The Benefits of Being a Digital Minimalist

Introduction

The iPhone Inception

When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone back in 2007, his key selling point was that the iPhone combines your iPod and your phone, eliminating the need to carry two devices. What was major about this news was not only that you would not need to carry two devices, but also that you would not need to type text messages with plastic buttons. Being able to use a virtual keyboard was a big money saver, and it was also revolutionary for consumers. Jobs never thought about the idea that the iPhone could be like that of a computer in someone’s hands, where the buzz of notifications hijacked people’s attention. If that was the case, Jobs would not have approved it. Being one of the biggest tech CEO’s that this generation has ever had, Jobs would not allow his kids to use digital products because he knew that these devices could affect their attention spans.

Back in 2007, it was hard to find someone who had a smart phone, but fast-forward to 2020 and now it’s hard to find someone who does not have one. Being digitally connected is something that has become normal in this world, where if you don’t have a smart phone or don’t have a social media presence, you’re deemed as someone who isn’t “getting with the times”. It has more to do with how these digital tools can serve your values in ways that are extremely beneficial, not because you should have them because society around you has them. It also has to do with the way that you can use these tools to your advantage and not succumb to the addiction of social media on your phone.

Social Media Usage

Let me start off with some statistics over social media use. According to Digital Information World, people spend on average 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social media. This number is higher with people in the 16–24 age group, where the average social media use is 3 hours and 1 minute per day! According to RescueTime, people tend to pick up their phones on an average of 58 times per day. By picking up your phone, you are more likely to get stuck in the loop of switching between different apps and this leads to your time being wasted.

Digital Minimalism

If these numbers scare you and you want to do something about your digital use, I would like you to embrace this idea of digital minimalism. According to Cal Newport, a bestselling author and professor of computer science at Georgetown University, digital minimalism is defined as follows:

A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.

A life of a digital minimalist does not mean that you should completely give up your digital device usage; instead, you should think carefully about the digital tools that you think will serve your values with great benefit and not with little benefit. Being a digital minimalist will not only reduce your time spent on digital devices, but will also improve your quality of life by providing more meaning and value to the things around you. It will also improve your concentration and you’ll be able to filter things out that are of little-to-no-importance to you. The affects of living as a digital minimalist are life-changing and empowering. As I’ve implemented these digital changes in my lifestyle, I’ve seen the benefits of living a life where I can minimize digital use to live a good life with meaning, purpose and value.

The Digital Crisis

What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Back when I was in college, I came across a video titled What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. In the video, Nicholas Carr, a well-respected writer, says “We are living in this perpetual state of distraction and interruption”. Carr couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead of using these digital tools for our benefit, we end up using them more than we should and this causes our attention span to diminish. Unfortunately, this behavior of constantly checking social media or surfing the web can affect the way we learn about something. For example, if you’re concentrated so deeply into something that you hear a *ding* from your phone that a friend tagged you in a photo on Facebook, your learning is interrupted and it would take some time to get back into that deep mode of thinking and having to re-learn what you were learning before the *ding*. I’ve linked the video on what the Internet is doing to our brains below.

When you embrace digital minimalism, you will prevent yourself from having these effects on your brain by only using the tools you need that serve your values. You will not be stuck in a continuous loop of switching through different social media apps, endlessly scrolling or even visiting clickbait links. If you find yourself having a hard time concentrating on a task with no distraction, you can still work on improving your concentration. As you keep reading, I will go over how you can implement digital minimalism and how it will lead to a better focused life.

The “Like” Culture

Justin Rosenstein, the inventor of the Facebook “Like” button, said in an interview that the “Like” button was invented so that there could be love and positivity spread all over the world, but then admitted that he never expected his creation to be a measure of self-worth. No one had thought about the impact that this button would have on the mental health of many people all over the world, especially on teens. When you get a certain number of likes on a post, you start to feel that dopamine rush. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that gives you that happy sensation when your brain is expecting a reward. That “reward” is the number of “likes” you get on a post. It’s the same feeling you would get if you performed at a piano recital and got applauses from the audience, or if you studied hard for an exam and got a good grade. The only difference is that you had to work hard in the first two tasks, while you barely had to put in any effort in submitting a post on social media.

In some cases, there is a fixation on the rate at which people get “likes”. This can be measured in “likes”/second or “likes”/minute, however you want to measure it. When someone posts a nice picture with a clever caption on Instagram, and a minute passes by until someone likes the post, that person starts to wonder whether it was worth posting the picture. These internal thoughts can be detrimental to a person’s mental health when they measure their self worth by seeing not only how many likes they get, but at the rate at which they get their likes.

