Digital Minimalism

January 1, 2019
Becoming cognizant of the amount of time we spend online is now more important than ever. Instead of providing worthwhile services, the number one priority for commercial websites is inducing users to keep scrolling and clicking. To rein in our often excessive device usage, Newport (Deep Work, 2017) promotes a radical redefinition of our relationship with technology by way of digital minimalism, encouraging us to focus on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else. One obstacle to this is the way news and social media platforms are designed to hold our attention, making it nearly impossible to change our habits without a complete detox. Newport lays out the basics for this digital decluttering and offers practices to cultivate a more fulfilling life, online and off. A helpful guide in this era of attention economics, Newport's philosophical treatise shows both what we lose with digital overuse and how technology, used with intention, can enhance the experience of being human.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)