One of the first steps to transformation is acknowledging a change needs to happen. Over the past year, I have become quite uncomfortable and sometimes disgusted with the amount of time I have spent looking at screens. I talked about this in a recent post on what I wish I’d known about minimalism, how social media is yet another form of consumption, and while I can make an allowance for my work, I cannot justify the amount of time spent on social media and streaming apps.

I’m an addict.

I tried to implement clever hacks like disabling notifications, deleting apps for periods of time, monitoring my screen time, setting app time limits, and using the do not disturb function on my phone at night, and they have mostly worked to increase my awareness and curb my usage some, but it’s still not enough. It’s not enough because you cannot cleverly hack your way out of an addiction that has been developing for years. Addiction sounds like a heavy word, but it’s what myself and many of us are experiencing. The difference between us and other addicts is that our behavior is acceptable. Being tethered to some type of digital device during your waking hours is an integral part of 21st century living.

“Addiction is a condition in which a person engages in use of a substance or in a behavior for which rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeatedly pursue the behavior despite detrimental consequences.” DSM-5 (2013) (pg. 15, Digital Minimalism)

For me, I observed a few things. I use social media as a reward in between periods of work and sometimes during to give me a boost to complete my work. Social media is a distraction that allows me to ignore complicated feelings (uncertainty, sadness, anger, despair) or to procrastinate when facing a challenging activity or something I just don’t want to do. When I realized this, the sobering reality hit me, “Damn, I’m an addict”.

Ironically, this year has been huge for me in terms of creative output. I released a deck of tarot cards, wrote a book, revamped my blog and Youtube channel, and have established myself as collage artist, creating many works. Still, I know there is more I am meant to be and do and mindlessly scrolling or binging series will not get me there. Though this isn’t just about being creative or productive, because I believe there should be space for rest and nothingness also, this is a spiritual leveling up. I’ve stated many times that my minimalist journey is a spiritual journey. I’ve reached the next challenge on this path and I’ve received my spiritual assignments. As I enter this new decade, I understand that how I engage with the digital world has the ability to determine the trajectory of not only the next 10 years of my life, but possibly my whole life.

Enter Cal Newport

I first learned about his book, Digital Minimalism, when Maria, the Spiritual Homegirl, shared an excerpt from the audio book on her Insta. This is an example where social media has value to introduce us to concepts that can positively impact our lives, but for every educational post, there are probably 10 posts that don’t have much or any benefit to our well-being. While the concepts of digital minimalism and digital decluttering are not new, someone writing in-depth about it and offering practical solutions to not just decluttering, but to radically alter how you interact with digital technology, is refreshing. Cal has also written about how to do Deep Work, which is what prompted him to study digital minimalism in the first place. I plan to read it next on my break.

Anyways, Cal has never used social media in his life (he’s 37). At first, I wondered how he was going to tell me how to break this digital addiction when he doesn’t know the struggle, but in reality, he actually recruited over 1,600 of his readers to participate in his experiment, in addition to interviewing experts, to draw his conclusions.

Digital Minimalism- A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” (28)

What about my values?

The other thing that really got me after admitting I was an addict, was the values part. I’ve discussed values a lot here , with Black Minimalists, and in Mindful Simplicity, and while I do live my values mostly, I realized I had never fully considered applying my values to my digital life. How could I have overlooked this all these years? One of the essential questions Cal asks us to ask ourselves when considering our digital behavior is, “Is this the best way to use technology to support this value?” (29).

Creativity is my top core value for 2019. For the first time in several years, freedom was not my #1 core value because I decided that in 2019, my creativity could support my freedom ultimately. But, how has my digital behavior supported my creativity this year? I explored digital collage art, improved my editing skills, submitted my art to a zine that I found via Instagram, took SkillShare classes online, found free-use image sources, and was inspired by other artists I found online. Sounds nice, but in reality, the amount of time my digital behavior supported my creativity made up a small fraction of the actual time I spent online. I haven’t decided on my top core value for 2020, but I know creativity and freedom will still be in the top five, so I will commit to ensuring my digital behavior support these values, starting with a digital detox for the month of January.

Principles of Digital Minimalism (35-36)

1. Clutter is costly.

2. Optimization is important.

3. Intentionality is satisfying.

It was not lost on me either, while writing Mindful Simplicity and discussing mindfulness, values, and providing tools for you to prioritize your life, that my life also needed some reprioritization. Over the past seven years, I’ve definitely become lax in some areas of life, but the gift of practicing minimalism consistently, even if imperfectly, is self-awareness. I understand what consumption and clutter has cost me and I know the benefit of being intentional, but my optimization skills need work when it comes to my digital behavior.

