DIGITAL MINIMALISM: WEEK ONE

Inspired by Cal Newport and a great deal of related research I’ve been doing recently, I have decided to run an experiment in Digital Minimalism. I’ll check in periodically via the blog to share how it’s going and what I’m noticing. 

WHY 

I align with the philosophy that our use of technology should support our values. While I greatly enjoy connecting with my dear friends and community online, it suddenly became very clear to me that in many ways, especially as of the last couple years, social media is directly out of alignment with my values of integrity and character ethics.

I’ve been feeling fatigued by the reality of the platforms themselves (the fact that we are all being tracked and analyzed so that we can be seduced by advertisements that have been perfectly placed in our feeds); by the mind-bending reality that we can post photos of ourselves in small pieces of clothing every single day, for years, on end and gain millions of followers and thousands of daily likes along the way; and by the hate, vitriol, call-outs, cancel culture, and online bullying that allows anyone, from anywhere, to make death threats from behind the screen of their phone and for this to somehow be seen as okay, and appropriate, on social media platforms.

Additionally, over the last few years and especially recently, I have been feeling frustrated with the conflation between “posting opinions on social media” and “taking meaningful action in the world.” 

I want to focus on taking meaningful action in the world. And, I want to reduce my micro-irritation with the other social media-related shenanigans above, to free up more energy for the things that really matter. So, I decided to run this little experiment. 

HOW 

I decided that, given the misalignment above, the main focus of my experiment would be social media. And, even more specifically, Instagram - since this is the main social media platform that I use. Here’s what I did.

1. Delete social media apps from my phone and decide on limits of use. 

   1. For many years, Facebook has been deleted from my phone. I typically only go on Facebook, via my laptop, for one business-related group that I’m a part of (which is aligned with my values and brings joy) -  no action needed. 

   2. For several months, LinkedIn has been deleted from my phone - no action needed. I semi-regularly check LinkedIn and over the last couple of years have found that it’s become a very noisy place. While I still appreciate it as a place to connect with colleagues, I have decided to check it less often (a time or two per week) during this experiment. I added a note about this to my profile and invited folks to connect via my website for a quicker reply. 

   3. Twitter - I haven’t used this much since 2014, so it’s allowed to stay (I occasionally read linked tweets from news articles, but that’s it - no risk of overuse). 

   4. Instagram - this is the platform where I engage most frequently. While I’ve experimented with deleting the app off my phone in the past, this time, to really dive fully into my experiment, I decided to temporarily deactivate my account. 

2. Decide what gets to stay 

   1. I use Facebook Messenger to communicate with two groups of neighbors. This is both functional, and joyful (Does anyone have a stick of butter? Bonfire at my house tonight! Donuts in my front yard tomorrow!) and takes up little time each week, so it makes the cut.  

FINDINGS: WEEK 1 

So far, nothing has imploded as a result of my temporary deactivation of instagram or my further minimized engagement on other social media platforms. I did miss a very sad and very important piece of news from a friend; thankfully, my partner told me about it so that I was able to reach out directly via text. 

If I were to give myself a grade for my first week of this experiment, it would be:

• Social Media: A

• News: D. I couldn’t stop reading about the events that happened here in Madison earlier this week.

• Other Technology/Phone Use: B+ . I used my phone regularly to listen to a book (which aligns with my values), and to text with girlfriends (which aligns with my values). I still probably had it physically with me more than I would have needed to.

Other Things I’ve Noticed:

• There were two instances this week where I reached for my phone to “check something” (ie: my instagram feed) but there was nothing to check. This instinct (pick up the phone and “check something”) was interesting to notice. 

• There was one instance on which I reached for my phone and some potato chips at the same time. This feels like something that could be deeply psychoanalyzed by someone somewhere, but for now I’ll just leave it at “a noticing.” 

• I experimented with leaving my phone at home a bit more often for things like walks with the pup. This was delightful. 

My goal for next week is to put more of a boundary around checking and consuming news, by limiting my intake to around 10 minutes per day. This can include a quick check of local news as well as well as reading Morning Brew, my favorite curated news summary as of late. 

Is anyone else currently running an experiment in digital minimalism? I’d love to hear from you if so.