Digital Minimalism
Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
Ratings325
Average rating4
Even better than I had expected! Not a call for complete media elimination, but a call to take a critical look at what brings value and what distracts, between what is useful and what is manipulative. Digital Minimalism was well written and compelling. Newport uses many odd but fitting examples to get points across, from the Amish to Abraham Lincoln's solitude. Highly recommend this!
The first part of the book was the most helpful. I would go back to that section to reference. But the rest of the book took too long to get to the point.
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, but it's worth saying just in case.
It sounds trite, but this is the most important book I've read recently (maybe ever). It sounds even more trite to say this, but it changed my life. I've spent 10 years increasingly addicted to or hypnotized by social media (Facebook in particular) and my anxiety was through the roof. I found I was so much happier and more at peace when I took long breaks from it, but felt I couldn't possibly stop using it altogether, or even minimize my use to the degree necessary. After reading this book, I know why I experienced this misery, and how I can make digital minimalism an ongoing practice. I want to recommend this book to everyone I know - it's that critical.
This is an accessible and quick read, but its content is of the utmost importance to anyone who uses the internet in general, and social media in particular.
This book is going on my shelf where I keep a copy of the hand-full of books that have changed my perception of my world. I highly recommend this book because the author does a great job of explaining what the topic is, uses chapters to focus on a specific topic at a time, and gives practical examples [extending his prior book [book:Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World 25744928]] with implementation ideas, which the initial book didn't always provide.
Amazing book. Must read for everyone. Helps you understand from basic, about how the attention economy works. How the services like Facebook, insta, twitter and all sell your attention time to advertisers and how they keep you hooked to them. Your time=Their Money.
Gives you ideas about how to come out of it. How to get best of both worlds. Full of actionable ideas for transiting from one side to the other.
Five star for sure.
Thanks Cal for writing this.
Amazing idea, great suggestions, extremely bloated with unnecessary and repetitive “convincing stories”.
About 15% recycled content from “Deep Work”, this piece enjoys may have benefitted from greater feedback loops or criticism that book received, as it struck me as somewhat smoother and less of a polemic. The suggestions start out sounding intense, but more quickly move into recognition of the need for options. Great advice and perspectives for recognizing and taking control of one's attention and time. Definitely worth the read.
The message is simple: stop wasting time online doing non-intentional things. Time spent on YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit “browsing” is time that is wasted. Only use tools online that provide a benefit for your end-goal, and be conscious of what your end-goal of technology is.
My goals, for instance, are to help me learn new skills, to help me experience film, and to encourage quality time spent with people I like. So I use tools like AWS, Duolingo, Letterboxd, and Riot/Matrix regularly. OTOH, tools like Instagram or Twitter don't hit my end goals - so I actively avoid using those platforms. It's a matter of choosing your intentions and moulding your use of technology around what you want, instead of using technology “as it was designed”, which is rarely in your best interest.
More to the content, I didn't find the writing all that interesting, and the use of possibly-hypothetical personas always strikes me as odd in these kinds of books. If the person is real, use their full name to make your argument credible. Otherwise, be honest and tell the reader that the persona is made up! Even so, these sections are short and do provide valuable examples.
Overall I enjoyed it much more for the principles it describes about technology use over its craftsmanship.
I heard 80% of the book and read the rest.
Digital Minimalism is a mix of a new gen podcast on technology use (sometimes sounding like a sermon but most of the time presenting a logical argument) and a well researched thesis on role of technology and attention economy in our lives mixed with the wisdom of out yester years.
It draws from previous works on leisure, mindful living, community building and such. It is peppered with various case studies and profiles of individuals who have strived to do something extraordinary. For this, I'd recommend digital Minimalism to anyone who might want to become more mindful of their technology usage.
PS read/listen and take some notes about the actionable steps, this book is only as useful as you'd make it.
It's been a while since I took a good look inward at my social media habits. This book forced me to do that - and I didn't like what I saw.
To list out what Cal mentions about social media addiction is basically just looking in the mirror for me and many people. We pick our phones to fill time, creating a loop of services that provide us with variable rewards that keep us coming back for more.
He's careful to say that social media (or any service that we mindlessly consume) isn't bad, but our relationship with it can be unhealthy.
One thing that stuck with me was the idea that all that time spent makes it feel like we're connected to people, but in reality we aren't. It's time away from building real friendships and growing real relationships.
After reading this I immediately decided to do my own 30-day digital declutter. 4 days in now and I've already stopped checking my phone constantly - although that's mostly because every app is organized and I've written Goodreads reviews for everything I've read. Looking forward to seeing where this goes next.
