Digital minimalism
For a few months, years? I have been trying to limit my usage of some social networks, mainly YouTube and Reddit.
I tried several methods; only one worked for me.
Going offline is trending a little bit, which is a good thing. Every generation is feeling something is wrong. Everyone is seeing people glued to their phones while at a restaurant or even during a discussion! We lose hours of our time in front of content that has the sole goal of making a few companies richer and richer by using your data. Everyone knows that now.
Other negative aspects are more and more in the spotlight: lack of focus, brain fog, depression, anxiety, etc. Those are the reasons I started to limit my usage of social networks.
I did try a few techniques:
By willpower alone, I thought I could limit it by watching the time: big mistake. Those platforms are engineered to get you hooked. Willpower alone does not work.
Disconnecting after each usage to add some friction. It worked for a few days, then I stopped disconnecting.
Removing the Reddit app from my phone and then I was accessing Reddit via Firefox...
A plugin to block those apps; removed it a few days later.
Adding Unhook on YouTube to remove Shorts, comments, and suggestions. This is super useful to make YouTube less appealing and more focused on what you want to watch.
It took me some time to admit that I was more hooked than I was willing to accept. Willpower is not enough; you can't beat a multibillion-dollar company as they are doing their best to get your attention.
So, what is working for me? And probably for the majority of us?
Delete everything.
Apps from smartphones and accounts. But nature dislike the void; you have to fill it before recreating an account and falling back into your bad habits. The solution, for me at least, was to replace it with something more mindful and selected by me, not an algorithm or AI. When I started my math studies a month ago, I started journaling my progress; it's enjoyable, peaceful, and rewarding to see my small but consistent progress. So I decided to create two other notebooks.
A small one, where I note all of my brain farts. The good and the ugly. For example today I wrote that I wanted to go to Reddit again out of habit, and that I even opened a tab before realizing what I was doing. It is scary to see how automatic it is to open a social network and scroll out of boredom. And of course the good stuff: listing my priorities, what I want to do today, and that I resisted Reddit of course.
The second one is just an agenda. I am noting every important date in it instead of in Google Calendar. When I think about it, this is even easier to use than an electronic agenda. Just open the page and write. There is no password, no Wi-Fi to turn on, no bugs, no latency, no Google to spy on you.
I am slowly feeling those habits disappear, and it feels great. I am freeing up so much time that was wasted. Do the math: how many hours you spend per week on those social networks; it is staggering.
My new goal now is to do one thing at a time.
If I want to code: I code. No music, no podcasts, no scrolling. I am allowing myself brown/white noise. You get the idea.
One thing at a time and focus.
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