Digital Minimalism and How to Adopt It

By: Keith Krach

Without question, the digital age has completely reshaped society. The steady, relentless introduction of new technologies changes not only how people interact and do business, but it also has profound implications for how they view the world around them. With all the world’s information at least theoretically at our fingertips, thanks to the Internet, we are left to decide what is necessary and important to us.

Choosing how to live in the digital world is a personal matter, but there are a few schools of thought. Some people on one end of the spectrum may embrace digital technology in all its forms. On the other side of the scale, another group takes a more minimalist approach.

Digital Minimalism

Dr. Cal Newport, a computer scientist at Georgetown University, has written widely on topics related to the digital age. Although he makes a living by advancing technology, he advocates for what he calls “digital minimalism” as a lifestyle.

The original minimalism movement started in the post-World War II arts community with sculptors, painters, and writers who valued simplicity and attempted to do more with less. Musicians also took up this artistic movement, producing songs made with few musical instruments that rejected the narrative and representational motifs in popular music.

More recently, minimalism, or essentialism as some know it, has evolved into a lifestyle ideology that focuses on removing unnecessary practices, possessions, commitments, and ideas, and concentrating instead on the most important and meaningful aspects of life.

In the same vein, advocates of digital minimalism seek to make the most out of the least amount of technology.

Adding and subtracting

Shifting over to a digital minimalist lifestyle may take place through addition or subtraction. In the case of the former, you would start by cutting out everything digital in your life, from smartphones to email addresses. The next step is to see which things really feel necessary and then reintroduce them, one by one.

The opposite approach is to evaluate one technology at a time. If a certain item, say a social media account, does not live up to its promise or if there is a better way to reap the same benefits, then digital minimalism calls for removing it. The transition may take a while to complete, but it can be a worthwhile investment of time.

When you’re deciding what technologies are most important to you, it can be helpful to learn a few aspects of the digital minimalist mindset.

1. Recognize the impossibility of doing everything.

With social media, the 24-hour news cycle, and literally endless amounts of content, staying on top of it all feels like an imperative. Minimalists focus on making the most of their time, instead of worrying about missing out on something.

2. Focus on generating the greater value.

Along the lines of not trying to do everything is the principle of giving more attention to a few things, rather than paying fleeting attention to a large number of things. Extracting a lot of value out of one project instead of marginal gains from many is the goal.

3. Decide what has value and filter accordingly.

Every app or website claims to offer value, but that value will not hold for everyone. Digital minimalists set their own benchmarks for what they view as important and use that metric to decide what technologies, websites, apps, and the like add value to their lives.

4. Be mindful of good, better, and best.

Within the range of digital tools that genuinely offer value, some will do so better than others. Thus, the key is not only weeding out the obviously worthless time-wasters, but also the least and less valuable tools.

5. Remove clutter wherever possible.

Trying to keep pace with all the digital activity that happens in a day is time-consuming and leads to mental clutter. Minimalism seeks to reduce the time and attention spent on information passing by, and to replace this with meaningful engagement.

6. Look for what benefits your life offline.

Theoretically, the purpose of spending time online is to benefit your time offline, in the real world. Therefore, digital minimalists seek out the technology and content that help energize and motivate them, rather than exhaust.

7. Consider what problem the technology solves.

One metric to apply when deciding whether something adds value is to ask the following question: Does this particular tool solve a problem that existed prior to the digital age? Google, for example, helps people find information, a need felt by humans for a long time.

8. Opt for the ability to create versus consume.

A key principle in minimalism, digital or otherwise, is finding satisfaction in life. Websites or apps that only allow for consumption thus rarely make the list. Those that allow people to create, improve, and share take priority.