 I picked up Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, another book I thought was a timely read while spending more time at home (and being tempted to check my phone a million times a day, getting stuck in an endless Facebook loop, reading news and posts about Coronavirus that were only giving me anxiety).
In this book, Cal lays out a proposition, based on a philosophy that seeks to reexamine the role technology plays in our life: take a complete break from your digital world (outside of the necessities and work of course) for 30 days. Then, slowly reintroduce devices and apps back into your life in an effort to be intentional about how you spend your time in front of phones, screens and social media. I didn't cut out digital for 30 days, but seeing as I already consider myself to lean toward the minimalist end of the digital spectrum anyways, while reading the book I took about a week to stop using social media and set a schedule to check my email and texts during the day. Cal laid out a good vision with some good research behind it that reminded me that we can and should be intentional about using our phones and other digital apps, especially now that we have the ability to carry supercomputers in our pockets everywhere we go. Cal's philosophy might sound extreme and anti-technology to some, but it's not. The goal isn't to reject the age of the internet, but rather reject the way we currently engage with these tools. It takes effort to control our digital lives so that we can reach our potential and use technology to actually make our lives better. Instead of being owned by our technology, Cal urges us to decide for ourselves what tools we want to use, for what reasons and under what conditions. This was a short and good read and I think an important one for anyone serious about personal and career growth and development. Comments are closed.
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