Digital Minimalism

Amazing idea, great suggestions, extremely bloated with unnecessary and repetitive “convincing stories”.

A good guide to a quiet life in today's so much busy world and I've been actually practicing some of the exercises myself unknowingly like, I uninstalled Instagram (only social media I use except YouTube and Pinterest) and I don't even use Pinterest use that much ..
And I just feel more connected to the friends who call me and with whom I reach out to on WhatsApp
I used to feel empty inside when I used to use Instagram and the reason is clearly explained in the “like” chapter and why like button is used in almost every social media apps nowdays and yea concepts like priming and some fallacies are discussed too

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.

It's one of my 5 star books where I agreed with every single point and every single thing mentioned, I related to a lot of things ( being a gen z ) living in a generation and a life surrounded by unnecessary technology which can be used as a weapon in our life battles but is acting kind off a self damaging tool .This book is for anyone who wants to live a meaningful life by reducing the technology effect and using it meaningfully and the way it is supposed to be used.

The questions is not ‘why you use the social media? ‘ but ‘how you use social media?'

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.

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!

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. 

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.