Over the past number of years, I have spent quite a bit of time thinking, reading, and watching videos about the concep t of “Digital Minimalism”. Internet technologies such as social media have increasingly been viewed with suspicion in r ecent times, especially within certain circles on the internet. These services arose with the promise to connect us wit h our friends. More recently, they have become a way for large tech corporations to monetize our attention by serving u s advertisements while keeping us hooked with infinite feeds of short videos.
This “Attention Economy” is of increasing concern to many . The Digital Minimalism philosophy seeks to combat the downsides of modern digital technologies by–at its core–askin g the question “is this worth it?”
In this post, I will outline the origins of the philosophy, my experience working on implementing its principles, what I have yet to work on, and resrouces and tools I have found helpful, if others wish to exact a similar change in their lives.
The term “Digital Minimalism” was popularized by author Cal Newport , a writer a nd computer science professor from Georgetown University. His [aptly named] book Digital Minimalism was published in 2019, but Newport began to wrtie about the idea online as earlier as 2016, in posts such as this. The idea was based off of the term “Minimalist”, a version of simple living popularized on the internet.
I read the book itself back in 2024, and I do not own a copy to reference back to. However, I will strive to give an ac curate summary of Newport’s ideas based on the notes I took in one of my notebooks while reading the book, and my furth er reading and listening to Newport’s ideas.
The book opens discussion of the harms of the attention economomy, before moving on in the second chapter to lay out the f ramework of the philosophy. The core idea of Digital Minimalism is that technologies should work for the user, not the other way around, and that to make this happen, we should strive to use a small number of technologies for activities w hich bring genuine value to our lives.
From my reading, one of the ideas I found most impactful which was discussed in the book was the reminder that just bec ause something has some value, does not mean that it has a place in your life.
The other most important aspect, which Newport covers in the next following chapter, is the Digital Declutter. Similar to an irl declutter in which you would get rid of stuff from your home, the digital declutter invloves cutting back on all unessecary digital technologies for 30 days. After this time of serious cutbacks, you may realize what technologies truly have an important and valuable place in your life, and can add them back in… with sufficient guardrails to pre vent any negative aspects from causing an issue. For example, if you use Instagram to connect with friends, but often f ind yourself spending too much time impulsively checking it, you could set aside a time once or twice a week when you c atch up on messages and posts from people you care about, and then go back about the rest of your week.
Newport spends the rest of the book going over other strategies and ideas which support this concept, but the first thr ee chapters hold the core of the philosophy. The book centres around the idea of auditing technology usage in a way tha t reduces unnessecary or harmful technologies, while retaining the valuable ones. With this core principle, the next st ep is to take the philosophical foundation of digital minimalism and apply it to your real life.
I started watching YouTube videos regularly when I was probably 13 or 14. Not soon after, I began to spend a huge amount of time watching online content. When I got my first smartphone in highschool, I also found myself scrolling short form content on Instagram, as many of my friends would do as well. It is so easy to default to watching videos online. Any time that my brain is faced with discomfort, one of the options it presents for me is to simply pick up my phone or open my laptop and drown out whatever I’m feeling with dopamine rich internet content. This form of escapism is incredibly ubiquitous, especially among people of my generation.
I often liken this “social-media-escapism” to eating a meal from McDonald’s. While that Big Mac tastes good and satisfying in the moment, half an hour later I either feel like I’ve eaten nothing, or I’ve eaten something very unhealthy. When I spend a half-hour scrolling through Instagram reels, I wind up either stressed out, frustrated at myself, or simply apathetic without having added anything valuable to my life. The easy path is not always the right one, and for a long time I have really wanted to make a change in my life and do away with all of the time spent on these platforms, in favour of activities that add wholesome and lasting value to my life (think a home-cooked, balanced meal as opposed to the burger from Don’s).
There are a number of tools I have used to combat internet addiction. I try to keep my iPhone pretty minimal, and I don’t allow myself to access Instagram or YouTube on my phone. On my computer, I have web extensions that block YouTube recommendations, hide elements of the Instagram webpage (I use it for Reels and suggested accounts), and one that forces me to take a momement to think before accessing select sites.
While these tools do add some friction into the act of viewing online content, they unfortunately are not enough to stop me from going on the internet as an escape. Every time I tell myself I’m going to stop using Instagram and YouTube in this (imo destructive) way, it lasts for a week or two before I go back to my old ways. So why is Digital Minimalism this constant battle for me? I do less internet-escapism than I used to, but I cannot seem to cut it out.
I think part of my issue is that I am trying to brute force my quitting of the internet-escapism practice. One thing that Newport emphasizes in his book, and in many of the episodes of his podcast, is the importance of not just removing a harmful behaviour, but building a system to avoid it and replacing that behaviour with something that fills a similar niche with less harm. For example, as my third year of university begins, I’m hoping to build a system in which I can retain the value I get from watching YouTube videos (creative inspiration and cool and interesting ideas and projects) without the use as an escaple. I’m thinking I will assign a certain day of the week on which I can watch a certain number of videos (1-2 videos on Saturday, for example). I will then make sure I also have enough other relaxing activities that I can fall back on during the week to fill the time when I would have been watching YouTube videos.
In this way I can: 1. Spend less time suspending my discomfort via internet-escapism 2. Either work on a personal project or “escape” in a way that leaves me feeling full instead of empty.
I wrote the first part of this article a few months ago, and decided I should finally at least publish something to the blog. In returning to it, I have realized how I most certainly do not have this issue figured out, and this post as become more of a journal to reflect on my own digital minimalism journey. I was intending to write a section on how people can implement the philosophy yourself, but looking at my own experience, I do not think I'm qualified to do that. I would, however, recommend the youtube channel of Nathan Laundry as a resource for learning about digital minimalism. As easy as it is to follow the path of least resistance and spend our hours serving huge adverstising companies, I do think it is very important to think about how our technology can serve us, instead of the other way around. While online content (especially short form video) may feel good in the short term, it is harmful for our mental health, antithetical to progress in our lives, and is essentially a gift from us to greedy corporations.
I don’t blame anyone for their reliance on these technologies. These companies spend unknown fortunes hooking us on their apps. It's not your fault, and you are not alone. But I do ask that next time you pick up your phone, join me in evaluating what is adding value to your life, and what is simply postponing nessecary discomfort.
Please email me with comments or questions!