Cal Newport talks about the “like” culture in his book, Digital Minimalism, and the one thing he tells his readers is to not click “like” on a friend’s post. His reasoning is because a “like” has now taken place of actually calling someone and congratulating them if they got a new baby, if it’s their birthday or if they graduated from college. Instead of “liking” someone’s post, call them or tell them in person and talk about it. This actually strengthens the social connection you have with that person. You are engaged in conversation that is more than just words sent through a digital device or a “like” on that person’s post. Hypothetically, let’s say that your best friend graduated from college. Your friend notices that you didn’t like their post and starts to wonder whether you actually cared about their accomplishment. Instead of “liking” your friend’s post, you think of visiting your friend with a nice card, some flowers or even just stopping by to say congrats. This in itself is much more meaningful than “liking” your friend’s post. The “like” should never be used as a substitute of telling someone something in person or used as a measure of the level of friendship you have with other people.

Mental Health Among Teens

Since smart phones have become much more readily available to people of all ages, it is rare to see a teen who does not have any form of a smart phone, whether it be an old iPhone 5 or the latest iPhone 11. Smart phones have given everyone easy access to social media apps and the web browser, and if there is no moderation on how it’s used, the effects can be costly to mental health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has added the “increased access to and use of technology” as a risk factor among the deteriorating mental health that is prominent among teenagers. The reason why teenagers are more prone to anxiety and mental health in this digital age is because the easy access to social media apps makes them compare their lives to the people around them and makes them feel as though their lives aren’t worthwhile, or they aren’t living life to the fullest. They feel as though their self worth is measured by how others see them and not how they see themselves.

According to NPR, there has been a spike in depression and anxiety among teens after the mid-2000s, with suicide rates going up among young girls aged 10 to 14. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat rose to prominence during this time as well. Jean Twenge, a Psychology professor at San Diego State University, stated that young people who spend more than 5 hours a day on their smart phones end up reporting that they are depressed, while those who spend 1 to 2 hours a day on their smart phones are less likely to report depression. Snapchat dysmorphia has become apparent among teens who want to get plastic surgery in order to match their appearance to the Snapchat filters. The reason why over-use of the smartphone is detrimental in teens is because their brains are still developing, and teens have been dependent on their smart phones for their social interactions.

Back when I was living in the “pre-digital” era, I remember coming back from school, watching a 20 minute show on Nickelodeon, completing my homework, then going outside to play with my friends. We would ride our bikes around different neighborhoods, we would play with our Yu-gi-oh cards and we would play pretend games where we would each act as a character from our favorite TV shows. I still remember those days and have kept up with those friends because we had valued seeing each other and gave our undivided attention to one another. It was very common to see kids play outside, and by “kids” I’m talking about pre-teens and teenagers and not just children aged 5 to 9.

According to a UK study, children play outside on an average of 4 hours per week. A study from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute also stated that children aged 10 to 16 only spend about 12.6 minutes a day “on vigorous outdoor activity compared with 10.4 waking hours being relatively motionless”. When kids aren’t playing outside, they end up having a hard time developing social skills since they are used to talking to someone behind a screen rather than talking to someone physically where they can observe that person’s voice patterns and body language. Kids, teens and young adults have become more and more prone to being anxious when talking to someone on the phone because talking over the phone requires you to talk without having a pre-determined message sent out to someone. You have to think on the spot when you talk over the phone or in a physical setting. By embracing the digital minimalism life, these bad effects can be avoided.

Becoming a Digital Minimalist

I will go over some tips on how you can embrace this digital minimalism lifestyle along with how you can reap the benefits that come with it.

Your Values

Think about the values that you hold and write them down. Now, once you have your values down, think about the digital tools you use. Do any of those digital tools serve at least one of your values with great benefit, or do they only provide some benefit? By some benefit, I mean just using Facebook to keep up with your friends, when in fact you may not actually need Facebook to keep in touch with your friend circle. When I had Facebook, I had over 900 “friends” on there, while my closest circle is less than 5% of that number. Think about the level at which some of these tools serve your values. For example, a fresh college graduate may want to be the best software engineer she can be, but in order for her to do that, she must first get a job. She may not know anyone in her family with connections to people who work in the tech field, so she stumbles upon LinkedIn, a social network for working professionals. LinkedIn is a tool that can make this graduate’s life much easier by building connections with people in the industry and reaching out to recruiters from different companies that are hiring. This graduate is using LinkedIn in a way that will allow her to reach her goal of becoming a great software engineer.

The example above is a great way to make use of a digital tool that can help someone tremendously. The tool serves as a means to an end and not as an attention-hijacker or a substitute of a real-world experience, such as meeting up with people in person rather than taking everything online (unless the world is in a global pandemic). Here are some examples of notes I took when I was pondering over which tools support my values.

