Reviews

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

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kali_readsbooks4's review against another edition

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3.0

Interesting

sakritamaharjan's review against another edition

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3.0

this is a good book to start if you want guidelines to streamline your digital consumption. there are several accounts of people who have benefitted by keeping social media at bay. I found the practices to be excellent to start the journey of a digital minimalist, however, to make a sustainable relationship with digital media rather detailed approaches to lifestyle changes has to be incorporated. the book made me think a lot about my own experiences and gave me ideas that I could adopt in my own digital minimalism journey. one thing that prevented me from giving this book a 5-star rating is solely due to my own personal nature that couldn't relate to some of the parts. the book says humans are not built or designed for a short communication medium that leaves out a lot of conversation cues such as texting and that it is counterproductive to actually text. while I agree that humans need a social connection and interaction, I found that advice blind to a certain group of people such as introverts. as an introvert, I find texting to be a more effective way of communicating since I don't have the social factor making me flustered while talking. I find it easier to present my ideas and have a general conversation if I am not constantly worrying about how I sound or what the other person might think of me. I facetime and have "conversation" with people with whom I am comfortable with but with others with whom I have not reached that comfort level, I find it easier to text and give articulated ideas rather than have a face to face communication where I am not contributing enough. It would have been nice to see the perspective of an introvert included.
all in all, reading this book will help to assess one's relationship with phone and analyze the benefits of a digital minimalist life.

ikon_biotin_jungle_lumen's review against another edition

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Another good read from Newport. Big ideas: return to rich interpersonal communication. Be more intentional about anything you do in electronic communication.

"I used to be a human being."
"Now, I'm a better human than I ever was before."

There's a lot of stuff written about moving towards digital minimalism—I've never been too affected by it. Halfway through this book, though, I kicked Facebook & Twitter off my phone. In the coming weeks, I plan to scale back even further. The simple encouragement to walk without distraction was an appropriate reminder for me as well.

Give it a read—I don't think you'll regret it.

elenap's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.0

I was really thinking about giving up social media for a while because my anxiety was through the roof. Was hoping to learn new things from this book, but most of them were already known.

It was useful in a way because I did quit Instagram for a while but unfortunately couldn't really give up youtube or the occasional browsing on reddit or twitter. It's a journey, I guess.

One of the main point of this book is basically giving up social media and replacing it with hobbies (especially those that don't require a screen). It's a wonderful idea, but I think the change should come gradually: after allowing your brain to get satisfaction exclusively from short-form content on your screen, it's pretty hard to pick up knitting and be happy with it.

It's a short book that has some practical advice so if you struggle with media addiction, give it a go.