Pg. 5: "Another major selling point of the device when it launched was the many ways in which it improved the experience of making phone calls. It was big news at the time that Apple forced AT&T to open its voicemail system to enable a better interface for the iPhone. Onstage, Jobs was also clearly enamored of the simplicity with which you could scroll through phone numbers, and the fact that the dial pad appeared on the screen instead of requiring permanent plastic buttons. "The killer app is making calls " Jobs exclaimed to applause during his keynote. It's not until thirty-three minutes into that famed presentation that he gets around to highlighting features like improved text messaging and mobile internet access that dominate the way we now use these devices"
Pg. 18: “Social media feedback, however, is not the only online activity with this property of unpredictable reinforcement. Many people have the experience of visiting a content website for a specific purpose - say, for example, going to a newspaper site to check the weather forecast - and then find themselves thirty minutes later still mindlessly following trails of links, skipping from one headline to another. Ever appealing headline clicked or intriguing link tabbed is another metaphorical pull of the slot machine handle"
Pg. 28: “The New York Post columnist cited above, in other words, should look beyond the notification settings on his 112 apps and ask the more important question of why he uses so many apps in the first place. What he needs - what all of us who struggle with these issues need - is a philosophy of technology use, something that covers from the ground up which digital tools we allow into our life, for what reasons, and under what constraints"
Digital Minimalism definition - A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a tiny amount of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then joyfully miss out on everything else
Digital Minimalists constantly perform implicit cost-benefit analyses. If it offers minor diversion or trivial convenience, they will ignore it. If it supports something the minimalist values, then they ask, "Is this the best way to use technology to support this value?" They either optimize or search further.
Most people deploy the maximalist philosophy by default: any potential for benefit is ENOUGH to start using a technology
hesitant about low-value activities
Values about career, connecting with other people, values about being entertained
Maximizing convenience is prioritized much lower than using technology to support their values
Examples: email newsletter subscriptions and a number of blogs to check once a week, curating a collection of online magazines to check once a day in the afternoon
The Digital Declutter Process:
- 30 days [or however long] during which you will take a break from optional tech
- Explore and rediscover meaningful activities
- Reintroduce optional tech
Consider it optional unless its temporary removal would harm or disrupt the daily operation of your professional or personal life
Logistical exemptions
convenient vs critical
Use operating procedures with tech that is optional. These procedures specify how and when you use a particular technology, allowing critical use without having to default to unrestricted access
Mary reconfigured her phone to send special alerts for texts from special people, but suppress notifications for all other messages
Melissa set up dinners with friends, organized her wardrobe, scheduled more face-to-face conversations
Kushboo was another participant was re-started painting, listening to records from beginning to end on his record player instead of having the option to skip songs
Analog activities
To allow an optional technology back, it must serve something you deeply value [not just some benefit], be the best way to use technology to serve this value [if not, replace it], and play a role in your life that is constrained with a standard operating procedure that specifics when and how you use it
Pg. 100: "The iPod was pushing us toward a newly alienated phase in our relationship with our own minds. This transformation started by the iPod, however, didn't reach its full potential until the release of its successor, the iPhone or, more generally, the spread of modern internet-connected smartphones in the second decade of the twenty-fist century. Even though iPods become ubiquitous, there were still moments in which it was either too much trouble to slip in the earbuds. The smartphone provided a new technique to banish these remaining slivers of solitude: the quick glance. At the slightest hint of boredom, you can now surreptitiously glance at any number of apps or mobile-adapted websites that have been optimized to provide you an immediate and satisfying dose of input from other minds"
Jean-Jaques Rousseau was nauseous at the mere sight of a desk and chair
Long, scenic walks without digital devices
Don't click like, stop leaving comments because it teaches your brain that connection, instead of conversation, is a reasonable alternative. A conversation-centric communication philosophy
Just let people know that you are investing more time into conversation
Consolidate texting by keeping your Do Not Disturb mode by default on. Adjust settings so calls from a selected list come through. Set up a schedule that turns the phone to this mode automatically during predetermined times
Tell people you check texts several times a day and that you will see it shortly and if its urgent, they can call you
consolidate set times on set days during which you're always available for conversation. Let people know they can call you or be in-person. If they instigate a low-quality connection, suggest they call or meet you during your office hours [coffee shop hours, walking hours]
Steve Jobs was not the type of person who would be interested in maintaining important relationships through ongoing drips of digital pings
Arnold Bennett discussed the importance of ACTIVE leisure in his book "How To Live On 24 Hours a Day." The average worker works 8 hours a day and is left with sixteen additional hours [he suggests taking up difficult literature and self-reflecting]. He believes a good leisure pursuit requires "mental strain" and he wrote for early 20th century middle-class men [so ignored childcare and housework]
The Bennett Principle: expending more energy ends up energizing you more [like the phrase "you have to spend money to make money"]. He believes that the mental faculties don't tire, they just want change
Handmade: Creative Focus in An Age of Distraction by Gary Rogowski
Pg. 180: "In a culture where screens replace craft, Crawford argues people lose the outlet for self-worth established through unambiguous demonstrations of skill. One way to understand the exploding popularity of social media platforms in recent years is that they offer a substitute source of aggrandizement. In the absence of a well-built wood bench or applause at a musical performance to point toward, you can instead post a photo of your latest visit to a hip restaurant, hoping for likes, or desperately check for retweets of a clever quip"
Join activities that require real-world structured social interactions: a gym that encourages less phone usage and more socialization [like Crossfit]
Schedule your low-quality leisure time in advance [web surfing, streaming, social media]
Pg 244: "Even The Verge, a reliable bastion of techno-boosterism, admitted the potential value of a return to simpler communication devices. Exhausted by the near constant Twitter checking induced by the 2016 presidential election, reporter Vlad Savov wrote an article titled "It's Time to Bring Back the Dumb Phone, " in which he claims that a return to simpler phones "is not as drastic a regression as you might think - or as it might have been a few years ago." His main argument is that tablets and laptops have come so lightweight and portable that there is no longer a need to try to cram productivity functionalities into increasingly powerful (and therefore increasingly distracting) smartphones - phones can be used for calls and messages, and other portable devices can be used for everything else"
If worried about maintaining two numbers if you want to keep your smartphone, use a tethered dumb phone