Cal shares an interesting tidbit about how in Walden Thoreau calculates the monetary cost of his life and determines how much he will need to work to support his life in the woods, which begs the question, “How much life are you trading by consuming digital content?” Also, I’ve never read Walden, something about the white privilege of it all stopped me, though I am intrigued now and may give it go, but also there is a book called, Black Walden, about the free black people living in these woods too, not as an experiment in Thoreau’s case, but to survive and maintain their freedom.

The Digital Declutter Process (60)

Step 1: 30-day period to take a break from optional technologies.

Step 2: During the break, explore and rediscover activities and behaviors you find satisfying and meaningful.

Step 3: At the end, reintroduce optional technologies from a blank slate and determine what value each serves in your life and how to maximize this value.

To successfully execute this process you need to determine which technologies are actually optional and which ones you need, for example work-related tech is likely not optional, which of them you can take a full 30-day break from without harming your personal or professional life, and figure out exactly how and when you will use each technology when it’s reincorporated.

Cal cautions not to be too strict or vague with your rules as this can lead to quitting the challenge and also bear in mind, the first couple of days to weeks, may be a difficult adjustment. So give yourself some grace in the beginning, but stay the course. I’m going to journal my process as documentation for myself as I’m transitioning and also to share with you in the hopes of inspiring you to get your own digital shit together.

Practice, practice, practice.

Everything we’ve discussed so far is in the first half of the book, entitled Foundations. In the second half of the book he gives practices to use during the break and afterwards, some of which I have summarized below.

1. Spend time alone, leave your phone at home (this will be challenging for me), take long walks, write letters to yourself. (Chapter 4)

2. Don’t click like because liking, favoriting, short (1-3 words) comments, etc. are defined as low-level interactions that have no real benefit to yourself or the other person and creates a false sense of connectedness. Side note: This is true and it’s something I do a lot. In my mind, it says to the other person, “I see/acknowledge you”, but there are much better ways I could communicate this, like #3 below. (Chapter 5)

3. Have more real conversations, either in-person, on the phone (call), or video chat. He states that anything that is textual or non-interactive is not a real conversation. Texting or messaging should be used to arrange real connections like the ones listed above. Consolidate your messages by putting your phone in DND mode for specific periods of time or as often as you feel necessary. (Chapter 5)

4. Reclaim leisure by practicing these three lessons (Chapter 6):

   1. Prioritize demanding activities over passive consumption. (177)

   2. Use skills to produce valuable things in the physical world, i.e. crafting. (182)

   3. Seek activities that require real-world, structured social interactions. (190)

Cal is adamant about leisure time in the book, and I think that’s valuable, I would also add that this is the time to focus on your deep work too, whatever form that takes. For me, that means I will be making more collage art and developing and launching my research project, Black Eastern Shore.

Some other tips from the book are:

• Delete social media from your phone and use it on your desktop. (222)

• Turn your devices into single-purpose computers and simplify your smartphone, return to its traditional purpose and use. (225)

• Use social media like a professional meaning it’s not for entertainment (guilty!), only follow people and communities related to your interests, and only use Facebook to connect with close friends and family members. Keep your active engagement friend/follower list to 150 people- the Dunbar Number. (230)

The time has come.

The book concludes with a thought, “your time=their money” and a question, “would you pay to use these sites and apps?” Personally, I could not imagine paying for Facebook, Instagram, or Youtube, although, I have paid for streaming services like Netflix and HBO in the past. Knowing that these technologies are purposely designed to profit from our time and attention makes me angry at times and ambivalent at others because capitalism. I’m changing my relationship to these digital technologies, not because of how or why they were created, but because of why I was created, my desire to evolve, and regain control over this area of my life. I will still use digital technologies and my interaction with them will by my design and aligned with my values.

So to recap, I will be taking a digital break during the month of January 2020 to get my life together. I have not decided if I will still post blog posts and youtube videos during this time. If I do it will be scheduled for automatic upload and I will not be responding to any comments. I realize it’s a professional risk to stop using social media for a period of time, but by now I think we both understand why it’s necessary. Also, I’ve taken longer, unintentional, unannounced breaks before and most of y’all have stuck around, so I hope to reconnect with you in the near future and if my content is not in alignment with your values, please feel free to free yourself.

Happy Holidays!