The only way to start (and stick) to digital quarantine (aka declutter or detox)!

7 minute Quick Read.  

Japanese Olympic player addicted to mobile games raked up 5000 $ (close to 4 Lac Indian Rs) bill and another player played Pokémon at night, overslept and missed his Olympic game altogether. 

It’s not peculiar to Japanese. Technology addiction is not only common but also play a harmful role in our life. 

A quick Google search shows many tips and techniques to get rid of addictive games, social media, and new technology. 

Cal Newport, an author of digital minimalism, claims that such quick fixes don’t work. 

He performed a live experiment. He mailed for voluntary participation to subscribers of his blog. He anticipated 50 to 100 responses. He was flooded with 1600 volunteers. The event made national news. 

Through experiment & careful study, the author came with a concrete way to address addiction. 

Your technology addiction plus a strong billion of investment pull by big tech firms make it almost impossible to get rid of. So if you really want to escape from the clutches, - quick fixes and tips don’t work.  Book suggests radical suggestions in three steps. 

Step #1: 

Decide optional technology. Optional technology doesn’t impact work or personal life. Thus work-email is not optional – it is a necessity. So what-ever distracts you but not vital for personal or professional life is optional. Games, Television is optional, a microwave isn't. WhatsApp is optional if it is a personal tool. But it is used for sales calls, then not.  

Step #2 

Take a 30 days break from technology!  Yes, you read it correctly. The author advises 30 days complete break from optional technologies. If it is not possible in some areas, then the workaround is ok. But take a break from all distractions.  First one or two weeks you may find it difficult, but then you will realize the futility of clinging to them. 

Another important thing is to find engaging and satisfying activities for you. You may want to learn music, read books, play with your kids or walk with your spouse holding hands. Just find and cultivate quality better alternatives in life. Alternatives that make your life rich in quality. 

Step #3 

After 30 days, slowly add the necessary technology back in life. But don’t do it like typical detox. In typical detox, people fully indulge in it. In 30days most people lose their taste in technology. He provides three key questions to ask before adding technology back in life.  

1. 1The first check is necessary. For instance, one interested in political news turns to allsides.org. Or instead of doing networking online, you can start doing it in the real physical world. If still, you find that the technology then three questions are - 
2. First Question – is this technology support the value that I want to nurture in life. For example –if you value learning or value spending quality time with family, will this technology help?
3. Second Question – is this the best way to nurture that value? Is there an alternative? For example, instead of keeping in touch on messages, you may want to call or meet your contacts in person occasionally – which is a more satisfying and meaningful option. 
4. Third Question – set boundaries – how will you use this technology in day to day life. For example, you may decide to use Facebook only on weekends, or LinkedIn only 30 minutes per day. Thus even if necessary, set strict rules for using technology.   

These three steps, and three questions – help us not only to get rid of technology addiction but bring meaning and satisfaction in life. 

One doesn’t need to sacrifice lovely relationships, miss important events/presentations or meetings nor waste huge money owing to addiction.  You just need to start somewhere, so to start with, let’s first decide a 30-day break from the technology!

[This is my take or review of Chapter 3 of Cal Newport’s digital Minimalism] 

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[ For review of Chapter 2: Click here]

First step in getting your life back from digital addiction!

6 minute Quick read.

Digital detox - abstaining from social media, a smart phone is popular these days. So are the attempts like deleting apps, removing notifications, purging follow lists, and un-friend contacts are also very common ways to reduce digital clutter in life. 

Cal Newport, author of digital minimalism argues such an ad hoc approach doesn’t really help in the long run. Particularly as you are fighting billion-dollar Goliath of tech giants spending on your attention. 

You may value your attention and time for keeping an update in your field, spending quality time with family, contributing back to society, diving deep in your spiritual practices or simply enrich your leisure life. Whatever you value, you need to protect your time. In order to get rid of attention-seeking technologies and focus on value-adding activities - rather than ad hoc approach, - what you need is overarching philosophy and strategy deriving from it.

Digital Minimalism provides us three principles for such a philosophy. 

Principle #1: Clutter is costly. 

