My Partial Review of Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

One of my recent struggles is spending meaningful leisure time. I often end up browsing aimlessly and feeling unsatisfied once I am done. It turns out I am not alone and Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport addresses this head first.

Before diving into the argument, let’s establish some definitions:

• Solitude: A subjective state where your mind is free from the input of other minds (e.g. waiting in line, contemplating nature or taking a walk by yourself);
• Solitude Deprivation: Solitude is necessary to be happy. You are in deprivation when you don’t have enough of it;
• Leisure Time: Time spent doing things for ourselves;
• High Quality Leisure Time: Leisure time spent doing intentional activities helping us living a fulfilling life. We should make room for activities that will enable solitude and other activities that will enable in-person conversations.

The essay’s hypothesis is that unstructured smartphone usage leads to Solitude Deprivation and takes time away from High Quality Leisure Time.

The argument goes this way:

1. We install social media because they promise to help us connect with people important in our life. Once installed, these applications are as addictive as slot machines and encourage shallow connections with a wide range of people.
2. Solitude is boring (e.g. waiting in line, sitting in the transit or watching your kids at the park). Using social media applications on our phones is so easy and addictive that we spend no time in solitude anymore;
3. Even if it is not appealing, solitude is needed. When in solitude, our brain goes into default mode and do things like daydreaming, thinking about the intentions of others and setting goals. We go out of default state as soon as we engage in any activity (e.g. staring at our phone);
4. Solitude is also good motivators to invest in High Quality Leisure Time, activities that support our values and help us live a fulfilling life (e.g. learning to play guitar or taking cooking classes). Our leisure time should be structured to allow such activities.

Digital Minimalism asks us to be intentional in our usage of technology to enable High Quality Leisure Time. The book present this philosophy in depth and present many strategies to apply it successfully.

So far, I made a big cleanup of the applications and notifications on my phone, I leave my phone on my desk when I am at home, I make time to read more books and time to journal. I also internalized that being bored from time to time is a good thing. This is just a start but it still feels empowering so far.

I am curious about your struggles, strategies and the way you spend high quality leisure time. Feel free to drop a comment if you want to share them!