Take Back Control!
Cal Newport’s radical guide to a digitally minimalistic life.
I first encountered Cal Newport in his magnum opus, “Deep Work”. Cal’s philosophy, in a nutshell, is that a happy and productive life stems from intensely focusing and dedicating time towards high-value activities(programming, meeting friends in person) versus low-value time-fillers(email, social media, youtube clickbait).
When I first read Deep Work, I was shocked by his suggestion on abstaining from all forms of social media for a month and then deciding which platforms deserve my attention. However, I did notice one profound change ever since I upgraded from my “dumb” phone.
This little device called a smartphone dominated my life.
Whether it was liking stuff on my facebook wall, to sending snaps to friends, I was hooked. Subconsciously, I got my social validation from a virtual world, where I would check my phone every 5 minutes to see how many new likes or messages my profiles got.
So I decided to record every single second I spent on social media. Alarmed by the numbers, I swiftly took the 30-day break and realized that social media was just a reality show starring my friends and family. 2 years after being off Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter, I can safely say that life on the other side is much better than I expected. There is no longer a need for me to pull out my phone and take “snippets” of my life. Being here now is the best decision I’ve made, and so when Cal’s new book came out, I knew I had to get my hands on it!
Digital Minimalism is the literal translation of Marie Kendo’s “keeping things tidy” philosophy towards a digital life. It advocates stripping away the superfluous while focusing on real benefits. Examples include people who set time limits on their daily use of social media, students who block their newsfeed, and people who “downgraded” to flip phones.
Moreover, the book confronts an uncomfortable truth. Social Media companies can only succeed and grow if they are able to increase the time that their users spend on these websites or apps. The ad-based revenue model means that companies such as Facebook grow by getting their users to spend more time on its platform — regardless of personal expense.
In other words, they want you addicted. And they let their algorithms run loose on the endless stream of data you provide. Every like, comment, share, and worse — poke — enables them to tailor their services to maximize their ad revenues.
Data IS the new oil.
Cal has a set of concrete suggestions, and following his usual writing style, provides a plethora of case studies and data to back up his points. Suggestions include: taking long walks, deleting social media off your phone, setting time limits on digital use, work on your craft, and best of all, spend actual “face time” with your loved ones.
“Liking” your friends new baby photo is not the same as showing up to her house to convey your congratulations.
All in all, if you haven’t already acquainted yourself with Cal Newport’s previous books, I would recommend reading this book after reading Deep Work. Its time to take back control of our lives, but first, let me check that new notification on my feed :)