It's been a while since I took a good look inward at my social media habits. This book forced me to do that - and I didn't like what I saw.
To list out what Cal mentions about social media addiction is basically just looking in the mirror for me and many people. We pick our phones to fill time, creating a loop of services that provide us with variable rewards that keep us coming back for more.
He's careful to say that social media (or any service that we mindlessly consume) isn't bad, but our relationship with it can be unhealthy.
One thing that stuck with me was the idea that all that time spent makes it feel like we're connected to people, but in reality we aren't. It's time away from building real friendships and growing real relationships.
After reading this I immediately decided to do my own 30-day digital declutter. 4 days in now and I've already stopped checking my phone constantly - although that's mostly because every app is organized and I've written Goodreads reviews for everything I've read. Looking forward to seeing where this goes next.
I borrowed this book on a whim, not sure what to expect. The title of the book itself fascinated me. Reading this book, the main premise appeals to me. When weighing anything in one's life, ask how and what it adds to one's life. Once identified, ask whether it is worth the cost of something else, as we have limited time. Secondly, the discussion on having time to think. This is not the terminology used, that escapes me at the moment, but the author talks about having time to think one's own thoughts without interruption. This resonated with me and I realize that it is something I need to be more deliberate about.
The author spend a fair bit of time talking about social networks and apps citing their tendency to be designed to keep a user's attention. He even goes so far as to argue that some may be addicted to tech and social networks. It is important to say here that he defines addiction well and points out that this cannot have the same power as a chemical dependency.
This may just be my perception, but it feels the author spends more time explaining the downfalls of tech and social networking than he does talking about taking control of these activities in one's life. Once he gets there, it reminds me a lot of Manoush Zamarodi's Bored and Brilliant book and project.
At times there were stretches where it felt the author was trying to fill more pages, offering more examples to support arguments made. Some may find those helpful to get a better understanding, so I won't argue it as a bad thing.
I listened to the audiobook. The narrator did quite well, with one complaint. I find it annoying when male readers do a female voice by using a falsetto, however slight, to emulate a female voice.
i would recommend this book for people who are thinking about the role mobile tech and social media plays in one's life. Many of the suggestions and practices are things I've already started to adapt in my life after listening to the podcast A Note To Self and reading Bored and Brilliant. However, I found another perspective filled in the some missing pieces. I could definitely see myself reading this book again to refresh my memory on what it important to me and the challenge to live for what is most important.
Refreshing, empowering, and stoic are some of the first words that come to mind after reading this book. I'm already implementing some of the practices and thinking critically about what digital philosophy I want to have to guide how I use my phone and social media. I used Libby to borrow it from the library, but I think this will be one that I buy a physical copy of for reference. I love the mix of research, experience, philosophy, and practical application.
This would have been 5 stars but I found the book structure awkward and the transitions clunky which impacted the reading experience for me. Also, I don't usually make a note of it, but at some point it became noticeable to me and I found myself wondering if he really was just only going to reference men. Some women do show up eventually, but he could have tried a little harder to avoid predominantly focusing on men in his research and case studies.
Overall I found this book very valuable and would highly recommend if you're feeling exhausted, don't know where your time goes, and literal dust has built up on the things you find joy in.
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.
Update 2023 — I reread this, and liked it again. It was interesting to see how much of it I'd adopted without realizing. The salient takeaways this time around are that one should be much more focused in how they spend their leisure time; it's not enough to remove digital crap; you actively need something to replace it with.
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Ever since I learned that people's score on an IQ drops by 15 points if they're regularly distracted during it (eg. by a phone), I've been pretty wary of my attention. 15 points of intelligence is a big price to pay for anything! About a year ago I got rid of my smart phone, and downgraded back to a flip phone. It's been working pretty well for me.
Digital Minimalism is Cal Newport's take on this phenomenon, and what to do about it. It gave me some vindication that maybe I'm not crazy for not wanting to sign up for instagram. Perhaps more importantly, it discusses a significantly less-haphazard-than-mine-was approach to weening yourself off these services.
The thesis of the book is “your smartphone provides much less value than you think,” but even if you already agree with that, there is value to be found in this book. Newport successfully argues that we've collectively lost the idea of active leisure and do-it-yourself-edness as a society, and suggests that these activities are a healthier substitute for mindlessly dicking around on our phones/netflix/what-have-you.
It's not Newport's best book (So Good They Can't Ignore You is), but it's worth a read.