Digital Minimalism

Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

by Cal Newport

E-book, 317 pages

Published Feb. 4, 2019 by Portfolio.

ISBN:: 978-0-525-53654-3

(105 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.

4 editions

urn reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

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, …

Chris reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

None

4 stars

I listened to this on Audible (which made sense). Much good thought here. I have already installed Freedom to block social media on work days and some day soon will get around to getting rid of of most of my social media accounts. Trouble is the damn things are useful. Or interesting. Twitter can get stuffed though. I already don't use my phone that much, so it's just sitting at a computer.

tronicdude reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Nothing here which hasn't already been written about extensively elsewhere. Nicely packaged tho.

Yasir Bilgic reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Çok yetersiz.
Dijital minimalizm kullanmadığınız uygulamaları silin ve bildirimleri kapatından öteye gitmelidir bence.

torin reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

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.

I was also annoyed because he, like many authors in this space, really devalues text as a communication medium. Many of my closest relationships are text based or have a textual communication foundation. (Dearest Ida, penpal of 25 years and going strong!) And many famous relationships in history have large textual components - swoon so many great epistolary romances and friendships.

But yeah, be intentional about how you use your phone and the internet and think about what matters to you and schedule time to do it.

Rainer König reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

None

5 stars

Its definitely a very interesting book. And also a scaring one to the social media addict, because it suggests to transform your smartphone into a dumb phone. So, what lessons can I get from that book. One of the best explanation of the "you're not the customer, you're the product" idea in social media is that the companys are selling "eyeball time" to the advertising companies. The more users are hooked to their plattform, the more revenue they get. So its clear that the social media giants don't want you to reduce the time you spend there. On the other hand Cal Newport is totally right about the impact that this "always online" has on our real life. Highly recommended reading for every social networker.

Clément Martin reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book has given me my brain back. No amount of thanks will be enough, but if you're unsure and are afraid it's a technophobe's rants made book, I urge you have to have a quick look at it. It is eye-opening.

Lavinia reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

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, …

Noisy Deadlines reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

A very good read in times of overwhelming social media feeds. The idea is to unplug and do more creative fun things. Some ideas were not new to me but it brings lots of examples of how to address bad habits related to the digital world. It's definitely eye opening and give us a method on how to become digital minimalists. Less is more.

Jack Baty reviewed Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I enjoyed it. Cal has never had a social media account. Counter-intuitively, this gives him a clear perspective of the cost/benefit balance offered by social networks. He offers a number of actionable ways to reduce and clarify how we interact with devices and other people.