Digital Minimalism

Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

E-book, 317 pages

Published Feb. 4, 2019 by Portfolio.

ISBN:
978-0-525-53654-3
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4 stars (65 reviews)

The key to living well in a high tech world is to spend much less time using technology.

In recent years, our culture's relationship with personal technology has transformed from something exciting into something darker. Innovations like smartphones and social media are useful, but many of us are increasingly troubled by how much control these tools seem to exert over our daily experiences – including how we spend our free time and how we feel about ourselves.

In Digital Minimalism, Newport proposes a bold solution: a minimalist approach to technology use in which you radically reduce the time you spend online, focusing on a small set of carefully-selected activities while happily ignoring the rest.

3 editions

Digital Detox

3 stars

Cal Newport's book explains the philosophy of Digital Minimalism; showcasing how technology can negatively harm our social interactions. Personally I listened to this book from the local library in an audiobook format and felt the chapters were way to long. Some chapters were up to 70 minutes in length. I personally prefer shorter chapters as it allows someone to dip their toe into a book for 20 - 30 minutes. I often put the book to rest and picked it up the next day trying to pickup where I left of.

The book cites examples of how peoples experiences with technology before his 30 day programme. It talks about how parents may miss out on quality time with their friends and family and what can be done. Cal offers advice throughout the book though some of them are more basic. The range of advice allows the reader to pick and …

Thoughtful advice for the hyperonline

4 stars

Like a lot of these sort of books, Newport uses a lot of interesting anecdotes and historical stories to pad out his overall message which is that while the internet can be useful, you can have too much of a good thing and it can't replace human contact and social media can't replace voice conversations. I feel this is true. Some of his advice like planning your leisure time (actually writing out a plan) sounds too much like work to me. Maybe that would help some people. His main idea though, is to go on a sort of "digital detox" for a month and then reintroduce social media and other "internet entertainment" in a more conscious way, so you're not picking up your phone whenever you feel bored. I have found this has helped me a lot.

I listened to this as an audiobook while I was driving around delivering …

I remain unconvinced that Newport's tactics are safe

2 stars

Cal Newport wrote Digital Minimalism after he received many comments from readers of his previous book, Deep Work, sharing that they struggled with the role of new technologies in their lives. Newport’s goals for Digital Minimalism are to provide a case for minimising tech’s role in our daily lives, and to teach how to adopt his philosophy of digital minimalism.

The book is divided in two parts (twos feature predominantly throughout the book): part one focuses on how technology captures our attention, introduces digital minimalism, and proposes a 30-day “digital declutter,” a detox-but-not-quite-a-detox program. The intent of the 30-day digital declutter is to effect a rapid transformation in digital technological consumption. I’m not convinced that this is any more effective than a 30-day crash diet.

The second part of the book ostensibly demonstrates four themes of practices to help grow a digitally minimal lifestyle: spending time alone, engaging with people, …

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport is a great read that offers a fresh perspective on our relationship with technology. The author argues that our excessive use of technology is leading to a lack of focus and satisfaction in our daily lives. He proposes a minimalist approach to using digital tools, which involves choosing a small number of valuable ones and avoiding the distractions of time-wasting apps and activities. The book is well-written, insightful, and offers practical tips for a more balanced digital life. If you're feeling overwhelmed by technology, this book is definitely worth a read!

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A lot of what I've read about the attention economy revolves around tweaks to existing technology, employing more technology to counteract perceived problems of technology and social media, or wish lists saying how nice it would be if things were designed differently.

I found this book refreshingly different. Although it's written by a technologist, it concentrates much more on healthy and productive use of existing technology rather than messing about with tweaks (turn off your notifications ect). I especially like how its arguments are given historical context with reference to people such as Abraham Lincoln and David Thoreau and what they teach us about concentration and distraction.

Common Sense and Anecdotes

3 stars

If I had finished this back when I started (2019) I would have lived it. Now, in 2021, a lot of what Newport talks about seems like common sense. Beyond the advice, the anecdotes of the digital minimalists that he encountered while preparing this book are à propos and well-chosen to highlight the underlying call to action: quit faffing around on your phone, stop with the constant Facebooking, put your phone down and do something else that keeps your hands busy or puts you in a social situation.

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

In the end, Cal makes good points, explains them clearly, and provides examples. Take want you want and leave the rest, but there's a lot worth taking (e.g. no phone in the bedroom, no social apps on phone, use browser extensions to limit access to social media to certain times, cultivate "hands-on" hobbies that bring a sense of meaning and worth, focus on longer form and ideally in-person communication over likes and comments, etc).

Less great parts: the dude is a well-off white man and it shows. No compelling ideological orientation towards society to be found here, and too many throw-away examples that assume an audience who shares most/all of his privilege. He's got a few mentions of women here and there (largely that they've been fucked, historically) but it's in no way fundamental to his argument. If you've done any reading in the productivity realm you're used to this, …

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Like many popular non-fiction books, this is an essay padded out to a book. The author isn't wrong about how phones hijack our attention, but it's really written from the perspective of a well-off and able-bodied man. As someone whose abilities and energy vary a great deal from day to day, I need my phone - and relationship to it - to change day to day without falling into the addictive traps it lays for me. This book wasn't very useful on that front.

The lack of a gender or class lens was eyerolling to painful in some places. For example, his solution for a lot of social media is to confine it to your actual computer - when half of people ONLY have internet access on their phones. In the US, more than 40 million people only have a smartphone to access the internet and they're almost all poor. …

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

In his new book Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport talks-in such a powerful way-about how costly it is for us to spend a big part of our lives in digital platforms, social media and all kind of media use.

There are certainly benefits in using social media, but Cal Newport guards us against the pitfalls of letting these technologies get the best of us. If you value your life, you need to try to make every minute meaningful. A life well lived requires activities that serve no other purpose than the satisfaction that the activity itself generates, said Aristotle. Becoming a slave to the attention economy of conglomerates is not a meaningful way to spend your life. If your personal brand requires engagement with services like social media, it’s important to approach these activities with a sense of zero-sum antagonism, Cal Newport suggests. Look carefully at these technologies and decide, consciously, …

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