Value 1: Keeping up with friends and family

1. Call over the phone
2. Use FaceTime/Zoom
3. Schedule times to call friends and family
4. Make plans with friends and meet up
5. Leave phone in glovebox when out for a social gathering or movie
6. Have ‘office hours’ where I can talk and respond to messages

Value 2: Keeping up with current events

1. HackerNews (big in the tech space for the latest tech news)
2. Twitter — check what is trending once a day
3. NPR — main news source
4. Bloomberg — stock news

Value 3: Continuously learning

1. LeetCode — keep up-to-date with my data structures and algorithms knowledge
2. Duolingo — good for language learning
3. Reading books
4. Receiving monthly newsletters on Python

Delete Social Media Apps

Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google, compared the social media apps on smart phones to slot machines you see in Las Vegas. Every time you pull down your newsfeed, you always see something different. When I first came across this on my phone, I thought there was a glitch in the Facebook app that wasn’t showing posts in chronological order. However, I realized that this was happening in apps such as Instagram and Twitter. I was unsure why there was this randomness every time I pulled the screen down and then saw completely different content than I did a second ago. This was designed by choice.

As human beings, when there’s the element of randomness, we don’t know what to expect. This is the addictive nature of social media. The algorithms evolve as they start to notice the patterns in which you use them, and that algorithm is evolving in order to keep you on the social media app for as long as possible. For example, let’s say that Matt is someone who is 25, a fan of the NBA and is someone who enjoys eating ramen. Let’s say that there is another person named Todd on the other side of the country who is 24 and has similar interests as Matt. Todd sees an ad on Facebook which shows him a shirt with a picture of ramen on it. Todd likes the picture, so he ends up making a purchase. What if there’s a higher chance that Matt, who shares the same interests as Todd, also buys the shirt? The algorithm will then tailor that ad towards Matt, and Matt ends up buying the shirt. Although this isn’t an in-depth analysis of how the algorithm works, this should give you a general idea. This algorithm is similar in all different kinds of social media outlets, such as targeted ads on Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram. The best thing you can do for yourself is to delete these social media apps. I’m not talking about deleting your social media presence entirely, but you can start with deleting those apps from your phone and then not re-install them for 30 days. These 30 days will give you some insight on whether or not you really need those apps to live your life happily. You also won’t have an evolving algorithm that will know everything about you. Instead, by deleting the app, you are helping yourself lower the amount of time that you spend on it, while not giving the social media companies the money that they receive based on the amount of time spent on their apps.

The reason why social media companies don’t charge their users for their services is because they have targeted ads. These ads become more enticing the longer a person uses the app, and in return for showing the ad, the social media company makes its revenue. By having you read one post, then switch to someone’s profile, then watch a video and then click on a link, you are taking part in helping the social media company make its money. The random slot machine behavior of the social media app is only present in phones and tablets, while the web app does not behave that way.

You might start to think about how you can keep up with your friends without social media. First, think about the people who are closest to you, and you can write their names down if you want to. Next, schedule a time at which you can call or meet with that person (or video chat due to a global pandemic). This face-to-face interaction is much more valuable and will allow you to strengthen the bond you have with that person. I noticed that when I talk to my friends over the phone or in person, our bond feels stronger, and my friends appreciate that I called them. You make that person feel even more valued than they thought and this is much more meaningful than a “like” or a “Congratulations!” post.

Spending Time Alone

As human beings, we have become smarter as we spend time with ourselves and think about how we learn new things, or how our relationships are with other people. It allows us to have our brain in that solitude state, free from any external factors such as other people’s thoughts. This also includes having no smart phone while you spend time alone. By spending time alone, you are allowing yourself to think about the things you value most such as your relationships, your career, your hobbies, an idea you’ve been thinking about or a problem that you’ve been trying to solve.

Abraham Lincoln spent time alone at a cottage far from the White House, where he would be in his own thoughts. The demands of the White House did not free him from being in his own thoughts, so he would ride his horse to that cottage when he was done with his presidential duties. This paved the way for the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed over 3.5 million slaves. By allowing himself to think deeply about the issue of slavery, he was able to birth this proclamation.

Abraham Lincoln is one of many examples whose time spent alone led to drastic changes and even saved lives. Spending time alone will allow you to learn more about yourself, question things that aren’t meaningful in your life, think deeply about a problem you are currently trying to solve and even strengthen your relationships. You might be thinking how spending time alone can strengthen your relationship with someone if that person isn’t there. By being alone with your thoughts, you actually think about how much you value being around that person. We have become so dependent on our digital devices that we can’t think about being alone just for 2 minutes without feeling the need to check our phones. This goes back to the slot machine simile.

