In our age of ubiquitous smart phone use and social media addiction, this book is absolutely essential. Newport is not recommending that we all get rid of our cell phones and go back to Morse code, but he is urging us persuasively and with many practical suggestions to get control of our cell phones so they don’t control us.
The problem we find ourselves in is that so many of us became addicted to our smart phones without ever contemplating the long-term consequences of digital maximalism to begin with. Now we have lost control. “Social media is a tool, but it’s become this thing that we can’t live without that’s making us crazy.” (107). This will continue unless we are disciplined and intentionally proactive in limiting smart phone use so that we might pursue more life-affirming activities like taking walks, talking to friends in person, reading books and staring at the clouds (xviii). The solution is what Newport calls “digital minimalism.”
Reading this book is not the same as actually implementing its suggestions, so it’s important to consider practical ideas such as eliminating non-essential apps (p.63); spending more time alone (without your phone nearby, chapter 4); preferring conversation to connection (p.144f); learning how to do something, like playing guitar to every song on the first side of “Meet the Beatles” (p.208); and maybe just going back to a dumb phone (p.242).
Newport is very clear that he is not anti-technology; instead, he simply wants us to use technology to support the things we value, not to be the thing that we value the most. In order to do this, you have to be willing to miss out on lesser things to enjoy better things. “Digital minimalism is much more than a set of rules, it’s about cultivating a life worth living in our current age of alluring devices.” (253).