I originally wrote this on my Facebook account back in 2019. I’m reposting it here, partly because you can see some of the seeds that lead to my later decisions, and partly because I’m wanting to start sharing more book recommendations, and I think this counts as a decent “first”.
I just borrowed this book from the library, and loved it so much that I read it in a single day!
It has put into words an approach and philosophy towards social media and digital life that I've been throwing around in my head over the last few months, but have struggled to put well into words.
Because of how valuable and limited of a resource time is, I've fought over the last while to structure my tech usage to be as useful and meaningful as possible, and as little as a time-waster as possible - not completely ditching social media or digital entertainment, but GREATLY limiting the amount I use it (Probably less than 1/100th of the amount of time I used to use it), and being much more purposeful with HOW I use it, WHEN I use it, and WHAT I do with it. (one example: I no longer use any apps on my phone that have infinite scroll (FB, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), and have disabled the main-page news feeds on Facebook and YouTube on my laptop). That might sound like a super out-there thing to do, but even just that single choice (no infinite scrolling) has helped greatly increased my joy and sanity when it comes to engaging with technology, and has allowed me to be more invested when I am actually engaging with people on social media.
All that to say, if you feel like you'd like to take your time back from social media, and instead give it to the people, goals, hobbies, or whatever you actually care about, I highly recommend you give this book a read.
Here are links to where it can be bought, but a library is a great place to get it too.
http://www.calnewport.com/books/digital-minimalism/
It has put into words an approach and philosophy towards social media and digital life that I've been throwing around in my head over the last few months, but have struggled to put well into words.
Because of how valuable and limited of a resource time is, I've fought over the last while to structure my tech usage to be as useful and meaningful as possible, and as little as a time-waster as possible - not completely ditching social media or digital entertainment, but GREATLY limiting the amount I use it (Probably less than 1/100th of the amount of time I used to use it), and being much more purposeful with HOW I use it, WHEN I use it, and WHAT I do with it. (one example: I no longer use any apps on my phone that have infinite scroll (FB, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), and have disabled the main-page news feeds on Facebook and YouTube on my laptop). That might sound like a super out-there thing to do, but even just that single choice (no infinite scrolling) has helped greatly increased my joy and sanity when it comes to engaging with technology, and has allowed me to be more invested when I am actually engaging with people on social media.
All that to say, if you feel like you'd like to take your time back from social media, and instead give it to the people, goals, hobbies, or whatever you actually care about, I highly recommend you give this book a read.
Here are links to where it can be bought, but a library is a great place to get it too.
http://www.calnewport.com/books/digital-minimalism/