Guide To Digital Minimalism

The average American teen spends a quarter of their waking hours on social media (4.8 Hours), and this is only on their phone or tablets, it doesn’t account for content consuming on a laptop. Isn’t it insane that we give up so much time mindlessly scrolling on a screen? This article is a practical guide on how to spend lesser time on screens and how to become more Digital Minimalistic.

Why Digital Minimalism?

Most technology nowadays, especially social media relies heavily on grabbing user attention. The way most social media applications (including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and more) make profits are by maximizing user usage of the application and displaying targeted ads (targeted ads are ads specific to you based on the data a company has about you). This means the more these types of applications can keep you on their app, the more they profit (more ads = more revenue for them). Well what does this mean? It means bad news for you because social media applications are built with the goal of being addictive. If you don’t create systems and routines to use social media intentionally, it will take over you with or without you knowing.

What is Digital Minimalism?

Digital Minimalism is using technology intentionally only to support your core values. Rather than using the “maximalist” philosophy to support your technology usage (i.e, using technology thinking it provides “some” benefit, without regard to how little that benefit is), digital minimalism tries to derive great benefit from technology with minimal technology usage. It is created with the law of diminishing returns (a principle that states that after a certain point, each additional unit of input results in a smaller increase in output) in mind.

How do you become more Digital Minimalistic?

Step 1: Go On A Thirty Day Digital Detox

During this detox, you should only use applications that are essential. This means absolutely no social media (Instagram, TikTok, etc are off bounds). Only use applications you absolutely require for work. The reason you do this is not only so you understand your unhealthy relationship with social media, but also to understand how to reintroduce those technologies to support your values after the thirty day digital detox is over. During this time, try to find hobbies that you really enjoy (I picked up solving Rubik’s Cubes, reading books, card magic, squash and drawing).

Step 2: Reintroduce technology to support your values

After you finish your thirty day digital detox, there is a good chance you realized how to spend your time better, rather than doom scrolling on social media. Now it’s time to reintroduce these technologies into your life if and only if they fit your core values. There are 2 questions you need to ask yourself when reintroducing technology into your life ->

Is this technology the best way for me to support this aspect/value of my life?

If yes, how much and how often do I need to use this technology to best support this aspect/value of my life

Once you answer these 2 questions, you will know if an application is worth using and how to use it intentionally if it is worth using.

Step 3: Stop the cycle

Once you figured out your system to being digital minimalistic, it’s important to stay on that path, but it’s very easy to fall back into the cycle of addiction. To prevent yourself from becoming addicted to social media again, it’s important to remind yourself that compulsive use of these applications do not serve your long term values.

Digital minimalism is not about being a neo-luddite or discontinuing social media. It’s about using technology in a way that best supports your core values and intentions in life. Technology is very powerful, but also very addictive and hence it’s important to use it intentionally to best support our values.