Jack Dorsey, the Founder and CEO of Twitter, commutes 5 miles to work every day on foot. With the billions of dollars that he has, he could easily afford a helicopter, but Dorsey knows the value of walking and being in your own thoughts. He says it’s the most peaceful time of his day and he has been doing this for over 2 years. One way to spend time alone is by taking a walk. Don’t have your phone with you. Don’t listen to any music. Just take a walk. Feel the breeze that comes your way and observe the trees or the birds around you. Take this time to think about the things in your life that make you happy. Self-reflect on what you want to improve on, and if you were stuck on a hard business decision or a tough problem, ponder on that as well. Our best answers come when we take the time to be with our thoughts. As a software engineer, when I would get stuck on a problem, I would take a break from what I was working on, lie down or take a walk, and then come back. This has helped me on many occasions.

Here is another common practice that you should allow in your life and not turn it off as it hits you: boredom. The moment we feel bored, we take out our phones, whether we are waiting in line or waiting for a friend. This act of deliberately getting rid of boredom is detrimental to our concentration. This is because when you concentrate, you must not allow a small hint of distraction to hit you, even if you feel bored. By being bored, you end up being with your own thoughts and this helps you self reflect. By not embracing boredom, we are making it harder for us to concentrate or focus on tasks that require deep thought. I am not saying that you should be bored for hours on end, but if you get the slightest feeling of boredom, embrace it. Don’t feel the need to check your phone. There’s a common saying that too much of anything is bad, so yes, being bored for a long time is not a good thing, but even if it’s just for 30 minutes or an hour, it can help you think deeper and lower your need of checking your phone. The more you check your phone as you get bored, the more distracted you will be as you encounter a task that requires a long period of concentration.

Being in solitude allows you to think deeply about ideas you might have as well as the things around you, and this practice will bring more meaning and value to your life.

Create Your Technology Rules

I was inspired by this idea from Cal Newport, who stated that in order to minimize your digital use, you should create a set of rules that will govern how you use these digital platforms. Here is an example of how I limit my time spent on digital tools.

1. Check the stock market on WeBull (a great trading app) in the morning, lunch and before closing
2. Check what’s trending on Twitter during lunch time
3. Post things on Twitter and LinkedIn that can be beneficial to others
4. Keep phone on ‘Do not disturb’ but allow calls from immediate family members during the work day (you can set this on your phone)
5. Catch up on a late night show during lunch time
6. Keep texting during the day to a minimum. Catch up with texts after the work day
7. Check email once in the morning and again right before the end of the work day (my work doesn’t really use email for regular communication)
8. Do NOT keep phone in the bedroom before sleeping
9. Use the Calm app for meditations
10. Use the iPad for learning about new things or writing thoughts and ideas
11. Use my Apple Watch to track my steps, calories burned, exercise as well as making phone calls on the go

There’s a lot more that I have written down, but this should give you an idea on how you can approach the way in which you want to use your digital tools. This will help you reduce the amount of time you spend on your screen.

Digital Minimalism in My Life

When I first embraced digital minimalism, it was hard not to check what others were up to on social media, but as I had more time to reflect, I realized that I did not need some of these apps and my quality of life improved. As a software engineer, I have to think about how I can solve certain problems, whether they be at work, personal projects or for my own learning, and thinking about these problems deeply without any distraction has allowed me to come up with different ways of solving these problems. When I’m in my car, I’ll be listening to a podcast , but as I come back from work I embrace the quietness inside of the car and think about how my day has been. What if I told you that my screen time reduced from 2 hours and 18 minutes per day to 1 hour and 12 minutes per day? I hope to get that number reduced even more. You can see the screenshots below.

This practice has made another big change in my life. Without these social media tools on my phone, I have been able to finish 2 books in 2 weeks and I’m waiting for my next one to be delivered tomorrow. This is a feat that I never thought I would accomplish, nor was it a goal that I had. This was a side effect of the digital minimalist practices that I implemented. I now have the goal of reading at least 20 books per year. It has also given me a sense of power and independence. I no longer have to be too dependent on these digital tools, and I would only use these tools as needed rather than checking them multiple times throughout the day. When I am at a restaurant with my wife, I keep my phone in my car’s glovebox that way I don’t have the tendency of pulling it out. Instead, I can just focus on what my wife and I talk about as well as enjoying the delicious meals. I have made this rule that at any social event, I will not have my phone unless there’s an extenuating circumstance. It has allowed me to think about how I can improve in other aspects of my life, and I hope to reach those goals and hope you found this article to be beneficial.

I would like to thank Cal Newport for helping me embrace this idea of digital minimalism and joining the attention resistance. If you would like to purchase Cal Newport’s book on Digital Minimalism, the link is here.

References

1. https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/01/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic.html
2. https://blog.rescuetime.com/screen-time-stats-2018/
3. Newport, Calvin. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. New York, Portfolio/Penguin, 2019.
4. What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI
5. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health
6. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/27/754362629/the-scientific-debate-over-teens-screens-and-mental-health
7. https://www.childinthecity.org/2018/01/15/children-spend-half-the-time-playing-outside-in-comparison-to-their-parents/?gdpr=accept