[There is nothing worse than writing an entire review, only to find out that nothing was saved. This is one of the reviews so let’s hope the rewritten version doesn’t leave anything out – though I doubt anyone but I will care]

After reading How to Do Nothing, I was motivated to continue reading about how we could detach ourselves from social media (not the exact point of How to Do Nothing but that was what I took back) and found Digital Minimalism. This is a very practical guide that introduces the concept of digital minimalism and how we might practice it.

Digital Minimalism can be broken into two parts:

The first part is all about concept. Newport argues that “we didn’t sign up for the digital world in which we’re currently entrenched in”, and while these new technologies can be useful, they may not necessarily add utility to our lives. As he puts it, most people are uneasy with these technologies because they increasingly “dictate how we behave and how we feel, and somehow coerce us to use them more than we think is healthy, often at the expense of other activities we find more valuable.” It’s a persuasive argument and one that I’ve been thinking about; albeit in much less specific terms.

Once you are (hopefully) persuaded of the validity of his argument, Newport goes on to introduce the concept of digital minimalism. This is based on Thoreau’s new economics, which measures the increase in utility from increased earnings against the cost of life to achieve these increased earnings. For example, if you require only X amount of dollars per month to live comfortable, what are you giving up to earn $(X+100) per month? Time with friends and family? Time to practice a sport you like? Is the extra money worth the extra hustle?

Of course, there are some people for whom an increase in earnings is the end-goal but I like this this way of thinking. And if you do, why not apply it to your technology usage, as Newport advocates? Questions you can ask are:

• What is the added benefit of scrolling through Instagram/Facebook/Twitter for two hours instead of one?
• What apps add value to my life and which don’t add value or subtract happiness?
• What do I want from my days and am I using my time to achieve that?

The second half of the book goes on to provide practical ways that you can adjust your life so that you control the technology you use, instead of letting it dictate your time. It starts with a digital detox, where you cut out everything that is not essential for personal life or work (that means you can’t quite your Whatsapp work groups, even if you want to). While you’re on this break, explore and rediscover the activities that you find satisfying and meaningful. The end goal of this detox is that you will determine what apps truly add value in your life and how you can add them in to maximise the value.

The second half of the book goes on to talk about practical ways you can think about and use technology. Examples include not clicking the like button – this is to encourage you to reach out and start a real conversation with someone instead of letting a digital ‘like’ stand-in for that. In other words, replace low-value interactions with high-value ones (note: this means you can interact with less people than before as deep conversations will take time, but you have to decide if the trade-off is worth it).

I also really like the last chapter, which is titled “Join the Attention Resistance”. Here, Newport defines the attention economy as “the business sector that makes money gathering consumers’ attention and then repackaging and selling it to advertisers”. Hence, the aims of the business and the aims of its customers (assuming that the customer’s aim is to increase the quality of their social life rather than to increase the time spent on social media) are in conflict. Digital minimalism is presented as the antidote to this – use these technologies, which can be good, but make sure you’re in control. As part of it, interesting ideas like Slow Media are brought up. Slow Media, as opposed to a low information diet, is about being more mindful in our media consumption, choosing to consume high-quality pieces of news instead of avoiding the news altogether.

Personally, I thought this book was very timely, practical, and inspiring. I did a look at my own social media usage earlier this year and took a break from an app that I liked but was finding increasingly emotionally taxing to use. Instead, I decided to channel my energies on this blog, and I found that having to sit at a laptop to write instead of dashing off whatever was in my mind to an app in the phone really helped me to process my emotions. Now I’m back on that app, but I’m a lot more mindful about what I’m reading and writing. But even though I started making strides towards claiming back autonomy from social media, I’m still tethered to it through many other apps and in many other ways. I never thought of doing a digital detox till now, and after reading through it, it actually seems pretty doable. While I’m not sure when I’ll do it (by Lent next year, at the very latest), I’m definitely going to spend some time planning what it would look like and how I’ll carry it out.

I’d recommend Digital Minimalism to anyone who, like me, is interested in rethinking their media and technology consumption habits and would like some actionable advice on what to do about it.