or calls. Nothing urgent is communicated through Instagram anyway.
But..!
This last “but” was just because. Social media had become such a major part of my life that I couldn’t imagine living without it — that is, without being present on it all day. But I realised with so many inputs from other people around the world filling up my mind, my own inputs were minimal — in other words, I had barely experienced true solitude, and that’s no way for an individual to live. Humans were meant to devise ideas, reflect and introspect to live a fulfilling life.
Aristotle said, “A life filled with deep thinking is happy because contemplation is an activity that is appreciated for its own sake… nothing is gained from it except the act of contemplation.”
21 days isn’t a long time to judge the results of an experiment of this caliber. But given the drastic reduction in my overall average screen time, I’m satisfied thus far. And to be frank, I haven’t felt the urge to constantly scroll through my feeds since those first 2–3 days and now, it even bothers me that I used to spend hours doing it. Moreover, my mind hasn’t been as full in the past 3 weeks as it had been for months, maybe years.
Digital Minimalism in Lockdown
The other side of this coin is, during a lockdown situation (like our current one), how do I stay away from my screens when my friends are communicating through video calls? Does it mean I don’t stay in touch with them? Not quite. To reiterate, the aim of the digital minimalism philosophy is to eliminate the habit of compulsive scrolling and surfing, and maximise the value your screens add to your life. In fact, Newport states that a phone call is a much better form of communication because it’s quicker than texting for hours on end. Second- literally everything is happening online these days and I don’t want to miss out on things, how do I stay away? Again, establish the aforementioned set of standard operating procedures while using social media platforms. Digital minimalism does not imply being unaware of the happenings of the digital world; it just implies that you pick what’s relevant to you and filter through the noise.
The book details insights on experiments around digital minimalism and the experiences of digital minimalists. It also delves into the works of philosophers on solitude and social interactions, the harmful psychological effects of social media and aspects of the world’s transformation from a pre-digital era to where we stand now. What I’ve covered in this piece is a mere 10% of the book so I’d urge you to read it, and it just might encourage you to attempt living a digitally liberated, unfiltered life.
