Book: Digital Minimalism – Cal Newport
Author’s Website: https://calnewport.com/
Category: Philosophy per Amazon
Worth the Read: I don’t think so – main point – don’t use social media
Insights:
Social media is not generally advantageous. People are addicted to their phones and fake relationships. There are apps and products on the market that will monitor phone pick ups and times using social media. Try to limit it’s use. Cal’s other book Deep Work, I read a couple years ago and it spoke on the topic of distraction. This book has a lot of parallels. I don’t have social media. It is challenging when many small businesses use Facebook as their means of marketing when you go to a new town. I do think there is a contribution of social media to a rise in mental health issues. I see more patients now that are dissatisfied with where they’re at in life. I attribute this to comparing themselves to the top fractional percent of society. Technology addiction is real and there are concerns about how they’re (tech companies) incentived to maximize our time on their device.
- Go for a walk – this is how you think
- Schedule time for true face to face interaction
- Don’t like things or use emojis.
- Go. on breaks from technology
- Schedule time to use technology
- Seek out creative or strenuous projects
- Consider getting a dumb phone
Seeking Progress 