For example, Thoreau spent 2 years, 2 months and 2 days in a self-made cabin in the woods. Away from the world and came out with Walden – America’s most celebrated literature piece. The biggest chapter in the book is about the economy. Thoreau meticulously tracked every dollar spent. And he concluded that to live his life, he just needs to work for one day per week. This is for the industrial age of mid-1800. Thoreau’s idea is not new. But his way of measuring money in terms of “cost of life” was new. According to him every extra hour he spent in earning, is akin to farmers' "smothered and crushed" life.  

Similarly cluttering one’s life with social media and all of its paraphernalia clutters life and leaves us “smothered and crushed” for a quality life. Thus clutter is costly. 

Principle #2: Optimization is important.  

The Law of diminishing returns always works. For instance, if one keeps on adding more people or resources on a software project, one may see it useful at the start. But continuous addition of manpower will ultimately retard the project. This works in every field. Hence optimization is necessary. 

So is the case for the use of technology. If we keep on adding one app or tool over others, finally it burdens us down. 

But surprisingly we don’t try to optimize use. Seemingly there are two reasons for it. 

1. Most of tech products (e.g. Smart Wearable or WhatsApp ) are too new. Novelty seeking, experimentation factor continues and we refrain from optimization. 
2. Second is cynical reason. Those big-tech giants are spending billions of dollars on technology. They want you to think of the ecosystem as useful, fun, and interesting. So often they instigate to refrains from optimization. 

  Thus optimization in technology is important. 

Principle #3: Intentionality is satisfying: Lessons of Amish hackers

 Amish people seems to be frozen in time, And myth goes that they are averse to technology. They are not connected to the common electric grid, don’t use automobiles, and unthinkable for smart phone addicts - they don’t use smart phones at all, not even those old numbered or dial phones. They use community phone booths. Our young generation may not have seen them at all!

Deeper research in their lifestyle shows that they don’t reject all technology. They scrutinize it carefully. If the technology is detrimental to their values, community or church they discard it. And they have a well-established community-driven process to do this.

Being intentional, purposeful in the use of tech products not only will bring satisfaction but meaning and flourishing in life.

Thus these three principles can help us develop overarching philosophy to minimize the use of technology in our life. And gain our precious autonomy - first step towards digital de-addiction. 

[This is my take or review/summary of 2^nd chapter of Cal Newport’s book – Digital Minimalism]. 

  [Click for First chapter review here]  

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War on technology addiction is one sided!

3-minute quick read. 

When smart-phone was introduced by Apple –it was supposed to be a combination of iPod and phone. Facebook was also introduced to just connect girl-friends, boyfriends and so on. But today technology has engrossed our life. An average user checks his phone almost 90 times a day and spends an average 2 hours on social media.  

We are addicted. Even American psychological association APA – has recognized this as a diagnosable problem. Addiction used to be connected only with booze and smoke. Technology addiction is a deliberate attempt by technology firms. Tech firms are labelled as “Tobacco farmers in T-shirt”

This was recognized very early by Tristan Harris – a Google employee. He even made a 141 slide deck titled “A call to minimize distractions and respect users’ attention”. It was viral. Larry Page – influenced and made him a product philosopher to bring his ideas. But Harris couldn’t make any impact! His ideas mean reduced revenue for the firm, frustrated he quit and started non-profit for this cause.  

Tech Giants' hooking techniques are studied by Adam Alter, a marketing professor at Stern school of business. His background in psychology helped him to go deeper into techniques. He came out with a popular book “Irresistible: rise of addictive technology and business of keeping us hooked” -praised by the likes of Adam Grant.  

Irresistible – probed the science of addiction and outlined various hooks by tech giants. Two of the hooks are intermittent positive reinforcement and drive for social approval. Intermittent positive reinforcement is an unpredictable reward for your action. These two principles are employed in technology addiction by using “like”, “upvote”, and “tagging feature”.  

Tech giants like Facebook, Apple, and Google – have monstrous resources behind these addictions, truly making them “Tobacco Farmers”. And this war on “tech drug” is one-sided! 

[This is a review of First chapter of Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism – A lopsided Arms Race.  Watch this place!]

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