Connections, don’t.ĭigital Minimalism is also a practical guide. The philosophy of conversation-connection argues that conversation is the only form of interaction that in some sense counts towards maintaining a relationship. the low band-width interactions that define our online social lives and conversation the much richer, high band-width communication that defines real-world encounters between humans.

In the book, Professor Newport also makes a distinction between a connection i.e. And this is hard to find in an incessantly connected life. Insights and emotional balance come from solitude the time for quiet self-reflection. He says, solitude is a subjective state in which your mind is free from input from other minds. Where we have been sold the idea that more connectivity is better than less, Professor Newport writes about the value of solitude. Successful digital minimalists, the author says, renovate their free time by cultivating high quality leisure activities. Digital Minimalism does not reject the miracles of the internet age, instead rejects the way we use them.Īccording to the author, digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.Īnd hence, instead of a digital detox this book recommends a process of digital declutter where the discovery of meaningful activities to replace our incessant scrolling will help transform our digital lives. While Professor Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a full-throated polemic against it, Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism takes a more nuanced approach. Well, it’s not a character flaw but a result of how our behaviors are being shaped by technology companies in the attention economy. Do you find yourself spending more time on your cell phone than you wished you did? Scrolling and swiping endless social media feeds, furtively waiting for that reassuring ping signaling a comment on your latest Facebook post?

Digital minimalism review